Page 20 of Black Bird

A beep sounded on the phone that sat on Nick’s desk. He pressed the button. “Go ahead,” he said. A female voice answered.

“There’s a detective in the lobby that’s asking to speak with you, sir.”

Nick’s eyes met Conrad’s. The senator gave him a serpentine smile and nodded once. He wasn’t going to give the CEO a way out. Nick held the button down again. “Send him in.”

“It’s a woman, sir.”

Both the men knotted their brows and the door opened as a solid, toned brunette clacked in a fitted pantsuit past the assistant who’d let her in.

Well, damn. Rhaena Northwood.

Conrad beamed at her as she entered, her gait bleeding confidence. She seemed to fight off a look of surprise as she lowered her mirrored sunglasses and approached the two men. “Senator Stratford. I didn’t expect to see you here.” Her hand reached forward, and he shook it firmly.

“How are you, Miss Northwood? Strange not seeing you in uniform.”

“I’ve had a promotion since we last saw each other, sir.” She smiled, her pretty white teeth gleaming in the light coming in from the windows. “I’m sorry to hear about your daughter-in-law. I’ve gathered she’s on the mend.”

“I appreciate that. Brent’s got himself a fighter. What brings you to the center today?”

The detective apologized for her rudeness and offered her hand to the CEO before taking a seat in the chair next to where Conrad had been previously sitting. He made note of the fact that she’d eyed the paperwork still resting in it and promptly picked them up.

“While I support and appreciate your position, sir … I’m afraid this is something the CEO and I need to discuss in private. I hope I’m not interrupting something important. I apologize, but it’s time sensitive.” She glanced between them.

“It’s quite alright, detective. Senator Stratford was just leaving.” Nick gave him a curt look and Conrad dipped his chin to them both before heading for the door. He opened it and glanced over his shoulder at the attractive young lady.

“Good seeing you again, Miss Northwood.”

“Likewise, sir.” She smiled.

And he snicked the door shut behind him.

Wren stared at the photo that Sarah had snapped on her phone like it was a viper about to strike. That was probably about as close to the truth as you could get with a crooked ass politician, anyhow. Sarah had called and only said that she needed her. She wouldn’t say why, and truthfully that was all Wren had needed to hear to send her hurrying to finish a client at the tattoo shop earlier today and race up here. As she zoomed in and out, trying to catch details Sarah might have missed, she tried not to think too hard on the fact that she’d cornered Brent the daybefore in that stairwell and had asked him to break things off with her best friend. It ate her alive all night to the point that she’d gotten very little sleep and wondered what level of betrayal she had just stooped to.

“Am I nuts, Wren? Maybe I’m overthinking this and he just went out of support for Brent.” Sarah scratched at the adhesive of the bandage on her neck.

“Let me get this straight, friend. You think that seeing asenator—whether you’re boinking his son or not—standing at the side ofyourcrime scene where you practically lost your life, isn’t the exact smell of bullshit one would expect from somebody in his profession?” She lowered the phone and met Sarah’s eyes. “No, you’re not crazy. And if this was out of support for Brent, then I would have thought he’d be trying a little harder to be seen or making a bigger spectacle of his pompousass.Judging by this, it would appear to me like he’s putting more effort into being the shady piece of shit that he is.”

“I agree with her.” A low voice, as velvety and seductive as an oiled stripper, sounded from the doorway. They both looked toward it to find Detective Kane standing in it, gesturing with a hand, seeming to ask permission to come inside. Wren’s own face heated, and she could tell Sarah’s was too as she shifted on the bed. “Sorry to intrude.”

“What can I do for you, detective?” Sarah asked smoothly, staring at him as if she could eat him with a spoon.Good.He didn’t just have that effect on Wren, then. Detective Kane stepped toward the end of the hospital bed and Wren caught the long pause as he and Sarah continued to gaze at each other before he spoke again.

“Is it a bad time?” he asked, never breaking his eye contact.

“No.”

“Should I go?” Wren asked, thumbing toward the door, and breaking what seemed like some kind of silent conversation. Kane glanced toward her, bracing his hands on the rail at the foot of the bed.

“Actually, if you wouldn’t mind staying, I think that could help.”

Wren gave him a flirtatious smile and lowered into the empty chair against the window. “You got it.” He turned his face back to Sarah.

“How have you been feeling the past couple of days, Miss St.—”

“I told you not to call me that.”

He cleared his throat. “Sarah …”

This felt like one of those moments she rarely got to see, and Wren almost wished she’d had a bag of popcorn as she watched the exchange between the two of them. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

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