Page 72 of Sweet Temptation

I’d listened to her explaining to the police how Sanchuk had basically been stalking her for months. Though she didn’t seem to want to frame it that way.

“Summer said Sanchuk came on the scene about five months ago,” I told Naveen. “He showed up at one of her shows. As far as she can remember, that’s the first time they crossed paths. She had drinks with him once, sometime after they met.” I hadn’t told him that part yet. Wasn’t sure why. “She said it was sort of a date, but there were a few other people there, friends of hers. She tried to brush him off after that, but he didn’t take the hint. She said she started getting a bad vibe off him at least a few weeks ago, when she noticed he was lurking. Then he starts getting more aggressive, calling her, showing up where he’s not wanted. I made her look through her phone and count. This past week he called her sixteen times, sent her over forty texts. She just kept dodging his calls, thinking he’d take the hint and go away.”

“You said Dirty’s crew bounced him out of an event she played at the Artemis. That was a few weeks back?”

“Yeah. Two weeks ago. According to Jude’s guy, he left the club without incident. I spoke to him yesterday. You know, Flynn. Elle Delacroix’s bodyguard. He said Sanchuk didn’t give him any push-back. It didn’t seem like a problem. Summer told Flynn, that night, that Sanchuk had been offering meth to her girlfriends. But she didn’t say anything else. She never told anyone what was going on. Seems like no one on Jude’s crew knew it went any further than that.”

“You think this has anything to do with the Kings?” Naveen asked, voicing the question running through my head. “Jude’s a King. His brother is the Kings’ VP… Maybe there’s some connection.”

Fuck, I hoped not.

“Not on her part, I don’t think. But this situation feels like it’s getting messier by the second.”

“Yeah. Could be MC bullshit,” Naveen said. “Territorial rights? Pissing match? Payback for some perceived wrongdoing? Maybe the Sinners were targeting Jude’s crew in general… that extended to Summer somehow?”

“I think it’s a stretch. There’d be much closer targets if they were trying to get Jude’s attention.”

“But maybe none who were as easy to get to?”

“Maybe.” Christ, I did not like that idea. “Either way, I’ll have to run it by Jude.”

“Let me know how it goes.”

“Will do.”

“So,” he said. “We gonna address the weird-ass elephant in the room?”

“And that would be…?” I sat back in my chair, prepared for what was coming.

“You have anyone in mind to take over for you in the field? You could be running this job from the office. You know, where you planned to be for the rest of your career?”

He wasn’t wrong. For many months, I’d been griping about bringing my last, lingering, fucking annoying bodyguard assignment to an end.

Obviously this sudden change in my MO had stoked my partner’s curiosity.

Plus, he probably wanted to rub it in. Naveen had never believed for a second that I was actually “retiring.”

“No need,” I told him. “I’m staying where I am for now.”

“Uh-huh.” He went silent a moment, and I knew I wasn’t gonna like this. “You know, you’ve been working around the clock on this DJ Summer thing. Pardon my observation, but you seem to be taking this one on a little more… personally… than usual. Less than forty-eight hours ago, you were right here in my living room, hellbent on never playing bodyguard again. To anyone. Much less the ‘spoiled famous princesses’ of the world. I realize you were referring to your last assignment, and she really was a princess. But you were pretty vehement on that point.”

“A man can make an exception.”

“Right. I saw photos of your new client online. Pretty compelling reason to make an exception, I’ll give you that, but—”

“That’s not what this is about.”

“No? You sure?”

“Did your wife put you up to this? She’s that hot to fix me up, huh?”

“Speaking of which. How’d things go with Roshana the other night? You hit it off?”

Fuck me. He knew we didn’t.

By now, Tamara would’ve called her friend to get the scoop, and Roshana probably told her every detail of how I’d dropped her off and evaded her good night kiss. Probably made me sound like a heartless asshole.

Women talked about that shit, right?

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