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“I made you do all the work,” he teased. “It’s understandable that you’d be out of breath.”
He had made me do all the work. But mostly he’d made me do all the work because he’d seen the flash of fear that’d frozen me for a few seconds. Had understood it, and had let me take over so that I could be in control.
“Did you go?” I asked. “Because I can’t remember. My mind was a little… focused on myself.”
He chuckled. “Yes. I went.”
Those words were a bit of a growl, though, and it made tingles race up my spine.
“Good,” I breathed. “Give me five minutes. I want to do that again. Only a lot slower. With you on top.”
I gave him thirty.
Together we lay on the floor and talked quietly.
But it was more than obvious that my worry wasn’t going unnoticed.
I could tell he was about to ask what had me freaking out, but before he could, his phone rang.
He sighed. “That’s the chief’s ringtone. I need to get that.”
I moved off of him reluctantly, feeling the distinct wetness between my legs confirming his release as well.
I felt my face flush as I all but crawled toward his phone, then pushed it across the floor toward him.
He picked it up and answered it within a few seconds.
“Yeah?”
There was a long pause before Taos turned to look at me as he turned his phone onto speaker. “She’s what?”
CHAPTER 12
Works out but clearly loves food.
-T-shirt
TAOS
“Maria’s dead,” Chief Wilkerson announced roughly. “Found her in your old house, that was sold last week. Couple of neighbors were complaining about lights from there that weren’t supposed to be on since nobody was living in it yet.”
I looked at my watch. “We just saw her about an hour ago.”
“We?” Chief Wilkerson sounded intrigued.
“Fran and I,” I said. “We were working out at the gym. Maria tried to come in, but I’d locked her out. It was thirty minutes past when class started, and I’d locked it. We saw her during our workout. I didn’t answer the door.” He paused. “Are you sure it’s her?”
I saw no reason in lying to him about my actions.
He’d find out anyway.
That, and I didn’t see a point in lying. There was no secret about Maria’s and my mutual dislike for each other.
“Would’ve, too, if my ex had acted like yours,” Chief muttered.
Fran coughed and looked away, bending down to gather the bra that I’d discarded on the floor in our haste to get at each other.
She shrugged it on before I said, “How was it done?”
“Get here and see.”
• • •
Fran and I separated at the front door as I locked up.
“You okay?” she asked carefully.
I nodded once. “Okay. Curious. Wondering if I fucked up inadvertently, but ultimately, I’m okay. There was obviously no love lost between us.”
She nodded, then leaned forward and pressed her mouth to mine.
“When you’re done, and if you want to spend time with me, you’re more than welcome to come over,” she whispered.
Then, without another word, she left, running through the pouring rain in the short shorts that I’d given her earlier, looking back over her shoulder twice before diving inside of her POS car and closing the door.
I watched her drive away in the pouring rain, then jogged to my car and got inside. Once I was buckled in, I sat in my seat for a few long seconds as I tried to scrounge up the will to care.
Sadly, though I ‘knew’ Maria, I didn’t really have much more feelings for her other than a mutual acquaintance type thing. I should probably feel bad that my ex-wife died but…
I started my car, and it rumbled to life with a throaty roar.
Then I drove to the old house that I used to share with Maria.
There were about twenty people milling about out front with umbrellas, and I could see Chief Wilkerson standing on the front steps with his arms crossed over his chest.
I snagged my leather jacket, which honestly looked fucking ridiculous with my knit pants and tennis shoes, and shrugged it on before running toward the front.
The moment I got there, a baby cop tried to stop me, either not recognizing who I was, or just wanting to be a dick.
“Stop,” the cop ordered.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, my gaze landing on the chief. “You gonna handle this, or am I?”
The chief rolled his eyes and said, “Martinez, back off. That’s Taos Brady.”
The cop’s eyes widened comically.
“Oh, shit. Sorry.” He backed off, allowing me to pass without another word.
See, when you solved a serial killer case like I had, your name was flashed all over the news media. Meaning, I was now really fuckin’ famous. Not only did they know my real name now, they knew my pseudonym, too. Which was a huge selling factor in how well all of my books have done.
