Page 16 of Insatiable

“Technically, we don’t work together,” he said. “We work at the same precinct. I’ll talk to the captain, and we might not be assigned the same cases anymore, but I don’t think that it will be a problem,” he promised. She settled back into his lap and Zane thought it strange that he didn’t feel one ounce of jealousy watching the two of them together. He had always felt very protective of Dakota, being her older brother’s best friend, but seeing her with Crew felt right.

He cleared his throat, “I’d like for this to be a permanent thing too,” he breathed. She crawled out of Crew’s lap, across the bed to him, and settled in his lap.

“I’d like that too, Zane. I’ve had a crush on you for as long as I can remember, and I’d like to be a part of your and Crew’s relationship. But what about my brother?” she asked.

“I’d prefer that Ross not be a part of our relationship,” Zane joked. He knew that it wasn’t a joking matter. Ross would be pissed once he found out about the three of them, and he knew that sooner or later, they’d have to tell him. But he just wanted some time with Dakota to figure out what their next step should be.

“Ha, ha,” she grumbled. “Seriously, Zane, we’re going to have to tell him what’s going on because I don’t want to be either of your dirty little secrets. If we’re going to do this, I want to be able to talk about you both with my friends and not have to hideaway when we want to spend time together. I want to be able to go to bars, the three of us, and even out to dinner and not worry if we’re going to bump into someone that we know.”

“Agreed,” Crew said.

“I’d like to tell Ross,” Zane said. “I just need a little time before I do. I need to work up the nerve to tell him that I’m doing things with his little sister that he’d rather not know about.”

“How long?” Dakota asked.

“Um, a year or two,” Zane joked again.

“You are not funny, babe,” Crew drawled.

“Fine, how about a few weeks? He and Leo just left for vacation and won’t be back for a week, so that buys us some time.”

“You have three weeks, and then, I’ll be the one to tell him,” Crew said.

“Got it,” Zane mumbled. “So, we’re doing this then?”

“Yes,” Crew said. Dakota nodded her agreement and smiled at both of them.

“I’m in too,” Zane agreed. He wasn’t sure if he should pinch himself or not. He was finally getting the life that he wanted with both a man that he loved and a woman he had wanted for his entire life. Now, all he had to do was work up the nerve to tell his best friend that he was falling for his little sister and Zane had a feeling that wasn’t going to be an easy task.

Crew

“Montgomery, get in here,” his boss called. He hadn’t even had time to drop his stuff off at his desk, and his boss was demanding an audience. When he usually called Crew into the office, it was bad news and that was the last thing he needed today.

“One-second,” Crew called, spilling the contents from his arms onto his desk. He stepped into his boss’s office which was inconveniently by his, and sat down in front of his desk. “What can I do for you, boss?” he asked.

“You know that I hate it when you call me that, Montgomery, don’t you?” Crew slowly nodded his head and smiled back at him.

“I do,” he admitted, “but we aren’t really on a first name basis with each other, now, are we?” he asked.

“Never mind,” his boss insisted. “I don’t have time to get into all of that right now. I got the DNA results back from Susan O’Hare’s unborn baby and it’s a direct match to your, um, friend’s father.”

“Shit,” Crew grumbled. “Are you sure the baby was Bobby Marino’s?” he asked. He hated that his hunch was correct about Zane’s father being involved with Susan’s murder. It was the only time he wished that he was wrong. Telling Zane was going to break his heart and that was the last thing he wanted to do to his guy.

“I’m sure,” his boss said. “I need you to get an arrest warrant from the judge and go pick Marino up. We need to bring him in for questioning and I want to be able to keep him for a few days. If we book him with murder charges, his lawyers will have a harder time getting him out on bail.” Crew knew that was true, but he hated doing that to Zane or his father.

“You know, just because he got Susan O’Hare pregnant doesn’t mean that he murdered her. I’ve been staking out The Kink Club for months now and I haven’t found any evidence to support your theory of him killing her,” Crew said. Yeah, he was putting his ass on the line, but he owed Zane at least that much before he brought his world down around him. With Bobby in jail, Zane would have to run the company, and Crew knew how much his guy was trying to avoid that happening.

“I’m not asking you to second guess me, Montgomery. You’re a damn good detective, but I think that you might be too involved with the suspects in this case to do me any good.” Crew picked up on his boss using the plural “Suspects” when he spoke, and he was almost afraid to ask him what he meant. But he needed to know.

“Suspects?” Crew asked. “As in more than one?”

“You picked up on that, huh?” his boss asked. “We’re not only looking at Bobby Marino, but we’re also looking at his son.”

“Zane?” Crew asked. “Why the hell do you think he’s a suspect?” There was no way that his guy could ever be a part of murdering anyone. The thought was laughable, but his boss didn’t know Zane like he did.

“We don’t believe that Bobby Marino acted alone. We have intel that he had help. Susan wasn’t killed at that club. She was killed at a secondary location and dragged to the room she was found in,” his boss said. That made sense. The forensic photos always threw him off a little every time he looked at them. The scene was too clean for the amount of blood that Susan had lost before her death.

“Why conclude that Zane is Bobby’s accomplice?” he asked.

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