Page 89 of Trap ’N’ Trace

Kat stood at the counter, humming as she sliced a cucumber. Her back was to him, her robe clinging lovingly to the same curves he’d touched everywhere and wanted to again, but he couldn’t move. Watching her prepare a meal for him made his heart squeeze in a way that was fan-fucking-tastic and terrifying. Because he was getting waaay ahead of himself. First, he had to catch a killer. Then they could see what happened.

He padded to where she stood then skimmed his hands up and down her arms. “Mmm,” he murmured against her hair.

Grrr. Angus trotted into the kitchen, shaking his head back and forth. The toy clamped between his jaws rattled and hissed as air escaped from one end that had practically been chewed clean off.

Dayne pulled Kat’s hair aside and kissed the curve of her neck right below her ear.

“Mmm is right.” She set the knife on the counter then turned in his arms.

He leaned down to kiss her when Angus’s slobbery toy landed on his bare foot. He nudged the sticky thing off his toes.

“Angus, that’s disgusting.” Kat parked her fists on her hips and the edges of her robe parted slightly. “Tomorrow we’re going to the Haven to find you a new toy.” She slid her hands up Dayne’s chest then down his pecs and nipples. “I’m sorry about that.”

“That’s okay.” And yeah, it was. In fact, everything was okay. With her fingers teasing his nipples and her robe about to part down the middle, revealing her warm, luscious breasts…

Angus yipped, nudging the toy back onto Dayne’s foot. He reached for the toy and picked it up by one end. Yuck didn’t cover it. He was about to toss it to the other side of the kitchen when something black poked through the torn end.

He froze. In the span of time it took for his heart to beat once more, missing pieces of a very convoluted puzzle slammed home.

Why the killer had murdered Becca.

She definitely had something on him.

Why the killer had gone to the Haven that night.

The press had been all over Becca’s crime scene, more so when they figured out a billionairess had discovered the body. Every news story reported that the victim’s puppy was being cared for by Kat at the Canine Haven. He and Detective Paulson had assumed that since Kat had been at Becca’s crime scene and at the Haven where the killer murdered Amy, that Kat was the common denominator. But she wasn’t the only common denominator.

Angus had been there, too. The killer had been looking for the puppy.

“Dayne, you’re scaring me.” Kat gripped his arm. “What’s wrong?”

He shook the toy over his hand. A slim piece of black plastic about an inch and a half square fell into his palm.

A memory card.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“We’re in!” The CCU tech clapped his hands together over the keyboard. The poor man had been called in on a Sunday but seemed just as eager as the rest of them to crack the encryption.

Kat leaned closer to view the list of photos on the memory card. Her shoulder brushed Dayne’s and she inhaled the same shampoo he’d used on her hair that morning.

After finding the memory card in Angus’s toy, they’d tried accessing it on Dayne’s laptop but since it was encrypted, they’d been forced to wait until a forensic expert could work his magic. They’d also been worried that all the tiny teeth marks in the covering had damaged the contents. Regardless, the discovery had left them brimming with so much excitement, sleep hadn’t been possible. So they made love well into the early morning hours.

Her cheeks still burned from Dayne’s stubbled jaw as he’d kissed her again and again. Every time she moved, her bra rasped against her nipples, tender from his wicked tongue and lips. She even had to keep shifting on the hard chair to ease the delicious throb between her legs from the many times he’d entered her.

With the discovery of the memory card, they were that much closer to finding Becca and Amy’s killer. Soon this could all be over.

She tightened her fingers around her coffee mug. What if Dayne left when the case was solved? What if he didn’t feel the same way she did?

I’m falling in love. They hadn’t even been on a date yet, but her heart didn’t care.

There was so much to talk about. So they came from different backgrounds. That didn’t mean they couldn’t work hard and make compromises.

“Good job,” Dayne said, looking just as handsome in jeans and an untucked button-down white shirt as he had in his tuxedo. “Open them.”

Detective Paulson set his mug on the table and pulled up a chair. “There.” He pointed to the screen. “Can you magnify that tag?”

The tech moved the cursor over the car’s license plate and clicked several times. NJ C24-BM. The shot had missed the third letter on the right side.