Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
“Okay, but just so you know, in the morning, we can’t have headboard-banging sex. Rhea next door heard us this morning, and she works late at a biker bar.”
“Got it.”
“And also, I have a very small account that’s going to be my down payment in about fifty years when I buy a house. In other words, eventually, I want to own too.”
I felt his body relax against mine on his, “Right.”
“Okay, ’night, honey.”
His goodnight was to touch his mouth to mine again.
I’d take it.
And I did.
Carrying it right to dreamland.
TWENTY-ONE
PHONE TREE
The bed moved when Cap got out of it.
Since he took my pillow with him—namely, his chest—I grabbed his and wrapped my arms around it to take his place until he got back.
I suspected he was going to the bathroom.
I was back to sleep when my hip was gently shaken, waking me again.
I rolled and saw Cap sitting beside me in bed.
It was dark, but since he slept either naked or in his underwear, and I figured I could spy his bare chest after having fallen while spelunking, and my flashlight battery gave out, and he was in my vicinity, I could see right then his shadow looked to be fully-clothed.
Therefore, my drowsiness partially cleared in surprise.
“Got a callout,” he explained his state of attire. “Shouldn’t be long. Just wanted you to know. You can go back to sleep.”
I pushed up to sitting, resting back on a hand. “Callout?”
“Mace and Knox are into something, and they need an extra man.”
I turned to look at my Alexa.
It was after one in the morning.
I went back to him.
“At this hour?” I asked.
“Babe, this is my job, and they’re holding on me, so I have to go. I’m down to talk with you about it, but it can’t be now.”
“Okay,” I said quickly.
He moved in to brush his lips against mine. “Be back, soon as I can.”
“Okay,” I repeated.
He got up, and I watched his shadow move to the door and disappear.
I laid back in bed, still mostly dozy from sleep, but also thinking that Cap had a job that could call him out after one in the morning.
Sure, philanderers philandered at times like these (and that was what I thought most private investigation was, catching cheaters cheating).
But that wouldn’t need an extra man.
I turned my head toward the door where I saw Cap’s shadow vanish, and I thought about the gun in the waistband in the back of his pants that first night when he broke in. I thought about how he’d been hired to find Elsie Fay.
And I thought that with all that had been going on, I hadn’t had enough time to think about Cap’s job.
Honestly?
Mace, Lee, Vance, Eric, Liam and Cap all looked like they could liberate a small country with only the members of that team.
And men like that didn’t make enough bank to commission a bronze phoenix for their office if they were only catching cheaters cheat (and the like).
So, uh…yeah.
We needed a convo.
I wasn’t going to pitch a fit. He’d been super cool with me, and what I was doing wasn’t even my job.
But I had to know.
My eyes fell on my tapestry-covered wall. What was behind it, I’d looked at so much, it was burned in my brain.
So right then, without me calling it up, it hit my brain.
And then something else hit me.
All of a sudden, I sat up in bed.
I turned on the light, winced against the bright, but still threw my legs over the side and went to the wall.
I pulled the tapestry aside and stared at it.
“I’m such a dufus,” I whispered, rushing to my phone.
I grabbed it off the charger and made the call as I hurried to my closet.
It took several rings, but Luna finally answered.
“Wha?” she asked, sounding half-asleep.
“Luna,” I said, squeezing the phone between ear and shoulder while shoving my foot into the leg of a pair of jeans. “Who sees all and is in the middle of everything?”
Her “What?” was more alert this time.
“Who sees all and is just blocks away from The Slide and The Pink Slip and right in the middle of where the girls work?”
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Mr. Shithead.”
Her name for him was better than mine so I immediately adopted it.
I struggled into my bra as I said, “We’ve half-assed this. Conducting an investigation, you follow the outline Cap gave me. I’ve been stuck on the beginning and end, mostly the end. He and I even had a conversation about it this morning and it didn’t penetrate. But we need to go back to the beginning. We need to talk to people who might know the victims. And he’s in the position to know, or at least have seen all the victims. Which means we need to go talk to him.”
“He’s not going to tell us anything.”