“You’re not supposed to do that. You have a day off tomorrow,” Nilsson said and scratched at his cheek absently.
“I know.”
He shrugged his muscled shoulders because we both knew he didn’t give a shit about our work car, so long as it turned up before we had to take it in to be serviced.
I stopped to knock on the glass next to Mr. Enoch’s head. He turned his dead eyes on me, and I got a sick, happy joy at seeing him restrained. Trapped. Captured. That was Abe wallowing in the fact he’d eluded the authorities so far.Only because of me, you chucklehead.
“How’s being a dick working out for you?” I called loud enough that Mr. Enoch could definitely hear. He bared his teeth at me, and I shivered in delight at having bested him—and that was all me, my pride at being the victor. In spite of what I thought about Abe, there was a reason we managed to cohabitate.
“Come on,” I said to the vic, who did his best not to look like he was gloating—but failed. I opened the passenger door of the Chrysler for him, then went around to my side. He slammed his door shut as I lifted the padded armrest and dug around in the console for a notepad. I handed him a pen and the paper before I slapped the armrest down with my elbow and started the car fast.
“I need your name, address, phone number. All the pertinent deets. Maybe take a few pictures of your throat tomorrow after it’s blotchy. That would look good in court. Make sure to get all the angles.”
“You’re a cop?” he asked, but he obviously knew that already because he shot a glance at my badge where it hung at my front.
“Yeah. Detective Walker.”
He snorted, and the tiny smile that curled his lips had me drooling.
Fucking hell, he’s tasty.“What?”
“Like the Texas Ranger?”
“Aren’t you a little young for that?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “The reruns are bad in a funny way. I like to watch them. But there’s a reboot, too. That hot guy fromSupernaturalis in it.” The corner of his lip twisted down as he flipped open the notepad with one hand and let out a sigh. The horrible scowl he gave me could have blistered paint off a car. It was cute and one-hundred-percent nonthreatening. He brought out the other small hand to try to anchor the notepad to his thigh and write down the info I wanted, all while I moved the car out into a break in traffic. We were near the hospital, and without thinking too much about why, I began to drive that direction.
“Can I have a name for the little do-gooder from Healing Hearts?” I asked, trying to keep my tone light. He shot me a narrow-eyed glare. “What, you don’t appreciate being called a do-gooder?”
“Little. I’m not little,” he mumbled.
“You are compared to me.”
He snorted. “Horses are little compared to you.”
Grinning, I glanced at him again. “Wow. Hell’s sake. What’s your fucking name?”
The irritation melted from his face and was replaced by a shyness thatdid thingsto me. Heat settled low in my stomach and made its way to spread tingles through my groin. “Noble Warwick.”
“Damn. Very puritan of your family.”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “My mom was religious.”
“Sorry.”
He grunted while scribbling on the paper. “I wrote what you asked for. What else would you like to know?”
My heart rate kicked up and my stomach felt sick. Abe snarled in my head, wanting to go back and beat in Mr. Enoch’s skull because he’d had the man in his grasp. I felt pretty good about that murderous idea, all in all. I didn’t try to feed Abe a different target. But the gory visions he spewed across our mind had me gagging.
I glanced at Noble, taking in his curvy lips and the beautiful angles of his trim body. He had his gaze fixed on the long scar on my right cheek. “It’s rude to stare.” I turned onto the street for the hospital, and he groaned. I reached over and snatched the notepad from his limp fingers.
“Sorry. I wasn’t looking at your….”
“Yeah, you were. I don’t care, though.” I laughed. “It’s no skin off my nose.”
“More like your face. I said home,” Noble grumbled, a bitter tinge to his words. “Why did you bring me here?” He crossed his arms, keeping the smaller one tucked close to his chest.
“The world doesn’t need to lose a good Samaritan today just because I was feeling lazy and didn’t call a bus. Strangulation can cause swelling, which could cut off your airway. Someone really should check you out. Waste not, want—”
