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“Well, of course,” Fletch agrees. “So his cock first. You made it useless and you made it painful. Then what?”
“Ankles.” He raises his hands to mimic holding an axe. “So he couldn’t run.”
* * *
Stepping out of the station at just past six and arriving into a wind chill cold enough to remind me of flayed cocks, I turn to Fletch and huddle into my coat. “Where to?”
“Minka picked Mia up for me.” Shivering under his jacket, he takes out his phone and tap, tap, taps away at a text. “I told her to go back to one of our apartments and I’d catch up with them as soon as we were done for the day.”
Tapping his screen and bringing the device up to his ear, he places a finger between us as though to tell me to wait. “Delicious?” The moment the call connects, his grin notches up a few degrees. “Tell me you’re inside, because it’s freezing out here.”
He chats for a moment. Laughs. Fucking flirts. Then hanging up and moving in the direction of the George Stanley, he slips his phone back into his pocket and begins walking with his head down.
“She’s pretty awesome, you know that?” He tilts his head so I catch the corner of his eye. “Minka. She’s kinda abrasive sometimes when she thinks a guy is making stupid fucking mistakes, but her heart is there. For the one in need, the innocent one, her heart is exactly where it needs to be.”
“Mm.” Digging my hands into my pockets, I keep pace with him. “You don’t know everything, Fletch. You don’t know what’s going on between us.”
“I know you look at her like she’s the only reason you get up each day and breathe.” He pauses for a moment and stares in to my eyes. “And she looks at you like you’re the only person on the planet who gets her. Like she depends on you, and though shecouldrun solo her whole life and depend on no one, shewantsyou to be the reason she has a weakness.”
“Fletch—”
“Obviously, I don’t know everything that’s going on, and I know I probably never will. It’s none of my business, and it’s for you and Dimples to figure out together. But I knowyou, Arch.” He takes a right turn when I expect us to keep moving straight. “I know you don’t often love. I know you don’t let folks that close. And I know from the moment you met that woman and stopped a fucking foot chase to stare at her, this was something new. That it was beyond even your control, and that none of us really even had a choice in what happened next.”
“She says I have a choice.” I allow my steps to slow, now that the building on our right blocks a lot of the wind. “She says I just have to choose to want what she wants, andbam, everything is all better.”
“So… what? She wants a dog, and you’re sayinghell no?”
I scoff, but I consider his analogy and run with it. “Say she wants a fucking wolf, Fletch. A real-life, massive paws, raising hackles when it’s pissed, sharp teeth, tear-your-throat-out wolf. And say she loves this wolf.”
Then I shake my head. “No, she doesn’t love it. But she feels a deep responsibility for it. She can’t give it up. She refuses.Isee the danger this wolf possesses. I see how it might be cute and fluffy for a bit, but someday, it’s gonna spin on her and kill her dead.”
My heart aches just saying the words out loud. Adrenaline floods my veins, and a throbbing pulse hurts my head. “It’s gonna kill her, Fletch. And I’m just trying to protect her from that inevitable outcome.”
“So… could you get her a less dangerous pet? Would she not consider a beagle?”
“She won’t. Says my options are to choose the wolf, or to say goodbye to whatever it is we could be. That’s it. In or out, and she won’t bend even a little bit.
“But it’s not evenonlyabout the dangers of having a wolf. There are also the legalities of having a wolf for a pet. There are rules about that sort of stuff. She knows she’d be breaking the law, and she knows I kinda like enforcing the law. Still,” I sigh, “choose the wolf, or fuck off and don’t come back.”
“Tough call.” He turns that over in his head for a moment and chews on his bottom lip. “Zero compromise on her end? She won’t even consider, like, a wolf with dwarfism?”
I choke out a laugh. “No.”
“And she doesn’t care that owning a wolf might be against the law?”
“I mean, she knows it,” I answer. “But she considers the needs of the wolf to be more important than the reach of the law.”
Glancing up at a street leading away from the apartments of anyone I know, I ask, “Where the fuck are we going?”
“To hell, probably.” He looks across at me and smirks. “And although you’re a cop, although you swore to uphold the law, are you willing to lose Minka over a rule that’s only itty-bitty in the grand scheme of things? I mean, it’s not like a judge is gonna spank you too bad for owning a wolf.”
“Judge will do more than spank us, Fletch. But like I said, chances are the wolf will kill her first. And then what? I lose her anyway.”
“So now you’re saying no matter what you choose, you lose her in the end?”
“Seems that way,” I growl. “Unless she somehow figures out how to stay safe from the wolf.”
“Well, then,” he makes a sharp stop just outside a store named Lori’s. “Sounds to me like maybe instead ofnotchoosing her, you should do your best to build your new pet wolf a cage or some shit.” He twists the handle to the front door. “Offense over defense. Make the wolf safe for her.”
