Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
I suck in a breath and let it out slowly. “Have it, I guess.”
“Do you want me to come over and keep you company?”
I glance around my living room that’s cluttered with my notes from all the case files. “No, I’ll be fine. I’m going to clean up and watch a movie.”
“I saw on the news that they caught the killer.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t sound so down about it. You should be proud of yourself. You did it. You solved your first case.”
I stare at the pictures hanging on the dry erase board, and there’s something still not sitting right in my chest. “Yeah, I just can’t understand why Brandon would kill Luna.”
“Maybe she figured it out.”
“There’s just something that doesn’t feel right with me. Like why kill her? She wasn’t even a Greedy Girl, ya know?”
“Yeah. Maybe Brandon is just a sick bastard.”
“He’d have to be.” I sigh. “I just feel like I let everyone down. I’ll probably lose my job as a detective once they find out I’m pregnant by the man I was supposed to be investigating.”
I stare at the picture of Luna’s crime scene. Her living room filled with cozy furnishings. The sunny yellow rug on the floor. A thriving potted plant living its best life next to a sizeable window. Such a pretty set up for an ugly crime scene.
“Do you really think they’ll demote you?”
“They could fire me. I don’t really know. All I know is I don’t want to go back to the beat with Guy as my partner.”
She laughs. “Yeah, he’s a real creep.”
“His gum smacking drives me crazy.” I stare at Luna’s body. Face down.
Face down.
Ass up?
A chill runs down my spine. I think back to the conversation with Luna at work. How her ex only liked her face down, ass up. I can almost hear her saying the words, “My ex liked me face down. Ass up. Smack. Smack.”
At the time, I thought she was talking about him spanking her. Smack. Smack. Other conversations race through my mind. Devereaux talking about an ex boyfriend ruining things at Club Greed. Greer saying it was someone they grew up with.
The conversation with Devereaux at the little cafe, how he had gotten into a fight with someone who was now a cop.
“Oh, my god.”
“What is it?” Ashley asks. “Chloe?” she prods when I don’t answer.
“Ash, I’ve got to go.”
Brandon’s not the killer.
And I know who is.
I need to warn Devereaux.
I snatch the picture off the dry erase board and race to the front door. When I swing it open, I’m standing face to face with deep, dark eyes.
“Where are you going?” he asks.
I try to push past him, but he’s twice my size. And then, he’s got a cloth over my mouth, and I hold my breath so I don’t inhale the fumes.
But it’s no use.
Everything goes dark.
Chapter 42
Devereaux
* * *
Something is wrong. When I pull up to Chloe’s house, her front door is wide open. That’s all it takes for me to break into a run and rush up the porch.
“Chloe,” I call into her house.
There’s no answer.
“Chloe,” I shout, crossing over the threshold. “Are you here?” I step on something and glance down.
It’s a picture of a crime scene. Luna’s dead body on the floor. Tension coils my shoulders as I move further into Chloe’s living room. She has a board with pictures of the entire case on it, and I stare at the gruesome image in my hands, wondering why it was by the front door.
I glance over to the entryway, and that’s when I see a gum wrapper on the floor. I set the picture on the coffee table and move over to pick up the wrapper.
Big Red.
There’s only one person I know who chews Big Red.
My mind recalls Guy Adams when we were sixteen and he sent my swan figurine crashing to the ground. “You think you’re so special but you’re just the son of a whore.” Smack. Smack.
My bones turn to ice when I recount Guy causing a scene at my club. At the time, he was dating Luna and came in yelling at her one night. I had to step in to stop him. His eyes were ablaze with fire as he screamed at me to ‘say my name.’
Guy was always so jealous of me, but would he really do this?
“Chloe?” I call out again, a thread of hysteria in my voice.
Did she figure it out?
I pull my phone from my pocket, fighting to calm my panicked state as I punch in her number. The line goes straight to voicemail.
And then I see her cell phone on the granite kitchen counter.
Fuck.
I sprint back out her front door, shutting it behind me, and hop into my Bugatti. I’ve got my phone pressed to my ear, waiting on Roman to answer, as I peel out of her driveway.