Dark Guardian (Black Hoods MC #3) - Avelyn Paige Page 0,20

lately,” he teases.

“You know how much I work.” An excuse, but a truthful one.

“So do I, but you can’t forget to enjoy life. When you don’t, all you see is the dark part of our line of work.”

“I know, but—”

“But nothing. Piero picked out this wine especially for you. It’s from his family’s vineyard. Let’s not spoil it with the same old argument we always have, darling.” Picking up the glass, he swirls the dark merlot liquid in the glass before bringing it to his lips.

I scrunch up my nose. Pet names? When exactly did we make it to that level of familiarity in our friendship? The last time I checked, we were nowhere near that level. Catching my reaction over the brim of his glass, he frowns before taking another sip.

“Try it,” he insists, trying to divert the awkwardness away from his slip.

I finger the stem of the glass before grasping it and bringing it to my lips. The plump, velvety merlot hits my tongue. It’s good. One of the better wines I’ve had. But not even the alcohol sliding down my throat can deter me from his use of the word “darling”.

“Like it?”

“I like it. I normally don’t like merlots,” I remark quietly. Merlots are his favorite, not mine. I’m more of a Moscato fan, but I don’t want to insult him even more than I have by being almost an hour late. Court ran over, as I had expected it would. Mr. Jackson had somehow managed to get an earlier court date, but the judge ordered a continuance so he could review the matter further. His disapproval of the decision landed him with a charge of contempt of court.

“The usual?” Aaron asks, snapping me out of my caseload daydream.

“Sure.”

“We’d both like the cacio e pepe.”

“Of course, sir.” The server scribbles away on his notepad before taking the menus from the table.

“I’m going to take a wild guess here, but court didn’t go well, did it?”

“It didn’t. But I thought you didn’t want to talk shop during our meal?”

“Touché. It’s like you don’t think I know you that well. You’re only meeting me tonight to find out more about the Tucker case.”

“That’s not true,” I fire back, panicking at being caught red-handed. “I like Piero’s just as much as you do.”

Aaron slumps slightly into his chair. “I just wish it was the company you were as excited to see as it was the case file I have for you.”

“You found something?” I almost gasp, making the tension between us grow colder. I didn’t even notice the folder sitting next to his plate with his hand resting on it until he mentioned it.

“I did.” He passes the folder across the table, and I have to force myself not to snatch it out of his hand. I don’t want to be greedy, but what he found could blow my case wide open. “But I have to warn you, there’re some graphic photos in there. It might be best to save looking through it until after dinner.”

“Oh. The mother?”

“Yes. I found her death certificate. She was originally logged as a Jane Doe until she was identified a few weeks later by her fingerprints in the IAFIS system. They found her at a truck stop.”

Those poor kids. If their mother is dead, how in the world did they end up with this uncle? Next of kin determination, or did he just claim them?

“It gets worse, Gracie. A local lot lizard found her in a ditch near the back end of Ricky’s truck stop off of I-35 and called it in. She had enough heroin in her system to kill an elephant. She OD’d.”

A tidal wave of sadness washes over me. “That poor woman,” is all I can get out. Addiction never leaves you. It takes an ugly hold around every aspect of your life and wrings you dry, until there’s nothing left. “Did you find anything about what happened to the kids?”

“I spoke with the lead investigator this morning, who ran her death investigation. He didn’t even know she was a mother, so that rules out that DFPS or law enforcement had anything to do with the current placement of either child.”

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”

Aaron’s brows lift in surprise. “That’s a lot of swearing for you in one sentence.”

“It’s got to be those bikers. There’s no other explanation. She got caught up with them and OD’d. When she died, they took her kids with them. Nothing else makes sense. I knew I