The FBI agent in her wondered if Zane was using a spell to lure her in and make her feel safe when she shouldn’t. She’d certainly seen enough over the past year to suggest something like that was possible. She’d dealt with things recently that could trick otherwise careful people into walking right into a trap.
But as Zane moved ahead of her in the dimly lit garage, she decided it wasn’t some kind of supernatural spell that made her so comfortable with him. It was her instincts telling her she was safe with him. And Alyssa never doubted her instincts. They’d saved her butt more times than she could count.
Then again, as handsome as Zane was, it was also possible she was simply overlooking the danger because she was too busy gazing at him. It might be shallow of her, but in her defense, she hadn’t slept with a guy in over a year and a half, and the last time she had, it hadn’t been all that.
If they hadn’t been in stealth mode, she probably would have laughed out loud. Deciding to trust a possible monster because she was horny was ridiculous. Then something twisted inside her and she mentally backtracked. He wasn’t a monster. She wasn’t sure what he was, but he wasn’t a monster.
If nothing else, the way he’d handled that situation with Zoe and Chloe earlier made her sure of that. Those girls had been through the most horrible situation Alyssa could imagine anyone having to deal with, and Zane had been the one they’d turned to for help. Truthfully, she didn’t blame them. It was obvious he was the kind of man who cared about people and would do anything to help them.
Alyssa only wished she knew what they’d talked about while she and Christine had been getting sodas and snacks. Even though she’d done a bit of casual prodding during the drive over to the garage, Zane wouldn’t say. He’d kept the conversation focused entirely on what those two girls needed now, which mostly included Christine taking the twins’ statements, so she could start getting everything cleared up with the police back in Utah.
“There it is,” Zane said softly, jerking her out of her confusing thoughts. “Against the far wall.”
This level of the parking garage dead-ended in a concrete wall, and the sedan was parked alongside a row of vehicles just like it, right down to make, model, and year. As she and Zane hurried across the garage, she was tempted to ask how he knew this was the car the girls had been in, but she decided against it. She was worried he might say something she couldn’t ignore—like admitting he could smell which vehicle was the right one. That was something she didn’t want confirmation on right now.
When they got to the sedan in question, Alyssa crouched down beside it and slipped her hand under the radiator, confirming it was the one with the tracking device. She straightened up to find that Zane had opened the passenger door and was searching the glove box. He rustled around for a few seconds before coming up with the vehicle’s registration. He handed it to her without a word, then moved over to the next vehicle in the line. While he dug around in there, she took out the small flashlight she always carried with her and searched the first vehicle. It was super fancy, with all-leather interior and heavily tinted windows all around. It even had one of those privacy partitions, so the driver couldn’t peek into the backseat.
“Well, if the line of identical sedans weren’t a dead giveaway, this is,” Zane said, coming back over to hand her another piece of paper. “The cars are registered to a company called Curtis Unified Parking Services. The address for the company is the same as the garage. They didn’t dump the car here. They parked it here.”
She frowned. “Stefan owns a parking garage? The guy comes from a family with more money than God, and he spends his free time running a parking garage? Kidnapping women isn’t enough to keep him occupied?”
Zane shrugged. He looked as stumped as she was. “And before you ask, I didn’t know about this place. We knew he was loosely connected to several legitimate businesses in the city, but not this one. Someone’s done a good job of hiding it.”
That someone would be either the Curtis family or Black Swan Enterprises.
“That’s got to mean something,” Alyssa said. “I’m not sure what, though.”
“Me, either,” Zane murmured. “But I’m curious about why they own so many vehicles. I’m pretty sure a company that manages a parking garage doesn’t need a fleet of luxury sedans.”
She leaned into the car to put the registration back in the glove box. “Do you think Stefan is kidnapping even more people than we thought?”
“I hope not. But my gut tells me he’s using these cars for something shady. We need to get out of here and do some digging. See what we can find out about Curtis Unified Parking Services. I’d be interested to know if there’s a link between this place and Black Swan Enterprises.”
Alyssa had a hard time believing a link like that would exist. Not when Stefan was using these same vehicles to kidnap people. The chances of something like that coming back on the powerful company was a risk no sane person would tolerate. All it would take was one of those vehicles getting in a traffic accident while carrying kidnap victims, or even pulled over for speeding. Why risk it? Regardless, it was still a place to start looking.
While she attached tracking devices to the other sedans, Zane slipped away to see if there was a direct access to the Curtis Unified offices somewhere nearby. No way in hell a man like Stefan would walk an inclined parking ramp to the next level to get the elevator. She didn’t see a door anywhere, though.
Would Stefan have brought those girls here last night? If so, had he brought other people here, too?
She didn’t think that was likely. Not when there was a chance some random employee might stumble across them. But still…what if?
Alyssa was still lost in thought when Zane came back. “There’s an entrance to the offices around the corner, but it’s covered by two security cameras. There’s no way we’ll ever be able to slip in that way without someone seeing us.”
“It will take me a little while to get my team working on this,” she said as they walked back up the ramp. “When it comes to doing searches, the department I work for isn’t as constrained as most parts of the federal government, but it will still take time. They probably won’t have anything useful until tonight, longer if Black Swan Enterprises is involved. With their money, they can hire people good at making the truth disappear.”
Once outside, they headed to Zane’s SUV parked four blocks away. He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to someone. “I’ll get mine on it right now. They can be hip deep in data within minutes.”
She stopped walking, forcing him to do the same. “Without a warrant of any kind?”
Zane put his phone back in his pocket. “You don’t have to be part of this if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Something about the way he said the words made her think he genuinely wanted to protect her from this.
“I want to meet your teammates,” she said. “I want to be there when they dig into Stefan’s company.”
She didn’t know how putting herself firmly in the middle of Zane’s illegal activities was going to make the situation any better, but she wanted to do it anyway. Maybe because she couldn’t seem to think straight when she was around him. If she was thinking at all.
Zane was silent for so long she thought he might refuse, but then his phone buzzed. He dug it out and glanced at it, then nodded at her. “They’re waiting for us at the motel we’re staying at.”
