Read Online Aegis Security 02 - Sinful Surrender by Elisabeth Naughton - Free Book Online Page B

in her eyes that she didn’t like handing over control.
    He approached the closest officer and explained who they were. The man nodded, then turned and yelled, “Hey, Charlie. The guest is here.”
    Seconds later, another man, this one dressed in a suit, with salt-and-pepper hair, stepped out of the open door. “Grace Ryder?”
    “Yeah, that’s me.” Grace said, tugging off her coat. “What happened in my room?”
    “The maid came by and found the room in shambles. The one directly above your suite and the one right below were also vandalized.”
    Grace wrapped her arms around her coat and tried to look past the detective into the room. “Can I go in?”
    “Yeah. We were hoping you would. We need you to look around and tell us if anything’s missing. Careful what you touch.”
    Grace nodded. But as the detective stepped back and Grace moved forward, Brian saw the worry in her eyes, and the fear. And that hum in his blood, the one that told him he’d missed something when he’d been drooling all over her last night, amped up another notch.
    Grace moved ahead of him and muttered, “Oh my God.”
    Brian’s feet drew to a stop in the middle of the living room, and a sinking feeling consumed him as he glanced around. This wasn’t just a random break-in. Someone had trashed the place. Every piece of furniture was overturned. Every drawer open, every cushion tossed and slashed. Picture frames that had once hung on the walls lay in piles of broken glass, lamps were shattered, the curtains along the sliding glass door were hanging askew and shredded, and her guitar—the one she’d used to play him that song—was nothing but a pile of busted wood.
    Ryder’s worry that someone was after Grace wasn’t just paranoia. It was real. And the person who could do this kind of damage harbored more than just animosity toward the woman. They were consumed by hatred.
    From the direction of the bedroom, Grace yelped. Looking up, Brian realized she’d moved away from him when he’d been lost taking it all in. Every muscle in his body tensed, and he reached back for his gun, only to realize he’d left it in his room when he’d gone to grab his snow gear.
    The bedroom was more wrecked than the living room, and a few officers were milling around, gathering evidence. Grace came walking out of the master bathroom with a dripping ziplock bag wrapped around a blue-checked notebook. Stopping near the bed, Brian’s brow dropped low. “What is that?”
    “My book.” She tore the bag open, dropped it on the floor, and tugged the notebook out.
    “Where was it?”
    “In the toilet tank.”
    Confusion hit him square between the eyes. “You hid a notebook in the toilet before we left?”
    She flipped through the book. “I always hide anything of value in my hotel room. Something like this could happen.”
    There she went, surprising him again. She hadn’t hidden her laptop or her wallet or her jewelry or the keys to her car or anything a normal person would consider valuable. She’d hidden a ninety-nine-cent notebook.
    Her shoulders relaxed on a relieved sigh. “It’s all here. Whoever broke in didn’t find it.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I can breathe again.”
    He suddenly needed to know a whole lot more about what kind of threat was happening back at home. And what the hell she kept in that book.
    Turning away from her, he moved back out into the living room and spotted the detective who’d brought them in.
    He crossed the room, pulled his business card from his wallet, and handed it to the detective. “I’m Brian Walker. Private security for Ms. Ryder. I’m going to need to see the video surveillance from the hall.”
    The detective stared down at the card. “Aegis Security. I’ve heard of you.”
    Behind him, Grace gasped, and Brian knew he’d just royally fucked up everything between them, but he couldn’t dwell on that now. This was more important.
    “Ryder…” the detective said. “Ryder… She’s