The Man I Want to Be Page 10

  “Clever,” he said. “You plan all of that last night just to get the list?”

  She laughed in his face. “Yeah, sure. I came up with the master scheme of getting rip-roaring drunk just so you’d take me back to your room, and I could steal the list from you. You’re the idiot who left it out in plain sight. If you didn’t want me to take it, you should’ve hidden it better.”

  He peered down at her with an unreadable expression. “You left this morning.”

  She shrugged. “So?”

  “You were in my bed.”

  “But I wanted to be in my bed. You were the one who placed me in yours.”

  “Maybe I wanted you there.”

  Maybe she wanted to be there.

  No, she didn’t. What her brain and her body wanted were two very different things. Her body could want him all it wanted. But her head and her heart weren’t going to forgive so quickly. If ever.

  “Look,” she said, peering around him at Joseph’s retreating back. “As much as I’d love to reminisce about old times, I’m onto something. So I’ll catch you late—”

  His hand tightened around her wrist. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  She tugged against his unbreakable hold. “I think I found him. The thief.”

  His anger evaporated immediately. He released her and shot looks all around them. “What? Where?”

  She pointed. “That way. Come on.” Without waiting for him, she stepped around his large frame and ventured in Joseph’s direction. She spotted him about thirty yards away, getting ready to enter the lobby. “Hurry up!”

  “I’m coming, I’m coming.” His footsteps sped up behind her as she increased her own pace.

  They reached the front door of the hotel about the time Joseph was crossing the grand foyer. He turned left toward a bank of gold elevators.

  “He’s getting away!” She threw open the door and busted into the lobby.

  “Where is he? Which one?”

  “There.”

  Joseph had pushed his sunglasses onto the top of his head and was looking down at his phone as he waited for the elevator doors to open.

  A deep, irritating chuckle sounded next to her. When she looked at Bryan, he wore an expression like she’d lost her mind.

  “Landry?” He could barely get the name out between a string of heavy snorts. “That’s your suspect?”

  “Yes. Why? How do you know him?”

  The man in question stepped into the elevator, and before the doors closed, Kenna almost sprinted and threw a hand between. But the doors shut, and her supposed thief got away.

  Whirling on Bryan, she said, “Speak. Now.”

  “Landry’s not your thief.”

  She crossed her arms. “How do you know?”

  “Because he’s my boss.”

  “Just because he’s your boss—”

  Bear sobered immediately. “It’s not him.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “He’s a by-the-book kind of guy. Never steps out of line for anything. There’s no way he could take a piece of gum from someone without asking them for it first.”

  Her heart sank. Well, damn.

  “But he looked like the man I saw outside my hotel room. Exactly like him, in fact. Same build. Same hair.”

  “Really?” Bryan scratched his beard. “I guess I could talk to him.” When her eagerness must have shown on her face, he said, “But only to see if he noticed anything or anyone suspicious. Not to interrogate him.”

  “But if he—”

  “He’s not.”

  “But he could—”

  “No.”

  She stomped her foot. “Stop doing that.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Discrediting what I say. I’m not ruling out anyone who fits the profile. I know what I saw. As far as I’m concerned, he’s still a suspect.”

  Bear’s expression was impassive and he stayed silent a moment, seeming to think her statements over. Then, “Okay, fine.”

  That was a surprise. “Seriously? Just like that? You’re not going to continue arguing with me?”

  “What’s the point? You’d keep going on about it forever, and we’d miss the real thief.”

  True. She would. She hated being wrong.

  “But I’m telling you: it’s a waste of energy,” he said. “It’s not Landry.”

  It did seem unlikely that an important guy at the DEA would steal family heirlooms—and for what reason?—but she’d already learned once that good guys couldn’t be trusted to always do the right thing.

  She lifted her chin. “You have your hunches, and I’ll have mine.”

  One corner of his mouth went up, and he mirrored her move with his arms. “You’re just as stubborn as you used to be.”

  “Look who’s talking. Guess some things never change.”

  “Guess not.”

  Their gazes met and something passed between them. Something familiar. Charged. Meaningful. He must have felt it, too, because he cleared his throat and shifted his weight from one leg to the other.

  He held an open palm out to her. “I’m gonna need that list now. Or…” He smiled as his gaze skimmed down her bikini-clad body, making tingles erupt everywhere it touched. “Am I going to need to search you for it? Given that tiny scrap of fabric you call a bathing suit, there are only so many places you could hide it. I’d want to be sure I covered every inch.” His eyes went to the apex of her thighs.

  She’d been in such a rush to catch Landry, she didn’t bother to throw on a cover-up. While she might be in a bikini, it certainly wasn’t a G-string. It was tasteful and covered all the necessary bits. But based on the way Bear’s expression heated, she wished she was in a brown paper bag. From head to toe.

  She backed up a step. “Lay one finger on me and see what happens.”

  He stepped forward.

  “I’m serious.” She took two steps backward, a rush of excitement racing through her at their familiar cat-and-mouse game. “You’ll lose some beloved body parts.”

  “Give me the list, Kenna.”

  “No. I’m making better headway than you.”

  “Damn it, woman. Give it to me.”

  Her heart was ready to beat out of her chest. “Say please.”

  “Now,” he growled, reaching for her.

  “No!” she squealed and took off.

  Kenna made it four steps through the door and out into the hot afternoon before a strong arm wrapped around her midsection, pulling her back. She lost her footing, but the arm around her held her up. Feet dangling, she was pinned against Bear’s chest. Although he wore a fitted T-shirt, he might as well have been bare-chested. The friction of his body against hers brought on an onslaught of memories she thought she’d buried. But now she remembered every aching inch of him. Every moan he’d coaxed from her. Like it was yesterday.

  “How far did you think you’d get?” he said. “You know I always catch you.”

  Yeah, she knew.

  “You can put me down now,” she said.

  His mouth brushed her ear, the whiskers from his beard rough against her heated skin, and a powerful shudder wracked her body. “I can’t trust you not to run.”

  “I promise I won’t run.” Far.

  There was a pregnant pause, then he lowered her to the ground and slowly released her.

  “I’ll save you the extra effort on the remaining names,” he said. “None of them fit your thief’s description.”

  “That’s only half the list, though, right? Aren’t there more?” She remembered it was ripped at the bottom, as if it had been torn in half.

  “There’s another list, yeah,” he said. “I gave it to Reese. Figured we’d cover more ground between the two of us. He said he has two more guys to check out who match the description. He’s scoping one of them out on the beach now.”

  “Excellent, let’s go—” She took a step, but his arm pulled her back. Broadcasting her frustration across her face, she hurled it at him like
an anvil. “Get off me. I want to go to the beach and—”

  “Reese can handle it.”

  “But he never saw the guy, I did. I can ID him.”

  “Like you did with Landry?”

  She held off the eye roll that was seconds from exploding. “Bryan, let me go.”

  His face suggested he was struggling with some sort of internal battle. After a few moments, he said, “I’ll make you a deal. Stay out of Reese’s way and I’ll take you with me to review the security camera footage.”

  “Security footage?” she asked in what she hoped was a composed voice.

  Bear lifted an eyebrow.

  Damn, so her voice wasn’t as calm as she’d hoped. She relaxed her features and tried to appear nonchalant.

  A slight pinch of his lips told her she wasn’t fooling him, but he didn’t say as much. “The guy in security told me the video’s ready. I’m going down there in a few.” He paused. “If you can behave yourself, you can come.”

  “Deal,” she said a little too hastily.

  He eyed her. “Understand that we do this my way. If I think you’re in danger or interfering, I won’t hesitate to ship you off to Estelle’s hotel room and keep you in the dark on this whole thing.”

  “I get it. I’ll behave.”

  For the most part.

  Chapter Nine

  Tyke and Kenna stood in a small room with computers, phones, a blinking switchboard, and a team of people chatting into headphones. Al Carpenter, Kilos’s supervisor and the director of security at the resort introduced himself. He was average height with ebony hair and dark brown eyes. His full midsection and meaty arms hinted at Al’s life as a retired police officer who got comfortable behind a desk.

  They’d already viewed footage from outside Richard and Claire’s room, but no one except the couple went in or out. That piece of information definitely compounded the investigation. How had the thief taken Claire’s watch if he hadn’t entered her room? Was he also snatching things from people while they were out and about?

  “Anyone else report things missing?” Tyke asked as they waited for the tech guru, who was introduced as Vin, to pull up the feed outside Kenna’s room.

  Al shook his head. “No one other than the two incidents you’ve informed us of.”

  For now. Tyke hated to think it, but bad guys usually didn’t stop at one or two. If they knew they could get away with something, they’d keep doing it until someone stopped them.

  Someone like Tyke.

  “We’ve handed everything over to the local police,” Al said. “They’re sending over some uniformed and plainclothes officers to increase our security presence at the resort.” He turned to Kenna. “They’d like to speak with you.”

  Tyke stepped in front of her. “Only with me present.”

  Al’s gaze skated from Tyke to Kenna. “I’ll let them know.”

  Vin, wearing a headset over his short brown hair, pushed back a few inches in his chair and cleared his throat. “Excuse me, sir.”

  Al gestured to the far-right TV screen on the wall. “This should be it.”

  The screen came to life, showing a black and white video of an empty hallway.

  “The room is right there.” Al pointed to a door in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

  Vin pressed a button on his control pad, and the time stamp in the corner of the video sped up. People raced up and down the hallway.

  After a few moments, something moved near Kenna’s door.

  “There,” Tyke said. “Stop.”

  The guy slowed the video to normal pace.

  The four of them watched as a lean, dark-haired man approached her door with his back to the camera.

  Son of a bitch. Despite what he’d told Kenna, from this angle, the guy on the screen did look like his boss, Joseph Landry. But that was impossible.

  “Show me your face,” Tyke said under his breath. It’s not him. It’s not him. “Come on. Turn around.”

  The man kept his head low as he slid something out of his pocket and fiddled with the door handle. Another second and then the door opened, and he walked into Kenna’s room.

  Her body tensed beside him as she sucked in a sharp breath. “My God…”

  Her reaction skyrocketed Tyke’s protective instinct to a billion.

  “Interesting,” Al said. “That’s why our security alarm didn’t sound. There was no forced entry. He used a key.”

  “But how?” Kenna asked, her voice anxious. “How did he get a key to my hotel room?”

  “I don’t know,” Al said.

  Wrong answer.

  Tyke gripped the guy by his shirt and smashed his back against the closest wall, holding him there with his feet off the ground.

  “But I’m going to find out,” Al croaked, his dark eyes bugging as he strained for air. “I’ll find out, okay?”

  “You better,” Tyke said. “Because the way I see it, either your hotel mixed up keys or someone here intentionally put her life in danger. Either way, you better pray you find them before I do.”

  His face turning an unhealthy shade of purple, Al rasped, “We’ll have a new key printed and we’ll move Ms. McCord into another room immediately.”

  Kenna rested a hand on Tyke’s shoulder, making the red in Tyke’s vision dissipate. He lowered Al to the ground, straightening the man’s lapels but not letting him go quite yet. “I’ll be back, Al. Don’t disappoint me.”

  Al nodded with an expression that said disappointing Tyke was the last thing he wanted to do.

  Good.

  He sent Al one more meaningful look before they exited the room.

  Standing outside the thick steel door, Tyke put his hand on Kenna’s back. “You okay?”

  Her chest expanded as she inhaled a long, slow breath. “I think so. It’s just… I focused so much on the ring that I didn’t think about the fact that he was in my room. That he could’ve come in while I was in there.” She closed her eyes as fear blasted across her features.

  Fuck. He should’ve never let her watch that video. It was careless. The reality of her words finally set in. How could he have been so stupid?

  “Hey,” he said quickly. “Look at me.” He pressed his index finger under her chin, urging her to look at him. When she did, he said, “You’re safe. You hear me? I’m gonna make sure he doesn’t get near you ever again, okay?”

  She frowned and gave a weak nod.

  “And I promise, I’m gonna get your momma’s ring back. That asshole isn’t getting away with this. Tell me you believe me.”

  She started shaking.

  He gripped her shoulder. “Kenna. Come on. Tell me.”

  “I… I believe you,” she said it so soft his heart almost ripped in half.

  The video was unsettling. It had rattled him, too. She was right. The guy could’ve come in while she was in there. Hell, if he had a key, he could come back again. The thought of her in danger—that something could happen to her and Tyke wouldn’t be able to prevent it—made his stomach squeeze to utter agony. He almost doubled over from the force of it.

  No. He was going to catch the bastard. And when he did, Tyke would see to it the guy couldn’t steal anything from anyone ever again.

  “We’re moving everything out of your room,” he said. “You’ll stay with me until this is over.” He wasn’t trusting anyone else with her safety until he could piece this together.

  Without thinking, he slid his hand into hers, immediately regretting it as soon as a familiar spark of awareness zapped him. Kenna’s gaze dropped to their connection, and before he could pull away, she wrapped her fingers around his and held tight. She let out a soft relieved sigh. “Thank you, Bryan.”

  Leading her down the hall toward the elevators, he ignored the warmth and longing radiating through his body at the simple touch.

  Tyke stood at his favorite location on the island—the bar. Beer in hand, he looked out at the tables filled with people having a great time, with no idea a thief was among
them.

  It was dusk, and dinner was over, but everyone stayed in their chairs, waiting for the show to start. Fire dancers. What a brilliant idea that was. People who intentionally lit things on fire and threw them into the air for entertainment. You wanna talk about dangerous? That shit was dangerous.

  Before coming to dinner, Bryan and Kenna had moved all of her stuff to his hotel room. She’d stay with him until the threat was over.

  The threat…

  That thought sent his head into a tailspin. The threat was real. The guy was lurking around here right now, and they had no idea who he was or whether he was targeting people for a specific reason.

  Glancing down at his now-warm beer, Tyke cursed it. His nerves were shot, and it wasn’t doing a damn thing to calm him.

  It couldn’t be Landry. Right? He was Tyke’s boss for Christ’s sake. But it sure as hell looked like Joe on the video. Same build. Hair. Even the way the guy walked.

  Tyke did a passing glance over the crowd again, spotting Landry at the table with Reese and the cute blonde Reese had met on the first day. Tyke really should learn her name. Given their relaxed posture, they were talking about something normal and mundane. Tyke had known Landry for years. He was a good guy. The best.

  Reese looked back at Tyke and must have read something in his expression because he tilted his head and got up, making his way toward the bar.

  “Are you okay?” Reese said once he was at Bryan’s side.

  Tyke kept his eyes on their boss and lifted a shoulder. “Sure.” After a minute, Tyke said, “You know what? No. I’m not. Let me ask you something.”

  “Of course. What is it?”

  “Do you trust Landry?”

  Reese’s face showed his confusion at the random question. “With my life. Why?”

  Right. So did Tyke. It was stupid to think Landry would have anything to do with stealing anything from anyone.

  “Never mind.”

  Reese waited, like he thought Tyke was going to elaborate. When he realized Tyke wasn’t going to, he turned his back to the wedding guests and lifted a hand to flag down the bartender. “I was able to narrow down the list to two viable suspects.”

  Tyke placed his drink on the bar and faced his friend. “Yeah?” Thank Christ. See, it couldn’t be Landry.