The restaurants and supply stores were all high-class establishments. The kidnappings all occurred well away from fast food joints or Mom and Pop establishments. All the kidnappings also occurred on the back roads leading to or away from the restaurants and supply stores.

He knew that it was a long shot and he could very well be wrong, but he had a nagging feeling about these cases that he couldn't let go. Until he had some kind of physical evidence like a video, prints, witnesses or even a body, he couldn't push for a task force or even issue a warning. All he had right now was a database and a hunch. Hell, there wasn't even a pattern to help him figure out where the kidnapper would strike next.

What he wouldn't give for a spirit to come harass him at two in the morning over this case. For a month now he'd been waiting for just that, but so far nothing. It wasn't surprising, but it definitely wasn't good news. Since he doubted that all these women had run away like some of the investigators claimed or were being held somewhere still alive, some for several years, he was left with only one conclusion.            

They'd all suffered greatly before they’d died and welcomed the peaceful release from their bodies. On one hand, he was happy that their spirits didn't suffer further torment by wandering the earth. On the other hand, if even one of them had contacted him, he would have been able to end this a long time ago. Then again, for all he knew they could be stuck where they’d died, unable to let go.

"Bitch!"

"No, you're the bitch!" the airhead twins argued as his head started to pound.  "Ask him. He’ll tell you!" she said, gesturing to him.

Tristan just barely bit back his groan. They'd been too busy bitch slapping each other to even notice him and he'd hoped it stayed that way.

"You know if he could see us that he'd totally want me, right?" the brunette said as she fluffed her blood caked hair back. They stood behind Marty, watching him.

The blonde snorted. "He can see us and he was totally checking out my girls," she said as she made a show of adjusting her br**sts and winked at him, making him cringe.

"Nah ah!" the brunette said.

"Yeah, because when we were arguing over whether my text messaging and fixing my makeup while I was driving or all those cars going the wrong way on the highway was the reason we crashed, he muttered that we should win the Darwin Award."

"You mean we're going to win something?" the brunette asked, practically jumping up and down.

"Totally!"

As the dead women suddenly rushed him, he promised all kinds of revenge on Shayne, starting with cancelling the  p**n  channel.

Chapter 16

"I'm going home," she announced as she stood up and collected her things.

"Don't care," Tristan said and she just barely stopped herself from throwing her stapler at his head.

All day she'd been forced to put up with his surly attitude. Now she was more than ready to call it a night. If she’d thought he'd been an ass**le before, she'd been dead wrong. Today he'd redefined the term ass**le. Today she couldn't wait to get the hell away from him. Today.....

Today he broke her heart.

All day she’d waited and hoped to see a glimmer of the Tristan that she loved, but he never showed up. Instead, she had to deal with this jerk that either ignored her or snapped at her. Several times she was forced to leave the office and hide out in the bathroom to calm down before she did something completely stupid like cry.

She loved him so much and she hated him for it. She didn’t want to feel this way about him, never had, but she couldn’t help it. Being in love with Tristan felt natural, right and the other day when she’d been in his arms she’d felt whole for the first time in her life. She wanted to be with him, needed to be with him, but that was never going to happen.

At least one thing was clear.

She couldn't keep doing this. As much as she wanted to work in this department, and with her father before he retired, she just couldn't. She couldn't come in day after day and pretend that seeing him and being near him wasn't killing her. She just couldn't keep doing this and, as soon as she had her degree, she would start sending out her resume and hopefully she'd find something far away so that she could move on with her life and forget about him.

Who the hell was she trying to kid? She'd never be able to forget about Tristan Black. At least she'd be able to put some space between them and give her broken heart a chance to mend and finally move on.

She’d just reached the door when someone knocked. Ignoring Tristan's muttered, yet colorful, curse, she opened the door to find Rosemary standing in the doorway wearing what could only be described as a complacent smile on her face.

"Detective Black, Hank would like a word with you," she said, making everything in Marty go still.

Oh no........

Somehow between work and Tristan's attitude she'd forgotten all about her father and the likelihood that he would find out about everything that had transpired over the weekend. Well, not everything, but he sure as hell would find out about Tristan being shoved out of his house, aroused and na**d as well as Tristan's little announcement at the bar.

This was bad, very bad. She needed to speak with her father first and calm him down before he spoke to Tristan. Hell, she hadn't been this nervous since she’d crashed her father's truck back in high school. If she was this anxious, she couldn't imagine how nervous Tristan must be. It was his ass on the line after all. Maybe she should talk to him before she spoke to her father, to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. Her father was an intimidating man after all, and had scared off more guys than she could count. She needed to handle this before things got out of hand and-

"Tell him that I'll be right there," Tristan said, standing up and grabbing a file before heading to the door, looking calm and relaxed.

"Your father would like to speak with you as well," Rosemary added before she walked away.

Marty stepped in front of the door, blocking it. "Maybe you should let me talk to my father first."

"It's not necessary," Tristan said, gesturing for her to go.

"Not necessary?" she repeated, dumbfounded. "It's very necessary. The man is going to be pissed."

Tristan merely shrugged as he somehow managed to get her out of the office. He stepped past her and headed towards her father's office. She followed after him, feeling the eyes of everyone in the pit watching her. She really wasn't looking forward to this. In fact, she’d planned on speaking with her father about everything over lunch at his favorite pizza shop. She would have explained everything and, if that failed, she would have begged her father to stay out of it and let her handle things. Unfortunately for Tristan, she'd worked through lunch and obviously missed a golden opportunity, because her father was about to kill him.

"Have a seat," her father said tightly when they walked into his office.

With a sense of doom, she did just that. This was so wrong. She was in her twenties and she should be beyond this, but apparently she was a wimp.

"I need to speak with you, Hank," Tristan said, getting to the point. On behalf of the butterflies in her stomach she could have kissed the man, but she quickly reminded herself that was what got them into this situation in the first place.