Page 19 of Fatal Attraction

I scoffed at that. “And let me guess… He needs theBonecrusherto loosen up some lips.”

Phoenix sighed, nodding. “Knowing Crow like I do… Yeah. That, and then some. He’s playing a dangerous game saying what he did about Blaire, but if he really does know something, he won’t give it up untilafterI’ve helped him.”

Shit.

Which was a huge problem because we couldn’t afford to sit back and wait two long weeks for information that may or may not be credible. Something told me Crow knew that, too.

“I say we hear him out. We can’t wait that long for Crow to spill, not with how badly this shit is escalating.”

“We?” my partner thickly repeated, his brows crumpled.

Ignoring him, I said, “We need to devise some form of agreement with him. If we have to break some faces, then fine, we’ll do it. But in return, he has to tell us what he knows on the spot. It also might not be a bad idea to check in on that tip he gave us. If we’re lucky, we may find something we can use against him if he tries to fuck us over.”

It was either that, or we arrest the son of a bitch for interfering and withholding information on Blaire’s murder. The idea truly pleased me, but the longer I contemplated it, I couldn’t help but ponder the danger it could put us in should Crow decide to retaliate. One phone call from their President, and that was it, Phoenix and I were fucked. We’d be at the top of every single Rolling Rebels’ hit list. And given their history, and thenall of the information Crow had on the crimes Phoenix committed in the past…

Mother fucker.

Phoenix was right. Crow really was playing a dangerous fucking game.

“I don’t want you involved with this, Spike.”

“Tough shit,” I told him. “You’re my best friend, Phoenix. Like it or not, I’m not letting you go through with this alone.”

He knew better than to argue with me, so instead of replying, he just leaned back in his seat and activated the blinker, preparing to turn inside the precinct.

As expected, when we stepped out of the elevator, Officer Brown, the same woman Phoenix favored calling Princess Peach, greeted us with brief orders to go to the conference room. When we made it there, walking in the spacious room which had a large boardroom table and about twenty chairs surrounding it, Kendall Wilson, Harley, Chief, and Captain Burgess were waiting for us. Behind them was a large whiteboard with Delilah, Amber, and Blaire’s pictures taped to it, with notes Kendall was still in the process of jotting down below them. On either side of the larger board were two smaller ones I’d recognized from Charlotte’s office. The pictures were gone, but all of Charlotte’s notes she’d taken about Amber and Delilah’s case, along with a few theories she’d written were still there.

“Good,” said Chief, who was the first to greet us. “Everyone’s here.”

Kendall stopped writing long enough to peer over her shoulder at us. She wasn’t at the funeral, which meant she’d stayed behind to finish gathering all of our test results from Blaire’s murder.

“What’s going on?” Phoenix was the first to ask. “Why are we meeting in the conference room?”

“Because shit just got a lot more complicated,” said Harley, sighing and shaking her head. “It turns out you boys were right about Blaire’s murder being connected to Delilah and Amber.”

Phoenix and I shared a look, our brows raised.

“What are we looking at?” I asked.

Harley waved a hand for us to take a seat. Phoenix sat behind Chief while I planted myself behind Captain Burgess.

“It’s like this,” Kendall said, spinning on her heel to face us. Aside from her jeans, black blouse, and her blonde hair pulled up neatly in a bun, she looked exhausted, like she frankly hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep in days. “He’s smart—I’ll give the son of a bitch that much—but not smart enough.”

“What do you mean?” asked Phoenix.

Kendall scoffed, then moved forward to grab a file I hadn’t noticed was on the table when we walked in. She pulled out two sheets of paper and then passed them off to the chief and captain, who then passed them back to Phoenix and me.

“I gathered DNA from the fetus and tested it with the DNA found in both Delilah and Amber’s cases. It didn’t match with Karl, but it did, however, match with our other perp. Whoever Blaire was sleeping with is the same man who attacked Delilah and Amber.”

I glared down at the page then, as did Phoenix, and read over the results, my heart pounding through my ears.

Holy fuck.

It was true.

“Harley, a word in private, please?” Phoenix asked, which had Kendall, Chief, and Captain Burgess blinking over at him in confusion.

He got up as Harley agreed, and as the others steered their expressions over at me, I offered them a shrug and then stood tall, joining Phoenix and Harley in the hall.

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