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Phoenix sighed, knowing I was right.
“What about Charlotte?” I asked. “Have you heard from her? She hasn’t reached out to me.”
“Can’t say I blame her. I wouldn’t want to talk to you either if I were her.”
“What?” I blinked incredulously at him, my brows furrowing. “What are you talking about?”
“Seriously?” He glared at me like I was an idiot. “Bro, you were a total dick this morning. First, you got pissed over her interviewing Delilah. Then as soon as she offered to help with the tapes, you shot her down, and then got pissy with me when I told her she could help. Am I ringing any bells here?”
“I wasn’t being—”
“You were being a fucking asshole,” he jeered, pinning me with a look that told me he was far from kidding. “Look, man, I get it. I know you don’t like that she’s been tagging along, and to be frank, I wasn’t so fond of it either at first.”
“Your point, Phoenix?” I asked, cocking a brow at him.
“The point, Spike, is that we still have to work with her. You were being an ass and like it or not, you need to apologize.”
Okay, fine. Perhaps I was a little…harsh with Charlotte—yes, I’d admit it. But it was only because it felt like she was trying to completely take over the investigation. That, and because I particularly didn’t like how she questioned our methods. Charlotte was not a detective. She was a defense attorney and nothing more. Phoenix and I had a strict, systematic way of handling our cases and it wasn’t custom for the DAs to play tag-along at every interview. I decided not to push the issue over the tapes because considering everything we still had to do, the extra help was necessary. So, I just let it go and bit my tongue.
“But to answer your question, yes, Charlotte called me a little over an hour ago.”
“And?” I prompted, my jaw tight. “Did she find our guy?”
“No. We’re still at a dead end.”
Fuck.
“Captain called too. Karl Greene is being arraigned tomorrow morning. It turns out the restraining order got upgraded to assault charges.”
“Are we expected to be there?”
“It’s not mandatory, so, no, we don’t have to be there. Cap wanted to give us a heads up just in case—holy fuck, Spike, look.”
I followed his frozen gaze, my lips parting and eyes widening as I took in Eve approaching the door from the parking lot. She was wearing a sexy black and red corset, a pair of tiny black shorts that hugged around her upper thighs, and long black boots that halted at the start of her knees. Her dark hair cascaded wildly down her back and shoulders and the whiskers on her mask shimmered the closer she loomed. I wasted no time snatching my mask out from under the desk and vanishing through the door behind me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Phoenix hissed, sticking his head through the threshold to find me tugging at the buttons on my shirt.
I smirked at him. “You know exactly what I’m doing.”
“How come you get to talk to her?”
“Because you know what will happen if you leave me alone with Felix.”
He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t fight me on it because he knew I was right.
“Don’t fuck this up, man. I’ll handle the interviews until you’re back.”
I smirked when he disappeared from the doorway, and in less than a minute, I was stripped down, wearing nothing but my boxers and lion mask.
Carefully, I hauled up my clothes and raced back to the office long enough to place them on top of the computer desk with my service weapon and phone. When that was done, I dashed through the short hall and was able to run past the front desk and get the other door open before Felix could dare start whistling at me.
The sanctum itself consisted of three main spacious areas: the bar, the lounge, and the Red Room. The bar wrapped around the left side of the room and ended at the start of a small hallway which harbored two doors that led to the bathrooms and an emergency exit at the end. At the center and extending to the right was the lounge, which was basically nothing but sectionals, booths, high and low-top tables—hell, you name it, it was there for members to sit around and chitchat, amongst other things. And straight ahead, past the lounge, was a door leading to my favorite place of all, the Red Room.
I searched through the crowd, spotting Eve sitting exactly where Phoenix and I saw her for the very first time three months ago, at the bar. She was a shy little thing then, well, that was before Phoenix and I had gotten ahold of her, but now, she’d developed a routine here. Before, she wouldn’t so much as let anyone—man or woman—touch or engage her, which was precisely what had drawn Phoenix and I to her in the first place.
But now, she’d come in, sit down at the bar, take a few shots to loosen herself up, and then she was off to the Red Room. Rumor has it that on the nights she did come in, she’d ask for me and Phoenix specifically. If we weren’t here, she’d return to the bar, chuck back a few more drinks, then leave. We’d left our mark on that woman and she sure as fuck left hers on us. Nobody touched Eve except for me or Phoenix.
Fucking nobody.
