I stiffened, my lips pursed. "Remind me of their names?"
"Monica Carrie and Kelsey Gregson. They worked under the aliases Michela and Katherine. Both have been, er, sex workers for 7th Circle pretty much since you opened. Always punctual, popular with repeat clients, good employees." She gave a small shrug, the concern clear on her face. "There are open missing-persons cases for both of them."
Giving her a small nod of understanding, I drew a deep breath as I processed that information. First Maryanne got murdered, then these two girls went missing? It had to be Chase.
"Thanks for letting me know, Hannah. Keep me posted for any developments." I shifted my gaze to Zed, who looked like he'd just been hit with a stun gun. "Anything you want to ask, Zed?"
He gave a tight shake of his head, and Hannah politely excused herself, saying she'd bring our lunch in when it arrived.
After she closed the door softly, I narrowed my gaze at Zed. "What?"
He glanced at the door, then exhaled heavily as he came over to sit in the chair Hannah had just vacated. "Monica and Kelsey... they were both..." He waved his hand and winced. I didn't really need any more of an explanation as my mood soured.
"You were fucking them both. Right." My words were clipped and angry, and Zed groaned.
"Not recently, but yeah, in the past I spent some time with both of them. They're pretty girls and..." He scrubbed a hand over his face in frustration. "Chase is deliberately targeting women I’ve slept with."
"No shit," I muttered. I grabbed a pen and notebook out of my drawer and pushed it across the desk to him. "I suggest you make a list of every girl you've been with. They're all in danger."
Zed looked way too uncomfortable with that suggestion, but his protest was cut off by a knock at my office door.
"Come in," I snapped, expecting Hannah to have returned with our lunch. It was our lunch, but it was Gen who brought it in with a bright smile. "Oh, hey, Gen. I didn't expect you today."
She placed the bags of food on my desk, then dragged a chair over to sit beside Zed. "I know; I didn't mean to drop by unannounced. I was at Zampati's getting my own lunch order and saw yours waiting for the courier. Figured I'd bring it up myself and check how the meeting with Leah went."
Leah Harris was the Mayor of Cloudcroft and a personal connection of Gen's. It was thanks to her that we'd been able to iron out the mess with Timber, so I really did owe her thanks for that. I was just in a shitty mood about Zed's promiscuity coming back to bite us all in the ass, and the coy glances Gen permanently seemed to be shooting him set my nerves on edge.
"Thanks, Gen," Zed started to say, clearly about to dismiss her. "We were just—"
"Finishing up," I cut him off, giving Gen a smile. "You're welcome to stay for lunch; we can discuss strategy for the Copper Wolf vodka distillery expansion." Zed shot me a hard glare, but I just nodded to the notepad. "You have a list to write, Zayden. Get to work; I don't want to be here late tonight."
He scowled but reluctantly picked up the notebook as Gen started unpacking our food. Hannah had also ordered a range of sides and desserts to go with our mains, so there was enough food to keep us fed all afternoon. Much to Zed's annoyance, Gen and I found plenty of things to discuss, so she ended up not leaving until we were all ready to head home at the end of the day.
41
As badly as Zed wanted to clear the air between us, fate was working against him. Both our phones were going nuts before we even got into his car, and we spent most of the drive home fielding calls about a million and one work-related matters. Then, just as we parked in the garage, he got a call from our foreman at Timber to say there had been an electrical fire in the new kitchen area.
"Go check it out," I told him with a sigh. "I'll get up to speed on the new security system."
Before I could head inside, Zed grabbed me around the waist and pinned me to the side of his car, kissing me hard. "I know you're pissed at me," he whispered, sounding pained.