Alex puckered his lips, and I rubbed my chin. There were so many unanswered questions. The foray into her phone had done us little good. I didn’t want to push any further, but I really had hoped to find out more.
“So, the mystery deepens,” Alex said. “Looks like we’ll have to take the limited information we have and see if we can track down anything else.”
My heart lifted as he said the words. “Really?”
Alex shrugged. “I’m thoroughly intrigued, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I mean, I was intrigued when I saw her, but I didn’t want to push you to keep tracking information.”
“Sounds like our gaming sesh will be delayed while we follow up on our limited leads,” Ava said, grabbing our trash and tossing it in the nearby bin.
“Let’s head back to the little old casa and see what we can dig up on Miss Nattie Burgmont and her mysterious phone contact.”
Within minutes, we were back in Ava’s Barbie pink SUV heading back to what they called “their little beach house.”
In reality, the mansion was big enough to house twenty people without them ever having to interact. With Alex’s level of income, they could afford the best.
I wasn’t exactly hurting as the son of a billionaire–even if we had a difficult relationship–and a doctor. And I planned to use every last bit of the perception of wealth that came along with being besties with a tech billionaire and having an energy mogul as a dad to win Nattie over.
I needed all the help I could get.
We pulled into the driveway and filed into the house, settling in their clean, modern living room that overlooked the pool and the beach.
I eased into the armchair as Alex grabbed his laptop. I wrung my hands as I waited, both eager and desperate to know more about Natalie Burgmont.
“All right, Nattie,” Alex said as Ava scooped up their little chihuahua, Gizmo, and snuggled closer to him.
I stared at the two of them–a perfect couple. I wanted that. And I hoped whatever he was about to find on Nattie wouldn’t ruin my chance.
“First thing I’ll try is reverse searching those numbers,” Alex said as his fingers pounded across the keys.
A curse escaped his lips, and Ava shot me a glance. “Burners.”
I hung my head. We wouldn’t get any information from those. With every keystroke Alex made, my hopes diminished. I’d never see this woman again.
“Now, I’ll just do a search for any Natalie Burgmonts and see what we come up with,” Alex said.
We spent over thirty minutes searching for information on the mystery woman. We didn’t find anything under the name she’d given me no matter what spellings we’d used. And we’d tried everything–even Nataly with a y.
As Alex closed the lid of his laptop, I crossed my arms, pacing the living room floor. “Okay, well, there are a thousand reasons she could be using a fake name and have a burner phone.”
I shrugged. “Like she’s…
“A drug dealer,” Alex filled in.
“What?” I answered, ceasing my ambling as I screwed up my face.
“A criminal may hide their identity,” Ava said. “Alex has a point.”
I pressed my lips together, shaking my head as I resumed my pacing. “Okay, fair enough. But she could also be a victim.”
“Ohh, Witsec?” Alex asked, his tone growing excited. “I could hack into their records and do a search.”
“Or maybe it’s not that but it’s like…running from an abusive ex, you know?”
Ava poked a finger at me. “Could be. I’m not sure if we’d be able to track that down.”
“That would be…difficult,” Alex said. “Easier if we had a picture of her. I could run it through facial recognition, see if we get any hits and can trace her through that.”
