Taking a deep breath, he reached for his coffee and took a drink. He skipped the painkiller for now. He told him about the shooting, the identity of the dead kid, the emails, and what they suspected about the shooting at Sawyer Point. There was no need to tell Ethan about his growing feelings toward Quinn. That was a different problem and Shane suspected that Ethan’s too-sharp eyes had already picked up that there was more going on than mind-blowing sex.
When Shane was finished talking, Ethan pushed to his feet and paced to the far side of the room, his hands linked on the top of his head. He didn’t seem angry, and with Ethan there was no hiding it; Ethan had never been good at masking his feelings. He was the type to wear his heart on his sleeve and leave everything out to read straight from his eyes.
“We don’t have any proof, do we?”
“Just those emails that Brenda Spring wrote,” Quinn said.
“Those are circumstantial evidence at best. Not a smoking gun.”
“And Kate Masters’s word,” Shane added.
“Which is against the word of the mayor. Not great.”
Shane paused and scratched his jaw. “I was thinking…maybe we do need to contact Rowe Ward for some help.”
Ethan whipped around, his mouth hanging open before he could compose a thought. “Did you get hit in the head when you were shot?” Ethan sighed and looked over at Quinn, who was blushing. “No offense, Quinn. Rowe is a great guy, but he’s like a bulldozer through a china shop.”
“None taken. I love Rowe, but you’re right. Subtle isn’t exactly his thing.”
“Why don’t we go to the cops with what we have? They can at least start an investigation.”
Shane’s hand dropped to his lap. The ache in his thigh was getting worse. With a soft curse, he grabbed the bottle and popped a pill. It would at least take a few minutes before it started to kick in. The pill might not help his thinking, but the pain wasn’t helping either.
“If Kate is right, Spring has already gotten away with murder once, and he’s about to do it again with her son. I’m willing to bet that Kate took down the Indian Hill Chief of Police because he helped cover up Brenda’s murder.” Shane paused and looked down at the brown pill bottle in his hand. “I want to keep this all legal and send Spring to jail for what he’s done, but do we want to risk our lives on an unknown cop who could also be in Spring’s pocket?”
To his surprise, Ethan smiled at him. He shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans, looking particularly proud of himself. “What about the cop we’ve got on our payroll?”
“What? Hollis?”
“He’s an ex-cop,” Quinn added.
“Who knows a lot of Cincinnati cops. Probably knows cops from other townships around the area. I have a feeling that he’s got to know a detective or two who’s squeaky clean.”
“Looping Hollis in would finally get him off my back,” Shane said with a grin.
“I’ll go talk to Hollis and see if he’s got a suggestion.”
“If we’re screwed, then we go with Ward.”
Quinn snorted next to him. “Lovely thought.”
Ethan crossed the room to Shane’s side. Before he could shift, Ethan bent down and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “You stay here and get some rest. We’ll meet up at the office on Monday. Make plans on how to proceed from there.”
“Okay,” he murmured, but he was already walking out of the living room.
“And don’t get shot at!” Ethan called at him, his words echoing off the brick walls.
Shane wanted to shout back at him that he hadn’t planned on getting shot at the other two times, but he swallowed the words.
With a groan, he settled back on the couch, his shoulder nudging Quinn’s. He wasn’t leaving the damn condo. And once the painkiller kicked in, he was planning to put all his focus on Quinn. Maybe make it clear to Royce that he had a stake in the sexy man in glasses next to him. He sure as hell didn’t know what that stake was just yet, but he wasn’t going to hand Quinn freely over to the grim bodyguard. Or anyone, for that matter.Chapter Nineteen“You seem to be getting around well, so I should probably get out of your hair.”
Surprised, Shane rolled his head on the back of the couch to look at Quinn. “You said you’d take care of me this weekend.” He tried to pull off a blatantly needy expression and couldn’t hold it as a smile broke through. “So you have to stay and you know, do stuff.”
“Like what kind of stuff?” Quinn’s mouth twitched, his eyes gleaming.
“Make sure I don’t roll out of the bed tonight. Wash me in the shower in the morning. Feed me breakfast.”