“Hell, no.” Adam shuddered. As the most scientific of the three brothers, he’d taken a break from enforcing to study the drug’s components in a lab set up in the warehouse district. “I liked our club at home, and I like Bear’s club here. Good men, good riders all around. Not like Fire.”
“Aye.” Kell finished his beer. There were good clubs and bad clubs, just like anything else. He studied his older brother. Lines of red fanned out from Adam’s dark brown eyes. “You look like you need a break, brother.”
“We all do.” Adam let his head fall back onto the sofa and shut his eyes.
Simone reached for her phone. “Pizza. We need pizza.” She viewed them. “I think this is the first time in a century I’ve had all three Dunne brothers in one place.”
Kellach grinned. “And you’re going to feed us pizza?”
“Damn straight,” she said.
His phone buzzed, and he eyed the screen. “Got a body.” He stood and nodded at Daire. “Save me a slice, would ya?”
Lex triple-locked her apartment door and kicked off her boots. Her feet ached and her head pounded. But her body? Man. Loose and satiated after an incredible orgasm induced by Kellach Dunne.
What in the fucking hell had she been thinking?
She pressed a hand to her head and flicked on the light to illuminate her quiet studio apartment. The smell of burned noodles filtered up from the Thai restaurant below, easing through the cracks in the yellow linoleum. Though she hadn’t eaten in hours, the dingy kitchen with dented avocado appliances didn’t inspire hunger. Maybe she should get a cat to make the place feel homey. Or a goldfish to brighten the room.
A car alarm went off down the block, and in the distance, sirens trilled.
Limping, she crossed into the tiny bathroom to wash the pound of makeup off her face. Wriggling out of the tight dress, she sighed as it hit the floor.
Her phone rang.
She turned and glanced with longing at her small, unmade bed before answering. “Yeah?”
“We got another one,” Bernie said without preamble. After giving her directions, he hung up.
She eyed the dress on the floor and quickly hurried to the tiny closet to snatch jeans and a long-sleeved shirt before dragging on flat boots. Better. Much better. Tucking her gun and badge at her belt, she hurried through the door and down the cracked steps to her car, thinking all the way. Kellach Dunne had been with her for part of the night, and why was that exactly? What the hell did the Fire enforcer want with Bear’s crew? It was almost as if Kell shared a secret or some type of mission with Bear. What was going on?
She drove through rain and dingy streets to reach an alley across town. Blue and red lights swirled around while cops moved, doing their jobs. She pulled to the curb.
Bernie opened her door before she could. “This way.” He lifted crime scene tape and led her around a building to a quiet alley. “It looks like he crawled back here, bleeding all the way, to die in the corner and out of the rain.”
Like a wild animal. Didn’t animals go off on their own and find a quiet place to die?
The guy lay on his back under an awning, one arm thrown over his chest.
She reached the body, careful not to step in blood. “Male, early twenties.” She crouched down and used the flashlight on her phone to run a light over the corpse’s bare arms. Track marks. Many track marks. “Junkie for years.” She looked around and spotted a crime tech she knew. “Daisy? Got gloves?”
Daisy reached into her pack and handed over two black gloves. “Yep.”
Donning them, Lex gingerly lifted the corpse’s eyelids. Red, blue, and green striations shot out from sightless blue eyes. Blood pooled beneath his eyes, in his ears, and dripped out of his nose. She released him and stood. “Definitely an Apollo overdose. Do we know where he got the drugs?”
“No.” Bernie pointed back to the main street. “Known drug neighborhood. Can buy on any corner. We’re canvasing right now, but in this area? Nobody saw nothin’.”
She shucked the gloves and then rubbed her eye. “Do we have an ID?”
“Fingerprint scanner shows the vic as Jon Flank. He’s done time for dealing, possession, and minor B and E. DMV says he lives alone around the corner. We had patrol knock on the door. Nobody answered.”
Sounded like a normal junkie. Sad but true.
A chill swept down her back, and she looked around. Nothing. Lifting her head, she peered at the tops of the nearby buildings.
“What?” Bernie asked, glancing up.
“Nothing. Just somebody walking on my grave.” A car door slammed, and she turned around. “Great,” she muttered as two homicide cops strode her way.
Bernie snorted. “Dumbass and Dickhead in the flesh.”
She smiled. Most cops, she liked. Hell, she liked them a lot. These two? Not so much. She lifted her head. “Masterson? What are you doing here?”