“Ask me out. I should probably show restraint,” I repeated my mother’s words. “Be a lady.”
“You are a lady,” he assured. “And, yeah, typically I do the askin’, but I like that you do too.”
“Okay, so stop actinglike a little bitch. Stop assuming shit, and we’ll be fine.”
He reached over and squeezed my hand. “I can do that.”
“Good.”
Jake’s phone buzzed. He checked it, then said, “Pike’s gonna meet us at the hospital with the personnel records.”
“Whoa, that was fast.”
“Yeah. I told you, we’re doing everything we can to help Dylan. The sooner we get him ID’d and caught, the sooner she’ll be out ofdanger.”
I bit my lip. “I kind of underestimated you, didn’t I?”
He smiled. “A little bit, yeah.”
“Sorry.”
He squeezed my hand again. “Forgiven.”
We arrived at the hospital and Jake followed me up to Dylan’s room. She was laughing at something Asher was saying and then she winced and put her hand to her forehead. “Ow.”
“No laughing,” I ordered, setting the bag on the bench by the window.
Dylan smiled, her eyes flitting between me and Jake. “You two made up?”
“We’re getting there,” I said, and smiled. “He just needs to be a man.”
Jake chuckled behind me, but didn’t contradict my very astute observation.
“I’m here now if you need to go, Ashey,” I offered.
He frowned, shaking his head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Don’t you have work to do?” Dylan asked.
Asher took her hand andsmiled. “Nope. Besides, I brought my laptop if I need to work.”
There was a knock on the door, and Detective Pike joined us. He greeted everyone before addressing Dylan.
“I have some pictures for you look at, Ms. James. Let me know if anyone looks familiar.” He pulled a folder out of his briefcase, set it on Dylan’s lap, and she started poring over photos. It didn’t take long before she froze.
“Dylan?” I asked, glancing down at the face she was staring at. “Is this the one?”
She was trembling and chewing on her bottom lip. She nodded and took a deep breath. “Yeah, that’s the douchebag. Nicolai Barinov.”
“You’re sure?” Jake asked.
She studied the picture again. “Yes. Positive. It’s not a face I’ll be able to forget any time soon.”
Jake closed the folder and handed it back to Pike.“Does that check out with the store’s security footage?”
Pike nodded. “Sure does.” He gestured toward the door, and Jake followed him out into the hallway.
“You okay?” Asher asked, rubbing Dylan’s arm.
