“Hmm.” Wes made a noncommittal sound. “Anything is possible. But I don’t think so, otherwise you would have received the manipulated document.”
“True,” I agreed. “But why frame Redmond?”
“And who are they trying to save?” Wes responded.
“And who’s the one doing the saving?”
“Humph,” Wes responded, shaking his head. He pocketed the paper, and with a single head nod, we both went back to the group. I threw my head back and chugged the entirety of my beer.
Shit was about to get real messy.
27
Scarlett
The sun was still low in the sky, just beginning its rise to start a new day. The sound of the shower shut off, and I stretched my arms and legs, feeling delightfully sore from last night.
After we left Harpoon’s, Luke and I came back to his place. He wasn’t kidding when he said that the black satin dress wouldn’t make it to the bedroom. He had barely closed the door behind me when he pinned my back against the wall and ravaged me. The dress didn’t stand a chance.
I hoped we hadn’t ruined it, but even if we did, it was worth it.
Luke came back into the bedroom, rubbing a towel against his short hair, the rest of him standing gloriously naked.
“Good morning. I didn’t expect you to be awake now that you can sleep in,” he said.
“Old habits, I guess. What are you going to do today?” I asked.
Besides the multiple orgasms last night, we’d also talked about how to handle the new evidence. Luke was conflicted, and I understood his point of view.
“I’m going to do my job and keep my mouth shut. I’m working with Monroe today on the other cases, so I’ll be able to keep my eye on him. Be on the lookout for any suspicious behavior.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned down to me for a kiss. I could see the pain this was causing him. He believed in what he did, what he represented to Calla Bay. The idea that someone close to him was so morally corrupt as to put an innocent man behind bars for a horrible crime that he didn’t commit was eating at him from the inside.
“I trusted him, Letty. There was a time that I trusted him with my life without a second’s hesitation. After I found out about him and Jules, I saw him in a different light. That camaraderie was shot, but still… I don’t think I ever really saw him as a dirty cop. Not until I had the proof of it before my eyes.”
“I know,” I told him. My hands brushed along his clean-shaven jaw. “I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t do anything, baby. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“I just feel bad that this is happening. What are you going to do about Ryan?”
He took a deep breath before getting up to finish getting dressed for work. “I’m going to talk to his lawyer today, tell them that they need to get a copy of the report directly from the forensic lab. They’re entitled to do so, but usually, they request the files from us and vice versa. I’ll pass the tip along to them and let them go from there.”
Luke leaned back against the wall, his shoulders tense, and let his head fall against the hard surface behind him with a sigh. “Once they get their hands on it, it’s going to open it upto public scrutiny.”
“Do you think you’ll be implicated in anything since you were one of the detectives?”
Luke was the most ethical, moral, honorable, law-abiding—except for the whole skinny-dipping in public thing—person I knew. For him to get dragged through the mud on this was going to gut him.
“That’s assuming there will be an investigation. Shit, Letty. I have no idea what to think anymore.”
My feet hit the floor, and I hurried toward him so I could wrap myself around him. His strong arms held me closely, one hand cradling my head.
Luke finished getting ready, and before he left for his shift, I asked if he minded if I stayed at his place during the day, even though he wasn’t home.
“If it was up to me, you’d never leave. Yes, Letty. You can stay here for as long as you want,” he said.
I had to stop at my place and pick up some more clothes. A lot of my stuff had slowly been migrating over to Luke’s house over the past few weeks, but the weather had taken a turn, and my warmer clothes were still at my apartment.
