It looked like he hadn’t gotten far last night. That didn’t mean anything, but… the apartment was a business expense and the neighborhood was new to him. The only thing here that Cade cared about enough to bleed over into the wolf was Marlow.
That would be a problem at some point. It was the textbook example—literally,Romeo and Julietwas on nearly every school syllabus in the country—of why null/wolf relationships could be difficult to navigate. And Juliet hadn’t even been Night Shift.
Cade scrubbed his hand through his hair and decided to worry about that later. He had a crush. It might feel like more—maybe it would become real—but he’d known Marlow a month. Cade would hold off on comparisons to famous tragic romances until they’d at least fucked.
Thatwas a bad train of thought. All the excess energy leftover from the wolf headed for his cock as half-finished fantasies of Marlow under him flashed through Cade’s mind. Scars and sweat-salted skin, lean muscle and tight flesh under Cade’s mouth, and long legs wrapped around his waist—
Cade cleared his throat, shoved those thoughts back into the box for later, and started across the road to the apartment building.
“How did Piper know Marlow was here?”
The phone lay on the kitchen counter. The last call had been from a burner phone the night before. It had lasted under a minute. Piper wasn’t in a rush to follow up with his promised call.
Lem shrugged and poured himself a glass of lemonade. “Lucky guess? It isn’t like your friend has a lot of friends in town right now. If he wasn’t with you, then he was in the wind.” He boosted himself up onto the kitchen table and swung his sneakered feet over the tiled floor. “So, when you go to jail, do I get to run the company?”
“No.”
“Who does?”
“Becky.”
Lem snorted. He took a long drink of lemonade and admitted, “She’d do a good job.” He put the glass down and wiped wet hands on his jeans before he pulled a folded-up envelope out of his jacket. “Addresses. Victor Clemons's old boss thinks you’re doing a background check for some government agency. He is expecting you. It looks like Clemons is still at the Hilton, or his credit card is anyhow. Hehasbooked a ticket to Portland for next week, though… which supports Officer Marlow’s theory.”
“I thought you didn’t believe him,” Cade said as he took the envelope. He slid his nail under the flap to open it. “That you were Team SDPD.”
“I’m Team Mind Our Own Business,” Lem corrected. “The police are paid to investigate crimes, to find out whodunnit… whether the ‘dunnit’ is murder or ‘just’ aiding and abetting a fugitive, by the way, so let them do it. That said… I pulled his disciplinary record.”
Indignation was probably the appropriate response if thiswassomething more than a crush. Cade wasn’t that far gone, though.
“And?”
“He is in the bottom twenty-five percent for use of deadly force,” Lem said. “His psych report from when he applied to Night Shift actually cited his positive relationship with his wolf family as a possible problem for him doing the job. Then there’s the fact he’s licked your tonsils, which isn’t in the file but does suggest that he’s got no problem with wolves.”
Cade flinched at the mention of the psych report. It looked like that was where he drew the line. He didn’t think he’d heard anything so far that would make him need to confess the transgression to Marlow, and he wanted to keep it that way.
He dragged the conversation back on topic.
“And?”
“And Officer Franklin’s file reads real different,” Lem said, the “real” drawn out between his teeth like taffy. “I still don’t see how it’s our business, though.”
“That’s because it’s my business,” Cade told him. “Also, you might need glasses because thinking Franklin wouldn’t be gunning for us next is short-sighted.”
Before Lem could argue, Marlow came out of the other room. His hair was styled back from his face with colored wax, streaks of gray worked into the dark waves, and the navy suit Lem had grabbed for him fit like his tailor wanted to fuck him. The combination somehow managed to look more severe than the all-black Night Shift uniform, more controlled, and Cade forgot how to swallow for a moment.
“Yeah,” Lem muttered to him. “Okay, I can see that.”
“The hoodie would draw less attention,” Marlow said as he fidgeted with the cuffs. “I don’t look like a cop; I look like I’m late for someone’s wedding.”
Late forourwedding?The dopamine-sodden part of Cade’s brain tried to drop that idea into the mess it had already made in there. Cade squelched it. For one thing, he’d be livid if Marlow was late to their wedding, and they’d not be wearing navy either.
“The hoodie might pass on the street,” Cade said. “Not in an office. You look like a detective.”
“Most people say court,” Lem said. “Or a funeral.”
“I wear my uniform to both of those,” Marlow said. He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and slid them on. That didn’t help Cade drag his mind out of the gutter. “But that doesn’t pass unremarked on.”
Cade picked up the phone and tossed it to him. Marlow caught it out of the air one-handed and raised his eyebrows.
