“I solemnly swear I will stay with the officer like I’m a child in need of adult supervision.” Steph the ex isn’t the only one who can be snarky.
“You’re begging for a spanking, aren’t you?”
“You did promise to do all the naughty, naughty things to me,” I remind him.
“How do you do it?” Do what? “You can make me smile even when I’m terrified for your safety.”
He slows his vehicle down in front of the station. A uniformed police officer is standing at the driveway waiting for me. I open the door and jump out. My door is barely closed before Aiden takes off again.
“I surrender. I am your prisoner.” I hold my hands in front of me as if waiting for him to cuff me.
He shakes his head at me. “No wonder Barnes is obsessed with you. Hot little thing with a sense of humor. I may try to steal you away,” he says with a wink.
“The hotness is temporary. We had dinner with his ex today. This…” I wave my hand up and down my dress. “…is not normal.”
“Yep, totally stealing you away.”
He puts a hand on my lower back and directs me toward the entrance to the station. I notice his left hand has a wide band on his third finger. “I think your wife might complain.”
“Damn. Forgot about her there for a minute.”
I giggle as he opens the door and pushes me inside. He sets me up in an interrogation room with a pile of magazines. Like I’m reading a magazine when I’m in a police station. I stand and move to the open doorway from where I can watch all the comings and goings. There’s a large room packed with desks, but there aren’t many people lingering around. Probably because it’s Friday night and they’re all out catching criminals. Maybe? I have no idea.
I’m watching a man drag a woman dressed only in a bra and short shorts through the room while she screams and yells about police brutality when Aiden’s face suddenly appears in front of me.
“Enjoying yourself?”
“Kind of?” It comes out sounding like a question. “What answer will not set off your anger?”
He takes my hand and leads me to a desk in the middle of the room where he pulls out the chair before pushing me into it. Then, he kneels in front of me and puts his arms on the armrests, boxing me in. “Now, it’s time for you to tell me who’s following you.”
Is he serious? “Why do you assume the person was following me and not you? You’re the badass cop. I’m the lowly PI.”
He growls. “You’re not a lowly anything and you know it.”
I shrug. Now is not the time to have a discussion about my job.
“Tell me who was following you.”
“Um, dude, I didn’t even realize anyone was following us,” I point out. “And seriously, I’m not trying to be a bitch, but why would someone follow me and not you?”
“Hailey, honey, people don’t follow cops.”
This is news to me. “I have no idea who could have been following me. Like I’ve pointed out ten gazillion million times before, I take pictures of cheating husbands.”
“You also deal with insurance fraud claims. Someone committing a million-dollar fraud scheme definitely has motive to make sure whatever evidence you collect never reaches the insurance company. Have you gotten any new cases lately?”
“Actually, I haven’t done any insurance claims recently. I’ve had a few prospective clients. Some weirdo who wanted me to follow her cat. A man who thinks his wife is cheating. But he never returned, so I assume he decided not to hire me. And then the woman who is accused of murdering her husband.”
“And you didn’t take her case.”
Insert eye roll. “No. I told you I didn’t take the case. Not because you ordered me not to, but because I’m not qualified. Although—” Shit. Mrs. Bostwick has been super persistent. But she wouldn’t follow me, would she? I also didn’t think she’d try to guilt-trip me by placing pictures of her babies on my windshield.
Aiden’s finger taps my forehead. “What’s going on in there?”
“Ummm…” I wring my hands, not looking forward to the response from Aiden the Overprotective. “Mrs. Bostwick might have stopped by today.”
“You didn’t change your mind, did you?”