THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

model?”
    “No. Latest technology. Expensive stuff from the private sector, which does not make this better. What if she is a criminal?”
    “Then I’ll deal with it,” Zane stated emphatically.
    “You may be getting in over your head on this one, bud,” Ben warned.
    “It is what it is.” 
    “Oh, man, this does not sound good, but you aren’t listening so I’ll shut up now. Drop off everything you’ve got. I’ll run it through as soon as I get back to the lab, but I’m telling you I won’t sugarcoat it.”
    “Thanks, Ben.”
    “And another thing. If the people who tagged her come after her, you damn well better call me, hotshot. You’re not bullet proof. I’ll have your back.”
    Zane wouldn’t even answer that. No way would he bring Ben anywhere near this. “Give my love to Kerry.”
    Zane thumbed the button to end the call, but heard Ben mutter something profane that questioned the position of Zane’s head relative to his ass.
    Two more turns until he reached his apartment.
    Streetlights flickered on along the highway in the dusty, early-evening glow as the sun was swallowed by the western tree line. Three hours had passed since Angel had vanished.
    Sick disappointment settled in his chest.
    She hadn’t been at the airport or the boat. He couldn’t think of anywhere else she might go.
    With Ben and his wife in the delivery room, Zane wouldn’t get a rundown on the fingerprints for at least another day or two.
    By the time he found out who she was it could very well be a moot point.
    Angel would be long gone, maybe permanently.
    His stomach churned at the idea that someone was trying to kill her. He forced his thoughts away from the idea that they might succeed.
    She’d been a frustrating puzzle from the minute he’d met her – a multi-layered, three-dimensional puzzle with dangerous, razor-sharp pieces missing.
    Where had she been kept against her will, and why?
    All he knew was she had the talent of an elite athlete and had lost a scholarship for some unknown reason. Everything came back to that one word – unknown.
    He wanted to shake some sense into her, make her understand how much she needed his help. The thugs he’d met in Jacksonville had been dressed in two-thousand-dollar tailored suits.
    Against an organized and financially robust lethal group, how did she expect to protect herself, much less him, too?
    He couldn’t recall when a woman had put him first in her life. Certainly not Sylvia, the dazzling jewel he’d fallen for in Texas. She’d been anything but what she’d presented. Truly a woman who planned for her future by covering all bases, Sylvia had still been engaged while dating him.
    Just when Sylvia had convinced Zane she loved him, he’d discovered she had a clueless fiancé who couldn’t wait to marry the lying bitch.
    Good thing Ben had still lived in Houston then. Observing Sylvia with objective eyes had given Ben cause to run a very revealing background check.
    All Sylvia’d really sought was the material wealth Zane’s family name and eventual inheritance would offer. Basically a businesswoman, Sylvia had been shopping her engagement deal to see if she could improve the return on her investment. Since then, Zane had given few women more than casual interest. Others had proved to be just as materialistically driven.
    Except for Angel.
    For someone who desperately needed assistance just to stay alive, she’d refused his every offer until she’d been forced to take his help.
    Trusting few people in his life, he understood Angel’s reluctance to share her private problems, but she wouldn’t survive on her own for long. Not without a lot of luck and a chunk of money. Neither of which appeared readily available to her. What would it take to convince her she could depend on him?
    He might never find out.
    She was gone, maybe forever. Out of sight, out of mind?
    Whoever came up with that saying had never met Angel. Auburn hair and mile-long legs remained emblazoned as a header to all his thoughts.
    As he made the last corner into his apartment complex, images of Angel clicked past his mind’s eye in slow motion. Wide-eyed and terrified in his airplane, then sleeping curled up on his patio.
    Dancing her fingers through the wind as she’d ridden beside him in the truck. Shampooed and showered, draped in a single towel next to his laundry. Zane smiled, remembering the look on her face when he’d found her.
    Then there was the one vision he’d never forget