“He shouldn’t have gotten that much,” Jackson said, deadly anger in his tone. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you. Men like him always have pressure points. If you can’t find them, I will.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Dash murmured.
Silence hung on the phone again.
“Otherwise—you’re good?” Jackson asked, his tone still tense but forcibly lightened.
“Yeah. You?”
“Surviving.” Jackson sighed. “We’ll talk soon, okay?”
Dash ended the call, missing his friend. They’d been recruited together and worked alongside one another for nine years. It still felt strange to work a case and not have Jackson at his side.
He slipped his cell back into his pocket and collected the file and his notepad. On the way to his office, he handed Eliott the check. “Can you deposit this today? I don’t want it lingering around too long.”
Eliott took it, glanced, and did a double take. Wide-eyed, he lifted his gaze to Dash. “You weren’t in there long enough to blow him for this many zeros.”
“No blowing required. I just need to do another rich man’s bidding,” Dash muttered. He lifted the file. “I’ve got a little light reading to do. Hold my calls unless it’s Davis or an emergency, please.”
“You got it, Boss.”
“Glad you’re admitting who really runs this place,” Dash whispered with a grin.
“Just buttering you up for that raise,” Eliott whispered back, his grin wider.
“I’d love a cup of coffee while I read,” Dash said.
“Me, too. Grab me one while you’re at it, hon,” Eliott said.
Dash sighed.
Eliott rose from his office chair. “You’re only getting this because there’s a coat I’ve been eyeing in the window at Marino’s that would lookamazingon me. You can afford to give me a bonus with all these zeros.”
“It’s so expensive that you’d need a bonus to buy it?” Dash asked as he walked into his office.
“Haute couture has a price, darling,” Eliott yelled from the kitchenette. As he neared Dash’s office, he swung his hips wide, back and forth, before placing the coffee on the desk. “You don’tknow the pains I go through to look this amazing.” He padded his long, flowing platinum locks. “Thoughyounever notice that effort.”
Dash lifted a brow. “You look… nice. Always do. There.Happy now?”
Eliott blushed, batting his eyelashes and hugging himself. “You almost gave me the warm fuzzies, Dashiell Keller. I’m so proud of you.” He walked closer and lightly punched Dash on the shoulder. “I knew you had it in you.”
Dash opened the file and waved Eliott away. “I have homework.”
“And then you go and ruin it all with a flick of your wrist. My gods, Keller, pick a lane.” Eliott wandered out, swishing his ass just as hard as he swished it on the way in. “I feel you looking.”
“At you making a fool of yourself,” Dash yelled back, turning his focus back to the file.
An hour later, he was ready to pull his hair out reading through the previous P.I.’s tediously boring notes on every single movement Jaye Lachlin made—or rather didn’t. When he got to the mention of a ten-minute long ball scratch, he closed the file and eyed the keys lying beside the file. Everything in him wanted tonotgo there just to piss Crenshaw off, but he needed a break.
Dash drove into the Victoria Highlands, the richest neighborhood in the province, and pulled into a space outside Jaye’s luxury townhouse. Once inside, he realized it dwarfed his reasonably sized single-family home. It hadn’t appeared so large from the outside. According to the file, Jaye lived alone. It was too much house for one man, especially one who hadn’t earned it.
He ran a finger over the chair railing in the foyer and didn’t find a bit of dust—surely cleaned by paid professionals. When had they last been there—and had they destroyed anything of note without realizing it? Hopefully not. Wandering room toroom, there was no trash in any of the baskets, leading him to believe someone had cleaned between Jaye’s last moments there and his arrival.
The house itself gave him little besides what he’d already expected. Neon beer signs graced most of the living room walls, except the one with a dartboard and a myriad of pinholes in the drywall around it. The formal dining room had been transformed into an arcade with multiple stand-up machines and a few pinball games. The den was one massive sectional facing a wall with every imaginable video game console or entertainment system. Another wall stored a well-stocked bar and more neon beer signs. The second floor housed a massive bedroom suite and two guest rooms—along with a theater room with blacked out windows and rows of recliners.
He searched the other rooms, leaving Jaye’s bedroom for last. Dash combed every inch, looking foranythingout of place. For an entitled brat, he was too organized. It almost felt as if the place had been wiped clean, covering some unknown sin. When he was seconds from giving up, he noticed a tiny white triangle peeking out of a floorboard under the bed. Dash slid the bed over before prying the floorboard loose.
Inside, he found a few cigar boxes, what appeared to be a porn stash, and a pile of dildos. After slipping on a pair of disposable gloves he pulled from his pants pocket, he pulled everything out, examining each piece for anything that might be useful.
