Hero Book 3 - The Battle: Military Romance Read Online Free Page B

remained frozen as I crossed the room and switched on the computer monitors to reveal Leighton's picture.
    “How about you answer a few simple questions so Tawny doesn't have to see you soil your pants?”
    Tommy managed a head nod.
    “Obviously, you bribed a bouncer to let you photograph Leighton Machus at Diabolique the other night. What I want to know is if you noticed anything unusual?” I asked.
    His eyes narrowed and I could see that his brain had started working. “Are you a cop? Don't you need a warrant?”
    I stepped across the room, crowding right into his space. “I'm much more efficient than the police because I don’t bother with a search warrant. Collecting evidence isn't my thing. I'm not interested in that. I just want to find out about Leighton.”
    “I don't know anything about what happened to her.” He inched away, but miscalculated where his own living room door was and ended up flat against the wall.
    “But you do, Tommy. Because I never said something happened to Leighton. And these pictures are proof that you were among one of the last people to see her,” I said.
    “What do you want?” His voice shook and I was actually a bit surprised he hadn't pissed his pants yet.
    “Paris Lockhart. I'm assuming you were also photographing her. She's a big fan of paparazzi.” I didn't bother to hide my dislike.
    Tommy gave a strangled little laugh. “I photographed a lot of Paris Lockhart that night. Help yourself.” He gestured toward his computer.
    I kept an eye on him while I scrolled through his photographs, clicking on a series taken in a dark back hallway. The whole torrid seduction played out in the shutter stops of Tommy Multon's digital camera.
    Paris leading the temporary bodyguard down the dim hallway, unzipping his pants, kneeling down...Paris' dress above her waist, graphic close ups of her bare ass. Her bent against the far wall, the bodyguard's hands on her hips, and finally a big finish that must have stained her dress beyond dry cleaning.
    Way more than I ever wanted to see of either of them.
    It was clear that Paris and my substitute both had solid alibis. The time stamp for the whole ordeal was past three in the morning, and embarrassingly short. Leighton dropped out of the rest of the photographs at the same time, leaving me to wonder if she'd seen what Paris had been doing and decided to take advantage of the situation to get some freedom. That would've been a perfect time for her to have been taken.
    “You some kind of trust-fund girl junkie?” Tommy asked. “I've got video of your girl too. I took stills from it. Bodyguard on rich girl, very sexy niche.”
    I swung around and caught Tommy's throat between my forearm and the wall. “You were closer when you guessed I was a cop. Now you're going to take me through these photographs in chronological order so I can see the whole party in progression through the night.”
    The expression on Tommy's face suggested he was wishing he'd never heard of Paris or Leighton. He took a seat at his computer and fiddled with some of the settings to give us things in the right order. We scrolled through the first few hundred photographs quickly since they'd been taken before Leighton had arrived.
    “I dunno, man, people move around, come and go. It was a party, man,” Tommy said as we hit the right timeframe and I made him slow down. “A good one.”
    Something caught my eye and I grabbed the keyboard, moving back to find the picture I wanted.
    Shit.
    “If it was such a good party, why does the bartender leave early?” I asked.
    Two more passes confirmed it beyond any doubt. The only other person to disappear at the same time as Leighton was the bartender. As Tommy zoomed in, cleaned up the shot, and printed the bartender's picture for me, my phone rang.
    Devlin didn't bother with a greeting, which was fine by me. The quicker we got to it, the quicker Leighton would be home where she belonged.
    With me.
    “The only person at the club