Free Undeniably Yours by Heather Webber Page A

“We need to go.”
    He looked more than ready. My parents in a tiff tended to have that effect on people.
    My father stood out of the way as Aiden pulled his wallet from his inner coat pocket.
    Dad put his hand on Aiden’s. “I’ve got it.”
    “Thanks, Oscar,” Aiden said.
    “What’s going on?” Mum questioned as she inched out of the booth to let me pass.
    I dragged my crutches out. “Just something with our case.”
    “Oh, top secret. I get it,” she said. “Tattoos?”
    “No,” I said. No way. No how. No needles. Never. Ever.
    Then she whispered to me, “You’ll tell me later?”
    I kissed her cheek, then my father’s. “Don’t kill each other, okay?”
    They glanced at each other, then at me. “No promises,” they said at the same time.
    I was shaking my head as I crutched away. I said my goodbyes to Raphael and Maggie, and as Aiden held the door open to me, a blast of heat nearly had me backtracking into the cool air.
    “What’s up?” Aiden asked once we were alone.
    “That was Sean. He said Channel 3 is airing breaking news coverage of Kira’s disappearance. We need to get to her house before every news van in the city does.”

6
    N eedham was a good half hour drive in decent traffic. Southwest of the city, it was an upper-class town where people took pride in their homes, their yards, and their privacy.
    Aiden hadn’t needed directions to Kira’s place—leaving me to assume he’d been there before. Once off the highway, it was like he was on autopilot. Right, left, left, straight. Finally, he turned right onto a residential tree-lined street, pulled across the street from a large picture-perfect Cape Cod-style home, complete with a white picket-fenced yard and tall trees shading the yard.
    “No one’s here yet,” he said, stating the obvious as he tossed a Tic Tac into his mouth. He offered one to me, and I waved it away.
    We crossed the street, the sound of my crutches clunking on the asphalt. I stopped to hitch my tote bag higher on my shoulder and wished I’d left it in the car, but I wanted access to my phone in case Sean called again, and my skirt had no pockets.
    “I’m sure we don’t have long.” Ten, fifteen minutes. Tops. When the news vans arrived, chaos would ensue.
    On the ride over, Aiden called his office to verify the search warrant had been secured and used his dashboard lights and siren on the way here. He’d cut the siren once we hit the suburbs, but he left the lights on. Blue flashes burst across his face—as surely as they did mine—at even intervals.
    “I don’t suppose you still have a key,” I said.
    “I never had a key, Lucy,” he answered, his voice tight as he stepped onto the sidewalk.
    “Sorry. I just…”
    “I know,” he said, “but it wasn’t like that. It was…casual.”
    I didn’t really understand “casual” dating. I was a monogamy type of girl. I didn’t share well with others. Even the thought of Sean with someone else made my skin twitch.
    A nearby sprinkler bathed the street, causing a stream of water to fill the gutters. I stepped over it, and crutched quickly to catch up with Aiden as he strode up Kira’s empty driveway.
    Her yard was neat and tidy. The lawn was well-kept, there were urns overflowing with colorful flowers flanking a brick walkway, and there were no signs at all that Kira hadn’t been home in days. Papers weren’t piled up. Mail wasn’t spilling out of the box at the curb.
    Anxiety and nerves coursed through me, and I closed my eyes, hoping calm would come over me. My scent-reading abilities were new, and I needed all my wits about me to concentrate. I wondered which house belonged to Morgan Creighton—Kira’s friend and neighbor. If they were especially close, she’d know much more about Kira’s daily activities and if she’d experienced other threatening events lately.
    Somewhere nearby, a dog barked, alerting all the neighborhood canines that something was amiss in the neighborhood. A chorus