Page 18 of Ends of Being

“That fucking prick,” he mutters, almost to himself. “Telling me fancy tales as if things had progressed naturally with his woman after all his pining.”

His woman? Pining? What the actual fuck.

I make a face, my confusion growing with every word muttered by this guy. Surely, he’s mistaken, andhis womanis someone else entirely because the idea that Dare has been secretly pining over me for ages is completely ludicrous. He hates me. Loathes me even. Can’t stand to be in the same room with me for more than a few minutes before wanting to bodily toss me out a window.

The officer is pacing around, still muttering to himself, “And I bet Tony knows all about it! I bet that fucking prick was in on this little turn of events the entire time, having a laugh at my expense.”

I interrupt him, “Toni? But I’m Toni.”

He spares me a glance, “No, you’re Antoinette. Tony is Tony Andersen, Darius’s bosom buddy and numero-uno bromancer.”

“Huh,” I respond. “Never heard of him. And who are you?”

He gives me a bland look, then finally holds his hand out as he replies, “I’m Chief Matt Shields. Nice to finally meet you.”

“Finally meet me?” I ask incredulously. “Have you heard a lot about me?”

He snorts, “A lot would be an understatement, but that’s really all I’m going to say about it.”

I frown at him. “What? You can’t be serious.”

He just looks at me and doesn’t say anything.

I raise my brows at him. “Then what are you going to do with me now that I’m here and Darius isn’t?”

He mirrors my frown, “Excellent question.”

“I guess you have no choice but to take me to him.”

“Not a fucking chance.”

Now he’s pissing me off. It’s obvious there is no way this asshat is going to be enforcing the law on Darius, especially since what I’m telling him would end up being my word against his. And he will definitely be team Darius unless I can come up with some kind of concrete evidence implicating Dare for something bigger than my current complaints.

I glare at him, crossing my arms over my chest as I ask, “What other choice do you have…Chief Shields?” I step closer to him, getting right up in his space as I continue. “Either you take me to Darius, or I bring a whole heap of problems to your house.”

He eyes me suspiciously. “Either way, I’m fucked, so I’m not sure your way makes me any less fucked.”

I shrug. “That sounds like a you problem. But let me assure you, if you attempt to double-cross me on this, I have people waiting for me to check in and my location is shared with them in case I suddenly go dark.”

This isn’t even remotely true, but I pull my phone out and send a message randomly anyway, giving the impression that I’m not full of shit. My gut tells me he won’t try to pull anything, but I know my gut isn’t always as fortuitous as I would like it to be. I have to plan for the worst and hope for the best. Whatever the fuck the best scenario would even be at this point.

He sighs deeply, running his hand through his hair in agitation as he mutters to himself some more. Apparently, this is a more difficult choice than I would have thought, and I can’t imagine how or why. This could mean this guy knows a lot about all the Darius stuff that I really want to know.

Finally, he stops his muttering and walks around me, holding the door open as he looks at me expectantly, “Well, let’s go,” he says. “May as well get this over with.”

I’m not sure what I should think at this point, so I walk out the door and wait for him to lead the way.

To where? I guess I’ll find out.

Chapter Eight

Toni

Ourdrivebacktothe city is rather tense.

Chief Shields, as I will be calling him, made it quite clear to me that he would not be listening to my questions at all, never mind answering them, and the blaring metal music he put on the radio pretty much cemented this fact. I’m not at all accustomed to being ignored, but I figure I may as well give him the win because, at this point, I don’t even know where to start.

So, the silent ride gives me plenty of time to ponder every possible fucked-up scenario in the history of fucked-up scenarios. And plenty of time to slyly scope out Chief Shields while he’s distracted by traffic.

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