Page 53 of Sinful Seduction
“Chief?”
“I took pain pills, and I’ve been drinking green tea. My second-in-charge assures me of the wonderful health benefits associated with the stuff. Other than that, all is well. Can we be done now?”
Justin releases a long sigh, shaking his head from side to side. “Fine. I’llmake calls in a couple of hours and check in with Mr. Morris. I’m invested in the matter.”
“Mmhmm. Okay.”
“Additionally, they’re predicting another rolling blackout at some point later today. If that happens, I’d like to see you at the house again. Sleeping in an overheated apartment is bad for your health.”
“Not even all that tea will counteract the heat,” Aubree deadpans.
“I’ll be around, Chief. If you don’t update me on the things happening in your life, then I’ll seek information in other ways. Volunteering will always be the least painful way.”
“Says you.” I bring my eyes up from my stitches and smile at an unimpressed Aubree. “Goodbye, Justin. Talk to you later.”
“Sure. Bye?—”
I hang up before he can finish, and toss the phone onto the cradle with a noisy clatter. “Get me a new Band-Aid, please, then we’ll do rounds and figure out where everyone is up to. We have regular loads of work, which is already too much. This heatwave was nothing more than seasoning on top, pushing us to our limits. We have an hour where the world isn’t on fire, so?—”
“Says you.” Smirking, Aubree meanders back to her desk, slipping through the door and rummaging through her drawers. After just half a minute, she returns with new supplies. “You never heard about how you shouldn’t jinx us by using those words?”
“I didn’t sayquiet. I didn’t even sayeasy. I just said we should use this time to our advantage.”
“Mmhm.” She tosses a box of Band-Aids on my desk and grabs my phone, hitting the speaker button so her voice rings out at everyone’s desk. “Rounds in the chief’s office. Avengers assemble.”
Real professional. I focus on my busted stitch and press my skin back together like I’m still new at all this. No gloves. No hand washing. No worries. “I’m not restitching this. I’ll glue it back together if I have to, but I’m not going to the hospital.”
“Shimmy your ass onto my autopsy table and I’ll suture you.” She folds over my desk, scowling down at my bleeding leg. “How ridiculous is your blood? Its literal job is to coagulate, and it can’t even do that properly.”
“Its literal job is to transport oxygen and nutrients to my cells and vital organs, if we’re talking technicalities. Coagulation is a secondary purpose, but sure. Go off.” I tear the box open and search for an appropriately sized Band-Aid—the largest one. “Not sure what my parents were thinking, making a dumb baby who didn’t even know how to bleed properly.”
She snorts, shoving the unwanted plasters back into the box while, behind her, medical examiners slowly file in and pretend not to see me hunched behind my desk with one exposed leg. “Shall I get us started, Chief?”
“You shall.” I peel the back off the sticky side and eye my wound, aiming, planning, then I slap the plaster over top and snatch up my bandage for added compression. “I’ll be with you in a moment.”
ARCHER
Istride into the George Stanley at a little past six and cross to the elevator at the far wall. If it were winter, it would be dark out already. Windy. Freezing. But this is Hades, and it’s still summer, so the afternoon sun beats against the glass walls of a building constructed during a different time, back when window tint existed… but not the tint of today.
The air conditioning works on overdrive, cooling the building and doing a decent job of it, but the windows allow far too much heat in and exorbitant amounts of cold out.
Though, that’s a problem for Minka and her accounting team.
I smack the call button and step back, waiting for the elevator to make its way down to the ground floor. I intend to help myself to Minka’s office and drag the dedicated woman straight back out again. Bring her home. Feed her a meal and put her to bed before she works herself sick.
Again.
But when the elevator arrives and the doors slide open, Minka robs the wind from my sails, stepping out with a playful smile and no lab coat on.
“Detective?” She looks me up and down. “You coming or going?”
“Came to get you.” My brows pinch closer together. “You heading out for a case, or…?”
“Leaving for the day.” She scoops her arm around mine and spins me back the way I came. “Fletch texted and told me you were on the way, andsince I know you so well, I figured you’d get bossy and tell me to stop working anyway.”
Why is she so pretty, especially when she’s smug?
And dammit, why is she limping when she assures me her knee doesn’t hurt?