“Shouldn’t one of the detectives have come by to speak to Miss Monroe?” Luke asked.
I couldn’t be certain, but Officer Edwards seemed to get red in the neck. “The detective is busy, and I said I’d come by,” he said through gritted teeth. “Since I’d be in the area for my rounds anyway.”
Luke didn’t reply; he simply stared coldly at the other man.
After a moment of confused and emotional silence, I took a shaky breath and interrupted their pissing contest with my reply. “No. No one has said anything to me about seeing or remembering anything from that day.”
“I’m sorry to have bothered you, Miss Monroe. Because of the delicate nature of the case, I’d appreciate if you kept this knowledge to yourself for now. I’ll be in touch.” His eyes cut to Luke, who completely snubbed him.
As soon as we heard the main door close, Luke enveloped me against his body and pulled out his phone. “Find out why that fucker Eddy was over here telling Hailey they found Danielle,” he barked into the device.
Confused, I drew back to look at him with a frown.
He spoke to the other party for a few minutes, but his side of the conversation was stilted. After he ended the call, he pressed his thumb and middle finger into the inside corners of his closed eyes.
“Will you be okay today?” he asked.
I nodded, though I was sickened by the loss of Danielle.
“Look, I need to know if we’re still good. If you’ve met someone who gives you something I’m not able to, just let me know. I promised you I’d be monogamous, but that goes both ways,” he rumbled.
“What are you talking about? What would give you the idea I’d been with someone else?” I demanded as I stepped back out of his hold and wiped away a stray tear. My arms crossed defensively.
“You haven’t been home the last two nights,” he said, his jaw muscle jumping as he seemed to stare into my damn soul.
With an indignant scoff, I gave him an incredulous glare. “Not that it’s your business, but I was at my girlfriend’s place the night you were ‘too busy’ for me, and last night I was home sick.”
His eyes closed and his face pinched before he ran and hand roughly over it. “Right. I’m sorry, I tried to stop by both nights but the first night you didn’t answer and last night, your place looked deserted.”
Something ridiculous bubbled up within me, and I found myself smiling like an idiot while I still experienced residual sniffles. “You stopped by both nights?”
“Yeah,” he gruffly admitted. The truth of what he was implying hit me.
“You were jealous,” I said in wonder as he scraped his teeth over his bottom lip and turned his attention out the window.
“No, I wasn’t. I just wanted to make sure we were still on the same page. But I need to get going. Will you be home tonight?” He raked through his hair with his fingers, causing his bicep to bulge and the vein that ran down the center to pop out.
Trying not to drool at the way his muscles moved under his inked skin, I nodded with a watery but wondrous smile.
“Right. See you then?” He waited for me to reply.
“Of course,” I said before biting my bottom lip.
He looked like he was going to say something and made a move like he was coming toward me but stopped himself. Then he spun on his heel and left.
I dropped to my chair, blew my nose, and stared into space, overwhelmed by the information that had been dropped on me. There had been bad and good, but neither really balanced the other.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to tell myself it did no good to worry over things I couldn’t change, yet still, I worried. The safety of the other residents was on my mind.
Yet, despite the horrible news Officer Edwards delivered, I found myself with a dreamy smile off and on throughout the day. The revelation of Luke being jealous was the cause.
10
Snow
“Carried Away”—Shinedown
A week after Officer Dickwad Edwards delivered the shitty news to Hailey, all hell broke loose.
“Boss, you better come out here.” Reaper stuck his head in my office door. The expression on his face wasn’t good.
“What’s up?” I warily questioned as I stood.
“Cops are here,” he said with a frown.
“Jesus, now what?” I groaned.
We moved quickly down the hall and out to the common area. Several officers, including Dickhead Edwards, were waiting with their hands resting threateningly on their service weapons.
“To what do I owe this lovely visit?” I sarcastically asked.
“We have a warrant to search the premises,” Edwards all but sneered.
“On what grounds?” I demanded.
“On these grounds,” he replied as he shoved the paperwork in my hand and instructed his cronies to leave nothing unturned. My teeth gritted as I read the bullshit warrant. There was no way.
“That’s absolute shit, and you know it. We had nothing to do with that, and you won’t find any of that,” I argued.
“Well, I guess we’ll see, now won’t we,” he said with a snarky smile. It didn’t last long, because it dropped when he snarled to his fellow officers, “Search them.”
We were all patted down like common criminals and our weapons secured out of our reach.
“Get Ryland on the phone. Now,” I told Vinny.
He nodded and pulled out his phone to call our attorney.
When the first guy opened a knife and made a motion to stab the couch cushion, I stepped forward.
“What the fuck? No way. That’s completely unnecessary.”
Officer Dickwad raised a brow and shot me a triumphant grin. “Are you refusing our search? Trying to impede a police investigation? Because if so, that’s obstruction of justice.”
He knew damn well he had me. “You can’t maliciously destroy our property or your search can be deemed invalid and anything you find can’t be used against us,” I added through gritted teeth.
He
