Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Fuck.
He rolled her to her back and broke away to stare down at her.
“Wow,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” he whispered back.
“You were right, that wasn’t a good thing to do.”
“I know.”
“I’ll be good from now on, I promise.”
He kind of hoped she wasn’t.
Still, he said, “Obliged.”
“Rus?”
“Right here?”
“You’re a remarkable man, and even though the why breaks my heart, I’m really glad I met you.”
Goddammit.
He was right.
He was glad she couldn’t keep her promise for even ten seconds.
He kissed her again.
He got hard doing it.
But…fuck it.
She earned it.
TWENTY-SIX
Seeley Booth
They made out for a while, and Lucinda’s body felt even better under him than it had on top of him, but eventually, he needed to end it.
Lucinda ordered room service while Rus showered, shaved and dressed.
Now they were both at the table, Rus with his laptop open at the side of his plate, and he was watching it boot up as he spooned steel-cut oats into his mouth.
Lucinda, keeping that fine ass of hers in perfect shape, was eating a waffle.
“Now, Special Agent Lazarus.”
He looked to her to see she’d lost interest in her waffle for now.
She had her elbows on the table, fingers linked, chin resting on them, her gaze on him, and seeing her like that, knowing how she tasted, he also knew it would take superhuman control he did not have to wait until this was all over to be with her in all the ways he could.
Seriously.
The woman did not know how to be good.
“It’s not romantic,” she began. “But it would seem apropos for us. So how do you feel about our first date being at the town council meeting tonight? If you’re able, we can go to The Lodge after for dinner. That being The Lodge, the fancy restaurant with a chef not as good as Angelina, not the restaurant here at Pinetop. They have a delicious thick-cut pork chop. As I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, it’s not as good as Angelina’s brown sugar-glazed one, but it’ll be a change of scenery for you.”
With the thought he’d just had, he wanted to say yes.
With what their plans were for the town council meeting that night, he wasn’t sure.
Bohannan had said CK would not hurt him or anyone he cared about.
But Rus didn’t want to take the chance he was being watched, and walk into the council meeting with Lucinda, and Bohannan being wrong.
Instead, having it be that CK felt he owned Rus, his time and his attention, and anyone else taking it would be in danger.
Therefore, regrettably, he had to respond, “I have to have my wits about me at the council meeting tonight, and since this guy I’m hunting may be close, I’m concerned about his reaction to anything…and anyone. This means I don’t want you on his radar. I can come up to your club to have dinner with you there, if I’m not busy after the meeting.”
He reached out and stroked her jaw.
And then he finished, “But even though it’s important you know I’m all in to move this forward, honey, I think we need to be low-key.”
Her gaze had turned soft when he touched her.
When he was done speaking, it turned shrewd.
“Is this about the killer or the town?”
This was an excellent question, and in case she was worrying about any aspect of it, Rus took his hand from her in order to get into it so she wouldn’t be concerned.
“This is the thing,” he started. “Cop shows are great. But they aren’t real. People watch them and think they know what policework means. The truth of the matter, it’s a slog. It’s talking to a lot of people who don’t know anything or don’t want you to know what they know, so you gotta figure out how to get it out of them. And half the time, you fail. It’s witnesses who misremember or have ulterior motives who send you in the wrong direction. It’s others who are scared to talk, or don’t trust cops, so they don’t say anything.”
Chin still on her hands, eyes riveted to him with fascination, Lucinda nodded.
Rus kept going.
“It’s also a lot of waiting. You don’t find evidence that needs processed and boom, techs have nothing better to do and they’re on it right away. In the TV shows, it’s sent off and in the next scene, detectives are in a lab that looks like it’s on the Starship Enterprise and not in some inner-city police precinct. And they’re talking with a technician wearing a lab coat who has a lot of time to do their hair, and suddenly, they’ve got all the proof they need to get their man.”
Her lips curved up.
Rus’s did too.
And he continued.
“That’s not how it is. There’s a backlog. There’s always a backlog. Sometimes it’s days, sometimes it’s months. I mean that. Most DNA, for example, takes months to run, and I don’t mean one or two. I mean it could be six or eight, or even longer. Every crime is important. You can’t skip the line.”