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JJ
Thank fuck that’s over with.
Blowing out a huge exhale to empty my lungs, I pushed open the Peabody Courthouse’s door, happy to be rid of this case and ready to give my full focus to the next that had been tossed at me atop the one that had just been laid to rest.
We’d gotten a warrant for our latest suspect—that punk Joseph Delaney, and I couldn’t wait to see cuffs locked around the fucker’s wrists.
A man descended the stairs ahead of me, and even though I didn’t get a glimpse of his face, I knew without doubt it was Joseph’s original victim who had refused to press charges.Paperwork waited on my desk back at the station, thanks to a second man who’d come forward.At least the latest victim wanted to bring his rapist to justice.
“Mr.Thomson?”I called.
Mason halted at the bottom of the stairs and turned.
I hurried down the rest of the stairs, pushing out my hand, noting the man in front of him pulled up as well.“Mason.”I greeted him with a firm shake.He appeared much more settled than when we’d last spoken down at the station.
“Detective,” he replied, his brow slightly furrowing.“What are you doing here?”
“Court.”
The guy he’d been following stepped close to Mason’s side, ripping the air from my lungs as our gazes clashed.He was a fucking tall drink of water on a sweltering July day, and for the first time in a decade, I found myself thirsting for someone other than Alex.Unease at the very least should have rolled through me, considering my love for my best friend, but I couldn’t help the quick once-over I gave the man I recognized from snooping online.
And I definitely couldn’t stop my body’s natural reaction to the magnetic draw of him in person.My pulse kicked up.My palms grew damp.My pants suddenly felt too tight.
Kellen Roberts covered his muscles in black from neck to boots regardless of the bright sun.He was pure fucking deliciousness, standing almost eye to eye with me and emanating a sense of confidence that turned me the fuck on.
I had the sudden urge to slam him against the nearest wall and devour his mouth when sex for me had always been on the tamer side.
Swallowing to ease my parched throat, I tore my focus off him for Mason.“Do you have a minute?”
“Sure.”
I nodded toward the bushes off to the side of the courthouse before glancing once more at his friend.
“He stays,” Mason stated, his tone unrelenting.
I didn’t have it in me to argue, so I focused on the task at hand.“I’m wondering if your thoughts on pressing charges has changed.”
“It hasn’t—I just filed a harassment order against him instead.”
My brow furrowed, concern for Mason rising after all I’d learned about his attacker and what he’d recently done to another man.“Has he been in contact with you?”
“Texts—outright threats on my life,” he replied with a slight nod.“Different number than the first time but the same shit.”
Fucking hell.
I had information I wasn’t allowed to share—but gray areas and all that jazz.The young punk who had attacked Mason and now a second man needed to be tossed behind bars, the key dropped into an abyss never to be found again.I didn’t care if Joseph Delaney III had more money than I could imagine.Didn’t give a flying fuck his dad had deep pockets and connections throughout our city.The boy was trouble, and it wouldn’t be long before he took his sense of entitlement and knife play a little too far.
It was my job to stop such an event from happening again.
A quick glance around let me know no one would overhear what I was about to trust Mason with.“You aren’t the only man he’s attacked.”
“What?”
“There was a similar incident…a couple of nights ago.”My gaze slipped down to Mason’s chest, the memory of the carving in his skin still fresh in my mind.“The man was around your age.Drugged, same means of binding but a different knife.That boy definitely has a type.”
“Oh fuck.”
“But unlike you, Joseph’s latest victim wasn’t employed by Elite.”I glanced at Kellen, wanting to lay out all I’d learned onto the table to find out what else my honesty might gain me.The eye contact with Mason’s friend once more seized my lungs, and I fought to stay still rather than encroaching on his personal space to see how he’d react.
