Page 36 of Wild Card
My pulse roaredin my ears as I got into my cruiser outside the Forrester junkyard. What thehellhad I just done?
I normally didn’t fuck around with guys in my town to avoid a potential conflict of interest. All it took was one call to send us careening into each other’s paths. I liked to keep my private life separate from my work, and when my work involved the whole dang county, my private life pretty much didn’t exist within a two-hundred-mile radius.
But this was so much worse. This wasn’t just a hookup with a local. This was sex with asuspect.I’d put him in cuffs and shoved my dick down his throat.
The memory sent a shiver down my spine.
It wasn’t supposed to be sexy. It was fucked-up. But try telling that to my body, still flooded with endorphins and already craving more.
Not that it would get it. Bad enough it’d happened once.
I started the engine and cast one last look through the window. Axel was pulling the gate closed, muscles standing outin his strong forearms, ink twisting and swirling over his toned skin.
His long hair had come loose from its tie and trailed out behind him, but it did nothing to soften his angular jaw covered in scruff or the sharp jut of his cheekbones. His lips were soft, though. They were still swollen from sucking my dick, and just the sight of them sent hot blood rushing south.
The bill of his cap shadowed his ice-blue eyes, but I remembered how glassy they’d gotten as he spoke about that dog as if she were a precious loved one.
I’d never seen that side of Axel before. Someone who loved. Who was vulnerable.
He’d been touchy as an angry cat, hissing out threats, but that was mostly a cover for his fear. I could see that now. See just how fragile the man was. He put on a good front, but there was a hell of a lot going on beneath the surface.
The gate swung closed, blocking my view. Breaking the spell. Finally, I drove away.
I used my hands-free set to call the station. I had some work to do if I was going to keep Axel out of jail.
“Sheriff’s Department, how may I direct your call?”
“Ava, it’s Dalton.”
“Dalton, hon, what’s going on? The sheriff has been grilling the new deputy about why you’re not with her. He got her set up at a desk, but he’s not happy.”
“Shit. Can you let me talk to her? I have an update.”
“Better be a good one.” The hold music came on the line as I pulled onto the highway. Something generic and instrumental.
Instead of turning right toward town, I took a left to head back to Rusty’s trailer park.
There was a click on the line.
“What’s up, Harvey?” Chloe answered. She’d probably heard Ava greet me on the phone. “Sheriff Hale wants some answers.”
“I’m sure he does.”
I had to tread carefully here. Giving the sheriff ammunition against me was a bad idea. He wouldn’t fire me; I knew too much about his corruption. But he could make my life less pleasant in any number of ways.
“Well?” Chloe said. “Did you talk to the perp?”
Talk. If only that’s all we’d done.
“Yeah, I’m on my way back to Rusty’s place. I’m going to get him to drop the charges.”
“You found the dog?”
“I did.”
“So, you’re returning it?”
“I’m…still negotiating that.”
