Tempt Me - By Shiloh Walker Page 0,18
around the box, keeping a good eighteen inches between them, like she thought a viper might strike. She had the cards locked up in her office. “Watch the store for a minute?”
Her mouth tightened, but Lacey nodded, her gaze returning to the box. “Just one thing—am I going to kick your ass in a few minutes?”
“Possibly.”
Okay.
This was unexpected, Cole thought, pulling up behind the unmarked car parked in front of Rocki’s shop. He was an attorney, after all—he’d seen plenty of unmarked police cars.
Although, hey, he had to think calmly—her husband had been on the force. She probably had a lot of friends ...
Shit, if she’d been hurt, he was going to fucking kill somebody.
Okay, calm just went out the window, he admitted as he made it inside in under sixty seconds flat.
To his surprise, he knew the cop he found there, too.
It was Clayton Morgan, standing close to Rocki, his expression surly, his russet hair standing on end. “Okay, Rock. One more time, and damn it, if you leave anything out, I’m paddling you.”
Fury punched through Cole, hot and vicious. He kept his voice level, though, as he said, “Unless I’m mistaken, I’m pretty sure cops generally don’t get to paddle citizens. Or did they redo the law, Detective?”
Three heads turned his way, two redheads and one brunette. He glanced at the beautiful brunette but kept his focus on the cop, one brow lifted.
Morgan raked him with a quick look and snorted. “Hell, what is the DA doing here, Rock?” Then he shook his head. “I’m not yet here officially—Rocki’s a friend, Stanton, so don’t get your boxers in a twist.”
“Not yet?” He shifted his gaze to Rocki then, saw the strain in her eyes, and the pallor. Concern wrapped a tight, brutal grip around his heart. Closing the distance between them, he reached up and cupped her chin. “What happened?”
The shop looked okay. She looked fine—other than pale and unhappy. He stroked a thumb over her satin skin and waited for her to look him in the eye.
A tight smile came and went. “Ugly shit. I...well, I don’t want to...”
He looked past her then. Saw the white box sitting on the counter. The lid hadn’t been put all the way back on. It wasn’t the blooms that bothered him, in and of themselves. They were brightly colored, and beautiful—and he’d spent enough money on flowers in his life to know that they weren’t cheap flowers, either.
No, the disturbing fact was that every last one of them had been cut from the stem, carefully placed away from it in the box. Carefully, he reached inside his coat pocket and pulled out a pen, using it to nudge the lid completely out of the way. Once he had, he counted the flowers. Two dozen in all. And all of the blooms had been removed. Shifting his gaze to Rocki, he saw that she was staring determinedly at his chest, like she’d been intent on not looking at the flowers. “I take it you didn’t do the snip and clip there,” he said.
She swallowed and gave him a game smile. “Not much for horticulture.”
“Don’t see the fun in it myself.” He looked at Morgan. “So...what’s the deal?”
Morgan raised his eyebrows. “I’m curious why it’s your business, Stanton.”
“Clayton, yank the stick out of your ass. He’s here to pick me up for a date. He sees you, and apparently you know each other.” Rocki rolled her eyes. “Do the math, genius.”
The cop stiffened. “Hell, you’re dating a lawyer.”
Rocki sighed. “Well, not officially. Not yet. You see, we haven’t had the date.” Then she shifted her gaze to Cole and added, “Besides, I didn’t know he was a lawyer.”
“Does it matter?” Cole asked softly.
“Hell, yes,” Clayton snapped.
Rocki smiled. “Not so much.” Then she looked at the flowers. “Clayton...what do we do here?”
He glared at her, then abruptly groaned. “A lawyer. A fu...a lawyer, for crying out loud.” He sighed and shoved a hand through his hair before studying the flowers again.
That was when Cole noticed something else—two white envelopes on the counter. Clayton tapped them with his pen and glanced at Rocki. “I’ll call around, see what I can find out. But you need to come in, at least fill out a complaint about this. You know that.”
She glanced at Cole. With a tired smile, she said, “Maybe that official date is going to have to wait.”
“Maybe. But I’ll drive you to the police station.”
That tired, strained look on her face pissed him