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Charlotte kept her back to me and continued studying the flowers. When she turned, she’d given me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“It’s been a long day and I’d rather not talk about it. How about we get down to business, yeah?”

She didn’t give me time to respond before she’d moved to stand beside me, gathering up the crime scene photos and setting them aside.

“What’s the news on the DNA?” she asked, blinking expectantly at me. “Did you get the results?”

“I did.” I lifted up in my seat and slipped a hand inside my back pocket, pulling out the copies Kendall made at the lab. “And I’m sorry to tell you there wasn’t any DNA present in Amber’s rape kit.”

Charlotte let out a gasp, her blue eyes bugging wider the longer she read through the unresourceful verdict. “You’re shitting me. We got nothing?”

Her pretty face fell impossibly lower when I shook my head.

“Blood came back to Daniel and Amber. Same with the fingerprint samples. We still have the hair follicles, but it’ll take a few days for the lab techs to get everything sorted and tested for additional DNA.”

Charlotte was stressed now, biting fretfully on her bottom lip as she plundered through some pages in the file, grabbing Amber and Daniel’s statements.

“They’re both saying someone approached them at the bar and offered to buy them a drink.”

“That’s right,” I agreed, nodding along the further Charlotte’s fingers trailed down the papers, her face pinched in concentration. “Spike and I went back to the sanctum and obtained the security footage. Which reminds me…”

I paused, lifting up again to grab the USB drive I’d nearly forgotten about, and deposited it on the island.

“That’s it right there. I wasn’t sure if you were really going to quit or not, so I held off forwarding them to your email address.”

Charlotte let out a sigh then, saying nothing as she moved away from me and closer to the sink. Her palms fastened tightly around the counter, and then she tipped her head up to the ceiling, shoulders coiled, expelling what obviously had to be one painfully long breath.

“I suppose we need to talk about this. I mean, me being Eve is part of the reason you’re here, right?”

“It is,” I muttered, swallowing as the nerves immediately took flight in my stomach when she whipped around, her arms folded and pressed tightly to her chest. “But you’re also Charlotte Greene, our new CDA. That is also why I’m here. To fix the damage my partner caused.”

“I know I should’ve come clean about my involvement with the sanctum. But to be completely honest with you, Phoenix, that part of my life was supposed to be nothing but me living out a fantasy. Just some harmless fun and nothing more. None of this—you really being Phoenix and Spike being Spike—none of this was supposed to happen. That’s why I gave a fake name. I purposely kept that part of my life a secret so that it wouldn’t clash with my real life.”

“Why give us your number then?” I had to ask, cocking a curious brow at her. “If you never intended for this to turn into something more, then what changed your mind?”

Charlotte sighed, frowning as her shoulders slumped. “I don’t really know.”

“Bullshit.” I rose to my feet, starting to get angry. “Why did you give us your number if you didn’t want to be with us?”

Charlotte’s jaw trembled, and I internally sucked in a breath, feeling like shit because the last thing I wanted was to upset her or make her cry.

“I-I’m lonely, Phoenix. I gave over ten years of my life to a man I’d planned to grow old and one day start a family with, and instead of honoring me and our marriage, he chose to run off and bury his cock inside of a fucking nineteen-year-old. Some of the best memories I’ve had recently have been at the sanctum, and, well… It’s been a very long time since I’ve genuinely felt wanted. Needed. I thought maybe it was worth the risk, and so, I caved and decided to give you my number. I just never in a million fucking years thought doing so would’ve landed me here.”

“And now?” I asked, gaining the courage to step closer to her. “Now that you know the truth, have your feelings changed?”

I moved closer, noting her lower back squeezing harder against the counter and her breath shuddering as she swallowed, her pupils dilating.

She was nervous. Maybe even a bit aroused.

Good.

Because little did she know, I was just as terrified even with my cock pressing painfully hard against my zipper.

“Because mine haven’t,” I whispered, closing the distance and pausing directly in front of her, my lips a few breaths from hers. “I want you, Charlotte. I don’t care that you lied about your name, that you’re our CDA… Hell, I don’t really give a fuck about none of it. All I’ve ever cared about has been you from the start.”

“But-but Spike—”

“—is an asshole,” I fiercely cut in as I grasped her cheek and pulled her closer to me, brushing my lips across the shell of her ear. “I can’t speak or fully atone for his actions. That’s something the two of you will have to sort out amongst yourselves. But this, you and me, what I feel for you isn’t just sexual, Charlotte. You’re a mystery I’ve been dying to solve since the moment I laid eyes on you.”