A noise sounded in the bathroom before the door opened.
Duke strode out, his bare chest showing toned abs. His hair was wet and his jeans zipped but unbuttoned, showing that thin line of hair from his navel to his beautiful cock. With him came a cloud of steam and the scent of the Sauvage cologne he wore.
Instantly, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, and my memory of why I was there lapsed.
He gave me a boyish grin that erased my nerves and made me tingle with delight.
I rubbed my hands down the sides of my legs, thinking of what to say. “I haven’t seen you all week. Everything okay? I mean, I know Grace is on your mind. I’m worried about her, but I’m concerned about you too. You said a lot to me at the gala, then I didn’t see you or hear from you.”
“Forget everything I said to you that night. I didn’t mean any of it.”
I felt as though he had punched me in the stomach and ripped out my heart. “So everything you said to me on the dance floor was just a come-on?” He was lying through his straight teeth. “To what? Fuck with my mind?” I dug my nails into my palms, my chest constricting.
I shouldn’t care. I was here to find evidence to put him away. Yet I wasn’t sure I could do that anymore.
Silence dropped like a boulder between us.
“Well, say something,” I demanded, itching to stomp my foot like I’d done many times to get my way with my dad.
“We’re no good for each other, Joy,” he said with no emotion in his tone.
Unshed tears were on the brink of spilling over, but I refused to cry. He was right. He was so flipping right. How would we work with him in jail, in a morgue, or on the run? I upheld the law. He broke the law.
“I guess it doesn’t matter that I have feelings for you that I haven’t had for any other man.” I blinked several times to dry my tears, the truth setting me free. “Talk to me, Duke. I know you meant those words on the dance floor. I’m not an idiot. I know you’re pushing me away. I also know you’re into some bad shit with Mateo Alvarez.”
My pulse slowed to nothing as something dawned on me. Had he figured out who I really was? Was he pushing me away to save me? Because if the likes of Vince, Brian, and Rosario found out, then I would be dead.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think during the last week.” He was talking as if he really didn’t give two flying cents about me.
Gwen had been wrong when she said humans weren’t programmed to turn their emotions on and off on a dime. She hadn’t met Duke.
Without taking those mahogany eyes off me, he continued, “I don’t want you in my life. I made a mistake with you. Tomorrow night will be your last shift at the Monarch. I’ll give you a month’s salary to tide you over until you find another job.” The lack of emotion in his voice and expression was maddening.
My brain’s synapses froze one by one, cutting off my ability to think or speak.
The cold, calculating thug was showing his true colors that were detailed in his case files. That thought was so chilling it felt like someone had thrown me into the waters off Antarctica, and I came out of the haze I’d been in.
Gone was that blurring line between Fallyn Williams and Joy Whitlock, and so was that spell he’d had me under.
Vince came in. “Boss, it’s time.”
“Time?” I mumbled. “To get Grace?”
“Go home, Joy. Nothing good will come from us being together. We’re over.” Duke just added more fuel to my fire.
No matter how much I tried to get through to him or told him that I could help, he wouldn’t listen. No matter how I felt about him, I wouldn’t compromise my morals for love. I couldn’t. That wasn’t who I was. Gwen’s words blared in my head. “Love is about sacrifice.”
I held my head high and squared my shoulders. “You can’t end something that never started in the first place. Oh, and I won’t be working tomorrow. Keep your month’s salary and my last paycheck.”
I brushed past Vince, bumping my arm against his, ready to scream to high heaven as I pulled out my phone. My undercover assignment was over but not before I finished what I had started out to do.
“Your car is free of bugs and trackers,” Vince told Duke, his voice carrying down the hall as I entered Duke’s office.
If only we could have planted bugs, then the assignment would’ve been much easier. But we knew Duke swept for listening devices almost daily. Since he and Detective Ted Hughes had spoken at the gala, I suspected Duke was even more paranoid now.
I checked the hall before I went over to Duke’s desk, scanning the sticky note once again and looking for anything else that might give me a clue.
Footsteps padded in the hall, and I hurried out. By the time I reached the main floor, Amber was hiking her purse over her shoulder by the bar.
