Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
I slowly trailed my fingers down her spine, causing her to shiver.
“You liked that, honey?” I growled, loving the way her cheeks flushed with pleasure.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“You want to do that more?” I asked. “Explore?”
I felt her jaw clench, and then she nodded once more.
My grin said it all, but it quickly faded when I heard my phone hit the floor.
The fall shook the phone out of pause mode, and I heard myself on the video yelling at the person to ‘stand down.’
She got off of me, pushed away from my chest, and bent down.
Heedless of my come dripping down her chest and neck, she reached for the phone and hit pause, then shut it down with quick fingers before tossing it onto the couch by my side.
“Let’s go take a shower,” she ordered. “We can think about all of this tomorrow.”
“Are you telling me to forget my worries and go to bed?” I asked, amused.
She nodded. “Let’s adult tomorrow.”
I hummed in acknowledgement, but only because I agreed with her.
Tomorrow would be soon enough to adult.
“I love you, Audrey.”
She moved back toward me and laid a soft kiss on my mouth before offering me her hand.
“Let’s go,” she murmured.
I went willingly, and I found myself sleeping less than an hour later when I didn’t think I would again.
Chapter 16
Don’t break anybody’s heart. Use this cup to break their bones. They have 206.
-Coffee Cup
Tobias
“You what?” I asked, uncertain what I’d heard.
“Upon an interview from you declaring what happened in the incident, Internal Affairs has decided, since no lethal harm came to the two girls, there’s no reason that you should be suspended. Which I told them in the fucking first place, but since they don’t listen to me, I can’t dictate how they run their investigations.”
I pulled the phone away from my face, made sure it was actually Captain Mickey’s cell phone that I was connected to, and placed it back to my ear.
“I thought, since my dash cam wasn’t working, and since my body cam wasn’t on, that you would take longer than this, I guess,” I murmured.
“You wanted it to take more than ten days?” he asked. “This all happened the day you set sail, and continued to fuck up my life until yesterday evening. If they can’t get their ducks in a row in ten fucking days, then they don’t deserve to have their fucking jobs. Which I told them. You’re back on shift tomorrow, but I want you to know that Fugler, Bussey and Johansen are all out. You’ll be one of four tomorrow, covering about twice the distance that you usually do.”
I winced.
“Why are they out?” I asked.
“The fuckin’ flu,” he rumbled in annoyance. “Half the goddamn office is out with it. You missed the flu plague of twenty-seventeen.”
Thank God for small favors.
“When do you want me in the office to talk to IA?” I asked.
He paused for a moment, and I heard him tapping his fingers in the background while he thought.
“Come in today around ten-forty-five. That way I can be there for the interview in case they try to trap you.”
I didn’t doubt that for a second.
If their investigation drew up nothing of consequence, then they’d try to get some confession out of me next.
***
Two hours later, I was sitting in an office that wasn’t Captain Mickey’s.
“You’ve beaten someone to death before. How are we supposed to know that this isn’t just your normal thing?”
I looked at the woman, Officer Antoinette Bakersfield, and tilted my head.
I would not let my anger get the best of me here.
“I didn’t beat those women up,” I said. “I dropped them off with nary a scratch on their knuckles from where they tried to punch out the glass to get out of the car. I would not, and have never, hit a woman. Not ever.”
“But a man is okay?” she snapped.
My eyes bored holes into her forehead.
If I was a lesser man, I’d fucking let her have it with both barrels. I’d tell her that she was a woman in a man’s world, and she didn’t have to be a hard ass to prove that she belonged here. She only needed to be confident in her abilities to prove right from wrong.
But since she was an asshole, and yes, women could be assholes, she tried to go a different route that didn’t involve her asking nice questions to get the same results. No, she just came off as a bitch because she was bringing up old memories that had nothing to do with the current case that she was supposed to be investigating.
“I only beat men to death when I walk in on them raping my little sister, thank you,” I told her bluntly.
Her face blanched, and I realized that she hadn’t known why I’d killed that man.
My records were hidden.