And he released a long breath, as if he wasrelieved.
“Dominic?” I whispered, sure that I was seeing things. Sure that none of this was even real.
But he opened his eyes, so green they sparkled like gems, and he jumped to his feet the next second. He took the syringe that had been in his chest and threw it to the floor before he slowly came closer.
“You didn’t see me here,” he whispered, his eyes searching my face, my body. Then he reached out a hand while I watched and wiped some blood from my nose.
“You were drugged,” I forced myself to say. “You…you’re…”Not okay,I wanted to say, but he was.
He looked absolutelyfine.
“Don’t tell anyone, Teddybear.” He reached out his hand again as if to touch my face, but instead, he turned and walked out the door lightning fast.
“Dominic!” I called, too confused to think clearly, but he was already running toward the door across the corridor, and he disappeared behind it without another look my way.
The frustration made me want to scream, but I stopped myself in time. My phone was still in my hand. I pressed the call button with my heart in my throat, trying to make sense of my surroundings. An office—dark red wallpaper covering the walls, just like in the bar, a large desk with a now broken computer on it, blood splatters all over the walls, and a dead guy on the floor with three bullets still inside him.
I don’t know how I gave the ODP the address or how I called Hunter and Patricia next to come find me. It took them barely a minute to come to my side, as shocked as I still was to see what was around us. They waited with me until the ODP officers arrived and cleared the whole place within five minutes before we all got to work.
Dominic didn’t come back like a part of me hoped he would. He was gone.
And for the life of me, I couldn’t bring myself to speak his name to anyone.
ChapterFive
I lookedover the report again—probably for the tenth time. The description specifically, where I wrote about the men I saw in that office at Dave’s Grill. The guy I killed. The other three that got away.
The syringes in the wooden case.
My eyes squeezed shut, and it felt like I had a hand wrapped around my throat, cutting off the air. This was myjob. I respected my job. It was important to me, very important, and here I was, lying through my teeth. Dominic had been there. He’d been injected with Crackdown, too—I’d seen it.
Yet I couldn’t write about it no matter how strong my sense of professionalism. That freaking wolf-ass. Why was it that every time he was around, I kept digging a deeper hole for myself and kept on falling—willingly?
“Cheer up, Pink,” Hunter called from his desk.
“We’ve all killed before,” Eva said with a shrug.
They thought I was this miserable because I’d killed that guy last night. Ishouldhave been miserable because of that, but no. Not when Dominic Dane was involved. He got into my headlike that,and I couldn’t even do anything about it.
“Yeah—better he ended up dead than you,” Patricia said, offering me a smile full of pity.
Ugh.
“Guys, I’m fine. Really. I don’t feel guilty about killing that guy—I was doing my job. If I hadn’t killed him, he’d have killed me,” I said in a rush.
“So why are you still staring at that piece of paper like that?” Hunter said. “I do not want to beitright now. It’s gonna catch fire any second.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m just making sure I didn’t miss anything before I send this in.”
Crumpling the piece of paper in my hands, I threw it in the trashcan under the desk and turned to my computer. I liked to print out things before sending them because it felt like Ireadthem better, but I’d taken more than enough time. I hit Send on the email to the Chief without even looking over it one more time.
There. Done.
Now, if only I could stop feeling like I was sitting on needles…
“Fuck, I wish I was there, too. My date sucked balls. He kept talking to me abouthis mom,” Eva said, shaking her head. “That’s gotta be the biggest turn off in history.”
“I’ve known guys with mommy issues,” Hunter said, grinning. “And I’m telling you this from experience—they are usually great in bed. Likegreat. They really take pleasing you seriously. Very, very seriously.”