AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fletch turns fidgety.
“Say what you gotta say.”
“You asked her to marry you?” He releases his sentence on an exhale and jerks the steering wheel as he looks across to me. “What the fuck?”
I shrug, casual and carefree on the outside, when in my chest, my heart thunders and waits for Minka’syes. “I love her. I wanna keep her. It’s as simple as that.”
“It’s not that I’m not happy for you, but I was in love too; I wanted to keep Jada. Anton wanted Melissa. Sometimes, shit just doesn’t work out.”
“So we shouldn’t even try?” I check my phone screen, like maybe Minka called back in the last minute since we hung up. “My life is all about taking chances, Fletch. When I’m in, I’m in. While I’m in, I’m gonna take it all the way.”
“And if it doesn’t work out?”
“Then we can know I tried my hardest and didn’t throw us away on a whim.” Glancing across, I wait for his eyes. “I’m gonna marry her eventually, because I fucking want to. Because I want her. Because I can’t see my future without her in it. So this is what I’ll do now, this is what I’ll do forus, and later, if it’s not a good fit, we’ll figure it out and come up with a new plan.”
“A new plan,” he questions. “As in,divorce?” Scoffing, he shakes his head and looks back to the street in front of us. “What if she asks for a divorce and gets knocked up by a wannabe gangbanger?”
Pulling to a stop outside the salon named Diva, Fletch cuts the engine and turns in his seat to face me. “How would you react if she asks for a ‘timeout’ because she wants to be with someone else?”
“Are you asking if a guy in love will kill the woman he loves?”
He nods, short and sharp and in silence.
“Anton might’ve killed Melissa,” I ponder. “He’s angry enough. Possessive enough. Kinda cowardly enough. He seems to consider her as something that belongs to him. A toy he gets to play with. No one else is allowed to have her.”
“And you?” he counters. “What would you do?”
“I wouldn’t kill Minka. I love her, remember?” Unsnapping my belt, I open the door and push it wide, but before I climb out, I look back to Fletch. “I don’t wanna own Minka. I just want her to want to be with me. But don’t think for a second I wouldn’t kill any man who touched her. I’d make it painful, I’d make it slow. I’d put his body where no one would ever find it, then I’d go home and romance my wife, because if she’s looking someplace else, for someoneelse, means I dropped the ball awhile back and stopped deserving her.”
Pushing out with a grunt, I slide the phone into my back pocket and rest my elbows on the roof of the cruiser as Fletch does the same on the other side.
“Creed doesn’t remind me of me,” I continue, “soifhe killed someone, he seems the type to kill the woman. Because he’s a pussy with anger issues. Right now, he’s at the top of my list—and that’s without even speaking to Mathouson. But we’re only just getting started.”
I tap the roof of the cruiser and turn toward the salon, whose window sports a glittery sign that saysDIVA. “We have dozens more people to speak to before we get to make an arrest. And since we want to find the infant alive, it’s best if we move quickly.”
“I believe you, ya know?” Circling the car, Fletch skips onto the sidewalk so we continue forward together. “I believe that you wanna marry Delicious and make a happy life.”
I shrug. “I didn’t know that about myself till I met her. But here she is, so I’m gonna go all-in and hope for the best.”
“I believe you’d kill anyone who touched her, too.” He stops at the doors of Diva and places his hand on the handle. But he stares into my eyes for a moment longer. “I want you to know I’m with you. If you need help, or someone does wrong by her, I’m with you.”
“Will you stop asking her out?”
“No.” His lips curl into a playful smile. “I will never stop doing that.”
Barking out a laugh, I clap him on the shoulder and shake my head. “Didn’t think you would. But just so we’re on the same page, I feel obligated to remind you that you’re a police officer, Fletch. Youshouldbe tossing me to the brass over this shit, not stepping in as my backup.”
“Eh.” He shrugs and pulls the door open. “We’re brothers, and that counts for more in my book than the law. You know all my shit, and I know all yours. There’s nothing about you I wouldn’t go to bat for.”
He doesn’t know the woman I love is a killer.
He doesn’t know I know who the vigilante is, and he has no clue I’ve kept the secret from him.
“Hello.” Leaving me to my intrusive thoughts, Fletch stops by a podium-type mini-desk and smiles for the woman who waits in a tiny skirt. “My name is Detective Charlie Fletcher.” Instead of taking the badge from his belt and lifting it for the woman to see, he bites his lip and flips his jacket back, discreetly thrusting his pelvis forward so she has to look down. “What’s your name?”
“Uh, Rebecca.” She blushes, and when she looks up again, she literally cups her cheeks like she thinks that’ll save her from embarrassment. “Are you… um…” She clears her throat. “Welcome to Diva’s. Can I help you with—”
“We were hoping to speak to Trudy.” Smiling, Fletch shrugs his shoulder in my direction—that’s all the introduction I get—and glances past Rebecca. “Is she in?”
