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“Really? What was she doing there? You two didn’t tell her anything, did you?”
“Of course not boy, what do you think we are? Green? But listen, she’s heading over to that place right now.”
“Alone?”
“No, Pete’s with her.”
Riley calmed down at the news but barely. “Okay, thanks for letting me know.” He made a U-turn at the top of the driveway and headed back into town after hanging up the phone. He’d had the bright idea while out mending fence that if he had someone to keep an eye on Celia, then he wouldn’t have to be so worried about her all the damn time.
The town’s two busybodies came to mind and seemed to be the perfect fit, and even though they’d refused to let him pay them, he had no doubt that they’d do the job and then some. His only worry was that they might slip up and tell Celia what he was up to, and they’d be hell to pay. Her ornery ass is like to drive him nuts.
She’d be the first to have his balls if she knew, but he couldn’t let that stop him. He knew when he had a good thing going, and she was it. No way was he about to let anything happen to her. She thinks he’s acting this way because of his dead wife, but the truth is, he’s thinking about Sonya and the way her life ended, so pointlessly and in such a dark way.
The fact that Celia had been touched by that darkness is never too far from his mind, and it doesn’t matter that it’s her job. As her man, it’s his duty to protect her, fuck everything else, and that’s that.
CHAPTER 31
Don Simpson was caught completely off guard by the sudden appearance of the two officers who showed up at his office door out of nowhere unannounced. They’d caught him slipping, as the young people like to say since he’d been sure that he’d warded off the female detective the day before. His secretary looked a bit askance at him as she ushered them into the inner office before closing the door behind them.
“Detective, what can I do for you? I thought we already established yesterday that I don’t know the young lady in question, so wouldn’t be of much help with your investigation. Come in, come in.” He made a grand gesture of inviting them in as he gave them his best shit-eating grin. The one that every good lawyer worth his salt had practiced in his mirror at least a thousand times give or take.
It pretty much says we’re all on the same team, nothing to see here and has gotten him out of many a scrape with the boys in blue in the past. The fact that she was a woman should make no difference seeing as how they’re all cut from the same mold as far as he’s concerned. And seeing as how these two were mere small-town rubes it should hold true even more so.
Detective Sparks was in no mood for the smarmy bastard. She was quite sure he’d thought he’d hoodwinked her the day before, not knowing the real reason why she’d left his office in such a hurry. He could have no way of knowing that she’d caught a glimpse of his secret visitor when the person entered the office behind her the day before since she hadn’t let on not even by the blink of a lash.
Without uttering a word, she pulled the notes from her pocket and placed them on the desk in front of him with all the confidence in the world. “I’ve already checked; this is your handwriting, is it not?” There was firm authority in her voice, and the look in her eyes said that this was no easy pushover. She was nothing at all like she had been when he first met her, and Don wasn’t sure what to make of this turn of events.
Don looked down at the scraps of paper before him and felt the blood drain from his head. Why the hell had that fool kept these nonsensical things? He was sure she’d get rid of them straight off the bat since she didn’t want her husband suspecting anything about their little fling. That’s all it was after all, no matter how he’d sold her a bill of goods to get her into his bed and willing to do his bidding. And now it looked like his life was once again going to be in an upheaval because of a stupid little slip-up.
“I…” He peered at the words on the paper, words he knew by heart since he always used the same game on the women he conned into his bed. Damn these stupid fetishes. Think, Don; you can still worm your way out of this, they don’t have anything on you yet.
