Part of me tensed. Damn it. I didn’t want to be awkward, but I could feel myself sliding right into a tar pit of awkwardness.
Oliver and I had been chatting for a good three weeks now. It was enough time for me to fall pretty hard for him, but it wasn’t nearly enough time to figure out what to do about his older brother/my coworker. It helped that Jonah had been gone for a couple of weeks so I didn’t have to think too much about it.
“Don’t worry,” Shiro said. “Beckham was just flexing his workplace harassment muscle.”
My head swiveled to Shiro. “You’re the one harassing me with how short those shorts are.”
“You call this harassment?” Shiro twirled. “I’ll show you har-ass-ment.” He turned away from us and shook his ass before giving himself a slap.
He had a booty, there was no denying that. It shook with the aftershocks of his slap.
“Annndthis is when I get back to work,” Jonah said, laughing as he retreated back into his office.
“And where are you headed, Shi?”
“I’m headed to work.”
I arched a brow.
“I’m tailing someone at the beach. Have to fit in.” He gave a little twirl.
“Tailing someone, that’s what the kids are calling it these days, huh?”
“Mhmm.” Shiro winked. He started walking before he stopped. “Oh! Did Holly tell you?”
“About what?”
“We’re getting a new detective. All our schedules have been so crazy packed, Andrew gave the go-ahead to hire one more person. I think he starts next week.”
That was news to me.
“Holly’s planning a little dinner for us so we can get to know him. This Friday night if you’re free.”
“Bollocks. Oliver and I are going to the Jennifer Lopez concert that night.”
“Jenny from the block? Okay, well, that’s definitely more fun than dinner. I’m sure we’ll have more chances to hang out with the newbie.” Shiro glanced at his watch. “All right, I gotta get going.”
I said goodbye and went to my office, closing the door behind me. Usually, my first point of business in my office was to open the blinds, crack the window, and turn on some ambient music. Lately, though, my routine had shifted. I no longer focused on making myself comfortable first. Instead, I dropped to my hands and knees and checked for that blasted letter for about the hundredth time.
It had turned into a ritual. I’d enter my office and do a quick search, as if the letter would magically reappear in a spot I’d already searched about a hundred times. It made me angry, the fact that I cared so much about the damn thing.
Losing it made me even angrier. Why didn’t I just open it on the spot? I could have been done with it there and then. I could have left the letter behind me like I had his grave.
Instead, I was on my hands and knees inside my office, looking underneath the chairs and desk and only finding a few candy wrappers and a couple of dusty rubber bands.
With an exasperated sigh, I got back on my feet and dusted off my knees. I knew it wasn’t in here, but part of me said I still had to try regardless. Maybe that was the part that pushed me into becoming a detective. I’d always been a stubborn bloke, and I rarely took no for an answer, leading me to find plenty of lost toys as a kid.
At my desk, I got settled and opened up all the notes I had on Greg. First off, I wanted to find the florist he worked at and verify his employment. It seemed like a dumb thing to lie about, but I’d caught bigger and way more stupid lies than that.
I was on the florist’s website when all of a sudden, the entire building’s power cut out. It was still daylight out, so there was plenty of sun coming in through the window, which also meant this wasn’t caused by a storm.
“Andrew, did you pay the electricity bill?” I heard Jonah call out in the hallway.
I stood up and went to the hall, where the rest of the detectives and a couple of clients were starting to meet. Penny, the normally tough-as-nails detective, was with her client, who looked a little spooked. She was reassuring her that everything was fine and that this happened quite a few times (it didn’t), Penny herself looking a little shaken.
That’s when I heard it. When we all heard it.
“Get out!”