Page 24 of Out of Control

And I was clearly fucking up more than I thought in this case. Something had to give.

“Thank you for your honesty, Ms. Kane. Are you able to tell me why you think Leo Lombardi may want to hurt you?”

“As I said, the date did not end well. He probably took my rejection personally. Men have done worse things to women who’ve told them no in the past.”

“Worse than trying to shoot you? Twice?” I questioned. Technically Antonio tried to shoot her the first time, but since Lombardi called the shots on that one I felt it was fine to lump the two incidents together.

She shrugged. “Did you have any other questions for me?”

“Not right now," Mark said. "But may I call you if something else comes up?”

“Yes,” she said, before finally turning and meeting my eyes. “I’d be happy to help someone as polite and respectful as you, Detective Rosenberg.”

Mark got up from his spot next to Athena at the table, and I could see how hard he was holding in his laughter as he left the room. The dick didn’t even wait until the door closed all the way behind him before I could hear his loud cackling, the sound receding in volume as he walked down the hallway back to his desk.

“What the fuck was that about?” I demanded. I knew it was the wrong thing to say—unprofessional, rude, too aggressive—but it was all that could come out of my mouth.

“What? Me answering questions posed in a professional capacity in an appropriate place? That’s called giving back the same respect I received. You should try it sometime, Blake.”

I noticed the way she left my title off, despite calling Mark “Detective” throughout their whole encounter. Ouch. Point taken.

“Are we done? It’s feeling pretty stuffy in here with all the testosterone you’ve got flying around.”

I ground my teeth, but didn’t say the first thing that came to my mind, thankfully.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

I held up her vest again, resisting the urge to let my fingers linger across her shoulders and neck as I helped her into it like a gentleman. We followed the path back down the hallway to the bullpen, but as we got closer to Asshat Mark’s desk I held a hand up to Athena, silently asking her to wait back a few steps while I talked to him.

“What the fuck was that about?” I hissed for the second time today, looking back up at Athena to make sure she was out of earshot.

He just grinned at me, unphased by my anger. “You just don’t know how to talk to witnesses, do you, Lucas? She seemed perfectly pleasant and cooperative to me.”

“You’re a douchebag.”

“Nah, but I think you’re acting like one with her. She’s clearly hot, and hot for you—”

“What?” I interrupted, before dropping back into a whisper. “She is not!”

“And you can’t keep your eyes off her either, so you should fucking just fuck and get it out of your system.”

I was aghast. “You’re out of line. I can’t date someone involved in our investigation. It crosses so many lines.”

“Rules are made to be broken, my man, and she’s no longer a person of interest. She might end up on a witness stand later on, but if anything she’s a victim. And a vulnerable victim just might need some tender loving dick to get through the rough patch.”

“You’re disgusting.”

He ignored me, but to be fair I was pretty sure he was kidding. About the taking advantage of witnesses part, at least.

“So I say get your rocks off tonight—hell, she looks like she’s got stamina, so maybe get your rocks off a few times—and then move on. Or don’t. But trying to reign in all that sexual tension is making you shit at your job. Something’s gotta give.”

Iwasdoing a shit job recently, but that wasn’t because Athena was distracting me, was it? And even if it was, sleepingwith an aggressive, stubborn, annoying criminal defense lawyer wouldn’t help my career in the long term.

Would it?

“Ahem!” I turned back to Athena who was tapping her shoe impatiently against the tile floor. “Are you going to make me wait around here all day?”

No, definitely not. Mark may not be a rule-breaker, but he wasn’t afraid to bend the rules to suit him. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—do the same. Athena was off limits. I just needed to try harder not to show how much that bothered me.

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