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“Tell me what’s going through your head?” he asks me, as I remove my helmet, which he takes in his other hand and hangs on the handlebars.
I can’t help but groan as his hand moves from my waist and squeezes my arse. “Nothing that should be if you do shit like that.”
He lets out a grumble of laughter as he grips my chin with his other hand. “Talk, Roxanne,” he demands.
Eyes locked on his, I sigh. “So much, Mad. We have so many puzzle pieces and I just don’t know how we fit them together. Even the ones we do have don’t feel like they fit exactly.”
“Your plan is a solid one, Roxanne, don’t doubt that. But I do know what you mean. I’ve felt from the start that we’ve been missing things, important things. I think we need to be at that meeting with Bonner and Laskin if it happens.”
“Agreed,” I say with a nod, a car squealing round the corner and coming to a stop beside us. A cloud of dust rises, and Zak appears from the car, slamming the door shut.
“Fucking traffic!” he grumbles.
Maddox releases me, and I see the chin lift he gives Zak over my head.
Curious, I ask, “What’s going on?” I wave a hand above my head, pointing between the two of them.
“Before we go in there, we need to talk,” Zak says firmly but with an edge of…something.
I spin around to face him, and he has a strange look on his face, like guilt. The only other time I remember him looking that way was the night my mum was murdered, and he and Maddox said goodbye to me.
His feet shuffle and I rack my brains for anything that could possibly make him this uncomfortable. Then I remember his reaction yesterday when we were talking about the girl that was murdered.
“Is this about that girl, Lila?” He nods just as a young lad, no more than seventeen comes over and starts talking to Maddox. “This the same girl that was working behind the bar at The Scarlett Door that night?” Again, he nods, and I cut him off when he tries to talk. “You don’t need to explain, Zak. I’m not interested in who you fucked before me just as long as you weren’t screwing us both at the same time.” My tone is matter of fact but inside I’m anything but. Of course, I care who he and Maddox have fucked before, but I’m in no position to comment or judge them given the fact I screwed Noah just before I got with Maddox for the first time.
“How do you know that?” he asks cautiously, like it’s a trick and I’m going to catch him out.
“I saw the way she looked at you that night.”
“Then you’ll have seen that I only have eyes for one fucking woman, and she’s standing right in front of me.” His hands come up and grip either side of my face, making sure that I’m focused completely on him. “Not gonna lie, I’ve slept with my fair share of women, but there has only ever been you, Rox. And I’m happy to prove it later.” He gives me a wink and a quick kiss that earn us a whistle from the young lad talking to Maddox, that in turn earns him three scowls to which his only reply is to hold his hands up in defence.
Maddox steps forward, and the lad near on shits himself until he realises that Maddox is holding out a wad of notes.
He takes them tentatively, stuffing them in the top pocket of his jacket. “Same as always. Thanks, man, and I didn’t mean nothing by it just having a laugh,” he says, looking to each of us.
Now I can see him better, I recognise him. “Staying out of trouble I see, Trent.”
“Nah, it’s all good. I’m just looking after Mr Lawler’s car is all. Nothing dodgy, I promise, Detective Whitmore.”
“For fuck’s sake, Roxanne,” Maddox says with a shake of his head and a small smile playing on his lips.
“Not a detective anymore, Trent. I’m just messing with you. But you stay clean, okay.”
“Yeah, yeah, I will,” he assures me, as we turn towards the flats.
Remembering I left something behind, I grab the keys from Zak and quickly retrieve my bat from the back seat. I stroll towards them with it dangling from my hand.
As we enter the building and climb the stairs, my fingers tighten around the handle, and I can feel the adrenaline begin to flow through my veins.
Bowser better have some good answers as to why there is a picture of a guy that looks like him in the evidence Theo gathered on the people that sold my sister or he’s going to be leaving this flat at the very least on a stretcher.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Maddox
Iwatch Roxanne’s arse as she climbs the stairs behind Zak, cursing the fact I can’t just fuck her here in the stairwell. I mean I could, but I won’t.
“Whose is this place?”
