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I groan, slouching like a sullen teenager.
“If you can give me what I want, I can start getting the ball rolling on your reinstatement,” he challenges.
“I don’t know what to tell you, cap. I’ve broached the subject, and she has told me unequivocally that she has no connection to anyone in the force.” I scrub my hand over my face and try to hide the unwelcome relief that comes from honestly not being able to give him anything.
He scoffs, giving me a wry look. “And you believe her?”
“I have no reason not to,” I say defensively. “I haven’t seen anything to suggest that she has connections. Nothing.”
“There’s got to be something you can tell me.” He’s angrier now and I’m taken aback slightly. Swallowing and visibly calming himself, he turns back to me. “Forget moles in theforce, have you got anything else on her that we can use? What criminal activity have you witnessed.”
I feel a little uncomfortable with the change of tactic. That wasn’t what we’ve agreed. There’s so much I could tell him: the guy now missing his ears, the doctor she threatened to drive into the river, the two children who are currently living in her house with no official guardianship. But I find myself not feeling the need to divulge that to my captain, not even to get my job back. It’s a strange and uneasy realisation. Annika has broken the law, but I have found myself justifying every action.
“I don’t know what to tell you.” I shake my head. “She doesn’t trust me; she hasn’t let me in on anything.”
His bushy, grey eyebrows dip, a hint of fury in his eyes. “You have nothing? Not a thing you can give me?”
I shake my head, maintaining eye contact so as not to give away my lie. The disappointed look he gives aimed at me rather than the lack of information and I feel a pang of guilt. Captain Marks has been my mentor and friend for nearly a decade and I’m letting him down by not telling him what I know. Annika Wolfe has been my employer for a week, she’s showed barely contained contempt for me, a serious lack of trust and a very reluctant lust. But I’m hesitant to jeopardise her operation. I tell myself it’s because I just haven’t seen the grittiest areas of her lucrative business, but in reality, it’s her. I don’t want to cut my time with her short. I don’t want to hurt her. And that is a big problem.
“Fine,” Marks says, running thick fingers through thinning hair. “But I need you to work harder, get more from her and do what you’ve got to do to come back to the department. You’re a great cop, Campos. We’re worse off without you.”
“Why don’t you just hire me back then?” I say, somewhat petulantly.
“Because you have to earn it,” he snaps. Opening the door to his car, he starts to dip into the driver’s seat before hitting me with a sharp glare. “Don’t let me down, Harvey.”
Then he’s gone and I’m left alone on top of the city but the weight of its criminal queendom resting on my shoulders.
20
ANNIKA
We’ve settled into a routine, it’s been over a week since the girls came to stay and I’ve found myself working away from the house less and less, wanting to get home to have dinner with them. Keeley has become obsessed with movies and princesses. Mabel has started doing online classes and she is the most curious person I know. She wants to know everything about everything, and I find myself looking forward to answering her questions. The club is so quiet during the day, I don’t enjoy working these hours but it’s worth it to be home while the girls are still awake. However, my presence has been missed and today, a busy Saturday, I’m working my usual night hours.
Harvey has stayed with us, using a blow-up mattress in one of the unused bedrooms and I’ve been acutely aware of his lingering presence around every corner. His citrus scent seems to follow me around and I can hear his carefree laughter when I’m not in the same room as him. It’s driving me insane. He spends as much time as he can with the girls, too, delighting in playing with Keeley although she has shown much caution in getting too close to him. To anyone. She’ll talk until she’s run out of breath, laugh and sing —very poorly—but physically shekeeps a distance. Not even Guinevere has been able to touch her, she tried to wipe her face the other day and the girl shrieked, running to hide behind her sister. Mabel remains cautiously distant from us all and I can only understand her hesitance to trust. Afterall, it’s how I’ve built my own life.
I’m sat at my desk at the club, pouring over a list of everyone in my employ and background checks that I’ve had Diamond pull for me, which she produced in record time, reminding me why she is my assistant. I thought it might produce a new lead, a forgotten dark horse we could investigate further and find the source of all my woes and kill them. I need to kill someone, it’s been a while and I’m getting itchy.
I haven’t been meeting with anymore of my men as we have no more leads, so Harvey hasn’t been needed in my office as much. I’ve always been most comfortable in my own company and preferred to be alone. But I’m finding the silence in my office overwhelming, even over the heavy bass from the club still thumping through the walls. I don’t think too much about why, but I stand and abandon my paperwork to head out in search of my bothersome bodyguard.
I open the door and Diamond is at her desk in the office opposite mine, she never closes her door, so she pops her head up from looking at her computer and smiles at me.
“Honey, can I say how much I love that outfit on you?” She beams.
It’s not unexpected, Diamond compliments my suits almost every day but I do a little look over my legs. I rarely wear skirts or dresses at work, preferring my power suits, but something made me dust off this pencil skirt today. It’s cream, which is always dangerous to wear in a club, but it pairs nicely with my blood-red blouse and the last time Harvey saw me in a dress, his attention was consumed by my legs most of the evening. Of course, that didn’t affect my fashion choices.
“Yes. Well,” I stammer not really knowing what to say when Harvey’s voice is in my head and I almost have to suppress a smile. “Thank you, Diamond.”
She looks surprised by my gratitude and a flutter of guilt starts in my belly. Am I cordial so infrequently that a simple thank you comes as a surprise? Her smile turns bright. “You’re welcome.”
“Have you seen Harvey?”
“He’s been lurking around the main floor, guarding the entrance to this corridor like a grouchy Alsatian.”
That makes me smile and I nod in acknowledgement before heading out toward the club to find him. Turning the corner, I freeze mid-step at the sight I’m affronted with. Harvey is leaning against one wall, his thick arms folded over his chest, and his face thrown toward the ceiling as he laughs full-heartedly at something the woman opposite has said. Candy, one of my most popular girls, stands in front of him wearing nothing but a rhinestone bikini. Two triangles barely cover her nipples with just a string around her back and her neck and the bottoms are so small I can barely see them. She is beautiful, if a little over done for my tastes…not that I’m into women. The two of them are talking and laughing with a comfortable ease that make a strange kind of anger ripple over me. An unfamiliar emotion that I will not admit is jealousy, even when I can’t attribute it to anything else. Harvey says something to Candy with a raised brow and that smug smirk of his that does funny things to me, and it prompts her to playfully shove his arm before he laughs again. Thankfully for him, he’s maintaining strong eye contact with her rather than letting his gaze roam over the ample amount of visible skin she has on display. If he had let his eye wander, I may have had to gauge them out.No. That is not an acceptable thought. I stride over and give a hard glare at the poor, unsuspecting girl.
“Miss Wolfe,” she greets with a genuine smile, not at all ashamed to be caught talking to Harvey, why would she? “Good evening.”
“Candy, shouldn’t you be on stage?”
