“Axel . . .” She sighed, then turned to the other man. “Heath. This is silly. I refuse to believe either of you had anything to do with this.”
“I’m merely pointing out that he had opportunity and motive.” Axel stared at the other man.
Heath crossed his arms over his chest. “I suspect you had opportunity as well, since you ‘happened’ to arrive just after she found this photo in her room. I don’t know your motive yet. Maybe you were angry that she left your house quite suddenly today?”
“Stop it, both of you,” Mystery insisted. “Honestly, wouldn’t it be more productive to look for the real perpetrator instead of you two circling one another like rabid dogs?”
As much as Axel’s temper didn’t like it, his head knew she had a point. “All right. Since her kidnapping is unsolved, we’ll have to work that angle separately. For now, we need to contact the hotel’s security and see if they can find the video surveillance from the stairwells, elevators, and hallways leading to Mystery’s door.”
“Agreed. I’d like them to tell us whose key card was used to access the room.”
“Absolutely.” Axel nodded and turned to Mystery. “If you’re ever in a hotel room alone again . . .” Not that she would be for the foreseeable future. “Always throw the dead bolt home. You never know how good a hotel’s security is or the character of the people on their staff who have a master key to all the rooms.”
Heath cupped her shoulder. “He’s right. You must be careful, sweetheart.”
The sight of him touching her, even casually, rubbed Axel the wrong way. It took everything he had not to be a fidiot caveman and threaten to rip the man’s hands off.
“I know,” she murmured. “I forgot. I was . . . distracted. I feel so stupid now.”
“Never.” Heath sent her a searching smile. “Why don’t you sit again? I’ll call hotel security.”
“Do you think if I wait until morning to call my father—”
“He’ll hear about it before then,” Heath told her.
She sighed again. “Right. I’ll handle it.”
The other two both made their respective calls. Axel watched Heath warily. He didn’t trust the guy. Or maybe he just didn’t like the idea that another grown, heterosexual man got to spend so much time alone with Mystery. Axel doubted they’d slept together. But maybe that ugly truth just pissed Heath off.
Axel also wondered why it mattered so much. This morning, Mystery hadn’t been on his radar. Well . . . much. Now, he didn’t want any other man’s hands on her.
Filing that truth away as something to explore later, he made his way to a quiet corner of the room and scrolled through the recent calls on his phone again and hit Stone’s number once more.
“Twice in one day?” Stone asked. “Can’t get enough of me?”
“Maybe you should give up hacking and go into stand-up if you’re so fucking funny.”
Stone laughed. “No, I’d suck at it. But you give as good as you get. I like that. What’s up?”
“I need more information.”
“Since I’ve already got a date to meet the girl I’m interested in, I’m not sure what more you can offer me.”
Axel didn’t hesitate. “I’m her protector. She doesn’t say shit to anyone without my permission. If you want conversation, I suggest you help me.”
“You’re a sly bastard,” Stone groused.
“What’s it going to be?”
Stone cursed. “Tell me what you need.”
Axel smiled into the phone. “The hotel we discussed earlier? I need to see if you can hack into their security systems. I need camera footage of the top floor, leading to the room number you gave me. I also need to see if you can give me a list of everyone whose key card accessed the door to her room. We’re asking hotel security for these same records, but if someone on staff is involved, they could easily tamper with the evidence.”
“No sweat. Give me a few hours. It may not take that long. But I’ll give you some answers.”
“Thanks.”
“Hopefully, Sweet Pea will thank me on your behalf,” Stone said suggestively.
Axel rolled his eyes, and he realized that he didn’t mind another man touching the woman he’d shared scenes and sex with for the last two years. Across the room, Heath had his arm around Mystery, the woman he’d taken to bed exactly once, and Axel felt murderous.
He needed to get a fucking grip.
“Don’t hold your breath. Trust doesn’t come easy for Sweet Pea. She’s a kind soul and she’ll be polite as hell. I wouldn’t expect more than that for now.”
“You control who fucks her, too?”
Axel didn’t think Misty had been to bed with anyone else since they’d settled into their arrangement, but he could be wrong. And it wouldn’t bother him. As long as she found someone good to her, he was cool. “I’m not her pimp, asshole. I look out for her.”
“I don’t think that’s all you do to her, but I’ll put a lid on it, get you an answer, and call back soon.” Stone hung up.
Prick.
Axel watched across the room as Heath caressed Mystery’s back. She’d grown tense as she talked into the phone. She winced, shook her head, and looked like she fought back tears. Axel approached the two.
“Daddy, no. I’m fine,” she assured. “Between Axel and Heath, I’m perfectly safe. We’ll figure this out. I need to see Aunt Gail. I keep promising her I’ll come get some of these things Mom left for me, and I . . . just haven’t wanted to deal with it. She’s going on a mission trip in a few days, so it’s now or never. Besides, none of us ever knows how long we have left, and it’s been too many years since I spent time with her. I’ll be home soon.”
That perked Axel up. He remembered from Mystery’s bio information that her mother’s sister, Gail, was a spinster who lived in rural Kansas. Was that the reason Mystery had come to the States in the first place? If so, why had she stopped to spend a night or two in Dallas?
Heath gave her one more comforting pat, then sauntered his way. “I talked to the hotel’s security director. He said he’ll have the video feed and key card records for us by morning.”
“Morning? I was thinking more like an hour or two.”
“I was, as well,” Heath admitted. “Unfortunately, he says all those records are kept at a facility off-site, and they’re closed until tomorrow.”
Well, Stone would have answers much faster. Maybe he’d tell Heath that later. But until he trusted the guy, Axel refused to divulge much.
“So we’ll work around it for now. Did you call the police?”
“Hotel security said they would. They have a protocol for these things.” Heath clearly didn’t like the bureaucracy.
Axel seconded that. “We don’t need the red tape.”
“Exactly. But I suspect it’s a dead end, anyway. The police won’t know who left her that picture, and even if they could figure out the perpetrator’s identity, I’m sure it would be a greedy maid or a hired thug.”
Maybe. But someone far more nefarious had given the intruder that picture.
Axel paced. Joaquin couldn’t get to the bottom of Mystery’s past soon enough. He had to start figuring out who wanted to hurt her and why.
“You know, whoever left this picture for her tonight . . . what’s the motive? Why remind her of her abduction after all these years? Why now? What set this person off?” Heath asked.
Good question. “Well, judging from the message on the back, this person doesn’t want her on U.S. soil. She’s supposedly safer back in the UK. Has she encountered any threat there?”
“No.” Then Heath reconsidered. “Well, someone broke into their London flat not long after they moved in, probably five years ago. It was trashed. Some of Mystery’s jewelry was taken. But I think we were dealing with a petty thief, not the sort of animal who would threaten the life of a young woman.”
He didn’t have enough facts to say for certain. Axel filed that incident away and moved forward. “Who knew she intended to fly to the States, besides you and her father?”