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I could feel my temper rising as the truth of Schindler’s words came to light.
“…I need you to tell me what’s she doing that you think is so dangerous?”
“Oh… I see.” He had said. “You don’t know, do you? She hasn’t told you.”
“Hasn’t told me what?”
“Sorry, Sergeant, I thought you could help her, to get her to stop. But if you don’t know what she’s doing—”
“You’re right, I don’t. So why don’t you tell me so I’m in the know.”
“No can do. I think the story will be best coming from her. Just ask her what she does in the dark and where she goes whentheycall her.”
I had a feeling who “they” were, which only fueled the sparks of rage ready to exhaust my patience, my control.
I glanced over at the quiet figure sitting next to me. Her eyes were focused on the blurry scenery outside of the passenger window, but I could see her body was tense, hands shoved between her thighs.
There was a part of me that wanted to comfort her, to tell her not to worry, and that everything would be fine. But there was that other half, the one that didn’t like fucking secrets, and she was holding a crap load of them from me.
We arrived at her hotel without a single word spoken between us, the tension between us high and unsettled. The silence continued after I parked, escorted her inside the building and to her floor. I opened her door, checked the room to make sure we were alone, and no one had entered while she was out.
Only when I nodded that all was clear did she speak.
“Thank you for the ride home and for… everything else. I’m sorry that my stupidity has you involved.”
She stood by the door, leaning her back against the wall, eyes downcast.
I felt that pull towards her that I always felt when I was in her presence, but this time I ignored it, too pissed to allow myself the pleasure of having her in my arms.
I maintained my distance and instructed, “Why don’t you go take a shower, change out of those clothes? We’re going to need them for any trace evidence. But I need you to handle them with care until I can find a plastic bag for them.”
Her eyes grew wide, but she nodded and slowly made her way into the bedroom.
I glanced around the room and found an unused clear plastic bag hanging over a small garbage can. I opened the bag to check for its size. It was large enough to fit her shorts and top.
I followed her to the bathroom once she started making her way, a change of clothes in hand. I instructed her to remove her shorts and shirt carefully and hand them to me. I thought she would step into the bathroom and pass her garments through a crack in the bathroom door. Not sure why I had thought that. This was Phoebe, after all.
She stood right in front of me, in front of the entrance to the bathroom and removed her shirt first and handed it to me, her arm outstretched in my direction. I had to blink away the sight of her beautiful tits to open the bag and allow her to stuff her shirt inside. Next, she removed her jean shorts and as she placed those in the bag too, my eyes roamed over her body.
I had forgotten just how sexy she was, her beautiful curves and lusciousness called to me. I had been thinking about her, even more than before, since our last night together. Since things changed between us. Unfortunately, I couldn’t address that right now, even though I was dying to. Instead, I had to deal with bullshit.
I closed up the bag, feeling my temper growing as seconds passed and this gorgeous as fuck woman stood in front of me half-naked. Her brown eyes held mine, darkening, showing me where her mind had slipped to, despite all that happened tonight. Hell, I couldn’t blame her. My mind was doing the same. However, I didn’t have the luxury of indulging, and neither did she.
“Go take a shower, Phoebe,” I instructed coolly, letting her know I was not in the mood. “I’ll be here waiting for you when you get out. You and I have shit to discuss.”
I turned my back on her—fuck, that shit was harder than my dick at that moment—and headed for the living room couch, pulling out my cell phone and dialing my team for an update.
I heard the bathroom door close softly behind me, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. I swear this woman was going to be the death of me.
As Phoebe showered, I spoke to my team, getting updates on the crime scene, any forensic evidence that was found, and any other leads. So far, we had nothing. Danny had checked the security footage of the surrounding neighbors to see if Phoebe was on them at any point in the night, something that would contradict her statement. Luckily, he hadn’t found a thing, however it was unlucky too. The neighbors across the street didn’t have cameras, so we couldn’t see the arrival of Santos or the arrival of the girl. We retrieved Santos’s doorbell camera footage and saw when Ansley arrived. She used a key and entered the house. Around forty-five minutes later, Santos and three of his goons arrived. Nothing else appeared on the footage until about fifteen minutes later, when Santos and his men left.
Danny couldn’t see any differences in appearance. There wasn’t blood on clothing. Nothing that would indicate the altercation between Santos and his girlfriend. Nothing.
Also, and this was huge, until we got a court order for the security footage for Santos’s home, we couldn’t use any of the footage Danny retrieved. One good thing I could say was that Phoebe wasn’t on the footage. I had thought that strange considering there were cameras surrounding the parameter of the house. Ivey thought it strange too and as he walked around the house, he found the cameras on the back of the house had been busted.
Phoebe didn’t mention anything about destroying cameras as she made her way inside the house. It stood to wonder if Ansley had done it to make sure her friend wasn’t found on any security footage, or it had been like that before tonight. Knowing how the young woman did her best to keep Phoebe safe, I had to assume she had been the reason the cameras had been destroyed.
I ended the call with the team instructing them to keep me posted on the investigation. I let Ivey know I would interview Phoebe again about what happened tonight to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything crucial. Then I would address the shit Schindler had told us.
