22. Luke
Luke
Scarlett shifted on the bed next to me. I pulled her closer, not ready to fully wake up and start the day yet. It felt completely surreal waking up with Scarlett in my arms, her tight body pressed against my chest, her soft ass pushing into my groin.
She moved her hips, her ass sliding along my hard length, and moaned softly.
As much as my brain was foggy with sleep, and a slight hangover from last night, my dick was ready and raring to go. I kissed her shoulder through her mass of curls, the morning light highlighting her fiery, copper mane.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Hell yeah, it is. How’d you sleep?”
I drew my hand across her belly, relishing in the softness of her milky skin under my palm. I trailed up her sternum, passing my thumb over her peaked nipple.
“Good.” Her breathing quickened, and her head fell back. “So good.”
I didn’t know if she was still talking about her quality of sleep or the way I was playing with her body .
“Luke.” The way she said my name on a breathy moan sent a shot straight to my cock.
“I love the way you say my name, Letty.” I cupped her breast hard, pinching her nipple between my fingers.
Just then, an alarm sounded from her phone.
“Shit. I have to get ready for work,” she grumbled. “Although I’m sure I can spare a few more minutes.” The sultry undertone amped me up, and when she pushed against my groin again, my vision hazed. Which was only going to make this harder.
“I’m going to need a lot more than a few quick minutes, Letty Girl. I don’t want anything about this to be rushed.”
She turned to face me, placing a soft, delicate hand on my chest. “So you don’t regret last night, then?”
“Fuck no. Do you?” My heart stopped beating.
She had admitted to having a crush on me last night, but what if reality didn’t live up to her fantasies?
If she wanted us to go back to friends, I would do it.
But now that I had the taste of her on my tongue, pretending like that was enough would be pure torture.
“Not even a little bit.” She tilted her head up, seeking a kiss, which I was more than happy to provide. My tongue swiped across her lips, and she opened for me. I wanted to plunder her mouth, roll us over so that we were touching everywhere all at once, but I pulled back instead.
That was my only regret. Not getting enough time with her in my bed before the real world popped the fragile bubble we were living in.
She rolled out of bed and got dressed in last night’s clothes.
“Let me walk you back to Harpoon’s,” I told her. I threw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and followed her to the front door.
Before I opened the door, I pulled her to me for another kiss. Her arms wound around my neck like she didn’t want to let go.
“You’re working second shift today?” she asked as we walked back to the bar to get her car.
“Yeah. I won’t get in until after midnight.” I made a mental note to talk to Captain about my schedule. I wasn’t the most senior officer, but I was higher than a couple of the newer guys. I shouldn’t have as many second or third shifts as I had been assigned lately.
We made plans to talk later. I waited until she had driven away before I turned back to Wyatt’s house.
* * *
“Did you enter the notes from Jesse’s interview?”
Monroe was sitting at his desk, typing away on his phone.
We had interviewed Jesse Collins yesterday about the break-in at his music shop a few months ago.
As it stood in our timeline, this was the first break-in that went from a three-person team to a two-person team.
We still had more incidents to review, but if the trend stayed the same, we would see the two-person team continue through the current day.
Somewhere between three and four months ago, there may have been a falling-out within their crew.
If we could just identify that person, they could be the key to nailing the other two.
“Not yet. I’m doing that now,” he answered .
I stood at his desk and waited for him to get to work. After a few seconds of me hovering over him, he huffed out a breath and put his phone down.
“Is this how it’s always going to be? Juliet had a doctor’s appointment today, so I was getting an update. I’ll do the notes in a fucking minute.”
“You couldn’t be bothered to go to the doctors with her. Nice.” I shook my head. It wasn’t any of my business, not anymore. Instead, I walked back to my desk and started working on identifying leads and similarities between the break-ins.
“Fuck that,” Monroe said, getting up to follow me to my seat. “Of course I wanted to go with her, but I had to be here so I could work with your grumpy ass on this fucking case.”
“Just get the notes in the system, Monroe. That’s all we need right now.” I was paying doubly close attention to what information was recorded and how the evidence we gathered was being handled.
“What’s your problem, Wilder? If it’s about Jules and me, I’m sorry, okay? It was a fucked-up thing to do, but I don’t regret it either.”
I didn’t give two fucks about him and Jules now. I’d had months to come to terms with the end of my marriage, the betrayal, the pregnancy that wasn’t mine.
I had my sight set on brighter horizons. Coppery-red ones with the cutest freckles and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.
It was protecting her that was all that mattered.
And if Monroe was a threat to her, then yeah, I had a big fucking problem with that.
I still had no proof, and my investigation into the note left on her car had stalled out, especially without the backing of the department.
Whoever it was stayed clear of every camera, came and left on foot, wore no distinguishing clothes.
“Just trying to get the job done, Monroe.”
As he stalked away, I followed him from the corner of my eye. My phone buzzed, and I lunged at it, hoping to see Scarlett’s name.
Wes: Update me
Goddamn Wes. I rolled my eyes. With everything going on, I hadn’t devoted enough time to helping with Wes’s investigation.
Our investigation. Between the burglary case and patrol duty, work had been swamped.
Looking into who had left that threatening note on Scarlett’s car, keeping her safe, the divorce proceedings, it felt impossible to pick up yet another thread to follow.
It was a poor excuse, and I knew it. I needed to get my head on straight and figure out a way to prioritize the internal investigation into Redmond’s case.
Me: Nothing to report. I’m not out though. Just need to regroup.
Wes: 10-4. I have a lead I’m following up on. Someone who may have been giving Alana a hard time outside of school.
Me: Who? I’ll see if we have any record of it on our end.
Wes: The case notes would be damn helpful right now.
Shit. It shouldn’t be this hard to get my hands on my own damn case file. I was making it my mission to get the documents copied by the end of the week.
Me: I’m on it.
I put my phone away, straightened my shoulders, and headed over to the file room for open and active cases.
Since we weren’t in the dinosaur age, all of our records were digitized, but reprinting them from our system would leave a trail.
Copying the physical pages of our notes, reports, lab results, and evidence descriptions would be more discreet .
I opened the cabinet to search for Redmond’s file, shuffling through the folders.
“What are you looking for?” I turned around to face the speaker. Captain Langston was looking at me quizzically. “Has something not been documented in the system yet?”
“Not sure. I was going to check my notes on Geller’s interview again, just make sure I had everything entered accurately,” I lied.
“Ah. Always good to double-check. You find it in there?”
“No. I think Monroe must have it with him.”
He raised a brow at me. “Things still that bad that you didn’t check with him first, huh?”
I closed the cabinet, walking out of the room with Captain. “We’re fine. I’ll go check with him now.”
“Make yourself a note to review your documentation later. I need you on the streets for the rest of the day. We don’t have enough units out there.”
Shit. There went another chance to make some headway. I looked down at my clothes. Black jeans and button-down shirt were perfectly acceptable for the detective duty I was scheduled for today, but patrol called for the standard police uniform.
“No problem, Captain. I just need to run home and change.”
“That’s fine. Take the patrol unit and call in once you’re active.”
“Yes, sir.”
Twenty minutes later, I was changed and heading through town. I called in my location and status on the radio.
“This is zero-nine-zero-four, reporting for duty.”
Brimley’s scratchy drawl responded with confusion. “I don’t have you on the schedule, zero-nine-zero-four. Everything okay?”
“Following Captain’s orders. He needed more units on the streets.”
“Oh, um, ten-four.”
I drove through Calla Bay, sticking close to Main Street and Pine Street, our downtown area.
Neves passed me with a two-finger wave. Not five minutes later, Lieutenant Rebello was making a similar loop as me, just from the other direction.
Our youngest officer, Brody Halls, called in a traffic stop on the other side of town.
If Captain expected trouble today, he was certainly well covered for dealing with it.
But as it turned out, it was as quiet of a day as usual.
Despite the changing relationship between Scarlett and me, I found it just as easy as always to talk and text with her throughout the day.
She listened to me vent about getting pulled from detective duty for street patrol while she told me all about her day.
It wasn’t that I was upset about street patrol.
I loved being out in the community. Serving and protecting the people and this town was what made me want to become a cop.
But why the fuck did I get pulled instead of Monroe?
I couldn’t keep an eye on him from out here, and I didn’t like it.
* * *
Four days had passed since that night at Harpoon’s—that night in my bed—and I only saw Scarlett for small snippets of time as one of us was going into work and the other was leaving.
Our shifts weren’t lining up, and it was starting to piss me off.
I had worked the day shift earlier, but Scarlett was on second shift tonight.
It was getting late. I shut off the TV and was getting ready to hit the mattress and knock out for the night when my phone buzzed from my nightstand.
I looked at the screen, and a weird mix of warmth and concern hit me at once.
Scarlett: Hey!
Me: Hi. How’s your night going?
I had spent all afternoon moping around my house. I didn’t think it was possible to miss someone so soon, but I was. Seeing Scarlett’s name on my phone settled me in a way I didn’t expect.
Scarlett: Fantastic. First, I can’t stop thinking about this guy I was with the other night.
Delight rolled through me.
Me: Oh, yeah? Tell me more.
Scarlett: He was incredible. Handsome, tall, strong. He said all the right things. Made me feel sexy, too.
Scarlett: And the things he could do with his tongue… WOW. Best night of my life.
Maybe it was the darkness that surrounded me or the fact that I could still see her laid out on my bed in my mind, but my dick twitched, already coming to attention.
Me: Fucking hell, woman.
Scarlett: But that’s not all, because I think I am about to make his day :)
Me: Are you coming by after work? I don’t think my day gets any better than that.
Scarlett: The Redmond case file was sitting out on Captain’s desk when I went to put a note for him. I made a copy of every page. It’s in the bottom drawer of my desk.
My heart dropped. The threatening note that was left on her car slammed into the front of my mind.
They were still out there, and they knew that Scarlett had been trying to help.
I shouldn’t have said anything to her earlier.
I was bitching about my day, about not giving Wes’s investigation enough of my attention, but I hadn’t meant for her to get involved.
I didn’t want her anywhere near this case.
Me: Jesus, Letty. Did anyone see you? Did anyone say anything?
The seconds ticked by without a response from her. I was on my feet, ready to go down to the station and check that she was okay, when I felt my phone buzz with an incoming text notification.
Scarlett: No. No one was paying me any attention. Do you want me to leave it here and you can pick it up when you come in or do you want me to take it with me?
I wanted her to leave the whole damn thing alone, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. It was actually a huge help that she was able to pull the file and get a copy made. It was just too risky for my liking.
Me: Leave it where it is. I’ll get it later.
Me: And thank you, baby. You’re the best.
I lay back on my bed with my phone on my chest in case she texted again.
My mind was racing. We had a copy of the case file; now, we just needed to get it out of the building so we could review each piece of evidence with a fine-tooth comb along with Wes.
But if Scarlett had put herself in harm’s way to get it, I didn’t know what I would do.
Keeping her safe was my number one priority, and I’d be damned if I let anything happen to her.