Page 60 of Devil's Hour
Royce snorted. “Are we going to pretend I didn’t hear Jace telling you to put down the phone and come back to bed?”
“He told me to hang up the phone, and he didn’t tell me to get in bed because I was already there. But you knew that and were baiting me. Well, you caught me.”
Royce laughed. Had they been together, he would’ve mimed reeling in a fish. “Hook, line, and sinker.”
“He went home already,” Holly said. Royce detected a hint of pout in her voice. “What’s this about Crystal doing undercover work? For who? Feds or state?”
“Tell me how you ended up with Jace first?”
“The dumbass nearly blew my cover last night. He showed up at The Alley Cat with a few buddies. The wig and costume disguise didn’t fool someone who knows my body as well as he does. I swear. The things that man can do with his—”
“Holls,” Royce groused.
“The jackass stormed the stage, tossed me over his shoulder caveman-style, and hauled me out of there.”
“Youpermitted that?” Jace was bigger and stronger than Holly, but she was way meaner than him.
“Sometimes a girl likes to be put against a wall and fucked hard, Ro.”
Royce cringed and fought off the urge to gag. She had answered his question though. “A curious thing happened after I requested Crystal’s address.” He told her the rest of the story.
“Whoa,” she said softly. “Are you okay, Ro? I know this has taken a toll on you.”
He could lie and say he was doing okay, or he could be honest with a person who’d never let him down. “No, not really, Holls. I had hoped this Crystal…Amberperson was lying, but she wasn’t.”
“Are you going to tell Candi?”
His first reaction was to say no, because what good would it do? How would that help Candi heal? No matter what anyone said, she’d see Marcus’s affair as her failing. Royce couldn’t let that happen. On the other hand, would she see it as closure? Marcus’s decision to end his life shocked the fuck out of everyone who knew him.
“It might help her come to terms with his suicide,” Holly said, reading his mind.
“I know,” Royce said softly. “I’d rather wait to decide once I know the situation with the IA investigation.”
“I agree there. I’d hate for you to hit Candi with the affair and later hit her with more bad news.”
“Do you think he was dirty, Holls?”
“I agree with you that IA doesn’t waste time or resources unless they have credible intelligence. It doesn’t mean they’re right though. If they are…”
Holly was right. Candi was barely keeping it together as it was. Telling her about Amber could push her over the edge, and if he had to follow that up by telling her Marcus was dirty… He didn’t want to think about what that would do to her.
“What’s next?” Holly asked, breaking into his tumultuous thoughts.
“We’re heading back to the station to tell Rigby that the feds are coming. I figure we have four hours to work this case before they take it over.” Their interview with Ginny McGraw came to the forefront of his mind. “You ever see any pastor or church group causing trouble?”
Holly snorted. “The only clergy I’ve seen are the ones slipping fives and tens in G-strings or disappearing in the private rooms for hours at a time.”
“You sound so cynical,” Royce teased. “They’re probably just preaching to their lost flock.”
Holly hooted with laughter. “I think there was a lot of kneeling going on.”
“How’d you know they were clergymen?”
“Some I recognized from billboards or editorial pieces in the newspapers, and the other dancers told me about the others. They warned me away because they’re stingy with their money. I guess they think dancing for free might be a form of atonement for being a bad, bad girl.”
Royce snorted. “Maybe the tithes were low those weeks.”
“Why’d you ask about the clergymen?”