Page 71 of Duty and Desire
And saw her face, terrified, eyes filled with tears.
He opened his, moved his hand, found his gun under the toss pillow right where he put it.
Mo drew in a big breath and released it.
He tried that again.
After that, he started with his toes.
They were still in boots.
He gave up after getting all the way to his scalp and fell asleep two hours later with his hand curled around the butt of his gun.
CHAPTER 4
WHITENING STRIPS
Mo
The next morning, Mo sat on the couch he’d slept on while Lottie was in the bathroom doing whatever she did first thing in the morning.
He was on his phone with Hawk.
It was eight thirty and he was surprised she was up that early.
He’d been up since six.
“No on the prints. Got a sample to the DNA lab to see if we can catch something on that, but if he’s not in the system for his prints, even if they can pull some, he won’t be in the system for DNA,” Hawk briefed him. “FBI is still running the language. That might take some time.”
“And?” Mo asked.
“And, customers Smithie, Jorge, Joaquim and me tagged as possibles got tails home last night. We’re goin’ into their places today to take a closer look.”
“I’ll take odds that he didn’t send that letter and knows Smithie’s gonna get it around about yesterday and he’s gonnashow at the club. He’s gotta know Smithie is gonna call someone in.”
“He’s also probably expecting cops.”
“You and Jorge don’t look like titty bar regulars, Hawk.”
“You want us to work this situation or sit on our hands for a coupla days?” Hawk asked.
Mo shut his mouth.
His boss was older than him, not by much, so it wasn’t like he was a father figure.
Mo had given up on a father figure a long time ago.
It was that he was his commanding officer, as such, and Mo had been trained not to disappoint his commanding officer.
And right then, Hawk didn’t exactly sound like he was thrilled with Mo.
“It hasn’t been twenty-four hours, Mo,” Hawk noted. “Is she already getting under your skin?”
She was definitely a challenge.
But she wasn’t under his skin. That couldn’t happen. And he knew it the minute she opened the door to him and took a step back like she was getting ready to flee.
This was not an unusual reaction people had to him.
