AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hola, papi,” Frania replied before literally batting her eyelashes like a cartoon character.
Jayson’s deep dimples cut into his smooth, brown skin, devastating Frania with a megawatt smile. “You look as enchanting as ever, Frania,” he said, winking at her.
Frania was probably going for coy when she laughed, but a decade of smoking made it impossible. “When are you going to let me practice getting out of those handcu s?” she asked with an eyebrow wiggle.
“Okay, that’s enough harassment for one day,” Charlotte decided as she unlocked her front door and shoved Jayson inside.
“Until we meet again, mi amor, ” Jayson called through the door before Charlotte shut it and dropped her damp boots on the floor.
“Keep messing with her like that and you’re going to regret it,” Charlotte warned as she pulled o her blazer and draped it over the side of the couch by the front door.
“It’s a game we play,” he replied, plopping down on the couch and setting the bag on the second-hand co ee table.
?
?You might be playing, but she’s not,” she said with a laugh as she slipped into her bedroom to change into sweats and release her pinned back hair.
When she returned in worn gray sweatpants and a t-shirt from the car wash she’d worked at when she was a teenager, Jayson had laid out a sushi feast. Charlotte retrieved a couple of beers from the fridge in the tiny kitchen before sitting next to him.
“I should play undercover for the police more often,” she joked as she eyed the spread.
As they ate, Charlotte gave Jayson the play-by-play. She was glad he’d switched shifts and was able to hang out for a while.
He popped an eel roll into his mouth while shaking his head. “That’s not how you were supposed to play it. You’re supposed to give the ingenue vibe. Someone she’s going to want to take under her wing but also believe is harmless.”
“Remind me again,” Charlotte said as she leaned back against the armrest and tucked her legs beneath her. “How many times have you failed at this?” She took a sip of her beer as she stared at him.
Jayson narrowed his honey brown eyes. “If you’re too aggressive, she’ll wonder why you want the job so bad.”
Charlotte laughed. “She could run my credit report and see why I want this job so bad. Trust me, she wasn’t going
for the meek little mouse, Jay.”
“And you’re sure you got the job?” He wiped his mouth before tossing the crumpled napkin into an empty container.
“I think I have the best chance possible, but there are a lot of variables we can’t control.”
“You’re telling me,” he agreed, leaning back and sinking into the old couch.
Worry was etched in his forehead. At thirty, he was one of the youngest detectives in his department, but the pressure to prove himself was starting to show. Maybe not to most people, but Charlotte saw through his babyface and jovial persona.
Jayson had wanted to be a police o cer since he was ten.
He joined a kid’s program at the department when he was fifteen, and by nineteen he was a police o cer. When he started, he couldn’t even carry a gun.
After years spent acting like a minor to catch mostly online predators, he was desperate to be seen as more than just bait for creeps. Charlotte knew he needed to do something major to push his career to the next level.
Catching the city’s biggest and most elusive madam was his ticket.
She turned the conversation to sports to give him something else to think about. A simple question about how the Miami Heat were doing in the playo s sent him into a monologue.
Charlotte’s mind drifted as Jayson talked himself into a tizzy. Alexandra was more or less how she came across in the bits and pieces she found online, but part of her couldn’t
believe the woman was a madam. That spa was legit, and while she hadn’t seen all of it, she never got the feeling there was a backroom brothel lurking behind some hidden door. It was too clean. Too straight-laced.
Jayson was still ranting when Charlotte’s phone chimed.
She leaned over to grab it o the co ee table.
