Chapter Seven
Kane
Months later
“Why’d I need to come here?” I asked my cousin Brent as he led me into a bar just off from the hotel I was staying in.
“Come on,” he groaned. “You can’t come to Chicago and not indulge a little.”
My cousin had always been the party guy in our family.
So much so that my father had forbidden me from hanging out with him, especially after my mother left.
When he died a year ago, Brent reached out and we’d been trying to catch up ever since.
My job kept me busy and so did his, so it had been slow to build a relationship again.
“Fine,” I said. “But I do have someone to visit tomorrow morning so we’ll keep it civil.”
Brent laughed. “You’re thinking of the old Brent. I’m more mature now.”
Somehow, that throaty laugh told me he wasn’t, but a drink wouldn’t go astray. The ride here had been torture, and a few drinks would help to ease my warring mind.
It had been months since my incident with Maurelle and yet I still dreamt about her, I still wondered how she had managed to erase her trail and disappear on me.
Brent found us a booth to sit at in the posh establishment and got up to get our drinks. I looked around the bar at the patrons and noticed how upper class this place was compared to what I was used to.
Give me my old dingy pub any day. Brent returned with our drinks and joined me in the booth.
“Here’s to family,” he said as he raised his glass. I chinked my glass against his, even though the notion of family was very different to his. We both drank the expensive whiskey and sat there in silence.
“How is everything?” I asked him.
“Good, good,” he replied. “My girlfriend just had my first child.”
“Congrats, Bren,” I said. “That’s amazing.”
“You have kids?” he asked me.
“That’s not for me,” I admitted. “Never wanted them to be fair.”
Brent was quiet for a few minutes, looking into the swirls of his drink. “Yeah, I didn’t either but since I found out…it’s changed something in me, you know. Do you think that you don’t want them because of what happened with your mom?”
“I see a lot of shit, Brent, I see the darker side of humanity and it isn’t something you can unsee. I can’t know what people are capable of and still look at my child the same way. It’s not fair to them.”
He nodded. “I get that. I hear some pretty messed up confessions from my clients.”
Brent had become a defense lawyer. He was literally working for the bad guys. Not that I could talk. I was over here sleeping with my enemy and wanting a repeat performance. I really hated that she had this power over me.
A few more rounds down and our conversation had turned light and airy, and for the first time in a long time, I was enjoying being Kane Garrick rather than Detective Garrick.
“I gotta take this,” he said, holding up his phone. “It’s the baby mama.”
“Jesus, man, you’re a man in your forties. Don’t call your girlfriend that.”
Brent laughed as he headed out of the building that had become slightly more busy. I looked to the bar, wondering if I should get another round when my stomach dropped.
It couldn’t be…could it?
She was here.
Maurelle was here, in Chicago, one leg crossed over the other as she sat at the bar, looking down at her phone. She had her hair down, curled, and she had dyed it a deep red that reminded me of a nice Merlot. I got up, moving over to the bar, unsure of what to actually do when I got there.
She had tried to kill me just minutes after I’d given her the ride of her life. Yet, I couldn’t stop myself from moving up to stand beside her. I leaned on the bar and turned to her.
Slowly, she looked up from her phone, her smile disappearing instantly as she realised I had caught up to her.
Not that it had been intentional.
She looked around to see if I had backup, her calm demeanor changing as it became clear that I was alone.
“Detective,” she said, her voice all but a purr. It did things to my cock, which was currently pushing against the fly of my jeans quite painfully. “I see you escaped from a rather heated fate.”
“No thanks to you.”
“It’s nice to see you,” she said, taking a sip from her martini. “What brings you to Chicago?”
“Do you really think I’m going to walk out of here without you?”
“Oh, darling,” she purred. “I’m not walking out of here with you, and since I don’t see any of your buddies here, I know you’re alone.
Judging from the glassy look in your eye, you’re also intoxicated, so you’re off the clock.
If you’re interested in another go round with me, all you need to do is ask. ”
“That’s not going to happen, Maurelle.”
She finished her drink, taking the stick of olives and seductively pulling them from the pick with her mouth, slowly chewing on them as she looked up at me through those thick eyelashes.
My cock was close to breaking my fly at this point. She shifted in her seat and slid off the stool as effortlessly and elegantly as you’d expect from her. I could smell her perfume again. Violets, that’s what it was. Violets.
Her hand slid down to my crotch, cupping my balls and hard dick through the denim. I let out a grunt at the feel of her squeeze.
“Mmmm,” she said, her lips just inches from my ear. I could smell her hair in my nostrils as she moved against my body. “I see the effect I have on you, Kane. One day, soon, we’ll have more time.”
She moved off, to the doors, where she greeted the man she had come here to prey on. He looked at her with pure love in his eyes.
The poor fucker.
I willed my cock to calm the fuck down before I headed back to the booth. I pulled my phone free and shot a message to Petra.
GARRICK
I need you to pull up surveillance for a hotel in Chicago called the Marquess. Our main suspect is here and she’s got a new man in her grasp.
PETRA
On it.
Petra was the only one I had brought into the investigation on the level of telling her everything.
Well, almost everything. She had no idea of what I’d done with Maurelle, no one did, and I wanted it to stay that way.
Within minutes of sitting down at the booth, I heard my phone chime with an email.
Surprising me, which by now I knew it shouldn’t, Petra had come through with the goods.
GARRICK
Find out everything you can on the man with her.
Petra replied with a simple thumbs up emoji and I pocketed my phone, my mind racing just as Brent came back.
“Bad news, Kane,” he said. “I gotta head home.”
“It’s all good,” I said, getting up from the booth again. “Like I said earlier, I had to get up early and see a witness.”
I walked him out of the hotel foyer and said our goodbyes.
It was only now that I realized just how hungry I was when I smelled the pizza place across the road wafting through my nostrils.
I headed that way to the pedestrian crossing and into the parlor where the smell of oil and hot meat seeped into my senses.
“Pepperoni slice,” I ordered when I got to the counter.
The man with the oil stains on his shirt nodded and moved into the counter display and grabbed a slice of pepperoni, and threw it onto a plate before he handed it over to me with a napkin.
I grabbed a seat at the window and ate. The pizza was the perfect amount of cheese, pepperoni, pizza sauce and oil.
Exactly what I needed to soak up all that alcohol.
I finished my pizza slice and headed back over to the hotel.
It was almost as if I were trying to see if she was here, watching me. I felt eyes on me everywhere in this hotel.
Was she staying here? What were the odds that I would see her when I was working on another case, a cold case at that. It’s almost as if our universes were aligned and we were connected in a way I couldn’t understand.
I walked down the hall after getting out of the elevator and to my room. Swiping my keycard on the door latch, I moved inside. Pulling my jacket off, I threw it over the back of the chair and sat on the edge of the bed.
I felt hot and sticky from the pizzeria, so I undressed and headed into the shower.
Feeling refreshed with a towel wrapped around my waist, I noticed a couple of mini bottles of Jack Daniels on the table with a note.
Mr. Garrick,
Please accept our apologies for the delay in getting your room made today. We’ve comped some Jack Daniels for you. We hope you enjoy your time with us.
Staff at Marquess.
Damn. The delay wasn’t that bad when I checked in, but I suppose if you’re forking out what I was, they had these niceties in place for when things went awry. I cracked it open and drank straight from the little plastic bottle.
A nice little nightcap before bed would be perfect. I put the TV on for some background noise and turned the volume down. It was getting beyond a joke now that I couldn’t focus on sleep unless I had some stupid show on in the background.
I grabbed the second little mini bottle and downed the Jack in that too. Petra hadn’t gotten back to me, so she must be deep diving on Maurelle’s next victim. The woman drove me crazy, but she was damn good at surfing the net for anything and everything.
I looked over at the empty bottles of Jack, my mood elevated slightly. Strange, they usually offered wine or beer, not spirits as an apology in places like this, didn’t they?
Slowly, my mind reeled. How did they know I preferred Jack Daniels over all over brands or that I drank it all?
My gut burned as I realized the note that came with it wasn’t on their stationery or even typed.
It was handwritten on a piece of blank paper.
My vision blurred as I dropped the note on the floor, and suddenly I felt very dizzy.
Had I really fallen for something so blatantly a ruse?
I made my way to the side of the bed to grab my phone but instead, I fell onto the bed just as I heard the unmistakable sound of the door lock clicking over, followed by the smell of violets invading my nostrils.