Back in Black (McGinnis Investigations #1) - Rhys Ford Page 0,90

job, Jae. Just a necessary evil,” I reassured him, locking my fingers at the small of his back. “She doesn’t think I killed him. She came here as a cop and did her job. If she hadn’t and they bring in the real killer, the defense could poke holes in the case by asking if she excluded everyone she believed could have done it.”

“She’s supposed to be your friend.” He wasn’t willing to let go of his irritation yet. Jae prized loyalty and friendship above practically everything else. His entire life was filled with family he’d chosen, and he would do anything for someone he loved. Especially me.

“She still is my friend. This doesn’t change anything between us. It’s the job, babe.” I shrugged as best I could with my arms full of a simmering man I’d given my heart to. “Look what I did to Ivan. If I was in her shoes, I would come knocking on my door too. We worked it out. It’s okay. I just wanted you to know what happened and how things stand.”

“He came into our house. With a gun. You could have killed him then. Why would you wait?” Jae muttered, following with a bit of Korean, which of course I didn’t understand. “You can’t even wait to get home before you open a box of cookies we just bought at the store. Her reasoning makes no sense.”

“Is that a rousing endorsement of my unwillingness to murder someone in cold blood? Because I eat cookies in the car on the way home?” I shot him a cocky grin, hoping to tease the gold anger from his eyes. “And it’s not O’Byrne’s reasoning. It’s just standard detective work. Eliminate all of the possibilities and what you have left or who you have left is your suspect.”

“Aish, you know what I mean.” He actually tugged at my armpit hair, making me yelp and pull away a few inches, but I maintained my embrace. Sometimes holding Jae was like dealing with a cat. He wanted to be held, but it would cost me a bit of my dignity. “We both need showers, and I’m going to be late if I don’t hurry. Are you sure you’re okay with O’Byrne? And with her taking the guns?”

“I would trust her if she told me to jump over a fiery pit,” I said, making small circles across Jae’s spine with my thumb. “I’m still kind of trying to decide how I feel about carrying a weapon. It’s not like I’m doing anything dangerous today, and I think now that Ivan is dead, there isn’t anybody to come after us. He was probably killed to silence him.”

“And what about the person who killed him? You don’t think they’ll come after you?” Jae bit his lip and stirred against me. “I know we’ve gone back and forth about you taking a gun with you, but I just want you to be safe. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I think I’ll be fine. O’Byrne will be with me—eventually—and she’s got a gun in case we get attacked by a rabid llama,” I murmured, leaning down to kiss his neck. “Now, how about that shower, and exactly how late can you be?”

I CALLED O’Byrne and got her voicemail. After leaving a message on her phone, I told Claudia where I was headed and got another reminder about replacing her rotary phone. We made a quick deal on the spot. I would let her find one on the internet and buy it with the company card, and she would get a new phone out of it. Like most of my deals with Claudia, I took a hit to my wallet, but she was going to be happier for it, and when it was all said and done, that’s all that mattered. I was just grateful she hadn’t been there when Ivan broke into the office, because she was usually there an hour before I was and… what he would’ve done to her would have broken me. I would pay for a hundred ugly avocado old-school phones just for a single smile from her and to hear her call me son.

Not that I was going to tell her that, because those phones were freaking expensive and there would be no place to put them all.

I also snagged a praline turnover from the plastic container she’d brought in from her car to put into the office fridge. The treats were for her afternoon church group, a gathering of