Seductive Reasoning (TASK FORCE HAWAII Book 1) Read Free Page B

Elle?” Adam asked as he punched the elevator button.
    “I don’t know. Not like I have a lot of time to think about my team’s love lives.”
    Hell, Del barely had one right now himself. With his long hours, it had been hard to find the time, but there was another aspect to it too. At the ripe age of thirty-five, he didn’t really like the club scene.
    “You think there’s something there?” Adam asked, bringing him out of his morbid thoughts. It took Del a second to remember what they had been talking about. The man was worse than any woman he had ever dealt with. He seemed to think it was his duty to always meddle in people’s lives.
    “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
    The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, revealing Elle and Drew. She stepped out, her head down, and ran right into them.
    “Oh, pardon,” she said, then realized who she had just run into. Her eyes widened. “Are you going somewhere?”
    “Coming to see you,” he said.
    “And I was coming to see you. I thought you might want me to go over this with everyone,” she said as Drew stepped up behind her. “I have some preliminary findings. I thought it would be easier to do this up here.”
    He nodded, and they headed back into the squad room of the Task Force offices.
    “From what I understand, there was little to go on, evidence-wise,” Del said.
    “Indeed, but I did get a few things, especially one alarming one that I think we need to have researched.”
    Dammit, when she said that, he knew who she meant, and he didn’t want to deal with her . He had kept his distance for the sake of his sanity. His attraction to Emma was still causing him issues, even though he had not seen her in about a month.
    “McGregor,” he yelled out, then looked around. “Where are Floyd and Cat?”
    McGregor stepped out of his office. “They are on their way in with Grace Singh’s parents.” When he saw who was with them, he frowned. “I see the Queen of the Dead is here.”
    She sniffed in his direction, but did not comment. Del rolled his eyes. He was not a principal of a high school, but there were times his team made him think he was—especially these two. There was a part of him, the one who hated to deal with their behavior, that really wished they would just give in and sleep together. Unfortunately, it would lead to more problems for him to deal with. He was screwed either way.
    “Come on, she has some findings,” Del said.
    Graeme grumbled, but he did as Del ordered. Once a Marine—even if it was a Royal Marine—always a Marine.
    “So,” she said slipping her flash drive into the computer, “I am still waiting on the DNA results. Charity said it will take a little while. I’m pretty sure this is Grace Singh.” She sighed. “And she did not have a pleasant time when she was missing.”
    Del nodded. “Did you get anything off the body?”
    Elle shook her head. “No.”
    “Nothing?” Adam asked.
    “Let me start at the beginning of my findings. When her body was found, she had only been dead for three hours. Maybe less. She was definitely alive yesterday.”
    Damn, he knew she had said it before, but hearing it again left his blood cold. The idea that she had lived for two weeks in the hands of a sadistic bastard had his stomach roiling.
    “Then where the bloody hell was she?” Graeme asked.
    “I wish I could tell you that. What I do know is that this woman was tortured, raped repeatedly. I took swabs from beneath her fingernails. If she didn’t nick the bastard, I thought there might be some fibers. I found next to nothing, but Charity is still running those. If we can find anything, including pollen, something , we might be able to pinpoint where on the island she was kept.”
    “And he kept her somewhere for two weeks,” Adam said.
    Elle nodded. “If we go by when she first disappeared, it was fifteen days. I have a feeling he spent his last hours cleaning her off. He wanted to remove any trace of him, or where