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That lands wrong.

"Which one?" I furrow my brows. Why would a woman with the MC remind Audra of one of my men?

"The one at the warehouse," Audra narrows it down. "When you… stopped them from killing me." My mind runs through the room instantly. Positions. Faces. Blood. Movement.

"Which one?" I repeat, slower now.

Controlled again, but not enough, she studies me for a second, as if she can sense that we are about to enter a pivotal moment.

"The one with those crystal blue eyes."

Everything in me stills. That can't be.

"That woman had the same eyes," she adds with a curious note in her voice as she studies me.

There's only one man I know with eyes like that. Not just blue. Unforgettable. Icy. Like a glacier with a darker ring cutting through the iris: Alessio.

Whose mother disappeared eighteen years ago. A dark feeling settles low in my gut. Slow. Unwelcome. I mull over how much I should tell her. Trust should go both ways. That's just not how I operate. But nothing about Audra and me has followed the rules so far. So why start now?

"She could be Alessio's mom." I allow.

Audra doesn't react right away. She just watches me, quiet, patient. Waiting. She knows there's more and doesn't push. She's a smart woman. And my downfall.

"She left without a trace eighteen years ago," I finally fill her in.

Her brows draw together. "She went missing?"

I shake my head. "Not exactly. Alessio's father claims she walked out on both of them. Never came back. Never reached out." I rub the back of my neck and tighten my jaw. I shouldn't say the next part. I do anyway. "Alessio never bought it."

Her eyes flicker. "No?"

"His father isn't the type to let people leave."

I let that sit between us. Heavy.

"Alessio's been looking for her ever since."

Audra exhales slowly, processing. I give her the time. Don't fill the silence.

"But he didn't kill her," she says. "If I saw her six years ago…"

I nod once. "Which makes what you saw… important."

More than important. Potentially explosive. I study her for a beat. "I'll get a picture," I promise. "You tell me if it's her."

Her expression shifts as it sinks in what this could mean. For Alessio.

"What happened that night?" I glance past her. Far below, an ambulance cuts through traffic, sirens wailing as it tears down the Strip. Tourists, most likely. Overdoses. Alcohol poisoning. Bad decisions catching up too late.

Numbers. Always numbers. But tonight… I find myself watching it a second longer than I should. Not thinking about statistics. Thinking about how easy it is for someone to disappear in this city. And how sometimes… they don't stay gone.

"She looked different than the other girls and women I saw before." Audra's eyes follow the ambulance too, but I don't think she's seeing it. She seems to have gone back to that day. "It wasn't just the age difference that stood out to me." From the little I know about Razor's MC, women over thirty are hardly ever seen there; they like their girls younger. Audra must have known that, too.

"She carried herself with an aura of importance, and the men, even Razor, deferred to her." Her gaze turns to me, and an involuntary shudder moves through her, enough for me to want and pull her into my arms. "What stood with me were her eyes, those incredible, cold eyes. I was reminded of them two days later, in the desert. The Mexican looked at me the same way. Like I was something to be evaluated. Something to be priced. Something to be… bought."

Another shiver runs through her, and this time, I can't resist and pull her closer. She leans in. I'm not sure she realizes what we're doing, but a small sigh escapes her. The sigh goes straight to my cock.

Together we stand like that for what seems like minutes, but isn't nearly long enough, then my traitorous dick twitches and Audra pushes away, a blush creeping up on her cheeks, coloring them an enticing shade of pink. "I'm sorry, I…"