“And what, walked here?”
He lifted one eyebrow, that smirk in full go-mode now. “No, Officer Reed. I drove.” He tipped his head to indicate the vehicle behind him.
“You have a motorcycle now? Wow, could you not fill out every square of the bad boy bingo sheet?”
“You think I’m a bad boy?”
“I think I should be going,” the neighbor guy said.
“No, I’m not done getting your statement.” I glared at Bathin. “You stay right here.”
“I can give my statement to the other officer,” the neighbor offered.
“Yeah, that’s a great idea, buddy,” Bathin said. “Give your statement to the other officer.” He didn’t look away from me. Nor did that smirk disappear. He liked it when I was angry.
Well, I could more than oblige.
I turned and made a grab for the neighbor guy, but he was fast-walking to the safety of Death over by the cruiser. Than had carefully sealed the toilet mouth into a plastic bag, holding it above the open trunk in his long, almost delicate fingers as if it were filled with dog poop.
“You can’t just come here, barge into an investigation, and tell me what to do,” I snapped.
“Which is why I came here, reminded you we had a date—a lunch date even though it is almost dinner time—and brought food so you don’t have to stop the investigation.”
“I have leads to follow.”
He pulled something out of the bag and thrust it at me. “Do it while eating a sandwich, for Christ’s sake.”
I blinked, waited.
“What?” he asked.
“I was just wondering if lightning was going to strike you for using Christ’s name in vain.”
“Pffft,” he said. “Those rules don’t apply to me. If Christ wanted me dead by lightning, he’d do it in a face-to-face kind of way. Eat your food.”
I glanced down to the brown wrapper in his hand.
My stomach rumbled. Other than tea, I hadn’t eaten since this morning, and from the low angle of the sun, it was headed toward four o’clock already.
“What is it?”
“It’s a club with everything, extra peppers.”
“Grilled?”
“Of course, grilled. What do you take me for, a heathen?”
“If the pentagram fits.”
He grinned. It was all sharp teeth and wicked promises and my heart did that flip again, while all the blood in my body decided to heat up below my hips.
I knew I had to stop him or evict him or hurt him or kill him, but would it be such a bad thing if I slept with him at least once before all that? Angry sex? Goodbye sex?
Something that wouldn’t mean anything in the morning sex?
“Oh, I like when you look at me like that,” he crooned. “You should see your eyes, Myra.” He leaned forward, just that extra inch. I felt cocooned in his space, in his warmth, in his need that echoed mine and made it more.
“Whatever makes your eyes look like that, let’s do more of it.”
