Brody’s eyes widened. “A lead from what source?”
Zach and Eddie’s expression swept with confusion and unease, but I had this one covered. “Someone came forward who’d been too scared at the time of her disappearance to say anything, but now wants to set the record straight.”
Kipp groaned. “Watching you smooth-talking him to believe you makes me hard…”
I held back my smile as I glanced toward Kipp. “Mmm.” I stretched my arms to make it appear as if that were the cause for the noise I made.
“The fast talk you’re capable of honestly arouses me.” Kipp’s clothing vanished. “You see, I’m not lying to you.”
I gasped, shocked, aroused and awed over Kipp’s beautiful form. Hard lines from his abs to his hips, groin trimmed enough to keep it neat and tidy, but enough hair to declare him a man. Just one look at him and my body responded, heating in all the right places. Adding that with the moonlight shining down on him and I salivated.
“Ahh,” Zach said with hesitation. He grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. “I know you’re feeling unsettled, but don’t worry, we’ll help you here.”
I glanced at Zach. “Pardon?”
Zach gestured ever so slightly to Brody. “Don’t be afraid here, we’ll help you.”
“Oh,” I responded, forcing the reaction away. “Right, scared—sorry, I was just thinking about the poor girl and got scared. My eyes went wide, didn’t they?”
Zach hid his smile, not so well. “Yes, very wide.”
“You don’t need to be afraid. Are you okay?” Brody asked.
“Just fine, thank you.” I flicked my hair over my shoulder and something caught my eye. If I had something out of place, I’d want to be told, so I always gave the same respect back. “You’ve got something on your ear there.”
Brody rubbed his ear and laughed. “My kids thought coming at me with markers was a fun idea.” The spot didn’t come off, but now looked red where he had rubbed it. He lowered his hand as he glanced back at the GPS. “So these are the coordinates?”
“We believe so,” Zach responded. “It’ll be a good hour trek in, I’d imagine.”
“All right.” Brody handed the phone back to Zach. “I just have to grab some water for Duke, then we can be off.”
As he headed to his car with Duke in tow, Zach handed me a flashlight and whispered. “I think it might be a good idea if you refrain from going all lusty on us.”
“Hey, it wasn’t my fault,” I retorted. “Kipp showed me…” I hesitated as Zach’s eyebrows rose. “Well, that’s not important.”
Zach and Eddie laughed.
“Just wanted to prove my point is all,” Kipp said.
Kipp’s resolve hadn’t appeared yet, but at least his clothing had magically appeared again. I turned my back so Brody couldn’t see and pointed at him. “If you want me to keep quiet about all this ghost business, then stop,” I glanced back at Zach and Eddie, who watched with equal amusement, before looking at Kipp, “doing what you did.”
“Is that what you really want?” He grinned.
I considered the thought. “Well, no, but just later, all right?” As I turned around, Brody had Duke leashed as they trotted over.
Zach headed toward the forest. Eddie and Brody followed in behind, with Duke at Brody’s side as he sniffed the ground.
Kipp stood motionless and sadness stole over his features. Something clearly had upset him. I tried to think back over the last few minutes, but nothing said should have bothered him. “Are you okay?” I whispered.
He said nothing, merely shook his head and walked away.
It momentarily stunned me, but I snapped out of it quickly and jogged up to reach the others. Being alone in a dark forest didn’t appeal to me by any stretch of the imagination.
I’d only taken two steps into the forest before I realized what I had said.
Well, no, but just later, all right?
There wasn’t going to be a later. It hurt to be reminded of that fact, but I swallowed it back and refocused. Personal matters would just have to wait.
The hike into the forest seemed much longer than the quarter of an hour we’d been walking. I kept my flashlight out in front of me and decided not to look to the side. Ignoring the darkness was my best bet, since I didn’t want to look like the weak little woman here.
My ankles were deep into slop—leaves mixed with recently rained-upon mud—and it grossed me out. “Ugh.” It might have been a stall tactic earlier, but I hadn’t been lying. I loved these boots, and to see them treated in such a way was a complete travesty. “Max is going to owe me new boots.”
“If we find Hannah’s body, I doubt he’d object to buying you a new pair,” Kipp told me.
Eddie laughed. “If your assistance here solves the case, I’ll buy you them myself.”
He didn’t know just how dangerous those words were. “I’ll hold you to that.”
“If Hannah’s case is closed,” Zach said up ahead. “I suspect Max will offer you a job, therefore you could afford a new pair of boots.”
I glanced past him to see Brody up ahead, so acknowledging Kipp’s presence wouldn’t be a problem, which is why they talked so freely. So much of Zach’s statement sent heat rushing through my blood. “First off, I make decent money at my job. Second, what job could he offer me?”
Zach glanced over his shoulder as he continued to walk ahead. “Not as much as the department would pay you, and as to the job, you seem to have a real knack for the cold case files.”
Oh, now I understood perfectly. “Who says I’d agree to help? Trust me, I’ve had just about enough of all this death stuff.”
A knowing grin spread across Zach’s face before he returned his gaze to watch his steps. “It’s not always a choice, sometimes it’s an obligation.”
“Hrmph,” was my only response.
“You’ve got a gift,” Kipp said. “There must be a reason you’ve been given such a powerful ability. It’d be a waste not to use it to help others.”
I sighed as deep as I could muster. I had hated my gift and never once thought of it as a way to actually help people. I only helped when the ghosts bugged me enough to do otherwise. Had fate brought me together with a bunch of police officers because it was the right thing to do? Could what Zach said be true, did I have an obligation I had to fulfill? All things I held no answers to.
Besides, I wasn’t quite sure I wanted them answered. Right now I just needed to continue trudging through the forest. There were enough questions swirling in my mind about the present to worry about the future. I moved along, more than done with this conversation. “What will happen if Hannah’s not here?”
“Nothing,” Eddie answered, groaning as he stumbled on a rock. “We’ll go back to square one and start over.”
The confidence in his voice stated something I already believed—Hannah wasn’t wrong and everyone here knew it. “And if you do find her, then what?”
“We’ll call Max and he’ll bring in the forensic team to extract the bones,” Zach replied.
“Really?” This might be interesting after all. “That’d be kind of neat to see.”
“It’s not,” Eddie retorted. “It’s meticulous and incredibly boring.”
“For you, maybe, but it’s like dinosaur hunting.” The men laughed and I did as well. “So if we happen to find bones, how will we know it’s her?”
“The clothing she wore will probably give it away,” Eddie answered. “The night she went missing, she had on blue jeans and a teal blouse.”
All right, that just seemed so far out there. “After five years, her clothing will still be…you know…in the ground?”
“More than likely,” Zach said, not looking back as he shrugged. “At least pieces of the clothing will remain.”
I stumbled on a stick poking out of the ground, but caught myself before I fell to the ground as a cold breeze swept through me. “Stupid stick,” I grumbled, finding my footing again.
Kipp sighed. “I tried to grab a hold of you.”
I looked back at him and smiled a thank-you.
He inclined his head and glanced away as he walked. Before he did, though, sadness reached his eyes again, which declared that it tore at him that he couldn’t touch me. As much as I felt the sadness too, I was determined to ignore it. We just needed to get through tonight, then deal with the rest later.
Resolved to push away the pain that lingered beneath the surface, I continued, “So what does the forensic team do?”
Zach cursed as he tripped. “They’ll extract the skeleton from the ground, bring it back to the lab and compare dental records. They’ll also likely take DNA from Hannah’s parents and see if there’s a match.”
I snorted. “Now that’s a call to make. ‘Good afternoon, we believe we’ve found your dead daughter, can we take a sample of your blood to prove it’s her?’ Honestly, how horrible.”
“In this line of work, no call is ever easy, no matter what it’s about,” Kipp said.
At the same moment, Zach said, “It’s never easy to make those types of calls.”
“Then why do you do it? I mean, it’s so depressing.”
Zach glanced over his shoulder, smiling in grand-scale. “I’d imagine we’re all addicted to the rush of finding a killer.”
A rush? Like a stock car racer’s driving rush, jump out of an airplane rush, buying expensive shoes rush? I couldn’t place the feeling. “It seriously gives you a rush?”
“The best adrenaline rush that exists,” Kipp said.
Eddie chuckled. “A rush intense enough to give you a stiffy.”
I glanced back at him and I held no doubt my disgusted feelings showed on my face. “Okay, I’m sorry, but that’s seriously gross.”
The men’s laughter filled the air around me.
“It’s just the power of it,” Zach said. “It’s primal.”
I shook my head a little, trying to get away from the yucky feelings crawling up my spine. “And you think I’d accept a job now? Knowing that when we’re close to solving a case, your dicks are hard?” Suddenly, a thought occurred to me and I stopped dead.
Eddie ran into the back of me. “Shit.” He stumbled, peeling himself off my back. “Sorry.”
I glanced between the men as all their gazes focused on mine. Then I looked over each of their crotches. “You’re not all hard now, are you?” When I raised my gaze back to their faces, each man smiled, even Kipp. “Oh my God, you’re all so disgusting.” I waved them forward. “Go, get.”
It only made them laugh louder.
A change in the subject was of the utmost importance now. “So, how will finding Hannah’s body help here?” I realized how cold I sounded and added, “I mean, other than it’s nice to find her.”
“It’s possible there’s DNA on her clothing, which would give us a big lead on identifying the killer,” Zach said. “If we could match the DNA we found at the safe house to the one here, the case would be closed.”
I thought on that for a little while, amazed at present-day technology and all the wonders it provided. Up ahead, the cliff was only a few steps away and steep. At the edge of the cliff, a sudden thought popped into my mind. “How long does the DNA analysis take?”
Eddie climbed down unsteady terrain, slowly. “Months.” I looked at Kipp and he smiled, reading my mind perfectly. I wanted to find Hannah’s killer, but it gave Kipp and me more time together. A happy thought.
The climb down the hill was exactly how I thought it’d be—tough. My boots were done in, the rocks scratching the hell out of them as I dug the heels into the dirt to steady myself. Once at the bottom, I followed in behind Zach and we passed the big rock to our left and made our way toward the thick bush.
I thought the past three-quarters of an hour hadn’t been fun. Now I wished I’d worn something with long sleeves. “Ouch, it hurts,” I grumbled, poked and prodded by the scratchy leaves of what looked similar to a Christmas tree.
“I’ve got something here,” Brody called out up ahead.
I moved a branch away from my face to find Brody standing on what appeared to be a path. “Thank the Lord above.” I followed behind Zach with Eddie and Kipp in tow.
Brody opened a bottle of water and placed it to Duke’s panting mouth and the dog drank it without hesitation. “Just let him have a drink first and we’ll start again.”
We waited a moment while Duke had his refresher and I might have been slightly jealous I hadn’t thought to bring water of my own. My mouth was dry and pasty. I questioned asking to share, but decided against it. Doggy germs, no thanks.
After Brody sealed the bottle, the men started forward, which left me at the back. Oh hell, no. “Wait.” They all turned to look at me and I trotted forward and situated myself between Zach and Eddie. “There, that’s better.”
Zach smiled. “A little scared, are we?”
“Just go, will you.” I shoved him forward.
Again, the men laughed. I might have cared if I wasn’t so petrified. Being at the back wasn’t a position I would have stayed in. If anything came at us, Zach would get it first, and if anything attacked from behind, it’d get Eddie, not me. Did I feel bad about it? Not likely. I didn’t want to be out here in the first place.
Only a few minutes down the path, Eddie sighed. “It’s about fucking time.”
I peeked around him and saw the open clearing. I used my flashlight to scan the small area and pink blossoms glowed under the light.
“All right, Brody, let’s do this,” Zach said.