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My patience frayed. “Like when you forced me to accept bribes from the Saint View Sinners?”
The street gang was notorious in Saint View, and their dirty money had been lining my pockets for months. Never for long, because every time I took a payment, it went straight into an evidence bag that I then dumped on the chief’s desk.
The chief narrowed his eyes. “Watch yourself. Those orders came from higher up than me. We needed someone on the inside, and you were the one they picked. You should be grateful for the honor.”
“What honor is that exactly? You won’t even let me tell my partner.”
The older man shook his head. “We’re all on a need-to-know basis. Bringing anyone else in could be dangerous. You want that sitting on your conscience if something happens to her?”
“So I’m just supposed to lie? Keep sitting beside her every time she has a gut feeling and wants to watch their hangouts?”
“I’ll talk to her and tell her to stay out of their territory.” He ran his hands through his graying hair. “You two are fucking killing me, you know that, right? Just follow the rules, would you? Quit questioning everything and you’ll be a whole lot happier. Focus on the strip club case.”
This is what I hated about being a cop. I so desperately wanted to do good. It was why I’d joined the force in the first place. But from day one, any good I did manage was always tainted by the bad, the corrupt, the dirty. And this operation reeked of foul play. I couldn’t prove it, but there was no transparency. Everything was all, “Do as you’re told. Don’t ask why,” and none of it sat well with me.
But I’d been outranked time and time again, and my questions always fell on deaf ears. This was the side of the department I tried to shield my partner from because I didn’t want Jayela to know the true nature of the beast we found ourselves swallowed up by. Her ideals were still pure. And I wanted to keep them that way. Because she reminded me of why I’d started this job, and why I kept going even though the parts like this made it hard.
The chief was right. I needed to get my head in the game and just concentrate on the current case.
Eve’s dark hair, tumbling in soft, pretty curls, floated through my mind. Her dark eyes staring up at me through long lashes.
I didn’t want anyone else dealing with her.
“Fine.” I snatched the paperwork from the chief’s hands. “I’ll look into Eve Hawkins’ strip club and make sure there’s nothing more than lap dances going on there.”
3
EVE
Istomped inside the club, wishing I’d had the forethought to put on boots instead of flip-flops. Flip-flops thwacking against the concrete floors was not nearly as satisfying as a pair of heavy thumping boots would have been. I suspected I looked more like a duck than I wanted to. But I’d been too pissed off and short on time to really consider my choice of footwear.
“Eve!” Fawn flew out of the kitchen and across the main room, throwing herself at me. “Oh my God. You’re out! I seriously thought they were going to charge you, they kept you so long.”
“Tell me about it,” I grumped. I’d spent hours in the holding cell at the police station this afternoon. They’d released Fawn first, then Lyric. I’d expected that I would get to leave soon after. But that hadn’t been the case. I’d sat there for hours, twiddling my thumbs and staring at the ugly cinderblock wall. I’d glanced up every time a guard had walked past, but none of them had been the hot cop. Every minute that ticked by, my irritation grew. I knew the others would open the club and cover for me if I didn’t make it into work. But it was hardly the point. It wasn’t their responsibility to run the club. It was mine. And being stuck in this tiny cell, for no good reason, was preventing me from doing that. “They only let me out an hour ago. By the time I got through the paperwork, and got a taxi back to my car, I barely had time to go home and grab my stuff before I had to come here. I need a shower. I feel like a sewer pig.”
Fawn giggled.
“What?”
“A sewer pig? Are they the cousins of those Ninja Turtles?”
I sniggered, and Fawn’s grin grew. I slung an arm around her slim shoulders. “Funny, kid.”
Fawn never failed to mellow me. She was like the daughter I was too young to have. At twenty-two, she was ten years my junior, and while I’d never wanted kids of my own, something about Fawn had woken up some dormant maternal part in me. Maybe it was her small stature that made her seem younger than she actually was. Or her quiet, timid nature. Or perhaps it was just the pure fact that she’d arrived on my doorstep, a disheveled mess, desperate for a job. I’d taken one look at her and known she was meant to be a part of the little family we’d created here.
Even Augie had a soft spot for her. And Augie didn’t like anybody, so that was saying something.
The two of us walked out the back to the women’s changing rooms, and I dumped my stuff in my locker. Lyric was already sitting at one of the makeup tables, coating her eyelashes in thick black mascara.
Her gaze met mine in the mirror, and she jumped up with a squeal of excitement. “You’re out!”
I smiled into her soft red hair, inhaling the familiar scent. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
She leaned back, her hands on her hips, and pouted at me. “Pity. Because I have actually planned something. I mean, somebody had to step in while you weren’t here. They might have locked you up and thrown away the key.”
I raised one eyebrow. “For ripping up a sign, Lyric? Really? You got your eye on my job?” But I was stifling a grin. Though I was technically their boss, that wasn’t really how we rolled around here. They all knew their jobs, I didn’t have to ride their asses. They wanted to make money, and so did I. We all worked as a team. And we respected each other like family.
“Nah. I’ve got my hands too full with Amelia. I don’t need a day job, as well as a night job. But! I did sit here, stewing on the fact that you were still in jail, and brainstormed some revenge ideas.” She strutted back to her table and pulled out a folded piece of paper from her purse.
