ordered, voice brisk. “Not like I normally do house calls, but I’m considering this a special situation.” His gaze lingered on Antony. “I do expect you to fully pay when this case is closed.”
Someone wanted special tech favors. Antony got it. “I keep my word.”
“Good to know.” Eric tossed up a wave. A few moments later, he was gone, along with the installation crew who’d come to work on the security system. Before they departed, they paused to give Antony some instructions—instructions he hadn’t needed because he knew how the damn system worked—and soon the house was blessedly quiet.
He was alone with Ella again.
“What do you have to pay him?” Her first question.
He tossed aside his tie. Rolled up his sleeves. He’d long since ditched his coat. “Favors. It’s the way of the world, isn’t it?”
“Tech favors.” A nod. “Everyone always thinks that you can do anything with tech.”
He flashed her a grin. “Because I can.” Not being arrogant. Just stating a fact. “Come on, I’ll show you.” He made his way to the office he’d set up—sure, most of the rooms didn’t have furniture, but he’d made sure he teched out the home office within an hour of signing a contract on the house.
He settled in his chair, booted up his system, and just like that…he was hunting. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he searched for his prey.
“What are you doing?” She leaned over his shoulder to peer at the screen. Her hair brushed against him. “I don’t think…Hold on. You’re not supposed to be accessing that information.”
“You weren’t upset when I accessed street cams earlier.” A gentle reminder. There’d been no protest from her.
“I didn’t love that you were breaking into the street cams. I told you that then, but we were looking for your would-be attacker, and time was of the essence.” She leaned a little closer.
His nostrils flared as he drank in her scent. “You smell delicious.”
He heard her quick inhale. Antony thought she might jerk back. She didn’t. He tried to ignore the fact that her utterly delicious scent was making him insane. “Strawberries,” he murmured.
“It’s my shampoo. And my body lotion.”
His fingers kept flying over the keyboard. “That explains why you tasted like strawberries the night we made love.”
“Antony—”
“Bingo.”
“Bingo—what?”
“I found our guy.”
Her face was pretty much next to his now as she studied the screen. Nearly cheek to cheek. “This is all illegal, isn’t it?”
He considered lying as he turned to stare at her profile. Discarded the idea because obviously… “Yes.”
Her head whipped toward him. Her eyes were wide. “You can’t just break the law!”
“I could wait for the overworked cops in the area to investigate what—to them—is probably just another would-be mugging. Kind of low on their priority list. You know, when they have murders and kidnappings and what-not to solve.”
“What-not?”
“Um. Yes. Or I could save everyone time and find the perp on my own. Which I just did.” He smiled at her. “You have the most amazing eyes. The gold can get deeper or lighter depending on your mood. Fascinating to see.”
Her delicate jaw hardened. “If you could keep tracking the perp—why didn’t you do it at Wilde after the agents found the abandoned van?”
“Well, Eric was already calling in his buddies at the PD, and I didn’t think they’d appreciate my efforts. So…” He shrugged. “I came here. I did what I do best. Used tech to help me. I searched the area where the van was abandoned—I figured our perps just switched rides—and I saw our fellow with the curly, dark hair driving a blue Corvette with a busted front light.”
“Can you get his name? Use the license plate on the Corvette to figure out who he is?”
He went back to work on the computer. Turned up… “That’s a fake plate.” Not registered to a Corvette but to a pick-up truck owned by someone in Savannah. “Probably did a plate switch. Our guy is not a newbie to the criminal world.” He dove a little deeper. “Don’t have his address, but I do have his current location.”
“We need to give the address to the cops.”
He could feel her gaze on him. Antony turned his head toward her. “That is one idea.”
The gold of her eyes went deeper. “It is a great idea. It is the idea we’re going with.”
Antony gave a slow shake of his head. He hated to disappoint her. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Why on earth wouldn’t it be possible?”
He’d had to bribe his boss, Dex,