Page 26 of Dropping Like Flies

A furrow appeared between his brows when I didn’t take his hand. “What’s stopping you? Your ex?”

Ben would know if I did this. Wherever he was, whatever he was doing, he’d suffer the second-hand effects of any sexual arousal I experienced. I spent a few seconds warring with how awkward that would make things before taking Flynn’s hand. Fuck Ben and his fucking do you wish we’d never met question. He deserved it just for that. If he had his way, he’d have me giving up whiskey and sex and living like a monk while we worked together.

Chapter Ten

Ben

“Good of you to show up,” I ground out when Griffin finally showed his face thirty minutes later than the time he’d been supposed to turn up.

He shrugged, eying the building I’d been pacing outside for the last forty-five minutes with a distinct lack of interest. “Given there’s no body, I don’t really know why I have to be here.”

The casual way he said it made me want to punch him, my fingers curling into fists. Only two days had passed since Rupert Shaw’s untimely demise and I was already lying awake at night, expecting the call to tell me that Satanic Romeo had struck again. No lying awake for Griffin, though. We both knew what he’d been up to the previous night. “You’re my partner,” I said with a great deal of scorn. “You’re meant to know what’s going on with the case.”

“You could fill me in.”

I rounded on him, the offhanded way he was talking about the case that had consumed my every waking moment for weeks really grating on me. “If you think I’m going to give you daily reports just so you can spend the day in bed with your latest conquest, then you’re insane.”

A sly smile tugged at the corner of Griffin’s lips. “Ah, so that’s why you’re pissed.”

“I couldn’t give a flying fuck which skank you stuck your dick in last night.” I poked him in the chest, ignoring the spark that flew between us when we touched. “All I care about is catching the twisted maniac going around cutting people’s fingers off. Remember him?”

Griffin’s step backward meant that my second attempt at a poke fell short. “I remember.” He eyed the building again. “You’d better tell me why we’re here, then.”

I remembered we were in a public place as the rage seeped out of me, a passerby almost walking into a lamppost so she didn’t have to take her eyes off the scene we were making. Thank God I was plain clothes. Standing in the middle of the street in uniform having an argument didn’t bear thinking about. Biting down on the urge to ask her whether she wanted a picture, I started toward the entrance to the building, Griffin displaying enough self preservation to fall into step at my side. “Rupert had an ex-boyfriend,” I explained as I yanked the door open. “Apparently, it was quite a rocky relationship and didn’t end well.”

“Which means what?”

I jammed my finger on the button to call the lift. “Rupert went to the police to report him for making threats. The ex apparently struggled to accept that their relationship was really over.”

Griffin rocked back slightly on his heels. “What sort of threats?”

“Not chopping his fingers off if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Of course not,” Griffin said drily as the lift arrived and we stepped into it. “That would be too easy.”

I pressed the button for the fifth floor and then leaned back against the wall, the doors closing with no one else getting in and the lift lurching into motion. “Rupert decided not to press charges in the end.”

“So the threats weren’t that serious?” Griffin queried.

I shrugged. “That’s why we’re going to talk to him. Ask him that and a few other questions. Every avenue is worth following up.” At least Griffin didn’t argue with that. “Oh, and he matches the description.”

Griffin’s eyebrow arched. “Brown hair and blue eyes?”

I nodded.

Griffin frowned. “Common sense would dictate that had it been his ex, Rupert would have said that rather than give a physical description.” He shrugged. “Still, death can do funny things to the brain. It’s worth checking out.”

His sudden compliance jarred. “Five minutes ago you didn’t even want to be here.”

“A man can change his mind.” Couldn’t he just. And Griffin should know all about that, having gone from a man who showered me with compliments and told me I was the best thing that had ever happened to him, to someone who never wanted to see me again, almost overnight. I’d gone to sleep smiling, and I’d woken up to a nightmare. And no matter what they said, time didn’t make things easier. Not when you shared as much as Griffin and I did, and I wasn’t talking about memories and past events.

“Ben?”

“What?”

“You were frowning.”

“I didn’t realize it wasn’t allowed.” The quicker we caught Satanic Romeo, the quicker I could get him out of my life and return to some semblance of normality.

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