A Dirty Business (Kings of New York #1)(41)

“You doing house visits today?”

I nodded, frowning a little. “Yeah. My partner is supposed to go with me.”

He shook his head, drawing up next to me and giving me a half grin. “Valerie called, asked if I could fill in?”

“What?” I started to pull my phone out because this had been planned since yesterday.

“She—uh—” He inclined his head, coughing, before taking a step closer to me. “She, uh, something came up. It was my day off, and she asked if I could cover her today.”

I pulled up our texts, and there was nothing there about this. “What’s going on?”

He opened his mouth, and I could literally see the bullshit starting to be delivered at my doorstep.

I cut him off. “No BS or I ain’t going anywhere with you. You tell me what’s going on right now.”

His mouth was open, but he closed it as a rueful look came over him. Then he closed his eyes, and he gave a soft sigh. “Okay.” His hand rose, rubbing over his head as he glanced around us and took another step closer, lowering his voice. “Look. She’s sick, okay? We’re thinking morning sickness or something—”

I reeled away from him, taking a full three steps back.

It was like he had grown three heads because this wasn’t computing. “Val is pregnant?”

“Yeah.” He motioned toward his mouth, looking around once more. He covered the distance again. “Can you, you know, keep it to yourself? It’s all new, like, everything.”

Like him and her.

“You knocked up my partner?”

His mouth hung open a second before he clamped it shut again. “Yeah. I mean, it wasn’t planned, but—” He reared back, cringing. “Dammit. That’s not what I meant. I, just, look.” He held a hand up. “This is all coming out wrong. Is it okay that I come in Val’s place for the house visits or not?”

“Oh. Yeah. Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?”

I was fighting back a grin as I headed to my vehicle. I heard him choke back a groan.

I raised my hand up. “I’m driving, Officer Reyo.”

He followed and sat in the passenger seat, and I waited until I was past the first block before starting. “So. You and Val, huh?”

His elbow was resting on the door, his hand up and lightly holding on to the overhead handle, but at my question, his hand dropped abruptly, and his head went back against the headrest. “Shit.” He scrunched his face up before looking my way, with a whole lot of wariness. “I mean . . .” He let out a dramatic sigh. “I don’t know what I meant, but yes. We’re new. We’re taking things . . . slow.” He smoothed his hand out as he said the last word.

I laughed, yanking the wheel to the right. “Not that slow. She’s preggos.”

He grabbed onto the handle again and braced himself. “We’re . . . today won’t happen again. We’re figuring it out.”

I shot him another look. “You do know the officer you’re bagging, right? If Val is sick and if she had to send you in her place today, guaranteed she’s going to have everything figured out by the end of the day. You’ll be lucky if you find out whether you’re still having a kid or whether you’ll be in that kid’s life if she decides the other way. Val has never wanted kids, so I know she’s dying a whole lot and probably planning your murder at the same time.”

His face scrunched one more time, like he got a bad whiff of something rotten. My guess, it was the reality I was shoving down his throat. Reyo was young. Valerie was in her forties. She was more married to this job than I was.

I kept on. “How’d you guys even hook up?”

“Oh my god.” He hung his head down, mumbling under his breath. “She told me you’d be like this.”

I barked out a laugh, taking a hard left on the street and hitting the horn at the same time. But I wasn’t done. “For real, Reyo. I want to know. How’d you two hook up?” I was throwing sideways looks his way, checking him out as he seemed to just be bracing for this line of questioning.

“Val doesn’t date, or she doesn’t date colleagues. That means . . . my guess, was she drunk? Was it a one-night thing?” It clicked. “That wedding three months ago! When Barkie and Papi got married. Val was tossing back tequila. You were eyeing her.”

He glanced my way, his eyes widening a little. “You noticed?”

“Val’s my partner. She’s also the only other PO that hates Travis as much as I do. Travis got his ass handed to him earlier that day by our team leader. I was the one handing her the tequila. Yes, you’re damn sure I noticed because she noticed. She asked if I thought it was a good idea to fuck you or not.”

“What’d you say?”

“I told her fuck no.”

His head fell back against the headrest again, and he shook his head slightly. “Of course.”

I was enjoying this a bit too much. “I told her if she needed to scratch that itch, to head down to Wall Street and find one of those guys at one of the many stuck-up nightclubs they hang out at and—” I stopped because the irony was not lost on me.

It was painful as fuck too.

Reyo glanced my way. “And what?”

“And nothing,” I clipped out.