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  She burst into tears without warning. Angel immediately enveloped her in a hug, while trying to console her. “Hey, now, don’t let him win. You are stronger than he is. It’s going to be okay.”

  Aiden looked around the trashed apartment. “Evangelina, it really isn’t safe to stay here tonight. You know that, right?”

  Before she could pick her head up from Angel’s shoulder, her friend answered. “She’s coming home with me.”

  Angel turned her attention back to her friend. “Why don’t you go pack a bag for the night and grab your laptop? We can blow this place, so you still have time to write your article.”

  Evangelina nodded in agreement. “Thank goodness my camera and computer were locked up in the trunk of my car. I’d be totally lost if those got messed up.” She turned and headed toward her bedroom to gather a few things. She was tired, and at the moment, the mess in her apartment was just too much to process. She’d be back tomorrow, and would figure out what she was going to do then.

  Evangelina walked back in the living room a few minutes later, looking totally dejected. She sat her overnight bag down at the door.

  Fadri immediately picked up on their girl being upset. 'You two need to treat her like spun glass right now. She is upset over something she found in her bedroom.'

  Adrian, the more compassionate of the two, was quick to respond to her, “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

  “Would you be okay if this had happened to you?” she quickly countered.

  Adrian shook his head, but didn’t get a chance to reply before Angel spoke up, “Evangelina, did you come across anything in the bedroom?”

  Both men caught Evangelina’s murmured, “I wish I hadn’t.”

  'Hmm, brother, we might have a problem here. Watch her body language. I don’t think we are being told the complete truth,' Aiden communicated silently.

  'Yes, whatever it is, it has something to do with her bedroom. We need to get back there and find out what is going on,' Adrian replied.

  As it was, Angel had been standing right next to Evangelina and had heard her comment. “So you did find something.” But Evangelina was already shaking her head in denial before Angel had even finished her sentence.

  Evangelina turned red with embarrassment when she glanced up and saw both men watching her intently. Holding out her hand, she quickly denied, “It’s nothing, guys. Really. Absolutely nothing.”

  “Babe, you might want to heed this warning. The only thing lying to us will do is get you bent over my knee and your ass paddled,” Aiden stated as he folded his arms over his massive chest. “Now spill,” he growled.

  She closed her eyes for a brief moment, tears streaming down her face. “Look, it’s personal, it’s disgusting, and I really don’t want anyone else seeing it.”

  “Tough,” Aiden growled and then looked at his brother. “Stay with them, I’ll be right back.”

  Angel looked over at her best friend, who had her face in her hands while huge, wracking sobs were torn from her body. Adrian walked over and gently lowered Evangelina to the floor, engulfing her in his arms the minute she was down.

  “I’ll be right back,” Angel whispered. “I’m just going to go make sure everything is okay.”

  Adrian could have told her that no, everything was NOT okay. His brother kept an open line of communication with him since leaving the room, so Adrian knew exactly what their mate had been forced to deal with by herself.

  'Brother, if you think the rest of the house is trashed, you haven’t seen anything yet. It looks like everything in the closet has been ripped to shreds, and the contents of the dressers were emptied all over the floor. Oh gross, the sick bastard ejaculated all over her sheets and a couple of pieces of her lingerie. He also spray painted ‘whore’ on the bathroom mirror. No wonder she didn’t want anyone back here.'

  A loud crash came from the bedroom.

  'Oh crap, Angel just got the full view of everything.'

  'If I were you, I would ask Angel if something is missing. Our woman is too upset to answer any questions right now,” he sighed. “I’ve got a broken woman in my arms,' Adrian replied to his brother.

  Aiden and Angel worked together to try to pick up what they could of the mess in Evangelina’s bedroom. After a few minutes, Angel stopped and shook her head. “I can’t tell if there is something missing, or not. I mean, I can’t find anything in this mess!”

  “Yes, I agree. With as much of a mess that is in here, it’s hard to see what anything is, let alone decipher if something is missing or not.

  He took one final look at the room as they walked out the door. “Thank you for your help, by the way.”

  He was anxious to get to the living room with his mate and brother. He had listened to every sob, every sniffle she made since he had walked in her bedroom. Even though Fadri was with his brother to help comfort their mate, Aiden’s presence was needed as well. He walked into the living room to find his brother sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, Evangelina curled up beside him. It looked like she had stopped crying, for which he was eternally grateful, and was now talking quietly with Adrian.

  “Doll, Angel and I tried to put away what we could, but that is a damn mess back there. Please don’t be embarrassed. In this line of work, we have seen it all. And this was not your doing. You must remember that. You did nothing wrong.”

  Angel knelt down beside her friend. “Evangelina, we couldn’t find anything missing. Are you aware of something in particular that was taken?”

  Evangelina had her head pillowed on Adrian’s large chest. She bit her bottom lip as she glanced over at her friend. “Just some undergarments.” No way was she admitting in front of these guys that BOB was missing. And wasn’t that just beyond sick? Her ex-boyfriend breaks into her apartment, tears everything to shreds, ejaculates all over her bed and lingerie, and then steals her vibrator. WTF? Who does something like that?

  'She still isn’t telling the entire truth,' Aiden stated as he watched her body language. Their mate couldn’t lie worth a damn.

  'I know, but let’s not push the issue right now. She’s drained, and I surely do not want to be the cause of another crying fit.'

  'You are right. The lock has already been compromised, so it should not take much to come back here after they are gone,' Aiden stated, as he ran his hand up and down her arm, comforting her.

  Three hours later, the men let themselves back into their mate’s apartment. They waited until the girls had arrived safely at Angel’s house, and then waited until all of the neighbors’ lights were out. Silently, they jimmied the lock and opened the door. Keeping lights off, they used their dragon vision to maneuver around and search the place, looking for clues of any kind.

  “He must have done this while we were at the bar with the girls,” Aiden growled. “The question is, why?”

  “You think he saw the four of us talking and was jealous?” Adrian questioned.

  “Yeah, my gut is telling me that is exactly what happened.”

  In talking with the girls earlier, it was easy to see Evangelina was scared of her ex. She had informed them before leaving, “One thing about Gerald you need to know, if he doesn’t get his own way, he gets very ugly. I firmly believe he has some mental issues, but I have also seen him turn malicious and evil.” They had watched her visibly shudder after telling them.

  Fadri, who had been listening in on their mate’s conversation at the time, had perked up immediately. 'Oh, tell him to bring it on. I’ll incinerate his ass in 3.5 seconds. Or maybe he’d like to be frozen with the breath of liquid nitrogen. Either way is fine by me. Come on, boys, let me at this scumbag. I saw what he did to our mate’s personal belongings.' He had been pushing them to join so he could mete out his punishment on Gerald. It had taken them quite some time to get Fadri to settle down.

  Now, three hours later, they sifted through every inch of Evangelina’s apartment. When they reached her bedroom, Adrian let out a low whistle. “Oh, man. I know
you and Angel said it was bad back here, but this is horrendous. No wonder she didn’t want anyone seeing this.”

  “Yes, well she is still hiding something from us, and call me the curious cat, but I am determined to figure it out,” Aiden stated.

  Fadri decided to pick his heads up and chime in. 'Cat??? They are disgusting little fur balls that lay around and get fat and lazy all day. Why would anyone want to be a cat?'

  Aiden huffed out in annoyance. 'It was a figure of speech, Fadri. But to please you, we’ll change it to curious dragon, okay?'

  They went through and picked up a bit more, throwing out the scraps of what used to be their mate’s clothes. It was under the nightstand drawer that was lying upside down on the floor that Aiden found his first clue.

  “Hey, look at this.” He held up a narrow box about 10 inches long. “States it is a personal massager. Yeah, I bet I know what was in here.” He stopped and opened the box, sniffing the inside. “Yep, our girl had one of those sex toys.”

  Adrian rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Aiden, they are just called personal massagers for advertising purposes. Everyone knows what they are. And just about every woman who is sexually active has one nowadays, I daresay.”

  “Really? You mean to tell me human men cannot or will not take care of their women’s sexual needs? What the hell is wrong with these guys?”

  Adrian looked upward to the ceiling and counted to a hundred before replying to his brother. They might be twins and all that, but sometimes they were polar opposites in personality.

  “Aiden, there are a lot of variables to take into consideration. Such as humans can and do catch diseases if they don’t use protection during sex. So, some women might find a vibrator a safe way of having sex. Surely you are not going to tell me you’ve never jacked off before with your own hand?”

  “Of course I have. We all have. What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Heaven help me!” Adrian murmured before continuing, “Okay, Aiden, look at our girl. She has no boyfriend, or she didn’t until we came along. She openly stated she broke up with Gerald about eight months ago. Females have some of the same sexual urges we do and need release. So, there is another reason why a woman would own a vibrator.”

  “Oh, yeah, I hadn’t thought about it like that. I guess it does make sense.”

  “Something else you haven’t taken into consideration. Even married couples have these things nowadays. They use them in foreplay, to help stimulate, etc. Sex toys, at least in this country, are a hot commodity.”

  “You think Evangelina is willing to do some playing in the bedroom?” Aiden asked hopefully.

  Adrian smiled at his twin. “Yeah, I do. Let’s face it. Any woman who agrees to take on both of us and have two mates has got to be open to a few possibilities when it comes to the bedroom.”

  Aiden rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “So, how long do you think we are going to have to wait until she lets us claim her?”

  Adrian rolled his eyes upward again. It was going to be a long night.

  Chapter Three

  The next morning, Evangelina rolled over and groaned when she hit the floor. Damn, that smarted, she thought as she jolted awake, remembering all too late that she had been sleeping on Angel’s rather narrow couch.

  Her friend appeared above her, holding out a cup of coffee. “Hey, sleepyhead. Time to get up if you want me to drop you off before I go in to work.” Angel waited until Evangelina had taken the coffee to check her watch and then continued, “I need to leave here in twenty minutes.”

  “Okay, I’ll be ready to go in fifteen,” she groused. She was anything but a morning person, but knew she couldn’t take it out on her friend who had generously not only given her a place to crash last night but also stayed up and helped her write the newspaper article that was due. She had just made it in under the deadline by five minutes.

  Evangelina splashed water on her face to help her wake up, and then walked back out into the living room to gather her stuff and straighten up the couch. Fifteen minutes later both girls walked out the door and were soon heading back to Evangelina’s apartment to pick up her car.

  The ringing of Adrian’s phone brought him out of sleep. He hadn’t bothered with an alarm when he and his brother finally called it quits around four o’clock that morning. They had sifted through their mate’s apartment, but came up empty handed as to any rational explanations.

  He reached over and snatched the phone up, and growled, “Yeah?”

  The hysterical young woman on the other end was not what he was expecting. “Adrian, or Aiden, whoever this is, please help me! Oh my God, the car fucking blew up with her right next to it! Oh God, I don’t think she is going to make it. Oh God, no, no, hang on, oh where is that ambulance?” He immediately recognized the voice of Angel, but was unable to get a word in otherwise. Still, as soon as the first few words were out of her mouth, he had opened a communication line to his brother and was relaying everything to him as he threw on some clothing.

  He met Aiden at the front door just a quick moment later. His brother glanced at him and the phone still held up to his ear and firmly stated, “I’m driving, let’s go!”

  Even though Aiden broke every speed limit known to mankind, the fact they were across town in rush hour traffic made it difficult. They made the decision about halfway there just to meet Angel at the hospital. They were right inside the emergency doors when the ambulance unloaded the gurney and wheeled their mate past them. Adrian caught a distraught Angel in his arms.

  “Oh thank goodness you are here,” she sobbed into his shoulder. She was shaking so badly that Adrian just held onto her tightly for a moment. “It was so bad,” she finally breathed out as she glanced up at his face.

  A police officer walked up to Angel and Adrian. “Miss? Are you the one who was at the scene of the accident where the car exploded?”

  Angel nodded her head, still being comforted by Adrian. The officer looked at him for help. “Can we go somewhere and sit down? I need to get some information as to what happened today. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can get to the bottom of things.”

  All four walked over to a corner of the waiting room. The brothers were glad it was empty and quiet, at least for the moment.

  “Okay, first, I need your name and your relationship to the injured woman,” the officer stated as he took out a small notebook to jot notes down on.

  “Angel Thomas. I am a close friend of Evangelina Blackmon. She is the woman who was injured during the explosion.”

  “Okay, Ms. Thomas, can you tell me what happened?” the officer calmly continued.

  Angel nodded as she blew her nose with a tissue that had been handed to her by the officer. “Yes, if you check your reports, her apartment was broken into yesterday. She filed the report last night around eight o’clock. Her apartment was vandalized, and she didn’t feel safe staying there. She came home with me about nine-thirty and spent the night. I dropped her off this morning on my way to work. She got out of my car and walked toward hers. About halfway there I think she hit the remote ignition, because the car just suddenly exploded. She was thrown backward at least eight feet due to the explosion.” She was sobbing hysterically by the time she was finished, and Adrian wrapped his arms around her once again, trying to offer what comfort he could.

  “Any idea who might want to harm her?” the officer continued.

  Angel’s head snapped up, her tears drying up immediately and replaced with a scowl on her face. “Yes, again, go back to your records. She filed a restraining order months ago against an ex-boyfriend. We know who broke into her apartment yesterday, just like we know who blew up her car this morning! Go talk to Gerald Sutton. Because I can guarantee he did this. She has no enemies. She has filed numerous complaints against him prior to the restraining order, and these guys will tell you that he has been stalking her over the past week.” She jabbed her thumb toward Adrian and Aiden.

  The police officer
turned his attention to the brothers. “And who are you two?”

  Aiden spoke up first, answering for both of them. “I am Aiden Barrymire and this is my brother, Adrian Barrymire. We are private investigators and own Fadri Security. The local newspaper called us a little over a week ago to check on Mr. Sutton due to him phoning in crank calls and ranting about aliens and things of that nature. They wanted to try to get him help if they could, and hired us to locate and observe him in order to see if he truly needed psychological help or was just being vindictive. We noticed he has been stalking Ms. Blackmon over the past week, and met up with her last night to warn her. We believe he broke into her apartment during that meeting. The girls called us after they discovered the breakin and called the police. The place is trashed.”

  The officer didn’t say anything for a moment as he was furiously jotting down notes. When he finished, he looked up from his notepad. “Okay, based on everything you three have told me, we have enough to at least bring Mr. Sutton in for questioning. I am going to need contact numbers for all three of you, in case we have any further questions.”

  No sooner had the officer walked away than a man in scrubs came in through the double doors that Evangelina had been wheeled through just a short time ago.

  “Family of car bomb victim?” he inquired, walking over to them. They were still the only ones in the waiting room, so it was a safe assumption that they were waiting to hear news about Evangelina.

  Angel stepped away from Adrian and addressed the doctor. Knowing they would never tell her the full details of her friend unless she fibbed, she let the lie flow off her tongue smoothly. “Hi, her name is Evangelina Blackmon. I am her sister, Angel Thomas.”

  The doctor stopped and wrote his patient’s name on the chart he was carrying and then gestured for all of them to sit down. “I don’t have a lot to tell you at this time. When she was thrown backward, she landed on the back of her head, which has caused some swelling around the brain. Only time will tell if there is any permanent damage. On the flip side, being thrown backwards just may have saved her life. If she hadn’t been, she probably would have suffered life-threatening burns. As it is, she only has a few on the front half of her body where debris landed. We are ordering a CT scan of the brain, but other than that, we are in a wait and see situation.”