Page 24 of The Drag Race Debutante & the Detectives
Dane’s grip tightened on the arms of his chair until his knuckles blanched. “Did you just call Emily a slut?” he growled through gritted teeth.
“Answer the question, Senior Constable.”
“Wait,” Jo said, holding up her hand, then stared at Dane and Eric. “Did you say Emily? As in Emily, Emily?”
He and Eric nodded. “Yes.”
“Who cares what her fucking name is?”
“Detective Bryant,” Jo barked, furious authority bleeding out of her as she glared at the man. “The young woman in question is a dear family friend, and her brother is engaged to my niece. If you call her by anything other than her name again, I will have you written up for conduct unbecoming. Do you understand me?”
Bryant’s mouth tightened and he rolled his shoulders. “Yes, ma’am. I apologise. It won’t happen again.”
“It better not. Now, first things first. Is Emily all right?”
Nodding, Dane released a slow breath and relaxed his grip on the chair, flexed his fingers to get the blood flowing again. “Yeah, she’s safe.”
“For now,” Cross said, folding his arms over his chest. “Spencer isn’t going to let her get away with humiliating him like she did.” Then he chuckled. “Not that it wasn’t fucking spectacular to watch that little shit get taken down a few pegs. Especially by a woman,” he added, then sent him and Eric a nod of approval. Not that they needed or even wanted his approval.
Jo frowned at them. “Why was she even there? Emily has never struck me as the type of woman to go looking for trouble.”
Dane shared a look with Eric, then sighed. “She was on a date,” he said. “With Matthew Spencer, of all people. She thought they were going to Willowbank but the little shit took her there instead.”
Their aunt’s frown deepened. “But I thought you two and her were… you know.”
“We were taking it slow,” Eric said. “Too slow, apparently. And then we got brought in on this and couldn’t tell her anything about it, so….”
“So she thought you weren’t interested anymore and went out with someone else. Got it.” Jo laughed but there was no humour in it. “And now she’s stuck in the middle of this mess.”
“We were trying to get her out of there as quietly as possible, but things didn’t exactly go to plan. Shane noticed her and liked what he saw.”
“And was that before or after she hit his brother?” Jo asked, flicking through the reports in front of her.
“After,” Dane said. “She hit Matthew because he called her a slut.” He faced Detective Bryant and grinned with grim satisfaction. “Would you like to meet her?”
The older man snorted and shook his head but wisely kept his mouth shut, which was a good thing. Dane wasn’t sure he could listen to any more of the man’s crap without getting himself into serious trouble.
“Well, it looks like you need a new plan, gentlemen. Any suggestions?”
“I could think of a few,” Bryant grumbled.
“Before I put forward my suggestion, I have a question,” Cross said. “If Emily had raced Spencer last night, could she have won?”
“That’s why you called it in?” Dane said. “You didn’t think she could win?”
Cross’s brow shot up and he stared at them like they were idiots. “I called it in because the situation was escalating out of your control. But now I’m curious. Did she have a chance? Could she have beaten him?”
Now it was their turn to stare at Cross like he was the idiot. Dane laughed. “Yeah, she could have.”
“Bullshit,” Bryant said. “No one beats Spencer. That’s how he keeps getting away with this shit.”
“Emily was taught how to race by her brother,” Eric said, “and to this day he is the only person she can’t beat.”
“And who’s her brother?” Cross asked.
“Edward Berringer,” Jo supplied.
“Why do I know that name?” Bryant asked.
