Commanded (3 page)

“You…” Shocked by his bold statement, she couldn’t even finish her sentence. Stranger
yet, his determination didn’t scare her.

The side of his mouth slid up in a sexy arch. “Want you?” He stepped on the gas pedal,
propelling them forward. “Yes, I do.”

“Mom, Dad, this is Chloe Nash.” Sawyer turned to Chloe, who was standing behind him
in the hospital room. “Chloe, these are my parents, Beth and Roger Quinn.”

Chloe offered her hand to his father. “I’m sorry to meet under these circumstances,
Mr. Quinn.”

His father shook her hand, arching a curious brow at Sawyer.

Sawyer smiled in return, as his parents were well aware that he hadn’t had a girlfriend
for more years than he wanted to count. He explained, “Chloe is a private investigator
who works for a good friend of mine, Porter Marshall. She’s offered to help us locate
Travis.”

“Oh, wonderful. Please call me Roger.” His father shook Chloe’s hand more firmly now,
enclosing her hand in both of his. “We appreciate any help we can get.” His concerned
eyes swept toward Sawyer’s mother, who sat in the chair next to her sleeping daughter.
“I’m worried for Ashlyn, with Travis still out there.” The dark circles beneath his
eyes confirmed his concern. It was clear that neither of Sawyer’s parents had slept
much since Ashlyn’s attack, and Sawyer figured it’d stay that way until they caught
Travis.

“Ash wakes up every couple of hours,” said his mother. “But she’s pretty out of it
when she does.” She ran her fingers through her curly hair. “Do the police have any
leads?”

“I’m afraid not,” Sawyer answered, noticing how his mom’s body sagged against the
bed with disappointment. “Have either of you eaten anything today?”

His father shook his head. “We haven’t wanted to leave her.”

“Why don’t you go to the cafeteria?” Chloe interjected, her voice soft. “We can stay
with Ashlyn while you get something to eat. The coffee is terrible, but it’s better
than nothing.”

Sawyer’s heart warmed as he saw the sincere compassion in Chloe’s eyes. Christ, she
was a beautiful woman. Her long chocolate-brown hair flowed over her shoulders, and
her striking blue eyes reminded him of the ocean in Mexico. So clear. So pure. So
honest. Her body, lush and full of curves, was perfect for his hands.

What he found more beautiful was her sweet concern for his parents and sister. When
he first met her, his attraction had been a sexual one. For a month now she’d haunted
him. How sweet would she taste? How pink would her cheeks become with pleasure? How
would she sound when she moaned in ecstasy? But he hadn’t counted on the way his heart
tripped around her.

Smart. Strong. Caring. Beautiful.
She had that something the others didn’t. Which interested him, and soon became something
he couldn’t ignore.

Chloe was, in fact, unlike any other woman he’d met. Too pure. Too innocent. Not in
the BDSM lifestyle. Somehow knowing that made her all the more special. Deep down
in his gut, he knew he hadn’t asked her to help him find Travis only because it would
comfort Ashlyn. He had asked her also because of Sawyer’s curiosity over her. He wanted
to discover why this little woman had captivated his mind for a damn month.

Snapping back into the moment, he turned his attention to his father. “Chloe’s right—you
could use some food.” He placed a hand on his father’s shoulder. “We’ll stay here
until you come back.”

His father nodded at Sawyer before taking his wife’s hand and helping her up from
the chair. “Come on, Beth. A little break will give us strength. We have to take care
of ourselves so we can take care of Ashlyn.”

“You’re right,” she agreed, if a bit reluctantly. It came as no surprise to Sawyer
that his mom went straight to Chloe and wrapped her in a tight hug. “I don’t know
you, dear. But if you’re helping us, that makes you a friend. I cannot thank you enough.”

A slight smile curved Chloe’s lips as she returned the hug. “No thanks required. Anyone
who hurts a woman needs to be put behind bars.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” said his mother. She released Chloe, took her husband’s
hand again, and added to Sawyer, “We won’t be long.”

Sawyer waited until his parents left the room before arching a brow at Chloe. “You
see why finding Travis is so important?”

Chloe nodded. “They look beside themselves.” She approached the bed where his baby
sister lay. A flurry of emotions passed over her face. “How old is Ashlyn?”

“Twenty-two.”

A soft curse issued from her mouth. “She’s so young to have to deal with something
like this. You will get her counseling once she’s healed, right?”

“I hadn’t thought about it.” Sawyer went around to the other side of the bed, taking
the seat where his mother had been. “But it’s a good idea. I’ll look into it once
Travis is behind bars.”

“Good.” Chloe’s chin lifted. “She’ll need it.”

Sawyer hesitated, listening to his instincts. “Do you have experience with abuse?”

“Not personally.” Her strong glance swept to Sawyer. “But in high school one of my
friends got beaten up pretty bad by her boyfriend. Her parents tried to hush up the
whole thing—they were embarrassed, I guess.”

Another thing he liked about Chloe was the strength and confidence she emanated when
she spoke. “What happened to the girl?”

“She killed herself.”

Sawyer looked at Ashlyn, resolving that such a thing would
not
happen to his sister. He’d make sure no one would ever blame the victim. “I would
never allow Ash to go down such a dark path.”

“That’s good.” Chloe smiled softly at him. “She’s lucky to have you.”

Something in her smile stole his damn breath. He couldn’t pinpoint why Chloe had gotten
to him on such an intense sexual level. Her mere presence—even her scent—was a trigger
for him. On a very deep level, he seemed attuned to her.

Chloe’s voice dragged him from his thoughts. “Were Ashlyn and Travis having problems?”

“She never said anything to me.” He folded his arms, leaning back into the chair.
“But I’m also her big brother. We’re tight and we talk often, but she doesn’t share
things about her love life with me.” He hesitated, shaking his head in frustration.
“I’ve never been a big fan of Travis. He’s an MMA fighter, and more than once I’ve
seen him show anger, but it’s never been directed at her.”

“So something changed?” Chloe offered.

Sawyer nodded. “He clearly snapped.” He swept his hand over Ashlyn’s beaten face.
“Anyone who does this to someone is in a fit of rage they can’t control.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

With that horrific thought hanging in the air, silence settled over them. Sawyer could
sense Chloe’s mind working, trying to figure out next steps. He glanced at his sister,
who was still asleep. There was nothing he could do for her now. And the chance to
learn more about Chloe wasn’t something he would pass up. “So, tell me a bit about
you. Were you born in Vegas?”

“Yep, but I didn’t grow up here.” Chloe leaned her hip against the hospital bed, amusement
in her eyes. “My parents are what you’d call free spirits.”

Interested by that, he stretched out his legs and laced his fingers behind his head.
He noticed her thorough once-over of him, and he liked it. “Free spirits?”

“Just not the norm.” Her soft laugh warmed the room. “I’m an only child and we traveled
a lot, so they home-schooled me. They wanted me to explore the world, they told me.”
Her eyes twinkled. “They always said that experiencing the world was better than having
my nose stuck in a book.”

Sawyer smiled. “Neat way to grow up.”

“It really was, but once I became a teenager I asked to stay in Vegas to go to high
school.” She paused, glancing over at Ashlyn, then focused on Sawyer again. “My parents
respected my wishes and settled down for a handful of years. Now they’re sailing across
the Mediterranean Sea with a group of their friends.”

“Do they work?”

She nodded. “Both my parents have tech jobs, so they can work from anywhere. They
aren’t the type to stick around home. And they only work so that they can play—money
has never been something they cared about.”

Now Chloe’s reaction to his mother’s hug made sense. Perhaps she missed the warmth
and love of her family. Thinking it over, he suspected Chloe wouldn’t dwell on how
much she missed them. She seemed far more put together than he had been at twenty-five,
and he found that particular trait sexy.

“Sawyer…”

Ashlyn’s murmur jolted him out of his seat. One of her eyes fluttered open, and the
whites of her eye were red. His heart banged in his chest as he reached for his sister’s
hand. “Yes, Ash, I’m here.”

“Trav…”

“Travis is responsible. Yes, I know.” He fought off emotion as a single tear escaped
her open eye. In what kind of fucked-up world could something like this have happened
to his sweet, vivacious baby sister? “Shhh…stay quiet. Just rest. He’s going to pay
for this, don’t doubt that.”

Ashlyn turned her head against the pillow, taking in Chloe next to her. “Who…?”

“I’m Sawyer’s friend, Chloe.” Determination filled her eyes. “I’m the one who’s going
to find the asshole who did this to you.”

An hour later, and still feeling sadness for Ashlyn, Chloe stood in the middle of
four large condominium complexes that created a mini-community with manicured lawns.
“Is this Travis’s condo?” she asked Sawyer as she followed him up the cement stairs.

“No, it’s Ash’s place.” Sawyer reached the top of the stairs, then headed toward apartment
103. “My parents helped her purchase the condo when she finished college.”

“Nice parents,” Chloe said with a smile.

Sawyer opened the screen door and used a key on his keychain to unlock the door. “Ash
is a good kid. She works hard and deserves a break now and again.”

Chloe’s heart squeezed against the hint of sorrow in his voice. Having heard the way
Sawyer spoke to his sister in the hospital before she fell asleep again, it had become
clear to Chloe that they had a close relationship. That looked cute on such a tough
guy.

“Expect a mess in here.” Sawyer opened the door and stepped inside. “A fellow cop
and friend of ours, Kyler”—a name Chloe had heard before, from Porter—“told me that
investigators have been here to gather as much evidence as they could.”

Chloe crossed the threshold and frowned, taking a quick look around.
Mess
might’ve been an understatement. Everything looked turned upside down. “You’d think
cops would clean up after themselves,” she muttered.

Sawyer snorted, shutting the door behind her. “They don’t get paid to put things back.”
He moved toward the papers on the kitchen floor, but when Chloe went to help him,
he shook his head at her. “I can clean up before Ash comes home. I’ll take the kitchen
and see if anything stands out. You take the living room.”

“Okay.”

Chloe had just turned to go into the living room when she heard Sawyer growl, “Fucking
hell.”

She ran into the small kitchen, and when she saw what was there, she didn’t need him
to explain. Blood drenched the laminate floor, the countertops, and even the refrigerator
door. “Sawyer?”

He stood with his back to her, stiff.

“I’m fine,” he said after a few tense seconds, and turned to look at Chloe. A muscle
in his jaw twitched, a telling sign that he wasn’t fine at all. “Let’s get what we
can and find him. A cleaning crew can handle this once the cops have given the okay.”

Chloe stood there in silence, desperate to reach out and comfort him. But she also
knew that the best way to help Sawyer was to catch Travis. Confident she could do
exactly that, she turned and headed back into the living room.

The furnishings in Ashlyn’s small condo were typical of a twenty-two-year-old. The
furniture didn’t match. A brown microfiber couch sat against the wall, an old television
rested upon an antique stand, and a bookshelf holding movies rested along the other
wall.

Chloe looked under the couch cushions, then squeezed them back into place. There were
no papers on the glass coffee table, but there was a laptop. She wondered why the
police hadn’t taken it, but thought maybe the forensic team had checked it out on-site
and decided that it didn’t hold any important information.

She grabbed the laptop, opened it up, and dropped down onto the couch, pleased to
find it was not password protected. Doing her best to find something, she went through
Ashlyn’s emails; nothing of interest stood out there.

“I’m not seeing anything of Travis’s in the kitchen,” Sawyer said as he entered the
living room. “I checked out her bedroom. It doesn’t look like Travis lived here at
all.”

Chloe paused, her finger over the trackpad. “Did he live with her at some point?”

Sawyer shrugged. “That I don’t know. Ash never said they’d moved in together. Besides,
she’s got a good head on her shoulders—I can’t see her jumping into something so heavy
like that. She’d only been seeing Travis for three months.”

That statement reinforced Chloe’s worries about herself when it came to Sawyer. She,
too, had a great head on her shoulders, and she prided herself on that. She didn’t
want to be seen as stupid for jumping into bed with Sawyer after just breaking up
with Josh, no matter that her body wanted to do exactly that.

Chloe turned her attention back to the computer and opened up the Internet browser.
She went through the Internet history for each day, but nothing stood out as a red
flag. By all appearances, Ashlyn was a normal twenty-two-year-old.

How in the hell did she get mixed up with Travis?

Curious, she clicked the My Pictures folder. The first picture showed a guy with his
arm wrapped around Ashlyn. “I’m guessing this is Travis?” She spun the laptop screen
to Sawyer.

He glared. “Yeah, that’s him.”

Chloe turned the laptop back, beginning to understand Travis’s appeal. Blond, built
like a brick house, with baby blue eyes, Travis was drop-dead gorgeous. His arm around
Ashlyn seemed to be protective and loving. How could that have changed? Chloe wondered.
All too often, people didn’t make sense.

“You’re cute when you get focused.”