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I was here under duress, potentially putting someone through the same, distressing emotions I went through the other night. I wasn’t here to think about the hot cop behind me.
I took a sip of my drink and cast my gaze out over the casino, like I had so many times before. Except this time I wasn’t looking for someone looking for me. I was looking for someone trying to avoid the man behind me.
I hoped whoever I was looking for was smarter than I was. That they could sense they were being watched or were smoother than many I knew.
The saddest part was the people we were more likely to arrest were the new girls. The ones who were desperate enough to skip from stripping to sex just to pay their way.
The people the LVPD were really interested in were smart enough to not get found out. Like I had been until my own frustration had trapped me.
The guilt crept through me like poison. I already recognized one woman by the blackjack table. In a casino as busy as this one was, there would be several more.
A quiet half an hour and the emptying of my sadly non-alcoholic drink passed before I saw it.
The woman in her thirties, draping herself over a gentleman at the poker table. She tickled her fingers over his shoulder, pushing herself against him as she whispered in his ear. He laughed, wrapping an arm around her. His hand crept across her thigh and tugged up her dress.
Nobody noticed—of course they didn’t. They didn’t care. They didn’t need to notice.
But I did.
I didn’t know who either of them were. Maybe she was just a mistress. Maybe our paths had never crossed. Maybe she’d even come with him.
Those things all made it easier.
I turned into Adrian and with my eyes down, said, “Poker table. Blue dress. Black hair. The guy with the light blue shirt.”
“You sure?” came his gruff reply.
I nodded. My throat was swollen, the lump there too thick to speak past. And as he pulled out his phone, I felt nothing but the acute sense of betrayal on her behalf.
What if she had a child?
What if she had an ill mother?
What if, what if, what if?
“Let’s go.” Adrian pushed away from the bar and pulled me up.
I glanced at the table. “They’re still there.”
“You want to watch them be arrested in about twenty seconds?” He flattened his hand on the small of my back, holding me against his hard body.
I shook my head. No. I didn’t. Not at all.
“Then let’s go.”
Halfway out of the casino, with his arm still around my waist, I peered back across the room, just in time to see the guy swing for an officer and get himself cuffed for his effort.
Chapter Six
Adrian
She looked like she wanted to be anywhere other than with me.
Not that I was taking it personally. I was surprised she hadn’t thrown up when she’d pointed out our first arrest of the night to me. I didn’t believe it was the first person she’d noticed, more that it was the first she felt comfortable mentioning.
Same with the second arrest of the night. My boys were delighted, but she was getting quieter and quieter as each minute ticked on. I doubted we’d get an arrest on our current attempt.
My gut told me she was done for the night.
That she’d help, but she’d do so on her terms and her terms alone.
It annoyed me, but at the same time, I understood why she was so against this. If her role were reversed with someone else and she ran the risk of being outed without an escape—well.
She wouldn’t have got as lucky as she did with me.
Lady One and Lady Two, as we’d taken to calling them, were both at the station. They hadn’t gotten lucky. They were the price for Perrie’s freedom, and I was pretty sure that was the other reason why she was so reluctant to do it.
Unfortunately for her, that was the way this was. If we had to have some push and pull until she finally did it properly, then that was fine. I’d play her game the hesitant way. As long as we were making arrests, that kept our taskforce—and potentially our jobs—safe.
I glanced over at her across the table. Her eyes were flitting side to side, but she wasn’t really seeing anything. They were shiny but unfocused, an act that said she was looking without ever paying attention to what it was she was looking at.
It gave me a chance to look at her. Really look at her, under the guise that I was making sure she was doing her job.
I was, but still. There were worse things I could do that sit opposite Perrie Fox and enjoy the view in front of me, even with the knowledge that she was untouchable.
