Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
acelynn
Astoria dropped me off in front of an aging brick building nestled in the heart of downtown Lovelen.
The town’s main street was barely a mile long, a sleepy strip of timeworn storefronts, weathered signage, and fading paint adding to the character of the small town.
On either side, law offices and small businesses sagged under the weight of the desert heat and decades of dust.
I waved toward Astoria, smiling brightly to mask the feeling of a thousand knives lodging themselves in my gut. Only once she turned the corner and vanished from view did I pivot away from the law office and quickly walk two doors down to the police station.
The lobby was dead quiet. It was just past noon, and it looked like the place had already given up on the day.
A long admin desk sat in the space’s front, a girl no older than twenty-one sitting behind it.
Her light red hair was knotted into a bun on the top of her head, and she’d ditched her blazer in favor of just wearing the cream-colored blouse that had lain underneath.
Two buttons at the top were undone, causing the shirt’s material to lie open against her sweaty skin.
A small desk fan buzzed lightly as it spun on high speed, sending hot air through the space, but all anyone cared about during the Arizona heat was the illusion of it helping.
She looked up from the book she was reading as I made my way further into the waiting room, brows lifting in question.
“Can I help you?” Her voice was light and airy as she asked the question.
“Tell Detective Parsons his midday appointment is here to see him.” I smiled sweetly.
Her eyes widened before she shot to her feet so fast the chair squeaked and nearly toppled over. Without another word, the girl rushed down the dim hallway.
My smile faded as soon as she disappeared.
The fear she radiated—pure, stifling, and far too familiar—twisted something deep in my stomach.
Parsons had a talent for breaking people down, especially the ones just trying to hold their heads above water.
If I had my way, I’d force him into early retirement with a fistful of evidence and a one-way ticket to hell.
Muffled voices carried from the back of the station.
A door slammed hard against a wall, and heavy boots stomped toward the front.
“Penelope, how many goddamn times do I have to say I don’t take midday appointments!” Parson bellowed as he rounded the corner, the young girl trailing behind him with her head bowed, jaw opening and closing to respond.
My arms folded one over the other as I leaned casually against the doorframe, clearing my throat to get his attention away from her. Parsons whipped toward me, an agitated sigh slipping from his lips. “Ms. Thorton, I forgot we were meeting today.”
“Detective,” I said with ice in my voice. “Do you always scream at your employees, or is that treatment only reserved for the sheriff’s daughter?”
Penelope’s face was tinged a light shade of pink at the comment, but it wasn’t from embarrassment. No, the look she shot me was pure venom. If Parsons weren’t standing between us, I had no doubt she would lunge.
The detective’s gaze snapped to me, and the irritation in his eyes was evident. He stepped aside, placing one hand out to gesture for me to lead the way down the hall. I pushed off the frame, sauntering past Penelope and ignoring the glare drilling into the back of my skull.
I knew the way to his office by heart now—same grimy hallway, same cracked blue-checkered linoleum flooring as before. The air in the station was always stale and clung to the space like ghosts of every dirty secret Parsons had ever buried here.
His office was barely larger than a closet.
An oversized oak desk dominated the space.
A full map of the city of Lovelen adorned the white wall behind it.
Little pins scattered the landscape like bullet holes.
On both sides of the map, there were two overstuffed filing cabinets that never completely closed because of the numerous papers Parsons had crammed inside.
I took my usual seat in the uncomfortable, curved wooden chair.
It was cool against my bare legs, sending a slight shiver down my spine.
Parsons closed the door with a sharp click, then turned on me like a vulture ready to descend on its next meal. “You’re not supposed to show up here unannounced, Acelynn. What if someone from the Knights saw you? How would you explain that away?”
“I wouldn’t. I would be dead.” I didn’t even flinch. “But I’m not. And you’re going to forge the paperwork for the estate transfer for me, so it looks like everything’s set when the papers get sent to the law office down the street to obtain my dear old, estranged aunt’s house.”
“You don’t give me orders,” Parsons snapped. “I’m the one who decides how this operation runs, and I will make the calls as I see fit. If you don’t like it, I can toss your ass in a cell and let you rot.”
I smiled slowly and stood. “Guess that means you don’t want to hear about my appearance at the roundtable last night?”
That stopped him cold.
“Sit. Down,” he growled out. I obliged, reclining casually in the chair as he stalked around the desk to lean back against it in front of me. He waved his hand once in annoyance for me to continue.
“Patience, Parsons.” I swirled my finger around the charm on my necklace—the spade pendant that nearly got me killed. “The diner incident this morning. Club-related. I just happened to step in and saved the Knights’ darling girl in the process.”
I paused my motion, plucking the charm up between two fingers, holding it up for him to see.
“And this was apparently enough to put a target on my back. Think maybe it would have been smart for someone in this department to tell me that my family’s symbol would cause not one but both of the Mordred siblings to question me about it? ”
“No.” Parsons’s lips quirked up at the corners. “Your ability to keep yourself alive is not my concern.”
“Of course it’s not,” I muttered, slouching lower in the seat.
“Stop pouting.” He scowled at me, annoyance sharpening his words. “Next time, use the burner to give us a heads up on your arrival. That’s what it’s for.”
The burner phone he had mentioned was shoved in a duffel that I had dumped at the temporary house I was using as my “aunt’s home.
” There was no way I was walking around with that loaded bomb in my pocket.
Not when I was so close to the Knights. If I was going to use the device, it would be the only time it was used, and then Parsons would be replacing it, which I assumed he would get tired of rather quickly.
The detective narrowed his eyes at me when I didn’t continue quickly enough for him. “That all? You spoke to the Knights about a charm? That doesn’t build a case against them.”
“Not quite,” I said, lips spreading into a devious grin. “I got a job.”
Parsons blinked slowly at me. “A job?”
“At the Queen’s Table,” I said nonchalantly, as if it was the most normal thing for me to utter in this situation. “Behind the bar.”
“You are bartending at the Knights’ bar? Just steps away from where they conduct their club dealings?” His jaw tightened as if he were unhappy with this progress. Which didn’t make any sense, considering Parsons was the one who had pushed so hard for me to get something on the club.
I nodded once. “Astoria hired me this morning. Said I had the fire that they could use behind the bar, and Nolan vouched for me. So…I’m in.”
I smiled at him, letting him believe that was what had occurred in the bar. Parsons didn’t need to know that Kaius was the one who had offered me the job. It would make him too eager. And I didn’t need him breathing down my neck just yet.
“That’s dangerous.”
“Thought you didn’t care about my safety,” I said, narrowing my eyes at the man. Parsons stared at me, like he couldn’t quite decide if I was brilliant or if I had a death wish. Probably both.
He snapped out of his trance, a smirk toying at his lips. “You’re going to make that man fall in love with you so you can unravel all of the Knights’ secrets, aren’t you?”
I licked my canines slowly, letting the fantasy of Kaius being at my mercy bloom in my mind. “Even better. I am going to make the King of Lovelen beg me to love him…and then I’ll put a bullet between his eyes.”