Page 55

Holy shit.

Her dark hair was down, curled to perfection with each tendril weightlessly drifting down her shoulders. Her makeup was flawlessly applied, and dangling from her ears was a set of diamond earrings. She had on a sleeveless, black button-down, and the top three buttons were open as if to purposely expose her cleavage. She was also wearing a dangerously short skirt and a pair of heels with strings that twisted up each milky leg and tied in place just below her knees.

She had no goddamn business looking that fucking ravishing in public.

Phoenix’s head lifted from his desk, and the answer for his strange behavior had literally bitch-slapped me sideways when his whole face lit up like Christmas morning.

My suspicion was proven correct when he got up from his desk and cautiously peered around before he leaned in and pressed a tender kiss to Charlotte’s mouth.

Holy shit.

That son of a bitch actually did it.

He won her over.

But…when?

And why the fuck didn’t he tell me?

“Still nothing?” she asked, pulling away from Phoenix and casually acting like she was staring at a picture frame when another officer had walked by.

“Not yet,” he told her. “The last of the results should be ready soon. I’ll call the lab and find out how much longer it’ll be.”

“Just text me when you know. I have to get to the office.”

Charlotte offered him a loving smile. But when she turned to face me, her smile had flattened faster than a blown tire.

“Good morning, Hutch.”

She walked away then, making my anger grow catastrophically higher when three of my colleagues froze mid step and shamelessly tipped their bodies over to peek up her skirt and at her ass, sharing looks that had me ready and eager to permanently conceal each and every one of their bodies inside some random level of this precinct. Things still may not have been formally settled between us yet, but it didn’t matter. Charlotte Greene belonged to me. I could see now that a discussion needed to be had over her work wardrobe.

“Charlotte,” I croaked, failing to clear the lump in my throat as she paused just before she’d reached the elevators. “We need to—”

“Hey there, Spike,” Kendall Wilson said gleefully as she appeared out of literally fucking nowhere, blocking my view from Charlotte. “Are you and Phoenix free?”

I sighed, cursing low under my breath when I glanced over her shoulder and saw Charlotte was gone.

“Maybe,” I replied, tipping my nose to her. “Who’s asking?”

“My niece called. She said she’ll meet up, but you have to leave now. Should I send Phoenix the location?”

Shit.

“Yeah,” I nodded, straightening my posture as I glanced back at Phoenix. “I’ll let him know.”

Kendall blindsiding me like this was unexpected, but her niece being willing to talk to us was a blessing that couldn’t have come at a better time. I’d made some progress with the security tapes, but before we could start pointing the finger at anybody, we had to be sure we were looking at the right suspects.

“Phoenix,” I yelled, stalking toward him as he got up and finished inserting a paperclip on the stack of pages he was holding.

“Yeah?”

“Check your phone. Kendall just told me her niece is waiting for us.”

“You’re a cunt,” I told Phoenix as he drove us to our destination, angrily shaking my head as I stared out the window. “You told me you were going to fix things.”

“And I did,” he replied smugly, smirking at me through the corner of my eye. “I fixed my relationship with her. Not yours.”

I scowled in my seat, pissed because I knew he was right, and that it wasn’t anyone’s fault but my own. I had plenty of time, days in fact, to fix what I’d broken. Instead, I’d chosen to focus on our cases and had cast Charlotte aside. There was no real excuse for my actions and there was nobody to blame but myself.