“That’s what I needed. Well, I needed bed and my man, but I’ll take what you just did for now.”
Gene put his lips beside Ethan’s ear.
“If it’s any consolation, you can ride me in a car, too. Beds are nice, but laps are nicer.”
Hell, yeah, they were.
The mischievous, and somewhat hopeful look, made him laugh. Clearly, someone was hinting.
Ethan was about to say something salacious to flirt, but he was interrupted.
They were interrupted when someone cleared their throat, and when they did, both men looked over.
And there was a detective standing right there.
Oh, goodie.
Just what they didNOTwant to deal with at that moment. The universe was just tossing shit their way with this one. Gene wasn’t a fan of this town now either.
It was killing the sexy vibe.
What did a man have to do to sexually harass his partner in the privacy of their own breakfast booth?
“Am I interrupting?” Dannie Pezzimente asked.
Gene stared him down.
“Yes. What do you want?” he inquired, that edge clearly present in his voice.
The man pointed at the seat that was vacant across from them.
“Can I talk to you both?”
Ethan laughed.
“Oh, well, this should be priceless. So far, we’ve been cock-blocked by an ME when it came to working, overly schmoozed by a homicide captain, given the cold shoulder by two detectives who opted to pout, and then someone called out the media on us, but by all means, sure. Have a seat. I can’t wait to hear this.”
Oof.
That said it all.
Still, Dannie sat.
“First off, I’m sorry my partner was cranky with you. She just hates not being in control of a case. It pisses her off. As for our boss, he’s a lunatic, and we think he’s medicated most days. We can’t control him. As for the media, we don’t play games like that. We didn’t call them out on anyone because then that makes us look bad, that we couldn’t handle this case. Also, by now, you’ve researched us, and you know we close cases. We’re good detectives, despite what you’ve seen happen here.”
Ethan and Gene didn’t care.
They closed cases, too.
For them, that was the actual job, and you didn’t get consolation prizes in their world when you dropped the ball. You also didn’t stand in like looking for stars and ribbons when you did your job.
If you fucked around, you ended up dead.
When neither man said a word, he continued.
“I wanted to find you because I saw the news, and you’re all over it. I knew immediately that you were going to think we burned you.”
Gene laughed.
