I wanted to point out how they could only send me to prison if I was proven guilty, and they needed evidence for that, too. But what if Erin’s cause of death really had been magical or infernal? The fact the OPA wasn’t investigating meant that there weren’t any witches or demon hunters to sweep for evidence. The LAPD’s detectives were good at what they did—when it came to humans. But they didn’t have the tools they needed for this.
Suzy wouldn’t hear reason, though. I knew what it sounded like when she had made up her mind.
I’d been pushing the same piece of chicken around my plate for a few minutes without eating. I made myself take a last bite. “I’m exhausted.”
A sympathetic look. “Yeah, I bet you are. Catch a few hours of sleep. I’ll hook you up with a bus ticket before I go to work tomorrow.”
Suzy finished eating and cleaned up, which involved bending over a few times. I tried not to notice.
Damn.
She gave me some blankets and dimmed the lights. “I’ll wake you up at four. You need anything?”
I told her I didn’t. My resolve vanished in a puff of incense smoke when she headed upstairs, and I craned my neck to watch the globes of her ass flexing under her panties as she climbed. Double damn. Triple damn. Damnation above and below and everywhere in between.
I waited until I heard her door close before finding her laptop.
We all had them. The OPA issued laptops to its employees so we could take our work everywhere we went. No rest for salaried government employees, right? I usually left mine docked in its workstation, but Suzy was a workaholic. I knew it had to be around somewhere.
As I suspected, I found Cat sitting on her machine in the entryway. He gave me an offended look when I tugged it out from underneath his furry butt.
Our passwords needed to be changed every quarter, but Suzy’s password was always easy to figure out. She mixed up the ingredients that she kept in jars on her desk—always the same ingredients in a different order. Lotus, dragon’s blood, thyme, jasmine, moonstone. Not that I’d been watching her type or anything.
Anyway, it took three tries to get the order right, and I was logged in.
A quick search of the database brought up witness testimonies for Isobel Stonecrow, just as I’d been hoping. I printed them out. Stuffed them in my jacket. Put Suzy’s laptop back where I found it.
I spent a full minute at the base of her stairs and thought about leaving while she was asleep. But someone had broken into Suzy’s house. If I hit the streets tonight, I would spend the whole time stressing about her all vulnerable in bed, tangled up in sheets that smelled like her peach body wash, wondering if she would look like Erin in the morning.
I needed sleep. There was no avoiding that. Might as well do it where I could keep Suzy safe.
The blankets she’d given me smelled like Cat. I wrapped up in them and closed my eyes.
I was unconscious before my head hit the arm of the sofa.
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
CHAPTER NINE
I dreamed of Erin.
We were tangled in each other, her hips rocking, my hands mounding the twin swells of her ass. She was grinding, groaning. Her head rolled back on her shoulders. Her chest was freckled. I licked the sweat from between her breasts and bit her nipple. She liked that—judging by the sounds, she really liked that.
We moved in tandem, the two of us. Bodies slamming against the cabinets. Hands clutching at the counter. She was close to her peak. Her arm flailed and knocked the toaster onto the floor.
There was something wrong here—something missing between us. Something I had forgotten.
Couldn’t stop. Couldn’t think.
There was nothing but our bodies and the hunger.
She came hard, screaming. Her fingernails dug into my pecs. Even that knifelike pain was pleasure, carrying me toward the edge with her. I was balls deep, about to shoot a load inside this gorgeous woman, and I didn’t care that my heart had stopped beating.#p#分页标题#e#
But I knew I was about to die.
I shocked awake with a weight pressing on my chest. For a half second, I thought that I’d been buried alive. It was dark. I couldn’t breathe.
Then I saw two pale circles staring at me and realized that I wasn’t in a grave—I just had Cat smothering me. He was purring like a jackhammer and kneading Suzy’s blankets under his polydactyl paws. His whiskers tickled against my chin.
I pushed the cat off, let the sheets fall, pressed a fist to my chest. Heart was slamming against my breastbone. It wasn’t hot, but I was drenched in sweat.
Needed to breathe. Could have used another poultice for strength, too.