Straight Flushed (Hot Pursuit #1)(36)

After Gabe turned the corner, I felt like I was never going to see him again. I looked back to both men with inflamed cheeks. I stood up and poked Detective Smith in the chest. “Who the hell are you?”

Detective Smith caught my hand and squeezed it tightly. “We’d like you to come with us.”

“Take your hand off me,” I gritted out through clenched teeth.

A group of college aged kids walked up. A few went inside the café while the others lingered around one of the other tables on the street.

Detective Smith glanced at them then flashed me his yellow teeth. “Sure,” he said, lightening his hold and I jerked my hand free. “We’ll be sure to come find you.”

“I better not see you anywhere near me again.” I grabbed my coffee and the rest of my croissant and threw them in the trash. I stormed off back to my apartment.

I spent the rest of my day crying off and on, completely miserable. Gabe knew, and it tore me apart. I was gutted and could barely stand being in my own skin. Our relationship was over and there was no chance of it recovering. Whoever those men were, if our paths crossed again, it would end badly for both of them.

When I finished crying, I tried distracting myself with what little food I had on hand, but I didn’t feel like eating. I tried television, but that didn’t work either. My apartment hadn’t had enough time to get dirty, so there was nothing to clean. I headed off to bed to escape into a dream.

As I turned the lights off in my kitchen, voices passed by my door outside. One of my neighbors was a senior at the university, and it wasn’t out of the ordinary for her to throw a party every now and then. It was odd for a Sunday, but she was still on summer break. Her parties could pop up any night of the week until school was back in session. I went into my bedroom and pulled back my sheets then someone knocked on my door. People occasionally got lost on their way to her place, and I had to point them in the right direction.

I walked up and spoke to my closed door. “The party is next door. Keep on walking.” Rather than going away, they knocked again. I walked closer to the door, now planning on speaking into the crack so they could hear me better. They were probably drunk and half deaf from listening to loud music at whatever bar they’d recently left. “I said, the party is next door.” I spoke louder and enunciated every word.

Again, they knocked.

Peering through the peephole, I was greeted with blackness—something was covering the lense. I checked my deadbolt. I’d locked it—of course I had. If someone was joking around, they were about to get a rude awakening. Stepping back from my door, I went into my bedroom closet to get my gun. I brought it down from the shelf and punched in the code. I pulled the slide to load one round into the chamber of my 9mm as I walked back to my door. I called again to the person outside. Looking through the peephole, I saw only the same nothing.

“Who’s there?” I asked one last time. When I got no answer, I quietly undid the locks and opened the door.





Twelve



Clutching my gun tightly, I anticipated someone barreling in at me, but everything was still except for the sound of a piece of paper flapping lightly in the wind attached to my door. It was held in place by a piece of black duct tape covering the peephole. After I ripped it off and looked at it, my stomach dropped. It was the same picture Detective Jones had tossed on the table earlier, only this picture was zoomed out and also included a shot of me. It was me and Stephen outside of Maria’s restaurant before we’d gone in to have dinner. I was looking down at the shell he had picked up and handed me in the parking lot.

A commotion sounded down the hallway, and I put my back to the door, pointing my gun up. Two college aged guys ran down the hallway, wrestling with one another. I held my stance, but shifted my gun outward.

“Hey!” I snapped. Both guys were jock types and fit the bill of the people my neighbor normally had over. One had light brown hair and the other a flaming redhead.

“Whoa!” they both shouted in unison. They stopped dead in their tracks and held up their hands. “Don’t shoot!”

“You guys know anything about this?” I held up the picture in my hand.

“Lady, we don’t know what you’re talking about. We just got here. We swear.” They stood, shocked and scared.

“Relax. Put your hands down,” I said, lowering my weapon. “Did you guys see anyone out here?”

“No,” the redhead said, his cheeks were glowing bright crimson from the wrestling match that had been going on.

“You sure? It would have only been about a minute ago. You didn’t see anyone?”

“Nah, we didn’t see anything, lady. You a cop or something?” the one with the light brown hair asked.

“Yeah, or something,” I said. I stepped out into the hallway and looked to pacify my mind. In doing so, I sent an unintentional invitation to the guy with light brown hair.

“So, what are you doing now?” he asked, moving closer to me. “We’re going to a party. You should come with us. You’re kind of hot. I’ll make sure you have a nice time.”

I inhaled the yeasty smell of beer off his breath. “Uh…yeah.” I grimaced. “Super tempting offer and all, but I was going to bed.” I put my back to my door.

“Want some company?”