Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117443 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117443 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
“You’re pathetic,” he told her. “You’re-”
“I want you!” she cried. “I want you so bad. Look! Just look!” She pulled up her shirt and Chris nearly vomited into his mouth. She had a tramp stamp just above her ass. One word. Shooter in black scrolling letters.
He reeled backward so fast he toppled the chair behind him. “Jesus. Jesus God, Deanna. That’s fucked up. You’re insane!”
At that moment the office door opened and Tex stepped into the room. He took in the sight of Deanna still prone on the desk, ass in the air. From his position he couldn’t see the tattoo. He also took note of Chris’s belt hanging loose around his waist. “Well, now. Looks like a party to me. Can anyone join in?” His tone was light, but he glared at Chris intensely.
“Get. Out.” Chris snapped. No one moved, but Chris grabbed Deanna’s shoulder and hauled her up off the desk. “Get. The fuck. Out. Now. You are certifiably insane. Stay away from me. Stay away from everyone I love.”
Something in Chris’s ice cold demeanor must have gotten through to her, because she wiggled her skirt down, grabbed her purse off the desk and fled past Tex who barely inched out of the way so she could pass by.
“She’s nuts,” Chris told Tex while fastening his belt.
“Uh huh.”
“She is! She’s got my fucking name tattooed on her ass!” Chris shouted, still bewildered at the sight of it. “My name! Who does that?”
Tex leaned against the door frame. “Two kinds of women. Crazy ones and ones in love. Sometimes they’re one in the same.”
Chris tucked the end of his belt into the loop and came around the desk. “She’s god damn insane,” he repeated. “Coming here, dressed like that, with my name on her ass.” He shook his head. “I don’t even know what to do with that.”
“Hmm,” Tex replied. When Chris got closer to the door, Tex shuffled out of his way. Then punched him in the face.
“Fuck!” Chris yelled, staggering to the side. He brought up one arm to ward off his friend but Tex appeared to have said what he wanted to say on the matter and leaned back against the door frame.
“What the fuck?!” Chris demanded.
“You know what the fuck.”
Chris looked from Tex to the open door. “She’s crazy!”
“Really? And in all her craziness she managed to undo your belt and hitch herself up on your desk, nice and naked from the waist down, all ready for a good, hard ride?”
“I wasn’t going to do it!” Chris insisted.
Tex was unmoved. “Uh huh. And if it had been Slick who walked in that door instead of me? Think she’d fall for that line?”
Chris felt the blood drain out of his face. It was Friday. It was one of Hayley’s usual days to bring lunch. He hadn’t figured she would because of the kind of week it had been, but she still might have. Then he realized that Deanna probably knew Hayley delivered him lunch on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. “That bitch!” he bit out, glaring out the open door. “She wanted Hayley to catch us!”
“Possibly,” said Tex. “Certainly wouldn’t have hurt Deanna’s campaign if she did.” As Chris stared out the door, Tex punched him again.
“Son of a bitch! Stop doing that!” Chris bellowed.
“Now you listen to me,” Tex said calmly while Chris squeezed his right eye shut. “I don’t know what the fuck you thought you were doing in here with that seven headed sea monster. I don’t want to know.”
“I wasn’t-”
“Shut up,” Tex ordered and for the first time in his life, Chris took orders from his Sergeant. “Whatever you were doing, whatever that was, if Hayley had walked in here and seen it, it would have broken her heart. Broken her heart, Chris. Is that what you want? Because you’re already in a world of shit right now and I’ve got to tell you, your relationship cannot sustain one more direct hit. So you better get smart and figure out a way to get Deanna out of your lives without the use of violence and don’t get caught in a room alone with her until you do. Now come on. We got work to do. Can’t hang out in the office all day, banging chicks.”
Chris sighed and straightened up. “I wasn’t going to bang her.”
“Well, I know it’s too much to hope you were gonna use that belt on her ass. She’s damn lucky she’s fixated on you instead of me.”
Chapter 29
Hayley was picking up two Buds and whiskey sour from the bar when someone spoke from behind her. Offhandedly she wondered why she didn’t notice a temperature drop.
“Well, if it isn’t Betty Crocker.”
Hayley glanced over her shoulder, but didn’t respond.
“Watch it, Deanna,” Maria warned. “Don’t start trouble in my place.”
Deanna flashed a toothy smile and a perfected “Who Me?” look, complete with kewpie doll lips. “I’m not!” she insisted. “I was just saying that it looks like Hayley here has been working a ton of hours lately. Which explains a lot.”