The Law of Deceit, page 15
Dempsey needs a warm, vibrant, loving woman.
Not me.
Anyone but me.
To be fair, had I not dealt with the drama of Rhiannon and my family, things may have gone down differently between me and Dempsey. Our first time could have gone slowly and cherished as it should have been.
I treated him like a filthy whore.
I got the sex I desperately wanted and needed then sent him out the door without so much as a thank you or a kiss.
God, that was so wrong.
Why is life so hard?
The chemistry between us was so intense. Fire burned inside me like never before. I was happy when he was inside me and kissing me. I’ll probably never get a chance to feel anything like it ever again because I’ve undoubtedly ruined this thing between us.
Have I, though?
Dempsey has proven time and time again he’s there for me, even when I lose it. He just keeps showing back up with such patience. My heart aches for him. He really is perfect. How no one besides me has ever seen this is beyond me.
He deserves the world.
I could give it to him.
I could fix it.
Shame creeps over me, but I straighten my spine. Yes, it’ll be awkward to admit my shortcomings and to apologize for freaking the hell out, but he’ll make it better with his sweet touches and kind words. I know this without a shadow of a doubt.
Not all is lost.
My life may be a shit show of epic proportions, but Dempsey is one of the best things about it. Maybe I don’t have to fight so much when it comes to him and just let it happen.
Images of us together in bed, kissing and cuddling, make my chest tighten. I want that. I want to be with him in whatever capacity that may be.
I’m about to text him and ask him if he wants to come back over to talk when my phone buzzes. A smile tugs at my lips as I eagerly read his message.
Except, it’s not him texting.
It’s an unknown number calling.
“Hello?” I croak out, frowning.
The line is quiet and then I hear a sniffle. “Aunt Sloane?”
“Trevor?”
My nephew has been a thorn in my backside for weeks, but hearing him break down on the other end of the phone shreds my heart into tiny pieces.
“Hey, hon, calm down. What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
If those club assholes touched one hair on his head, I’ll bring the entire wrath of the PMPD down on their heads.
“C-Can you come g-get me?”
“Of course. Where are you?”
“The ap-apartment. S-something’s h-happened.”
“I’m on my way. Keep your phone on you.”
We disconnect the call as I race to throw on my shoes and grab my Glock. It’s dark outside now, which means I’ve hidden away all damn day in my room. When I finally emerge from my cave, Kaden is glued to the screen, playing a video game with an open pizza box beside him.
Dempsey made sure he was fed.
God, I don’t deserve that man.
“Hey,” I say as I hurry through the living room. “I have to go check on Trevor. He just called.”
He tears his gaze from the screen to gape at me. “He did?”
“Yeah. Can you hold down the fort until I get back?”
“Yeah. You don’t have to worry about me, Aunt Sloane.”
I drop down to give him a kiss on his head and he playfully pushes me away. I’m going to fix all of this. My family. Dempsey. My love life. It’s time to harness that fiery, stubborn girl who climbed her way out of her hard life and into something better. I can do this.
I’m tempted to call Dempsey on the way to the apartment complex, but since he’s already had an altercation with Lenny and Trevor both, I don’t want to make things worse. I’ll be protected because I have a weapon. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. If Lenny put his hands on Trevor, I’ll call it in and get that prick arrested.
The trip goes by in a blur and all too soon I’m at the building, storming inside. When I reach the apartment door, I try the knob. Locked. Softly, I rap on the door.
“Trevor?”
Footsteps thud toward the door and the lock disengages. Trevor slowly cracks open the door, his entire body slumping with relief when he sees me.
“Aunt Sloane!”
He throws himself at me, hugging me so tight I nearly lose my breath. “Thank God you’re here.”
I squeeze him back, cringing at how frail he feels. Whatever he’s been mixed up in is bad for his health. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been stocky from playing basketball with the neighborhood kids. Now he’s a waif.
“Tell me what happened,” I say, gently pulling away from him. “It’s okay.”
He shrinks away from me and slowly walks into the apartment. I close the door behind me, surveying the space. It’s still a mess from earlier, but Lenny’s missing.
“Did Lenny do something to you?” I demand, unable to keep my anger in check.
He shudders and shakes his head. “No, uhh…you better go look for yourself.”
Trevor points toward the bedroom Rhiannon and Lenny share but makes no moves to go that way. I withdraw my weapon and turn off the safety, unable to shake the sinister feeling crawling up my spine. This time, with Lenny, I won’t be caught unaware. I’ll shoot his ass in the kneecap if I have to.
I prowl toward the bedroom. On the other side of the bed, legs stick out on the floor. Bile creeps up my throat as I approach. As soon as I see the body, my heart sinks. Not because of whom it is, but because of how he died. Lenny, eyes wide open and tongue lolling out, has had his throat slit and now lies in a huge puddle of dark, sticky blood.
Despite my hatred for this man, I snap into police officer mode and carefully approach to check for a pulse. His skin is cold, firm, and rubbery to the touch. No pulse. Time of death must’ve been hours ago—sometime between when we left and now.
Who all came here in that time?
Just Trevor?
Sickness roils in my gut as I rise to my feet. He stands in the doorway, a horrified expression marring his once-handsome face that’s now littered with scabs.
“What happened?” I ask, voice even and calm.
He stares at Lenny’s feet. “I came home to get some stuff and…and I found him like that.”
Trevor’s hands don’t have blood on them and he appears to be terrified of entering the room. I believe him, but I’m not sure if that’s the aunt in me or the cop.
“It’s okay,” I assure him. “I just need to call this in. You can explain everything to the police—”
“The police?” he hisses, stepping back with his palms raised. “You are the police, Aunt Sloane. That’s why I called you.”
As much as I want to take the lead on this, I can’t. I’m too close to this case and Tanaka would can my ass. If I want Trevor to have any hope of getting out of this unscathed, everything needs to be by the book.
“I’ll be here the whole time,” I say gently. “We’ll explain it together and get to the bottom of what happened.”
He shakes his head in vehemence. “N-No. They’ll arrest me. I’m an adult now. I don’t want to go to prison.”
“But you didn’t kill him, though, right?”
“What? No!”
“Then you don’t have anything to worry about, hon.”
His eyebrows scrunch together as he mulls this over, then without warning, he turns on his heel and bolts. It takes me a second to snap into action. By that time, he’s already out the front door and racing down the hall. I chase after him, calling his name over and over. He’s much quicker, though, and tears out the door into the night.
I can’t abandon the crime scene to chase after my nephew.
Dammit.
Trotting to a stop, I fish out my phone and make the call. This whole day is the biggest shit show of my entire life and that’s saying something because my life has been hell since the day I was born.
After I place the call, I make my way back inside the apartment, not closing the door all the way. The detectives are going to want this place dusted for prints and the less I contaminate the scene, the better.
It feels like an eternity later, but officers begin arriving and taking over. When the detectives—two colleagues I speak to every single day—show up, the realness of this situation begins to set in, especially when I’m immediately relieved of my Glock that’s bagged and tagged into evidence.
They’re not joking like they do in the break room. No, I’m being drilled with questions from two hard-assed cops. I tell them everything from the issues Lenny and Rhiannon had, to Trevor getting mixed up with a bad drug-using crowd, to Kaden staying with me because of it, to the altercation from this morning, to the point we’re at now. By the time I finish, another man shows up, crisp and out of place in an expensive suit.
“Officer Thurman,” Tanaka says, voice icy cold. “Detectives, I’ll take over from here with Thurman.”
My two colleagues give him a firm nod and then move on to do their jobs. Tanaka’s eyes narrow, resembling a hawk before it swoops down to snatch up a field mouse.
Am I done?
The look in his gaze says I am.
What if this was all some setup to get me into trouble? Tanaka knows I’m onto his corruption. This could be a way to silence me, right? Have my sister’s lowlife boyfriend murdered and put me right in the middle of it. I’m forced to retell the entire thing to the man I’ve been secretly investigating.
“Am I in trouble?” I ask, voice shaking when I finish.
“Not if you continue to cooperate,” Tanaka says smoothly. “You were just worried about your nephew, right?”
My stomach sinks. “He didn’t do it if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Tanaka’s black eyebrow arches up, reminding me of an evil villain. “He ran from the scene of a homicide, Thurman. It’s not a good look.”
They’ll haul him in, though, and interrogate him like I tried to. Trevor is innocent. They’ll come to that conclusion too. In the meantime, a real killer is out there.
What if Rhiannon had been here? Or Lucy or Kaden?
“I’m going to follow you back to the station,” Tanaka says, gesturing for the door. “We’ll continue this talk while the detectives work the scene.”
Great.
Being brought in for questioning at my own workplace has to be a new low for me. It’s humiliating and infuriating. But if I want to move past this, I have to go through the thick of it first. I concede with a nod and head out the door. There’s one thought that replays in my mind.
Thank God Dempsey wasn’t here with me.
The last thing I need is to pull him deeper into my shit.
Dempsey
Come on, Sloane. Where are you?
I pace her front porch as I wait for her to come back home. I’m still reeling from her text from earlier.
Sloane: Someone killed Lenny. Trevor found his body and called me. He ran off after, so it looks really bad for him. I’m on my way to the station now with Tanaka to finish giving my statement. Can you keep an eye on Kaden until I get back?
Of course, after receiving that text, I’d blasted her with questions, none of which were answered. I slipped out of the house and came right over, not bothering to follow Dad’s stupid rule about taking Gemma with me.
I wasn’t sure if Sloane wanted me to tell Kaden, so I stayed tightlipped and told him I’d come over to hang out for a bit. We played video games while I checked my phone every three minutes. Eventually, I made spaghetti and we watched a movie. He fell asleep on the sofa, but I’ve been unable to sit still, my mind racing with worry.
Sloane was already having a terrible day after the run-in with Lenny when she took her sister away, but for it to end like this? My chest aches. I just need her in my arms so I can hold my girl back together. Something tells me she’s going to need it.
Will she let me?
I think so.
Yes, she sort of freaked out after we had sex and clearly needed some space, but I didn’t think she’d let it go on forever. Knowing I was the person she reached out to with the information of Lenny’s death and needing help with Kaden proves that I’m still her man.
Headlights bounce as a vehicle comes up the road. I stop pacing to strain my eyes, searching for any sign that it’s her car.
“Thank fuck,” I mutter when she pulls into the driveway.
She shuts off the car, climbs out, and then softly closes the door. Her entire body trembles. I’ve never seen her look so lost or broken.
Snapping into action, I stalk across the lawn over to her. When she sees me, she surprisingly flings herself into my arms. Grabbing her ass, I lift her up and she wraps her legs around me. Her grip on me is fierce, like she’s afraid I’ll vanish into thin air.
I’m not going anywhere.
“I’m here, babe. I’ve got you.”
She makes a choked, pained sound that kills me. I hate that she’s hurting.
“Kaden’s asleep on the sofa,” I murmur. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”
Her breath is warm and ragged against the side of my neck where her face is. With Sloane still clinging to me like a koala bear, I quietly let us back inside and then take her to her bedroom. This time, I’m allowed inside. I close the door and then carry her to the bathroom.
Once I ease her to her feet, I take a moment to inspect her face. Dark circles rim her eyes and her skin is pale. Tears swim in her pretty blue eyes, threatening to spill over. I press a soft kiss to her nose and then let go of her long enough to turn the shower on. When I return, I help her out of her clothes until she’s fully naked in front of me.
God, she’s a fucking vision.
I’d love nothing more than to fall to my knees right now and worship her, but she doesn’t need that. She needs someone to hold her together and be the strong one. I can do that for her. I can and will do anything for her.
“Do you want to shower alone?” I ask, voice raspy and soft.
She gives me a sharp shake of her head.
I pull my shirt off and bite back a smile when her nostrils flare. We’d been in such a hurry earlier today that neither of us was able to appreciate each other’s bodies. Knowing she’s just as mesmerized by mine as I am by hers is such a relief.
The bathroom fills with steam as I strip out of the rest of my clothes. Her eyes widen when they land on my cock.
“You’re pierced,” she utters, shock in her words. “How? When?”
I snigger as I grab her hand. “You don’t want to know, Officer Do-Good. Probably wasn’t legal.”
“Who would pierce a teen—”
Her words fade away as I kiss her supple lips. “Don’t worry about it, babe. It’s done.”
I pull us under the hot spray of her shower. Water sluices over our bodies as I hug her to me. Our naked skin on skin feels incredible. She pulls slightly back to look up at me with hooded eyes. Need flickers in her gaze, but I ignore it for now in favor of bathing her.
“Put your hair under the water,” I instruct. “Let me take care of you.”
She obeys and gets her hair wet. Once it’s soaked through, I dump a glob of shampoo that smells like her onto the top of her head. A soft groan escapes her when I start massaging it into her hair and scalp.
My dick certainly can’t ignore that sound.
I gently tug on the strands of her hair, indicating for her to tilt her head back so I can rinse out the suds. Her eyes close and a contented sigh rushes past her lips. Smiling, I continue to bathe her, taking special care to add conditioner to her hair and then to soap her down from head to toe.
I’m about to quickly wash myself, but she takes over, running a bar of soap over my chest. Our eyes meet as she soaps my body. I grunt when she avoids my dick that’s aching for her touch.
“You’re a good man,” she murmurs, eyes watering again. “I don’t deserve to have this—you.”
I scoff. “Zip it.”
A smile curls her lips up. I quickly rinse us both, shut off the water, and grab us towels. After drying our bodies off and running a brush through her hair, we abandon our towels and climb into her bed naked. She sighs happily when I lie flat on my back and pull her against my side.
“Tell me what happened. All of it.”
I sit quietly as she explains the call from Trevor, his behavior when she arrived, seeing Lenny’s murdered body, and then the relentless grilling from her superior. By the time she finishes, she’s trembling.
“I’m so scared for Trevor,” she whispers. “He’s mixed up with bad people and now the cops are looking for him. I just want to fix it all, but I don’t know how.”
“I know you do,” I say, running my fingers up and down her arm. “You’re doing the best you can.”
She tilts her head up, her hot breath tickling over my face. I twist so I can meet her lips with mine. At first, she kisses me softly but then, like earlier, she claws at me, tugging on my shoulders. I roll over until I’m on top of her, caging her in between my elbows.
“I need you.” Her legs tighten around my hips. “Please.”
“I didn’t bring a condom. I was planning to just take care of you.”
“Making love to me is taking care of me.”
“Babe…”
She tilts her hips as she attempts to rub her pussy along my shaft. “I screwed up earlier. I said a bunch of crap I didn’t mean. We can go without the condom. Please, Dempsey.”
How the hell can I deny her when she asks so sweetly?
I kiss her mouth and then trail kisses down her chest, stopping briefly to show each of her pert nipples my attention. They’re nothing like my imagination. My drawings don’t come close to the real thing. I nip and suck at each nipple until she’s clawing at my hair.
“Dempsey…”
I chuckle against her flesh and continue my trek south. My tongue teases her bellybutton and then I’m right where I want to be. With my thumbs, I pull apart her pussy lips and seek her clit, eager to give her pleasure when she’s had the world’s shittiest day. As I suck her clit into my mouth, she lets out a garbled sound.
“Shh,” I murmur against her pussy. “You’ll wake your nephew.”
