Page 33 of Enforcing the Rules

That asshole dared steal from the Royal Bastards. He had a hard lesson coming. I was all too happy to teach it. No one lived to brag about crossing us like that.

Rock finally strode in and everyone straightened in their chairs.

He sat and pounded the gavel. “I’m dispensing with the roll call and procedures. One of you motherfuckers better have something for me on this asshole.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Kate—

I made it to work on time, relieving Otis at 7 am.

He looked at his watch. “’Bout time. You’re late.”

I glanced at the clock on the wall. I was late. By fifteen minutes. Otis didn’t know how close I was to not making it in at all. It was only by chance I’d roused and saw the time was ten to seven. I’d slipped out of Utah’s bed, gathered up my clothes, and snuck out the door, leaving my panties on the deck because I was afraid opening the sliders would wake Utah.

“Sorry, Otis. I, um, overslept.”

His eyes moved over me, taking in my clothes from last night. “You’re pretty dressed up today. What’s the occasion?”

Shit. “I, um, have to meet someone later.”

Thankfully, he lost interest in the topic.

“Is there coffee?” I asked.

He pointed toward the pot on the maker. “Some. But it’s not fresh.”

I hated stale coffee, so the first thing I did was make a fresh pot. I poured two cups when the carafe was full and carried one to Otis, sitting across from him as he finished up some paperwork.

He barely glanced up. “Thanks, doll.”

“Busy last night?”

“Two DUIs and a shoplifting case.”

“Really? Where?”

“The electronics store on Worth Ave. Kid had his pants full of video games. Worth about twelve hundred dollars. Mostly Zelda and Mario.”

I almost snorted my coffee. “Is this that same guy again?”

“Yup. Hedgehog360.”

He was a famous gamer with a blog who couldn’t seem to quit stealing. “If his blog did so well, shouldn’t he be getting games as free promotional products for being a social media influencer?”

“What am I always telling you, Kate? Don’t try to make sense of these people.”

He was probably right. Besides, there was only one skip I needed to figure out. I bit my lip. “You hear from Bill?”

“Yeah. He should be back in by early afternoon to relieve you.”

“Oh. So, he found Jim Kelly?”

“Yep.” Otis slammed his file closed, tossed his pen and reached for the steaming mug. “Guess where.”

“Where?”

I watched him guzzle a good portion of his coffee before he spoke again.

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