Page 49 of His Lovebug

Keeping the phone in my hands, I opened it up, then turned the screen toward him. I played the video.

Hanlon watched, then glanced at the other men nearby out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t even bother keeping his attention on the video as it played out, only leaned back in his chair. He began to cross his arms, then glanced at the other men again and very deliberately set his hands on the table. He smiled, which was a shock.

“Whatever it is you’re hoping to accomplish, I’m not going to do anything illegal for you. I would rather lose my job than help someone commit a crime.” He pursed his lips and brushed a hand through his dark hair.

“How about helping to take an awful cop out of the picture? I mean, if you think about it in that way, you’d only be doing your civic duty.”

He snorted and rested his forearms on the table, studying me. His gaze slid down my body, mostly in an assessing way. I knew what it looked like when a man was eating me up, but it seemed more as if Hanlon wassizing me up, trying to figure outwhat I was capable of, and that was almost as intoxicating. I felt good and in control right now.

“That’s a hell of an argument. Compelling. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about putting a bullet in him. I assume we’re talking about O’Neill?”

I shrugged and swiped the ribbon in my hair back away from my face.

“He’s an asshole, but he does more good than harm. I think,” he muttered with a small scowl.

“He offended me today,” I said, sitting up straighter. “And I think he deserves some karma for that.”

Hanlon nodded. “I did tell my captain that he was verbally abusive, but I got the impression any complaints were going to accidentally go into file thirteen.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“The trash.” The small smile on his lips wilted as I glared.

“You can’t think of anything else you could do that wouldn’t violate your moral code?” I flicked my gaze back down to Derek’s phone and started the video again.

He groaned and reached toward the phone, but I tugged it back.

“I’ve dropped that bad habit, but like I said, if it comes down to me and my job or doing the wrong thing, I’ll eat the bullet. I’ll let myself be fired.” He stared at me grimly.

Derek had miscalculated. A cold tingle slid down my spine. Hanlon really was a good guy, which was great and restored some of my faith in humanity—but wasn’t what I needed right now. He pulled the phone closer, and I let him. With a world-weary sigh, he watched himself doing the drugs, Adam’s apple bobbing.

“On the other hand, it wouldn’t do a lot of good for New Gothenburg if you were off the police force.” I smiled at him and hit the button to lock the phone screen, then rested my hands onit. “Surely you can think of something to help me. I would love to make certain that I don’t cross paths with O’Neill again.”

He blinked and tilted his head, then glanced at the men who were still keeping tabs on us out of curiosity. “You know, O’Neill’s been known to drink on the job. It would be a shame if someone reported him to the anonymous tip line for it. He would be put on leave while the accusations were investigated. They would be less likely to cover up something that could lead to busted-up vehicles and insurance trouble. If the right person checks on O’Neill, he might be forced into treatment to keep his job, which would take him out of the picture for a few months, at least.”

“And wouldn’t that be helpful for everyone? Maybe he would even learn to control his mouth,” I said sweetly.

Hanlon pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. He didn’t press Send yet, though, just handed the phone to me. “It’s a recorded line. Say you’ve seen Detective O’Neill swerving on the road after he leaves a bar called The Precinct.” His gaze flicked to the neon sign blazing out near the road. “Tell them it’s been during the day, around lunchtime.”

Covering my mouth for a second to hold in a snicker, I nodded and did just that once the automated voice came on. Before I ended the call, Hanlon wrote down a number on a napkin, and I frowned at it. He wroteBadge Number. I rattled off the number.

“Anyway, that’s the police officer I saw.” That’s how I ended the recording, and I felt very diabolical as I slid Hanlon’s phone back across the table to him.

He glanced up at me. “You know, a man died today,” he said quietly. “Someone should pay for his murder. Do you know anything about that crime that you didn’t tell us earlier?”

“No, I wish I did. But justice has a way of hitting its mark eventually.” I tapped his phone, then leaned across the table and popped a kiss on his cheek. I left behind a pink outline of my lips.

Yelling and whistling erupted from the men who had clearly never stopped watching us, and I waved at them with a grin. I curtsied at Hanlon before I carefully walked across the parking lot to Derek.

“How’d it go?” he asked as I situated myself in the passenger seat and dragged my skirt inside. After a few seconds of tucking the fabric against my leg, I closed the door.

“Great!” I was just opening my mouth to tell him what had happened when Derek’s phone rang. My stomach dropped.Coltwas on the screen.

“Don’t answer it. Just drive back to the Courtesan,” I said, tossing the phone at him like it was poisonous.

He bared his teeth at the phone. “Yeah, good idea. I’ll drive fast.”

I groaned as he punched the gas pedal on his car, and we took off out of the parking lot.

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