Keifer rolled his eyes again.
“Why is getting information out of you like pulling teeth?” he asked angrily.
I snapped my mouth shut on the retort that wanted to burst free of my lips, barely containing my knee jerk reaction to go on the defensive at the first hint of a threat.
“She’s dead. She was dead for a long time when I found her. Her murderer watched from the comfort of his peep hole as he waited for someone to find her for over an hour. I followed the fucker to the jail, then stood outside his cell, making sure his heart stopped, apparently from natural causes. Is that what you wanted to know?”
Keifer’s eyes narrowed.
“You can’t just go around killing humans, even if they are guilty,” Keifer growled.
I turned my back on my king and then shut the door behind me.
I couldn’t deal with that man anymore.
Not if he wanted me to still be a part of the team.
If that’s what it was even called anymore.
My throat burned as Wink’s sweet and flowery scent hit me the moment I walked through the door.
It took everything I had not to go straight to the TV and replay the day’s events.
Instead, I walked to the kitchen, grabbed the bottle of whiskey that was sitting on the kitchen counter and proceeded to drink the entire fucking bottle.Chapter 2I have three moods:
1. What the fuck?
2. Are you fucking kidding me?
3. Fuck this.
-Wink’s secret thoughts
Wink
The next day dawned bright and early, and I was just stepping out of my apartment when I ran into something solid.
“Oomph,” I groaned.
I looked up, and my neck stretched painfully.
I’d had a rough night.
It’d started out bad due to the dead body between my apartment and me, and got worse when I had to run for my life and was caught by a beast of a man. The shitshow that was my day was capped off with me not getting a wink of sleep.
I did manage to get one hell of a crick in my neck, however.
Surprisingly, though, it wasn’t because of the dead woman, but because of the sexy man who I didn’t see again after I closed my apartment door on him, the one who was the cause of my sleepless night.
I cursed myself for not looking in the mirror before I’d thrown my pants on.
I was on the way to my darkroom to develop the newest shots I captured during my lunch break yesterday. First though, I had to get the processing chemicals delivered.
I’d just gotten the door open and had started to back out with the door handle in one hand and my keys in the other, when my body hit something solid.
Solid as in steel.
I turned and found myself getting lost in those same captivating eyes as last night.
“H-hey,” I whispered. “Can I help you?”
He stared at me for a long couple of seconds before he blinked and his lips lifted in the barest of smiles.
This caused my heart to race and my face to flush.
Now, I wasn’t so happy I’d decided to just leave instead of taking an extra five minutes to look after my appearance before exiting my apartment.
“Gosh, I’m sorry,” I said, stepping back.
His eyes went down to my face and even further to my neck.
“S’okay,” he muttered, his eyes focused. “You want to catch breakfast?”
I lifted my hand self-consciously and ran it along the column of my throat, surprised at the tenderness there.
Studying him, I licked my lips and began to appreciate the fine specimen of man in front of me.
He was tall and built with dark black hair and a strong jaw.
He was wearing a leather jacket and a… scarf?
It didn’t detract from the manliness that exuded from him, however.
He was what you would think of when you thought ‘male.’
Strong jaw. Jacked arms and tight abs. Dark, captivating looks. Big hands. Large feet.
The scarf, though. That was weird.
“Breakfast?” he asked again.
I snapped out of my contemplation of his manliness and shook my head.
“No,” I said softly, clearing my throat. “I have to go meet the guys who are delivering my chemicals.”
I had to have certain chemicals to run my photo lab, and if I didn’t meet them at this ungodly hour, they wouldn’t be able to get back to me until late next week. Meaning, I was up to meet them at the ass crack of dawn instead of sleeping in my nice, warm bed.
He looked at me, then nodded.
“Care if I tag along?” he asked gruffly. “Then we can get breakfast afterward?”
I bit my lip.
What the hell was going on?
This man was gorgeous. I’m talking so fucking handsome that it hurt to look at him for too long.
And his eyes. God, they were practically sucking me into his soul!
What would he want with someone like me?
I was not beautiful.
In fact, I was so far from beautiful, especially without makeup on, that I would consider myself troll-like.