Sweet Seduction Shield(61)

"And you Ryan?" Stone asked. "A momentary lapse of judgement? Or something more?"

The way he looked at Pierce made me think he expected his answer to be damning. As though he knew Pierce better than I had realised, and was certain the man wouldn't hedge his attraction for a woman when placed on the spot. I could understand that assessment. Pierce was, like Abi had said, from the school of see 'em, like 'em, want 'em, take 'em. And I think this man sitting opposite us was well aware of that fact.

I tried not to hold my breath. On the one hand, I wanted to hear his defiant possession. On the other, we needed Stone to back the fuck off.

"Wouldn't you have taken what was on offer? Even if it was only a little taste," he said slowly. Purposefully. Almost a challenge in itself.

Stone chuckled. "Bad timing, my man. But if you can swear to me, on your mother's grave, that this is a one time thing, I'll drop it."

On your mother's grave. They were words spoken enough by people trying to get a promise backed by something close to the promiser's heart. But the way Pierce jerked in his seat let me know there was more to those four words than I was aware. And that Stone knew exactly what mentioning them would mean to Pierce.

I was thinking it was a low blow. And for a moment I just wanted to reach over and grasp Ryan's hand reassuringly, while I hurled the last of my coffee at Stone's face. The image was blazing in my mind, taunting me, teasing me, begging me to reproduce it in reality. The gut clenching desire to soothe the man next to me, mixed with the acidic need to strike out at the man who had caused him to respond with a shocked jerk of his frame.

I opened my mouth to misdirect, to change the tangent this conversation had taken, but Pierce beat me to it. A careful press of his hand on my thigh, hidden from sight under the table, halting the words in my throat.

"On my mother's grave," Pierce said with a twist of his lips mimicking a smile. "This was a one time thing."

Stone stared at him for a long drawn out moment. I think he was shocked. I think he expected a different answer. And for a moment he didn't quite know how to respond.

And while he blinked back at a blank faced Pierce, I picked up the pieces of my bruised heart and told myself to harden the fuck up. I had to hope Pierce was playing along, on the same page as me. But the intense emotional reaction to hearing those words slip off his tongue made me realise, that if Pierce was where I was at, in whatever relationship we'd started, he would have definitely been hurt by my previous misleading words too.

Unless he could see through my shield, see the real me beneath the ice princess, confident façade.

I flicked a glance at him from the corner of my eye, but his attention was on Stone. Waiting for his verdict. He'd also removed his hand from my thigh when he'd answered the other detective, making the distance it caused feel like a chasm once he'd finished what he had to say.

"All right, then," Stone finally announced. "Enough said."

Not nearly enough as far as I was concerned, but I kept my mouth shut.

"We need to go over some of the court evidence the Crown Prosecutor wants to present," Stone said, his gaze on me but his words for Pierce.

"Can't it wait?" Pierce asked.

"No," Stone replied firmly. "I've done what I can in your absence, but this was always your baby, Ryan. Not mine."

"Today's not a good a day," Pierce argued, but didn't go into details about why, which I was thinking was the planned retrieval of the ledger from the courtyard at the Police bar.

It made me realise, that Pierce hadn't told Stone what evidence I had. I couldn't remember if Stone's was one of the faces and voices around this table when Pierce told everyone I had something on McLaren. If he was, he hadn't received the update yet. He didn't know I had the means to destroy more than McLaren's fucked-up little world. But to turn this 'case', as Pierce had originally called it, into something much grander in scale. Something encompassing more than just one drug lord's syndicate, but maybe a good portion of New Zealand's drug supplying ring.

It was a goldmine, if it was still there. And I had no reason to doubt that it wasn't. If an off duty cop had found the book at the Birdcage while having a few post shift beers, then Pierce would have heard. But the question remained, why hadn't Pierce told Detective Stone? I was beginning to see they knew each other well, probably worked together as partners. So, why not share the goldmine?

"Can't be helped," Stone said, interrupting my thoughts. "I'm here to replace you on guard, so you can get down to his offices and go through some of the stacks of evidence your man collected for this case."

Pierce let out a long frustrated breath of air. "Now he decides to collate the fucking evidence."