“Near Knoxville,” hereplied.
“And you said you grew up with Griffin and Ellion?” I was fishing for information. I had to hope he didn’t catch on. I grabbed a towel tofold.
“Yep. Since we were babies. Even our parents were friends,” he replied as he folded the last towel in the basket. “Well, we’re done here until this load washes. I think I’ll go work on my book for a littlewhile.”
He held out his hand to shake mine. It was a little casual after the intense flirting he’d done, but I placed my hand in his anyway. He twisted his wrist—and mine—and placed a kiss on the pulse point inside my wrist. His warm breath traveled up my arm, giving me goosebumps. “You’ll join me for dinner?” he asked. “I’m preparing something specialtonight.”
The look on his face promised an intimate dining experience. “I’d be delighted to join you for dinner, Chandler. I believe you know where to pick meup?”
He smiled at me, and his smile lit up his icy eyes. I sighed. He was so man-pretty.
“That I do.” Releasing my hand, he grabbed the basket of clean towels and headed out of theroom.
I needed a second to compose myself. Those eyes got to me everytime.
With Chandler distracted by his writing, I went to find Griffin and Ellion. I lucked out and found them as soon as I set foot in the kitchen. They sat at the table, eating some sort ofpancakes.
“That smells great,” I said. “Did you make enough for a girl who loves toeat?”
Ellion laughed and shot out of his chair the moment he saw me. “Of course I did!” he exclaimed. “Sit,sit.”
I smiled at his energy. He scurried around, dishing up pancakes out of a warming pan in the oven and pouring a glass of orange juice. I looked at Griffin in time to catch him watching me smile. He turned his gaze to his food so fast I almost missed the pensive expression on hisface.
“So,” I said. Griffin looked at me again, startled. “Did you find anything oncamera?”
“Nothing helpful,” Griffinreplied.
Ellion set a plate full of oblong pancakes in front ofme.
“What’s this?” Iasked.
“Bacon pancakes,” Griffin said as he handed me syrup. “They’re amazing. Pick them up with your hands and dip them in thesyrup.”
I did as instructed, biting into maple-baconygoodness.
“You’re right. They’re so good.” I dug in withgusto.
Griffin and Ellion went back to the conversation I’dinterrupted.
“We need to go through any triggers we might’ve ignored for the past few weeks. I think I can manipulate the program to take us directly to movement in rooms we don’t use often,” saidEllion.
Griffin nodded. “Like theoffice—”
My ears twitched with the mention of theoffice.
“—gym, and sparebedrooms.”
“Whoa,” I said. “There are cameras in the sparebedrooms?”
“No,” Ellion said with a chuckle. “They’re in the hall, trained on the doors to the bedrooms andbathrooms.”
Thank goodness for that. The only thing I knew was that I had to find the office. That’s where the answers were. I was long past feeling guilty for prying; my curiosity overwhelmedme.
Griffin and Ellion finished eating, all but ignoring me. They walked off toward the computer lab still discussing possible times and places they should search for. Chandler was in his room working on his book. I was afraid I wouldn’t get anotherchance.
The problem was that I had no clue where the office was. I’d already explored every room in Chandler’s wing, and I wanted to avoid Ellion’s wing where they were all gathered. Griffin’s seemed to be the logical choice. I scarfed the rest of my food and cleaned up everyone’s dishes then headed to Griffin’s bedroom like a stalker. The picture of Amanda and Andee stared at me from his bedsidetable.
Griffin’s room had two other doors in it. I peeked in the first and found an enormous walk-in closet. Half of it was empty, as if open and waiting for Amanda to come in and add her clothes. The next door was a bathroom that smelled like… I sniffed the air. Patchouli.Yum.
