Page 17 of Heat of Justice

“Do you know where she went?”

“Nope. Good riddance. She divorced me once, you know? I won’t take her back this time. She wants to go, she can go. Didn’t even leave me a note. Now, that’s cold.”

She wasn’t buying his version of events.

“Has it occurred to you that something may have happened to her?”

His eyes went wide. “Like what?”

“I don’t know, Mr. Winters. You tell me.”

“Hang on a minute… Are you accusing me of something?”

His outrage also came across as fake. She noticed he seemed to be enjoying toying with her, or, again, thinking he could.What an asshole.Well. Two could play this game.

“Do you hit your wife, Mr. Winters?”

“Of course, I don’t.” No shock there, she noticed. As if he’d been asked the question once or twice before and automaticallydelivered a rehearsed answer. “I love my wife. She has a bunch of issues, but…”

“What issues?”

“Mental.” He tapped his temple with his index finger. “You know what I mean. Seems to be the thing these days.Anxiety.Personally, I work too hard to be affected. Don’t have time for this shit.”

“Is your wife on medication?”

“Nah. Just goes to show it ain’t that serious.” He laced his nod with a cold smile. “Women tend to be that way, don’t they? I think they called it hysteria in the old times. Weak in the mind. Poor things.”

His thinly veiled insult slid off Cody like water off a duck’s back. She was beginning to feel intense dislike for this guy, but it was not personal. She dealt with men like him all the time in her job. Being an asshole was not a crime.

“Do you have any idea of where your wife could be?” she repeated.

“Nope.”

“Do you think she’s okay?”

“Hope so.” He grinned. “Sure. I wish her the best.”

“Do you even care that she’s missing?”

“Why should I? She’ll come groveling back when she runs out of cash. And when she does, I’ll be glad to tell her to keep on going.” He was curious about one thing. “So, someone reported her missing?”

His tone was light, but Cody watched his eyes sharpen. She noted a flicker of temper across his gaze, quickly brought under control. It occurred to her that it might not take much to light this guy’s fuse, and that he would be dangerous, if and when this happened.

“Something like that, yes,” she told him.

“Mm… Who was it?”

“A friend.”

“Right.” He sneered, cold and cruel. “Funny that, I didn’t think Cass had any friends.”

???

“Good morning, beautiful.”

Quinn woke up to a gentle kiss on her cheek, a silky strand of coconut-scented hair drifting tantalizingly across her face, and warm fingers massaging her shoulders.Lia…

“Mm…” Not fully awake yet, she smiled. Started to stretch and roll over, then caught a ray of sunlight across the room that made her blink in alarm. “Oh… Shit!”

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