Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
“Chest,” Royal guessed.
Yao nodded. “Actually, yes.”
“They were dead when they got where Marcus put them. He’s stealing the dead bodies from a morgue,” Royal stated. “We took two of those calls over the last week. Tanika told me about the woman cutting her husband down. The pole to the chest guy was a call that I took the day before we left for Louisiana. You said that guy was the one in my apartment, correct?”
Yao looked at his notes, then nodded.
“Where’s he stealing the bodies from?” I asked. “Someone would’ve reported it if they were any around here.”
“Not necessarily,” Royal shook her head. “Not if they’d already had the funerals.”
I nodded in understanding. If the funerals had already been done, then the family likely wouldn’t check on them ever again.
“So we need to contact funeral homes, and check to see if any of the recently deceased bodies are still where they’re supposed to be.” Yao stood up. “I’ll get on that now.”
Then Yao was gone.
“We’ll reconvene after lunch,” Roberts stood. “Judge St. James, I think we’ve got it from here.”
The asshole nodded as if he’d actually helped in some way. “You’re welcome.”
The prosecutor left with a “call me if you need me” which left the two chiefs in front of me.
Royal was standing by herself, Tanika having returned to her post at some point in the last ten minutes. Leaving the four of us.
“I hate him,” Luke said. “I’ve wanted to say that for the last five years. But, Justice, you didn’t make any friends or do yourself any favors back there. You need to be careful…”
“His daughter is the love of my life,” I said point-blank. “I don’t give a flying fuck if I did or didn’t make any friends. The guy is a piece of shit and he can rot in hell for all I care.”
Royal stepped up beside me and pressed her hand to the back of my neck.
“Justice…”
“He’s right,” Luke said. “Your dad is a piece of shit.”
Royal burst out laughing. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
***
Hours later, when Royal and I were making dinner side by side, she bumped me with her hip.
“You’re not the only one in love, you know,” she said, tossing a piece of pepperoni into her omelet. “A part of me has loved you since you saved my brother’s chair.”
I brought her in with a hand hooked behind her neck. When she was close enough, I dropped a kiss onto her mouth.
“And the other part?” I teased.
“The other part fell in love, lock, stock and barrel, when you knocked your mom and dad into the water and laughed your ass off about it.”
I grinned wickedly.
“I’ll do it all over again.” He laughed. “Just to see you smile.”
She threw in two more pepperonis, then turned off the stove.
My omelet, which was halfway cooked, flew straight out of my mind when I got my first good look at her face.
“Kiss me,” she ordered, flipping off the burner.
I didn’t waste time.
Picking her up and dropping her ass onto the counter beside the ingredients we had spread all over the counter, I deftly pushed between her thighs and leaned into her.
The kiss was hard, wet and unforgiving.
“Justice…” she whispered.
“Yeah?” I pulled back, my breath sawing in and out of my lungs.
“What you did today…” she swallowed. “That meant the world to me. Nobody has ever had my back like that before.”
I grinned then, dropping another kiss onto her forehead. “Get used to it. You’re mine now. Nobody hurts what’s mine. Not even your asshole father.”
She pushed my shirt up then, clearly indicating our talk time was over.
I lifted my arms and bent forward, then stepped back to help her lose the shirt. Seconds later, I was doing the same to her.
Her breasts fell free with a soft jiggle and I moaned at the sight.
“They’re just boobs, Justice.” She laughed.
“They’re my boobs, baby,” I said, cupping them. “All mine.”
“Baby,” she said. “They’ve only ever been yours.”
I liked the sound of that. I liked the sound of that a lot.
I made a mental note to talk to my dad about getting my mother’s engagement ring. Because I had no doubts now. She was mine. Forever.
I leaned forward until I could reach her breast with my mouth, then twirled my tongue around her nipple.
She gasped, her hands going to my hair.
“The other one,” she urged. “Lick the other one, too.”
Since she asked so sweetly, I did. Switching between both of them until she was writhing on the counter.
“There’s only one time that I feel right,” Royal said, squeezing my face. “And it’s when I’m with you. When I’m forgetting all of our problems, and what brought us together in the first place.” She swallowed hard. “I have to be honest here. I wasn’t all that ‘right’ before you came along. I was moving through life while only half living it…and then there was you.”