Free Hunt Me (Love Thieves #3) by Heather Long Page A

worried the lines around her mouth. “True. But it’s one hell of an expensive car and a lot of cash. No one’s that nice just to ask you to drive around and not be up to no good. So…maybe I watched where she went, and maybe I made sure there wasn’t a body in the trunk before I hit a freeway.”
    He didn’t smile, but he couldn’t fault her logic. “So, where did she go?”
    “Bus station. Crazy chick. She has all kinds of cash and this car, and she heads to the bus station? Why would anyone go there?”
    Because a bus had less security, and no one would look for the heiress to the Hardwicke fortunes aboard one. Jarod pulled a hundred out of his wallet and handed it to her. “I want her things from the car.”
    “Hey, all yours. Do you want the car?” Concern and uncertainty flickered in her expression.
    “Nope. You can keep it.” He waited for the telltale beep indicating she’d unlocked it then grabbed the bags and jacket. “And I need her phone.”
    If Louis tracked her with any of this…. He paused and studied the car. “Tell you what. Take the car to 44 th and Lex downtown, talk to Mitch. Tell him you need an exterminator. He’ll take care of cleaning the car.”
    Georgia’s eyes rounded, and she blinked at him owlishly. “Is there something wrong with my car?”
    The proprietary note in her voice amused him. “Probably not, but it never hurts.” He handed her another hundred. “Consider it on me.”
    She traded the phone for the hundred, and he carried all of it with him. He hoped Georgia listened, because Louis had time to put a tracking device on the car since he’d arrived at the airport first—but his arrival as soon as they departed suggested he’d only made it himself. Dropping her gear on the passenger seat, Jarod started his own car and kept an eye on Georgia. He sorted through everything in the bag—files, her digital tablet, a change of clothes, and a slim pack of tampons. Nothing to go on.
    Her purse revealed even less. Her wallet was there, but she’d stripped the credit cards’ magnetic stripes. No I.D. card or passport—she either took them with her, left them on her plane, or maybe Georgia helped herself. He dismissed the last. Kit Kat had planned to go into the wind the minute she arrived in Los Angeles. But…she’d taken the time to fly to L.A.
    So why Los Angeles? The bus he understood. But had she planned to use a bus from the beginning? No—the car.
    Georgia talked on her own cell phone now, sitting in the car across from him. She hadn’t backed out of her parking space. The car had waited in the private hanger for Kit’s arrival. She’d planned to drive away from her plane, her security, and any other observers, in all likelihood, to another destination to pick up another car.
    His phone rang. He recognized the number, so he hit the answer button. “Yes?”
    “I’m at the Malibu estate. She’s not here. She hasn’t been here in some time. One of the field workers said she rarely stays at the estate even when she is in town, though.”
    “Did he say why?”
    “No, he mentioned she attended parties and social functions at the estate, but they always saw her leave as soon as the parties ended and she didn’t always return. His sister is one of the house maids, and Lady Hardwicke’s things are often packed by them and sent to the airport to be picked up by her plane.”
    “How often does she visit?”
    “One moment.” The voices on the other end of the phone muffled as though the caller covered the phone to ask a question. Jarod continued to study Kit’s vehicle while he waited. “Three to four times a year since age sixteen. Get this—her father threw a huge soiree here at the estate on her sixteenth birthday, but the guest of honor never made an appearance. The rumor here is she ran away…but a couple of weeks later, she returned, and everyone acted like nothing happened. Since then, she visits regularly but never stays.”
    “See if you can find