“Yep, he’ll be out tomorrow,” she said proudly that she was able to give him some positive news.
“Fine,” Hank said, and started toward his office.
“That’s it?” He heard Rob ask his back.
“Yep,” Hank said, never halting his steps.
Jo said to Rob. “Well, that was easier than we thought.”
“Yeah,” Rob expressed with confusion. “Too easy.”
Hank was about to shut the door behind him, shutting out their conversation, when Jo yelled to him. “Arissa stopped by!”
Hank stopped and rotated on his feet. “Come again?”
“She stopped to talk to you a few days ago on her way out to take care of business in Charleston.”
Hank waited and when she didn’t go on, he drawled, “And?”
“She was in this cute pencil skirt with a blouse to die for.” Jo threw her head back and hollered. “If I didn’t like men so much I would have… Mmm.”
“She looked fucking fine—” Rob added, but stopped when Hank let out a low rumble from his chest, eyes pinned on Rob. “She looked nice. Yeah… nice,” Rob corrected and took off toward his desk.
“What did she want?” Hank asked Jo who was fanning herself.
“Oh, to talk to you.”
“About?” Hank was getting tired of the back and forth.
Jo shrugged. “No clue, but said she’d get a hold of you.”
“Thanks,” Hank said, and shut his door.
He leaned against it, she came to see him, she wanted to talk. But she never did get a hold of him. Hmmm. His mind didn’t linger too long on that when he spotted the blue folder sitting on his desk. Settling behind it and opening the file, he was greeted to all the findings that Mike had collected. He was right, Bruno Knobbs didn’t have much on him and from what Hank was reading, lived a boring life. Hank found this odd because Phoebe moved to the city for the exciting life and this guy didn’t seem to have one. A flick of a few more pages had Hank staring at an eight by ten print out image of Phoebe and Bruno smiling at the camera. She hadn’t changed one bit. Didn’t even look like she aged a day. But knowing her as well as he had, he didn’t expect any different. He flipped that page and saw the breakdown sheet on her. Her eye for ads must’ve landed her a job at an advertising firm since that was her current employer. He continued reading. Her annual income, images of the townhouse she was renting along with the monthly payment. Hank blinked. Blinked again. He even huffed out loud. Phoebe seemed to be living well above her means, her credit cards were maxed out, but flipping the sheet he found another eight by ten image but this one was only of Phoebe dressed in a cream-colored business suit. She looked good… happy. Hank closed the folder and let all of it settle. He didn’t feel a thing. Maybe she wanted to get shot of this guy and she used him as the downfall. And with that thought, Hank opened the bottom draw of his desk and tossed the folder into it.
* * *
As soon as Arissa dropped her bag in the hall and locked her front door, she leaned back against it and took her first deep breath in four days. She loved Danielle. Part of Southern Charm’s success was because of her artistic eye, but that being said she was such a temperamental artist. Her attention to detail made a normal person’s eyes cross, but Arissa couldn’t deny the shots that Dmitri caught…the spread was going to be one of their best.
She moved from the door, kicking off her shoes as she went. Flicking on the light in the kitchen, she walked to the refrigerator, yanked it open. The day Dmitri had called had been shopping day so there was very little in her fridge. She wasn’t that hungry anyway, but she did reach for one of the beers Hank had brought over that first day. Smiling at the memory, she popped off the top and took a long drink. She never called him, not for a lack of wanting to, she just never got a free moment. She was tempted to call him now, but considering she’d only had about eight hours of sleep in the last four days, that wasn’t a great plan. Tomorrow morning, she’d stop by the station. Her body warmed at the thought of seeing him. She’d missed him, and when she did sleep, he starred in her dreams. Even exhausted, her body reacted to those dreams as chills moved down her spine and an ache formed between her legs.
She dropped down on her couch, took another long pull from her beer before placing it on the coffee table. Reaching for the remote, she flipped on the television. She only meant to close her eyes for a second, indulging in thoughts of Hank, but she didn’t stir again until the morning sun came streaming through the front windows.
* * *
Arissa hurriedly dressed, not even grabbing a cup of coffee. She wanted to see Hank, her heart pounding with excitement as she locked up her house and sprinted to her car. It had been too long.
Just as she reached her car, she heard. “Hey!”
She twisted her head to see Maureen strolling across the street wearing a white nightgown and matching robe that only reached her thighs. Arissa looked down at the white-heeled slippers and grinned. The look was so Maureen.
Arissa greeted her when she said, “It should be a crime for someone to look that good first thing in the morning.”
Maureen flashed her smile. “You missed knitting night. Everything okay?”
Knitting night. She’d forgotten all about it. Arissa pulled open her car door and dropped her purse on the driver’s seat. “Sorry, work emergency. I should have called.”
Maureen studied her for a few seconds before she said, “We aren’t that formal. We figured something came up. Since you’re back, the
