Chapter 7 #2
That should have alarmed me. Like I said, he was dangerous, I could tell it that night. But my heart didn’t seem to get the memo.
“It’s all right, Enid. It is what it is. And what it was, was an incredible night with a hot guy. So, I’m just going to let it go.”
She snorted as she moved back, putting me at arm’s length, and looked at me.
Yeah, we both knew that was a lie. But there was no other option than to move on, no matter what I wanted.
“All right. Whatever you say.” She put her hands up in surrender and moved aside.
Leaning in, I gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Enid. I’m sorry for snapping.”
She slapped my arm and shooed me back toward my desk. “Oh you. Don’t you get fresh. You get in there and get to work. You’ll find yourself a man who deserves you, Aiden. And if that man was a fool enough to leave you without giving you his number, then he’s not the one who deserves you.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets and took a step back, beyond her desk, and gave a sheepish shrug, not sure if I really believed her words. But I knew better than to dispute them to her face.
Escaping her pitying gaze, I made my way over to my desk.
Thankfully, most of the other detectives at the station who had been at the wedding had already cleared out by the time I’d made a fool of myself and left with Nate.
Another small miracle was the fact they hadn’t heard through the Enid grapevine about my hookup.
When I made it to my desk without anyone else stopping me, I let out a sigh of relief and dropped into my chair. The empty desk next to mine shot a pang of loneliness through my heart that echoed the ache left by Nate’s departure.
Shaking my head, I told myself I wasn’t going to be distracted by thoughts of Nate or Victoria. I had a job to do and I was going to do it. Needing a distraction, I pulled up my emails and calendar to see if there were any updates since I’d last been in, but nothing.
A nudge against my chair had me turning to see who was behind me. I smiled when I saw Clemmons leaning up against the empty desk at my back.
“Hey, stranger. What’s shakin’?” I offered him a fist bump and a smile. It had been too long since we’d hung out, but the look on his face said he wasn’t there for a social visit and I quickly sat up straight in my seat, eager to see what I could help with.
Anything to distract me from the thoughts tumbling around in my brain.
Clemmons eyed me for a moment, looking like he wanted to say something, but then shook his head. My stomach clenched, wondering if maybe the office gossip had gotten around after all.
Instead, he let out a whistle as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and flicked through it.
“Man. We got a doozy of a missing persons case. Pretty sure it’s going to end up being a homicide, but we aren’t sure if it’s going to end up being something for you or not.
The guy is connected out the ass to the mob. ”
I fell back against my chair, surprised. The fucking mob. We didn’t have much mob activity in the area, though it wasn’t completely unheard of. But that wasn’t my department.
Thank God.
“Yeah, Thomas Loretti, distant cousin to an out-of-state mob boss. I know, fuck me, right? He’s twenty-four. Disappeared from work at the Westport, where he works in the kitchen, on Saturday night. Never came home and his girlfriend called the police when work said he wasn’t there either.”
Jesus. The fucking Lorettis. I knew who they were. Everyone did, even if they didn’t run territory in these parts.
“Anyway. You and Coleman were at the Westport for her cousin’s wedding the other day. So, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind looking at something and telling me if this guy looks familiar?” The puppy dog look wasn’t necessary, but it got the laugh out of me that I was sure he was aiming for.
I rolled my eyes and motioned for me to hand it over. When he placed his phone in my hand, I zoomed in on the kid, who looked like he couldn’t have been more than twenty and tried to think back to anything that had happened prior to meeting Nate.
“Sorry, Jim. He doesn’t look familiar. But there were so many people coming in and out of the room all day, setting things up.
I wasn’t really paying much attention to who was flying by.
” I frowned at the photo, hoping he was just gone off on a job doing something for his Family that maybe the people connected to him here didn’t know about.
Or maybe he ran off to escape from that life.
He nodded as he took his phone back. “Yeah, I figured it was a long shot. But you know how it is. Gotta ask all the potential witnesses all the questions.”
Boy did I ever. It was grueling work being a cop, but someone had to do it or there would be no justice in the world.
“Yeah, man. I get it. Send the pic over to Vic, if you haven’t already. But I’m not sure if she’ll be much help. She wasn’t hanging around the ballroom like a muck like I was before the reception.” I laughed at myself. Jim joined in, giving me a punch to the shoulder.
He sat on the desk, and we shot the shit for a few minutes, until Freesha walked over and pushed him away from her desk. “Get your smelly ass away from my desk.”
I leaned over and fist-bumped her. “Morning, Free. How are the little ones this morning?”
She glared at me over her decaf coffee and I threw a grin at her, knowing I was putting my life in my hands when it came to Detective Freesha St. Cloud.
The woman was eight months pregnant with twins and refused to go on maternity leave until it was absolutely necessary.
She hated the fact she was forced to desk duty.
But with Victoria on vacation, I hoped it meant we got to spend some quality time together before she went on leave with the babies.
“They’re assholes.” Despite her curt words, the loving way she rubbed her growing stomach softened the meaning.
I didn’t have kids of my own, wasn’t sure if that was in the cards for me and not just because I was gay, but I could see the bond forming between Free and the babies in real time and it was a beautiful thing.
I snickered, ribbing Clemmons with my elbow as he came to stand next to my desk. “Yeah, yeah. You and Josh are lucky to be having those little ones. And look at this way. While you both wanted two kids, at least you got it out of the way in one shot.”
The slap to my arm let me know that maybe it wasn’t such a good thing. Then again, the way she snorted said she at least partly agreed with me.
I turned back to my computer and the cursor blinked over the search box, mocking me. It wasn’t stalking and obsessing over a one-night stand if I was looking him up over a case. There was always a slim chance he might have seen the guy Jim was looking for.
My fingers stilled over the keys as I wrestled over whether or not I should look Nate up in the system.
It wouldn’t take much. But the chances of him seeing anything, especially since he had come in so late, were pretty slim.
And I knew my reasoning for looking him up would have been purely selfish, and chances were, he’d see right through my flimsy excuse.
Did I want to confront him and embarrass myself more than I already had?
Hell to the fucking no.
Clemmons’ phone went off, breaking the good mood, and he went on alert as he answered it. His face went white as he got up and took a few steps away to get some privacy. His gaze shot to me, with what seemed to be a lot of agreeing noises and whispered curses.
Freesha looked over at me as she settled into her chair with a grimace. I was sure I had a matching look. Whatever was going on with Jim’s call, it wasn’t good, judging by the looks he kept throwing my way.
I could only imagine it had to do with the Loretti case. Fuck my life. That probably meant they found a body.
Shit. The last thing I wanted to deal with was the fucking mob.
Chances of being assigned the case were slim, though, considering I could be a potential witness.
So, perhaps the gods were on my side. But from the way Jim was looking at me as he hung up the phone, it didn’t look like I was getting out of going to the crime scene with him.
I wasn’t sure if it was my lucky day or my living nightmare.