Page 52 of Sinful Reality

“I woke hungry.” Pouting, she drops back, digging her shoulder into the gap under my arm and peeking toward the television, which just so happens to be running a story on what the shitty reporterthinkswe were doing out at Danika’s dig site this week. All they know is the homicide team was out there, and now it’s cordoned off with yellow tape. Assumptions are easy to come by, but the details are yet to be shared, least of all with Miranda London. “Hungry is good,” she adds, turning her nose up when Miranda’s face comes back on screen. “It means I’m getting better, don’t you think?”

“I definitely think so.” I kiss her temple and breathe her in, just like I planned on my trek home. But instead of smellingher, I catch a whiff of stale chips and what may be a perfume known aswet dog. “Cato force you to rest today?”

“Cato annoyed me today.” She shoots a dangerous glare his way. “Every single minute you were gone, in fact.”

Unafraid, he snatches up his basketball and counters her ire with a wink. “She needs a shower, a toothbrush, and an attitude adjustment.” But then he flashes a wide grin when she flips him off. “I’m heading to the stadium for a bit. I have a hot date tonight, and bringing a girl back to my brother’s couch isn’t the smooth pickup line one might think it is.”

“Literally no one thinks that’s a good line,” Minka grumbles. “It’s embarrassing. And this ismycouch, not his.”

“But we’re married, babe.” I search her eyes and smirk. “What’s yours is mine.”

“Glad to see you two have made up again.” Cato grabs my phone and tosses it so it lands on the couch with a dull thud. Then, he snags his backpack and swings it onto his shoulder. “Don’t wait up for me.”

“We never do,” Minka bites out. “And taking women to the Condors stadium is also not a good pickup line. No one wants to screw in the dirty locker room showers.”

He dismisses her with a scoff and tugs the apartment door open. “I hear you saying those words out loud, Doc. But my experience does not match your judgmental views. I’m a man who has needs, and sleeping on my brother’s couch isn’t nearly as fun when I’m all alone.”

“Bring a random woman back to my apartment, and I’ll cut your nuts off.” Her words aren’t nearly as enthusiastic as usual. Her typical passion for violence, dimmed by the pesky flu. “Consider a vow of abstinence, Cato. You need time to clear out the venereal diseases and get your rabies shots.”

“No thanks.” He steps through the doorway and slams it shut until the wall rattles. “I’m heading out to make birds and bees fuck. Stop trying to control my life.”

“Godddd.” Burrowing into my chest, Minka groans. “The entire building would have heard that.”

“You fight more than regular siblings.” I reach for the television remote and turn the volume down so I don’t have to listen to Miranda London’s yammering voice. Then I set it on the cushion beside my phone and take a moment to study my wife. “You didn’t grow up together, you’re not biologically related, andyouare supposed to be a mature, successful, specially trained doctor for the dead whose signature literally signs death certificates and whose expert opinion can alter the course of a murder investigation. All that responsibility on the shoulders of a lady who bickers with an eighteen-year-old kid?”

“Shush.” She sweeps her leg up and drapes it over my thighs, laying her arm on my stomach and cuddling in until her warm breath bathes my chest. “I’m sick.” She wiggles closer, trapping me in her long limbs until there’s no space left between us. “Don’t be mean to me.”

“Is it mean when I’m only pointing out how utterly immature you are sometimes?” I kiss the top of her head and settle in for a few moments ofus, but my phone vibrates again, so I scoop it up and turn it until I spy Tarran’s name once more. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Already, her breathing slows. Deepens. All she needed was me, and now she’s ready for her next sleep. “You’ve finished work for the day. No outsiders allowed.”

I cough out a quiet laugh and swipe my screen unlocked. Because Janelle McDermott wants to talk, and technically, I’d rather do that thansee the bitch on the television. “Why are you watching this channel, anyway?” Tapping on Janelle’s number, I set the call on speaker and place the device on Minka’s cheesy-dust-covered leg. “There are better reporters to watch.”

“Cato was annoying me, so I turned it here knowing she’d annoy me more. It was a safety precaution that kept your brother alive.”

“Oh, well…” I chuckle and look down when my call connects.

“Hello?”

“Ms. McDermott?”Professional voice. Ignore the Dorito dust. “Hi, it’s Detective Malone. I got a message that you wanted to speak to me?”

“Hi! Yes.” She rushes around wherever she is on her side of the line. Racing breaths, and the happy squeal of a little girl doing something she probably shouldn’t. “Thank you for calling me back, Detective. I hope this isn’t a bad time.”

“Not at all.” I look down at a grumpy Minka and her sour expression, and then I poke the tip of her nose with my tongue and swallow my laugh before it gets me in trouble. “I have a minute to spare. Did you need something? Is everything okay with your dad?”

“Everything is fine. As fine as can be expected, considering he’s still in prison,” she nervously snickers. “That won’t change for a long time. But I wanted to reach out and just…” She pauses whatever she’s doing, stops moving, and merely breathes. “I wanted to say thank you.”

“Thank me? For what?”

“For treating my father with respect. For listening to what he had to say without that added tang of judgment other cops offer him. He’sjustan inmate. He won’t be a free man for a really long time, so most people tend to speak to him like he’s trash.”

“He treated me and my partner respectfully. He didn’t waste our time, and did a fantastic job of collecting information that will ultimately lead to an arrest and close a case.”

“He’s not a bad person.” She sniffles. Though it’s not the long, wet drag I’ve become accustomed to hearing from Minka. “He’s a good man who made a bad choice. And that bad choice was on the back ofmybad choice.”

“Janelle—”

“I carry a lot of guilt, Detective. Because of my dumb teenage rebellionand poor judgment, I placed my father in a position he felt he had no alternative but to act in. He protected me, and I’m certain that if he hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t be here anymore. That doesn’t make his actions okay,” she quickly adds. “I understand that. But I know he did it for me.”

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