Page 17 of Ruining Vanessa

“Ooh, how mysterious,” he says, quirking a brow as he waits for me to clarify.

I only grin at him. “Need to know basis, my man.” I clap him on the shoulder.

“My money’s on chickening out,” Detective Kawano says. She’s the only Asian chick in my precinct, but she does her job all right, and she looks the other way when she needs to. “You saw the list of places he’d already hit up. Club Ruby’s, Xxxtreme, The Web… That’s the Pavones, the Fierros, and the Mancinis. You want to bet at least one of them noticed?”

“Fuck me, can I go undercover at one of those places?” Officer Hernandez says, tapping through his phone. “Look, Ruby’s got new girls listed on their website. Can I expense a visit? Gotta make sure there’s really, really no prostitution happening there.”

He holds up his phone, and we all look with interest as he scrolls through the photos. I recognize a few of the girls from when I was there last with Giulio.

“Just tell them you’re an officer at the front door. They might cut you a deal,” I tell him. “I know Xxxtreme has that unwritten policy.”

“Guess I should probably stop in, then,” Hernandez says. “I mean, to help you out with your investigation. Always gotta get in the detectives’ good graces.” He smirks at me, and I smirk right back.

“Yeah, you let me know what you find out, but remember those girls expect twenties in their panties, not ones,” I tell him.

He groans. “That reminds me why I never go,” he laments. “You sure the department won’t cover it, since I’m helping you out?”

I grin at him. “I’m positive. If anyone gets to go, it’s me.”

This gives me the perfect excuse to check out Giulio’s competition over the next few weeks—not to mention an excuse to go to Ntimacy without having to watch my back. It’ll be nice to visit with Vanessa without worrying about someone thinking I’ve got a habit that’s only satisfied with time there.

“Okay, being serious,” Davidson says, sighing loudly. “We’ve got that tip about the secret casino over on Campbell, and I’ve made no fucking progress with the street whores in De La Rouge. You’d think they’d want to suck my cock, but nooo, none of them are taking my money.”

“More like they can tell you’re a cop from your smell,” Kawano snarks. “You couldn’t pay me to go near your dick either.”

“Well, I don’t want your fugly mug,” Davidson responds with enough aggression that I think he was actually insulted.

“Yeah, yeah. Quit playing around. We’ve got work to do. Don’t worry about this Baca case. I’ll poke around a few places, then tell the 52nd they should figure out their own shit. We’ve got enough cases as is.” I head over to my own desk and log onto the computer to take a closer look at the files I’d been sent.

I can probably combine a few of my cases, take a nice stroll around town with Davidson, and end the night at Ntimacy.

I send a quick text to Giulio on my private phone, and I’m not surprised when he responds almost immediately.

Come by my place tomorrow! For a fun night in. You, me, her, and him.

I fight the urge to groan. Nothing with Damien is particularly fun, and I know there’s no other him it could be. But the idea of spending the evening with Giulio and Vanessa and tolerating Damien sounds fun to me. Even fewer rules apply when we’re at Giulio’s condo, and it should be a hell of a good time.

5

GIULIO

The crested gecko on the other side of the glass opens her mouth wide as soon as Slayer steps up next to me. It looks pretty cute, even if that does mean she’s scared of Slayer. Not that I blame her. All the ladies are scared of Slayer.

Except Antonia.

“Did you get another one?” Slayer asks, grimacing. “What’s this? An iguana?”

I roll my eyes at him. “I’ve had her for almost a year now. And she’s as much an iguana as your toy train line is Thomas the Tank Engine.” I unlatch the enclosure so I can place Carmen’s food inside. Unsurprisingly, she makes no move to actually eat, not with the two of us staring at her.

“They aren’t toy trains,” Slayer complains. “These aren’t some cheap plastic trinkets. All of mine are highly detailed, made of brass, I’ve upgraded the electronics to digital control… Can toy trains run on the same track at different speeds? And, as a bonus, my hobby doesn’t stink.”

“Why do you think I’ve invested hundreds of thousands into these bioactive enclosures, man? They have minimal stink.” I close up Carmen’s enclosure again and head over to Antonia, the largest of said enclosures. It goes from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, and has live plants, healthy substrate, isopods and springtails and other insects that will break down Antonia’s waste. There’s still maintenance and clean-up to be done, but it’s not a daily or even weekly thing.

Antonia notices me and lifts her head, clearly eager to be fed, but her food is still defrosting.

“Want to pet Antonia?” I ask Slayer, hand already on the enclosure latch.

Slayer glares at me. “Fuck no. You know I don’t want to be near that thing.”

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