“Do me a favor,” he said, barely parting his lips as he spoke. “Just shut the fuck up.”
Chapter 39
THERE WAS A large coffee and a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts sitting on my desk with a note taped to the top.
Sorry about Spence. He means well. Xxx, K-Mac
Kylie was sitting at her desk munching on the last few morsels of a glazed doughnut. “I took one,” she said, washing it down with coffee. “The other eleven are all yours.”
“I appreciate the gesture, but don’t you think that’s profiling? Cops and doughnuts?”
“For the record, I did not give Spence your number,” she said. “He found it in my cell.”
“Did he share his theory with you, or shall I?”
“He laid it on me this morning,” she said. “The powers that be in Los Angeles come up with a devious plan to cripple film production in New York.”
“Devious and dastardly,” I said. “The kind of scenario where you definitely expect to see Lex Luthor.”
“I know it’s off-the-wall,” she said, “but at least you have to give him points for creativity.”
“Creativity? No wonder I can’t crack this case. Like an idiot, I’ve been trying to connect the facts.”
“That’s the difference between police work and the television business,” Kylie said. “As far as TV people are concerned, reality is highly overrated. They would never let it get in the way of their thinking.”
“Yesterday was only our first day working together,” I said. “But now that I have some insight into your husband, I’m wondering how many times a week you had to buy doughnuts for your former partners.”
“Believe it or not, you’re the first one Spence ever called.”
“I’m flattered. Sleep-deprived, but flattered.”
“You know Spence. He’s always been fascinated with cops, and he loves that you get to combine cop stuff with show business. He told me last night that you have the coolest job, and he’d trade places with you if he could.”
Spence Harrington wants to trade places with me? I didn’t know how to begin to respond. I never got the chance.
“Zach! K-Mac!” Captain Cates was striding toward us, barking orders as she walked. “Robbery-homicide, West Sixty-two between Columbus and Amsterdam.”
I knew the area well. It was a pretty quiet neighborhood. “What’s there?” I said.
Cates stopped in front of us. She looked like she hadn’t slept much last night either. “A film production trailer,” she said. “And a line producer with a bullet in his chest.”
Chapter 40
GABE AND LEXI crashed through the front door, knocking over the brass umbrella stand that she had picked up at a flea market for twelve bucks.
They hadn’t spoken the entire subway ride home. They had walked in silence to the apartment building, him fuming, her sobbing.
When they got to the lobby, she just stood there waiting for the elevator, shoulders slumped, eyes red, spirit broken.
Finally she spoke. “You’re never going to love me again, will you?”
She meant it. That’s how her mind worked. You fuck up; you get abandoned. Her parents had done that to her.
“Don’t be…” He swallowed the word stupid. “Don’t say things like that,” he said.
The elevator doors opened. She stepped in and stood in the corner, tears streaming down her cheeks, hands clenched at her sides.
“Lexi,” he said, following her into the elevator, “what happened, happened, and I’m a little freaked about it, but I love you. I’ll always love you.”
If he thought that would cheer her up, he was wrong. Her body shook as she tried to hold back the anguish.
He had never seen her so despondent, and it cut him to the marrow.
He softened. “It’s okay,” he said, enfolding her gently in his arms. He kissed her forehead, her eyes, her salt-stained cheek, trying his best to comfort her.
She tilted her head up, and he gently touched his lips to hers. She sighed, parted her mouth, and he found her tongue. He reached down and clenched her butt, and she responded by arching her pelvis and forcing it against his.
He hardened.
The elevator door opened, and they stumbled down the hall, banging into their front door till he finally fit the key in the lock.
She was peeling off her pants and panties before the door had even shut behind them. Then she grabbed his belt and expertly undid the buttons on his jeans while he ripped off his windbreaker and threw it on the floor.
The bedroom was too far, and she turned away from him, leaning over a chair, hands flat on the table. He grabbed her hips from behind and entered her hard.