Johan's Joy (Heroes for Hire #22) - Dale Mayer Page 0,49

missing ketamine, much less reported it to the authorities, right? So do you really think she’s in any danger?” Galen asked, as he slowly hopped out. “Seems to me that, chances are, she’s a minor cog in this wheel.”

“Yeah, but Chelsea got taken out. And was only here three months. With Joy finding something in her first six weeks, that makes her more of a disruption, in my estimation.”

Galen nodded, staring at Johan all the while.

“Plus the stakes just went up now, with the CEO being killed,” Johan said. “So take out the big cheese at the top and then you don’t have to worry about the little guys, or maybe the killer is just working his way down the list, taking them all out who might pose a problem for him.”

“When you’ve already killed one person,” Galen said, “everybody else is that much easier. Now he’s committed. So, if anybody else is on his list, who he feels needs to go in order to give himself a clean sweep, then he’s just getting started.”

Johan nodded and headed up the sidewalk toward the front door of the apartment building. As he stopped and turned around, a large truck came barreling down, turning onto the street. He watched from the stoop right at the entrance as it came past his vehicle and slowed. It didn’t park, but it went on, as if looking for the right apartment. As it drove past, Johan stared directly into the passenger’s face. He frowned, and the vehicle immediately picked up speed and jolted forward.

“Who was that?” Galen asked.

“I’m not sure,” Johan said. “Slightly familiar. Tall and slim. I’m thinking male. Maybe somebody from the job, I presume.”

“I didn’t see a license plate or the driver, but I’ve got a picture of the truck,” Galen said, flicking through his phone. “If somebody works at Westgroup and owns this vehicle, then we would have a connection. But could just as easily have been a friend or family member of someone on staff.”

Johan said, “It’s almost guaranteed the only reason for coming down here is—”

“There could be lots of reasons,” Galen interrupted. “But the prime one, given our circumstances, is to find out if Joy’s living here.”

“Find out if she’s living here and to check out the area.”

“All that’s changed now that we’ve been seen.”

“Not sure about we,” Johan said. “Definitely me though.”

“Maybe we need to move her out of here,” Galen said.

“It’s possible,” he said. “Or we set the place up as a trap.”

“You think they’ll be back?”

“Absolutely,” he said, as he entered the main hallway and headed for the stairs. “That I can guarantee.”

Chapter 11

When a knock came at the door, Tyson hopped up and opened it, getting there just ahead of Joy. She looked at him in surprise as he smiled and said, “It’s safer this way.”

Uncertain, she stepped back as the knock came again. He opened the door. “About time you got here.”

Johan smiled and said, “Right. It’s been a bit of a long day at the office.” His gaze immediately zoomed in on her.

She could feel the same tingling awareness from the minute the door opened to reveal him there. And the fact that he was looking at her the way he was, well, just sent her stomach churning again, not to mention adding heat to the fire that never seemed to go out down below, not since that damn kiss. She’d been kissed a lot; she’d had multiple boyfriends after all, but there’d been just something behind the punch that he’d packed that made her stop in shock. And she’d felt a response that she had never felt before. She was curious and wanted to know where it would go but not under these circumstances. And she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to get hooked up with anybody in Levi’s group. Not that she had anything against them, but she had certainly heard enough about them from Kai that Joy knew these were not guys to fool around with, not guys to expect one-night-stand kind of relationships. All good things, but that didn’t make her feel any better. She wasn’t sure she was at all prepared for this guy.

She smiled at him, but her smile faded when he walked forward, snagged her into his arms, and gave her a big hug.

“Oof,” she managed.

He set her back down again. “Sorry, there’s something very disturbing about seeing your boss on the floor,” he muttered. “All I could think of was it could have