Page 86 of Serve ’N’ Protect

“What are you doing?” This couldn’t be good.

“Telling mommie dearest that everything’s fine, not to worry, and that you’re still running errands.”

He kept tapping, too long for that to be the only thing he was telling her mom.

A soft whoosh told her he’d sent the message. A moment later, another whoosh indicated her mom had responded. Then he started typing again.

“What are you doing?”

He sent yet another message. The whoosh she heard next confirmed it.

He dropped the phone to the floor then crashed his heel into it, shattering the cover.

Cassidy twisted away as pieces of glass and plastic flew at her face. “What else did you tell my mother?” she demanded. “What else?”

“That you’d be staying with friends for a couple of days, a last-minute decision. You did say you needed some space, after all.” He smiled, but there was no warmth in his eyes. Before she could react, he backhanded her across the face.

She cried out, reeling from the blow. The entire left side of her face throbbed and her cheek stung. The next thing she felt was something hard and cold rammed into the side of her skull. His gun.

“Now. Where the fuck is the laptop?”

Chapter Thirty-One

Before parking in front of Ian and Fiona Morgan’s house, Markus ended the ten-minute call he’d had with Detective Chang. At first, the guy had been reluctant to divulge any information over the phone, even after Markus identified himself. Eventually, he sweet-talked the detective into at least divulging that they had no leads and the owner of the stolen pickup hadn’t been anywhere near Leonardtown at the time of the incident.

Immediately, something bugged him. It was dark out, but he could see that Cassidy’s celery-green VW bug wasn’t in the driveway, nor was it parked on the street. Ian had said she was staying here, so where was she? Could be they’d played it smart and stowed her car in the garage to keep it hidden from view.

The outside of the house was as he remembered, fully decked out with strands of icicle lights, evergreen garland wrapped around the porch railing with big red bows, and several inflatable holiday figures on the front lawn.

He shut off the engine, grabbed his tactical flashlight from the center console, then let Ghost out of the back seat. A blast of cold, wintry air blew his jacket open.

The first thing Ghost did was run up to the giant inflatable reindeer and start barking at it. Markus clicked on the flashlight then looked through one of the windows on the garage doors. No VW bug. The only vehicle inside was a white Jeep Cherokee. He hoped to hell the only reason her car wasn’t here was that another family member had borrowed it.

“Ghost, let’s go.” Ghost followed him up the stairs where he knocked.

A moment later, the door opened and Fiona Morgan stood on the threshold. Her lips twisted slightly in dismay. Cassidy hadn’t told her dad what had happened between them. From the look on Fiona’s face, apparently she had told her mother.

Graying brows bunched as she gave him a hesitant smile. “Markus, it’s nice to see you. But Cassidy isn’t here.”

He had a feeling she’d say that. “Where is she?”

Fiona hesitated. “She’s out running errands.”

Trying to keep the anxiety from his voice, he asked, “Do you know where?”

“No.” She crossed her arms. “Markus, I like you. Very much. But she said you and she broke up.”

Oh, boy. Groveling had fully been in the ops plan, but he hadn’t figured on having to lay it on Cassidy’s mom.

“We did,” he admitted. “But as I told Ian twenty minutes ago, I’d like to rectify that situation.”

“You spoke to Ian?”

“Yes, ma’am. He called me.”

“He called you?”

“Yes.” Markus nodded. “He told me about the attempt on Cassidy’s life, but I was coming here to speak with her anyway.”