Chapter Twenty-Nine
JULIE
He looked frustrated with himself, but I knew it was something big, because I’d heard part of his call when I was in the bathroom. Clearly he didn’t like the person he’d been talking to, and from the sound of it he was involved in something he wanted out of.
The weird thing was that he’d mentioned someone called Cass. It immediately made me think of Cassidy, but it couldn’t be her, right? If he knew her, or knew of her, he’d have told me. Right?
“Is it about this Cass person you mentioned on the phone?” He froze, his eyes closing for a moment.
“Fuck. You were listening?”
I shrugged. “You speak louder than you realise. Maybe because you were pissed off with whoever was on the phone.”
He reached for his coffee, and winced when he reached with the arm he’d normally use. He stretched over with his left, and awkwardly lifted it onto his lap.
“The news on the phone wasn’t good. I guess I was also pissed off about being woken up, and feeling like hell. I’m sorry.”
I raised my eyebrows. “And you’re dodging my question.”
“The body has been identified, Julie. It’s Harvey.” My god. That felt like a sudden punch to the stomach. I’d never believed it would really be him. Oh no… poor, poor Jeff.
I swallowed against the sudden lump in my throat.
“Don’t you dare fucking feel bad for that piece of shit, got it?” He practically barked at me.
It was a surprise. A sharp shock. I stared back at him, unsettled by his sudden anger.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just… what I’m finding out about him, is that women are better off with him dead.”
I stared at my coffee. “Because he was a stalker.”
Adam groaned. “Yeah, and the rest. Look… I need to go and see Jeff. I don’t want him hearing this from anyone else, you know? Not that I want to be the one to fucking tell him either.”
“But if someone just told you, surely they told Jeff first?”
He shot me a shifty look. “Maybe my intel was a bit in advance of the norm…”
“You’re mixed up in something bad, aren’t you? That’s why you keep getting injured.”
He snorted. “You know… you could be right. I swear, I just wanted to look for missing dogs, and cheating wives, and stuff. I never knew that being a PI could be so damn risky. But I’ll see this through. Pity you don’t drive though. It’d save me having to rely on taxis today.”
I frowned. “I drive. I just don’t have a car.”
He suddenly offered me a wide grin. “Then how do you feel about chauffeuring an old cripple around for a few hours? I’ll make it worth your while.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and it made me giggle.
He awkwardly pushed himself up from the bed, his breath hitching as he did.
“Fuck me. I’m just going to shower, little angel. If I’m gone too long, I might need to be rescued.”
And that’s how I found myself offering to shower him.
I ignored his look of surprise, and the way his eyes travelled over me.
“I need to shower too. This will be faster.”
The look he gave me in response told me he planned for exactly the opposite.
Undressing him turned out to be incredibly difficult, because he couldn’t lift his arm easily, and I hated to put him through that, and even so, it wasn’t like I could reach and lift it over his head.