Ashleigh splashed cold water on her face and took a breath. She tried to tell herself she wasn’t overreacting, but every step she took seemed to be in the wrong direction. She showed up early to surprise her husband and found him screwing someone else and uncovered… something. She ran, assuming the worst, and ran straight to her ex. Now, his group of friends was drilling her with questions and making her feel like she was the guilty one.
As soon as the question whispered through her mind, she knew the answer. She came because she was scared. Because she had an active imagination and immediately jumped to conclusions. And because the last time she truly felt safe and loved was when she was with Daniel.
She told herself she loved her husband, but Frederick was different. There were times he drew her close and made her feel like she was special, but he was all about appearances. She couldn’t kick her shoes off and tuck her feet under her on the couch. She couldn’t kiss him in public. And she definitely couldn’t make noise during sex. None of it was appropriate, although who would know she liked to make noise during sex was beyond her.
It didn’t matter, though. She was not going back to Frederick. She couldn’t stay married to a cheater. And now that every man in the house knew she couldn’t keep her husband happy, she was ready to get the hell away from Daniel and all his friends as quickly as possible.
A knock on the door startled her. Ashleigh took a breath and opened the door, coming face to face with two of the men. She couldn’t remember their names, but it didn’t matter.
“Sorry, gentlemen. I’m done. I’ll get out of the way for you.”
“Ms. Connors, we need to ask you some questions,” one of them said as she pushed by them.
“Mrs. Edwards, although not for long.”
“Are you going through a divorce?” one asked, the taller one. He was older than the others and definitely more dangerous if looks told her anything.
She smiled at him. “Well, my husband was fucking another woman, so yeah, I’ll be going through a divorce. As soon as I get back there.”
The men exchanged a glance, then moved quickly to block her way.
She stepped back and glared at them. She didn’t look like the badass she usually was, but she had a stare that could scare most grown men.
Apparently not them.
“Excuse me, gentlemen.”
“We can’t let you leave, Mrs. Edwards. You need to answer a few questions for us.”
Ashleigh drew in a breath and gathered up all her resolve. “Fine.”
“How long have you been married?” the Black guy asked.
Ashleigh sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Eight years.”
“And how long did you know your husband before you got married?”
“Just under a year.”
“How did you meet?”
“Would you like my entire dating history?” Ashleigh asked, already annoyed.
The guys exchanged a look, and the white guy stepped forward. “May I call you Ashleigh?”
She shrugged.
“I’m Mason. I know there are a lot of us, but we’re here to help you. If Dunn trusts you, the rest of us do. Rocky isn’t asking these questions because we think you did something. We need to get an idea of who your husband is, and knowing how long you’ve known him and how well you knew him before will start to paint a picture for us. It’s intrusive, and I get that. I know intrusive, Ashleigh, trust me.”
She tilted her head and examined him closely. She didn’t expect him to be willing to take a minute and explain to her what was going on, but he obviously had some wounds in his past. A darkness nothing had touched.
“I’m sorry. I am a very private person. Well, my husband is private. I’ve grown accustomed to it. It’s hard to share this with strangers. Almost as hard as it is to tell the last man who didn’t want me that he started a trend.” She sighed heavily. “I met Frederick at work. I was working at a bank processing business loans. He came in and needed a loan. We hit it off. We were married in less than a year.”
“What bank was it?”
“It’s a small, local bank. Detroit First Union.”
“How long did you work there before you met him?”
“Just a few months. My previous job ended when the facility where I was closed. The bank was hiring, and it was something that paid the bills.”
Rocky took notes while she talked. “Do you remember what company his loan was for?”
Ashleigh nodded. “The only company I’ve ever known him to work for is Edwards Unlimited, Inc.”
“You said he’s a private person,” Mason said.
Ashleigh nodded again. “Yes. He always has been. He doesn’t like going out and we rarely have people over.”
“Who are your close friends? The people you spend time with?”
Ashleigh thought about it for a minute, then shrugged. “We don’t really have close friends. We’ll go to parties for work, and I have some people from the companies I volunteer with, but there’s no one I could call to help me bury a body.”
“Excuse me?” Rocky blurted.
Ashleigh gave him a funny look. “You know, that loyal, dedicated friend you could call who would do anything you asked without question.”
Rocky and Mason exchanged another glance.
“Did you kill your husband?” Mason asked after a moment.
Ashleigh snorted and shook her head. The two men stared at her, obviously not trusting her. Her snort turned to a full-out hysterical laughter, and she had to lean against the wall to keep from falling over.
“Um, are you okay?”
Ashleigh nodded. “Yeah, it’s just funny that you guys think I killed my husband and the first place I’m going to go is to a former SEAL’s house and confess to his friends.” Laughter kept bubbling up. Ashleigh smiled up at them. “Thanks, guys. I needed that.”
“Um, okay, so you don’t have any close friends. You do volunteer work, so you don’t have any coworkers you see regularly. Family?”
Ashleigh shook her head, the pain spearing through her heart. “My dad died shortly after Frederick and I started dating. I haven’t spoken to my mother in years.”
“What about your husband? Does he have any friends or family?”
She shook her head. “No. He works all the time. His employees are the only people he spends time with.”
Rocky nodded and wrote it down. He showed something to Mason, who nodded.
“What?” Ashleigh asked.
“Rocky, Mason,” someone called down the hall. “We need Ashleigh.”
Rocky and Mason nodded to her and moved to the side so she could pass. Ashleigh went back to the living room where the rest of the men were crowded around the two computers on the dining room table.
“Ashleigh, we need you to look at a few things. First, is this your husband?” one of the guys asked her.
He turned his computer around, and Frederick stared back at her. The picture wasn’t familiar, but it was definitely him. Ashleigh nodded. “Yes. That photo was taken a couple of years ago, though. His hair is a little gray on his temples now. Otherwise, he looks mostly the same.”
The other guy cleared his throat. “There are a few different kidnapping cases in the Detroit area that we found reports of. We don’t have access to FBI files, but using public information reported through the media, there are three we think might be the one you saw.”
Ashleigh nodded. “Let me see them.”
He pulled up the first one, but Ashleigh shook her head. They moved on to the second kid, and she nodded. “That’s him. I remember him. His parents offered a reward for any information that led to finding him. I should have called the police.”
The guy at the computer shook his head. “No, it’s good you came to us. We can contact the FBI and you can give them all the information you have in a safe place. Especially if your husband has contacts in the police department like the woman said.”
Ashleigh chewed on her nail. “I don’t really have any information. I mean, I don’t know what I saw.”
“You saw an adoption docket and overheard your husband talking about an adoption for a child who has been kidnapped. If he’s transported over state lines, it’s harder to track because the kidnapping is big news in Detroit but not so much if they go to Seattle or Dallas or somewhere outside the immediate area,” Daniel said calmly.
Ashleigh never thought she’d be having a conversation about kidnapping. A calm, peaceful, accusatory conversation with the man who left her behind in college.
Ashleigh drew in a breath and nodded. “Okay. If you think it could help, I’ll tell them everything.”
“Do you remember any of the names on the passports?” another guy asked. Dex?
Ashleigh nodded. “There were five. All US passports, but I didn’t dig through so maybe there were more. Jonathan Moreau, Albert Fordham, Ricardo Juarez, Anderson… something. I’m sorry, I don’t remember that one. Um, and York. Something York. I’m sorry.”
Daniel reached for her hand but pulled back before he touched her. She wished he would wrap her up and hold her close. “It’s okay, Ash. You did great. And it’s not easy to go through what you went through. We’ll run the names and see what we can find.”
“Got one,” one of the computer guys said.
“What is it, English?” Dex asked him.
“Moreau. Lots on international travel. About once a month,” English said.
“Juarez is only about once a year,” the other guy said.
“Let’s see, Jaymes,” Dunn said, moving to look over Jaymes’s shoulder.
“It looks like he goes to Mexico every spring.”
All eyes swung to Ashleigh. “Does that ring a bell?”
Ashleigh’s head spun as she processed everything. Her husband wasn’t just cheating on her. He really was the guy on the other passports. Which meant the kidnapping was that much more likely, too.
Who the hell did she marry?
Daniel watched Ashleigh as she absorbed what they were telling her. He knew there was a part of her that hoped she overreacted to what she found, but they proved it wrong. There was no doubt that Ashleigh’s husband was not the man she thought he was.
She dropped into the chair next to Jaymes and drew in a shaky breath. She stared at the table, and everyone around her was silent, waiting for her to answer the question. Dunn already knew her answer. But she wasn’t his to answer for. Not anymore.
Finally, Ashleigh nodded. “He told me he goes there to check in on one of his factories. His company does a lot of different things. They’re a conglomerate and buy up failing businesses. Sometimes they keep them running, but sometimes they have to close them. That’s one that’s still running.”
“Do you know the name of the factory?” Dunn asked her.
He caught English’s eye when Ashleigh shook her head and nodded for English to dig into it. A few clicks later, and English had the answers they needed.
“Purchased four years ago and shut down three months after it was bought.” He clicked a few more times, then turned the screen so everyone could see the satellite view of the location. “It doesn’t look like it’s shut down, though.”
The screen showed a still shot, but there were clearly people there and heavy equipment. “Any idea when this was taken?”
English said, “All satellite imagery is updated at least every two years, so no more than two years old.”
Ashleigh gasped. “What else is he lying to me about? Who is he?”
She asked the questions aloud, but she wasn’t asking any of them. She was confused and scared and just found out the man she put her trust in was a monster. Dunn knew how painful that was. He’d done it twice.
Dunn looked at the clock on the stove and stood. “Let’s meet up in the morning. Ashleigh needs some sleep. English and Jaymes, keep digging. Everyone else, get some rest. Between the concert next week and this, I have a feeling we need to rest now or we won’t get any.”
The others nodded in agreement, then stood. Ashleigh stayed at the table while the team filtered out the door. Dex was the last one to leave and stopped next to Dunn with Slade right in front of him.
“Want me to take her with me?” Dex asked.
Dunn shook his head.
“I can take her,” Slade offered.
Dunn shook his head again.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Dex asked.
Dunn huffed a laugh and shook his head a third time. “I know it’s not, but I can’t turn her away.”
“It’s been eighteen years, boss. Do you even know who she is? Do you know she’s not involved in all this, too? Maybe they had a fight, and she’s here to get him busted and she comes out rosy,” Slade said.
Dunn shrugged. “Won’t be the first or the second time I trusted someone who was fucking me over. I’m sure it won’t be the last.” He ran a hand down his face and breathed deep. “You guys didn’t see her face when I first got here. She was terrified. Maybe she’s lying, but if she is, she’s developed some serious acting skills.”
Slade and Dex exchanged a look. “Be careful, boss,” Slade said, dragging Dex toward the door.
Dunn nodded and locked the door behind them.
He turned back to Ashleigh, but she was still at the table with her head in her hands. “Want a drink?” he offered.
She nodded.
Dunn went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from above the fridge. He didn’t drink much, but when he really needed a drink, he always went for the good stuff. He poured two glasses and added a couple of ice cubes, just the way they drank it in college, and set one in front of Ashleigh.
She smiled at the glass and laughed. “I haven’t had whiskey since you left. I couldn’t bring myself to drink it.”
Dunn winced. “Sorry, Ash.”
She shrugged and brought the glass to her lips. She inhaled, then tipped the glass up and swallowed the amber liquid. She cringed, then set the glass down. “Gah. I don’t remember it tasting like this.”
Dunn smiled and sat across the table from her. Too far away to touch, but close enough that he could look at her. Her hair was dry and back to its usual dirty blonde color he remembered so well. He loved to wrap it around his hand when she took his cock into her mouth. The honey color against his dark skin reminded him of how many people said they shouldn’t be together. They didn’t blend. But they never cared what other people said. They loved each other, and Dunn would have died for her. He would have done anything for her. But she never asked him for the one thing that would have kept them together.
Her lips pursed together before she brought the whiskey back to her lips. Her tongue slicked along the edge of the glass, catching the liquid before it poured into her mouth. She drew in a breath, then swallowed the whiskey. Ashleigh did everything in a way that turned him on. Even drinking whiskey had him hard, thinking about the first time they got drunk together. They’d been dating for a few months, but they hadn’t slept together yet. She said she always wanted to try whiskey, so Dunn bought a bottle for them to share.
They got drunk on the whiskey and drunk on each other and fumbled through sex. When Dunn woke up the next morning with a naked Ashleigh in his bed, he felt like an ass, but she confessed she was afraid to be with him. Not because she was afraid of him but because of her curves. She didn’t know what he would think of her naked body.
He made sure she didn’t worry about that ever again.
“Do you remember the first time we drank whiskey?” Ashleigh asked softly.
Dunn smiled and nodded, not admitting he was just thinking about the same thing.
“I was so sure you were going to run. I hated being naked next to you.”
Dunn adjusted himself and shook his head. “You were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”
Her gaze snapped to his. Dunn felt that same connection all over again. Desire stretched thin between them, pulling them toward each other. He hadn’t been with many women since leaving the SEALs. He didn’t trust himself to pick someone who wouldn’t try to kill him when his guard was down.
The first time he saw Ashleigh, she was walking across campus, her long hair flowing behind her as she walked with purpose. He had to know who she was, but he was going the other way. For weeks, he tried to find her again, but she never reappeared. Until one day she walked into the dining hall. She was talking to a friend and smiling, and Dunn was nearly knocked on his ass.
He marched up to her and introduced himself. She told him her name, then ignored him for her friend. He didn’t let her get away, though. He sat with them for lunch and invited her to dinner. Her friend urged her to agree, and Ashleigh and he were nearly inseparable after that.
Until he broke both their hearts and told her his plans for his future. Plans that didn’t include her.
Dunn finally broke the connection between Ashleigh and himself. He drained the rest of his whiskey and went to the kitchen to put the bottle away and put his glass in the dishwasher. He felt Ashleigh’s eyes on him, but he couldn’t look at her again. Not if he was going to keep his hands to himself.
