Page 3 of Bent, Not Broken

“What are you grinning about?” Vasquez’s soft voice startled me out of my thoughts, and I shrugged at her.

“Nothing.”

“Are you going to Hernandez’s engagement party tonight?” She rolled her chair closer and I turned. Our knees touched, and she reached up to brush some of her bangs out of her face. I never understood how she became a cop. She was the opposite of Monahan. Gentle. Kind. Carried her uniform sort of awkwardly. Rumor around the bullpen said she was a legacy, so maybe that explained it.

“Never invited me. Pretty sure he hates my guts.”

She blinked at me. “Why?”

“No idea.” I might have slept with his sister. The thought made me shake my head. She’d been a sack of potatoes in bed and didn’t make a noise while we fucked. It was weird. “Anyway, I’m going to Black Out tonight. Need to get laid.”

“Oh.” She frowned at me and nodded, not saying another word as she rolled back to her desk.

Hell, I might have felt a little guilty, but I’d never made any promises to her. I needed relief after this day anyway. Black Out sounded pretty damn good to me.

Chapter 2

Madden Polunin

Everything was aces for me today. Maybe I should go to the casino.

Waltzing into the office, I came up behind West and bopped him on the back of his head, sending his perfectly styled hairdo every which way. I dug my fingers into his soft brown hair to mess it up, and he turned around and swatted at me, his glasses slipping off his nose. He glared, and as always, for a half a second, I stared a little longer than I should because his eyes were a mesmerizing violet, but then I got myself together, laughed, and danced out of his reach toward my desk. I flung my briefcase onto my desk and scattered some papers. River groaned from behind me, but ended up chuckling, which he usually did. I couldn’t tell if he thought I was fuckable, or if he fell into the trap of my baby face.

“God, you’re such a brat,” West grumbled.

“You told me you weren’t interested, so quit trying to butter me up.” Spinning on my heel with more energy than necessary, I turned around to give him finger guns that were obnoxious even to me. West pushed his glasses up his nose indignantly, but he gave in and laughed.

“I take it you got Riggs a good deal?” He leaned his chin on his hand and waited. He was good about that. I always felt like Shane, his boyfriend, must be really lucky because West knew how to be a great audience.

“Off. Completely.” I took a bow and tipped an imaginary bowler hat.

West ducked his chin and looked at me over the top of his glasses as he searched my face.

Real hurt had me scowling. “I wouldn’t lie about a win.”

West glanced at River, who had made a much more respectable entrance than I had. River made a very big deal out of adjusting the cheap cufflinks on his sleeves. West waited for River’s confirmation. I held my breath like a putz, even though I knew I wasn’t bullshitting. River’s blinding white smile had West drawing himself taller in his chair with a smirk. “No way. He totally walked?”

“Yep. In no small thanks to Madden, Riggs left the courthouse by way of the front door.”

“You two are full of shit,” West said, but he had that tone in his voice like he did believe us but was ridiculously jealous he hadn’t been involved. West crossed his arms, dismissing me, and turned to glance back to his laptop at whatever he’d been working on when we busted into the office. I bent and scooped up the papers I’d scattered on the floor and tossed them at him when I stood. This part of the office was kind of small, just our two desks about five feet apart, and some client chairs and fake plants I was still worried I’d kill. My impromptu paper missiles didn’t have far to go. He sputtered and swatted the sheets away from his face.

“Nope!”

“Okay,” River said on a sigh. “You did good, wunderkind, but we have other clients.” River gave me the tiniest disapproving nose wrinkle and adjusted his fussy gold-rimmed glasses that reminded me of something my dad would wear. I frowned and checked my watch. Yes, the hour hand was pointed conspicuously at the five on my Blancpain timepiece. I rubbed a thumb over the clockface that had cost me almost everything I’d made here last year. I glanced back up at River and turned my wrist toward him.

“What?”

“It’s after quitting time.”

“So? We just got back. You had a courthouse vacation.” He adjusted his red tie and stormed forward into his office. The crack of him slamming the door rattled the window next to my desk. West smirked at me and pointed, because this time I was in trouble, before he slid back underneath his desk. I was never in trouble. That’s what West didn’t understand. He didn’t wait around to gloat for long, though. He began the nightly ritual of checking his coffee cup for stray drops and closing documents. Instead of getting to my work, I leaned my ass against my desk and watched him.

“You skidooing? Off home to your boy lover?” I couldn’t help poking fun at him. All that love crap was… well, nice for movies and stuff, but I’d never seen it work out too well in real life.

He talked about Shane all the time and didn’t even seem to realize it. Shane made me this. Shane did that. Shane. Shane. Shane. Blah. I refused to call what I felt about his gushing enthusiasm jealousy, but it seemed pleasant for West—and annoying for the rest of us.

“Yep.” He glanced up at me, and his smile crinkled the corners of his eyes in a sexy way that was so earnest, it made me almost feel like a jerk for my crappy thoughts. “He started redoing the back porch with his friend David this week.”

“Nice. Convenient source of labor.” I nodded.