Page 92 of Fatal Attraction

“I’m gonna kill him,” Phoenix swore beside me, his green eyes padlocked on Percious and only him. “Slowly.”

“I’ll pretend like I didn’t hear you say that.”

Harley entered the room, looking snazzy in her navy-blue suit as she closed the door behind her, her briefcase clamped in her right hand, head cocked. “Although I do understand the animosity, Detectives, for the sake of this case, and unless you want to face years in prison, I suggest you both keep your mouths shut and let me do all the talking.”

“Not a fucking chance,” Phoenix growled. “He murdered Blaire, two cops, Felix, and Peter!”

“He’s right, Harley. Percious is considered a hostile suspect, and we have every right to treat him as such.”

“Be that as it may, allow me to vigorously remind you that you two cannot physically lay a hand on him. Ben will use it against you if you do.”

“FUCK BEN,” Phoenix and I hollered as one strong voice.

Harley closed her eyes, composing herself before she opened them and released a breath.

“Please, Detectives. I’m begging you… Donotscrew this up for us. Just follow my lead. I promise everything will fall into place.”

We didn’t respond, just followed her inside and immediately took note of the absolute disgust and hatred washing over Percious’s face. My eyes fell to the cuffs wrapped around his wrists, clipped to the table. He was immobile, downright fucked and he knew it, which only worsened his anger toward us.

“Don’t,” I whispered as quietly as I could at Phoenix’s sudden advance, my hand pressed firmly against his chest, holding him back. “He’ll get what’s coming to him. Just be patient.”

“Fine,” he growled low through his throat, eyes flashing. “Fucking fine.”

He shoved me away, not bothering to acknowledge my furrowed brows or flaring nostrils. Something was up with him. I’d known it the moment he arrived at the hospital covered in bruises and a busted lip. He hadn’t told me what went down with Crow—Charlotte was his top priority, and I couldn’t fault him for that—but I had to imagine with how hostile he was being, that whatever did happen must not have been good. For now, we had to focus on our perp. I’d get the rest of the answers later.

“Ben,” Harley said as she causally took her seat, placing her briefcase down on the small table. “We meet again.”

“Harley,” he said a bit nervously.

“You received all of the documents, yes?”

Ben nodded. “I did.”

She turned to Percious then, keeping her face calm despite the absolute rage flashing through her dark eyes. “Do you understand the charges that are being brought against you?”

“I know it’s all bullshit,” he replied with a careless shrug, his face calm and impassive. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“It’s interesting you say that given your track record.”

Now it was Phoenix who was holding me back as the fucker said, “I seriously don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Harley threw her head back then, releasing a boisterous laugh that had Ben sweating in his seat. “Oh, I think you know exactly what I’m talking about, Percious Welch. Aside from finding Peter Welch dead inside of your home, we have your DNA.”

The smirk on Welch’s face vanished, and as he looked at Ben who refused to spare him a respectable glance, he turned back to Harley and said, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Delilah Fields, for example,” she started, grinning wickedly as she opened her briefcase and began spreading papers out on the table for both of them to see. “When you raped her, the lab found not only lubricant inside her vagina, but there were small traces of your sperm as well. I suppose you were prepared for the assault and had worn a condom, but I also suspect there was a hole in it or that the condom broke.”

Percious’s face turned a fatal shade of red.

“Moving on to Amber Strickland,” she said as he fumbled through more pages in her briefcase, sighing happily when she found what she needed and put them on display. “You were much more careful this time, except for the hair follicles. Your hair, plus Karl Greene’s hair was found on Amber’s body. However—and this is the fun part—Karl Greene was under house arrest and had an ankle monitor. On the night Amber was attacked, Karl was at home. That suspects me to believe you’d somehow broken inside Karl’s apartment when he wasn’t there, gathered what hair you could from a brush, and then planted it on Amber to frame Karl.”

A low, vicious growl tumbled from his throat. Ben remained silent, pale as a ghost.

“And then there’s Charlotte.”

Harley paused, taking a minute to sort through a few documents before she placed what looked like Percious’s financial records in front of them.

“Someone sent Charlotte flowers with a lovely little message attached to it. We checked Karl’s financials, hell, even Peter and anyone else we could think of, and got nothing. But yet, when we recently checked your bankstatements, we found a charge made from a flower shop here in Seaview Pines. I called the company myself to verify the date and charges made to your account.”

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