Ari shook his head. “I don’t want to touch him to check. They can pull prints off skin. Hand me my bag.” He pointed across the room, and I spotted it near the door. I did as he asked, and he took a pair of blue nitrile gloves—the exact same kind I used at a crime scene—out of the front pocket. I wasn’t sure why, but the gloves made me smile at him, and he flashed that same tiny grin I’d gotten earlier.
“Clever.”
He shrugged and leaned down until his cheek hovered close to the man’s nose. “He’s breathing.”
“Okay, let’s get out of here.”
“His throat could swell shut if I did too much damage already.” He pouted at me, that sweet bottom lip jutting in my direction. “Might as well just finish him.”
Part of me wanted to say yes, and not because he was physically attractive. No, the excitement I felt ran deeper than the simple desire to fuck. I didn’t know the victim, didn’t give a single shit about him, and I wanted to make Aramis happy because he’d brought something unusual and special into my life.
“No.” I hated to say the word.
Aramis’s nostrils flared and he narrowed his eyes in what I thought was a true display of emotion. “He deserves it. He takes guys from the shelter. He tells them nice things and brings them to this house, then they disappear.”
Startled, I stared at him. “How do you know?” I liked to be good at my job, and there were still a lot of questions surrounding a sex trafficking ring that had been uncovered in the city. My mind immediately went to thoughts of a dead lawyer—Brickton—who had been accused of being involved, but he’d offed himself before anything could be done about it.
Aramis shrugged, and I decided I liked his cold brown eyes while I studied him. “Rumors. And Donny told me not to go with him, and I know Donny wants to keep me around.”
“Why?”
“To blow him.” His tone didn’t waver a bit as he delivered his bombshell. It didn’t shock me much, though.
Angry heat pelted through my body, and that did surprise me. “Then why don’t you kill him instead?”
Aramis tilted his head to the side and his eyebrows jumped toward his hairline. I knew I should check on the victim. Time could be short if he was already too far gone, but we stared at each other. “Because he makes sure I have a spot in the shelter. I don’t like sleeping outside. If all I need to do is blow him to get time there, I would rather do that than have someone else in the position who makes me wait my turn.”
Fuck, maybe I was going to kill this Donny guy. It sounded pretty good. “We have to leave, now.”
“If he wakes up, do you think he’ll still try to take people?” Aramis glanced back at the man he was still sitting on, and I couldn’t stop staring at Aramis’s muscled back and trim hips.
I crossed my arms. “He doesn’t look very capable.”
Aramis shrugged and stood, glancing around the room. I snorted because the man might’ve come close to death, but he was erect, and Aramis hadn’t given a damn about it. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I went over and wrapped my hand in my shirt before I picked up a photo from the nightstand of the same woman who was in the ones downstairs. I dumped the heavy frame on his dick, facedown.
“Shit, I’m sure. People like him always have it.” Aramis continued to mutter. I wasn’t certain what he was searching for, but now that he had his gloves on, he went around pulling out random drawers until he grunted and waved me over. I rushed to his side and stared stupidly at a small pharmacy of bottles and clean syringes. “On the way in I didn’t notice any cameras or other security equipment, and I bet this is the reason. He doesn’t want any proof of the horrible things he does. He probably drugs people, then calls someone else to take them away and gets his cut of any cash. Maybe he just fucks them first and does it for fun.” He glared at the man. “There’s someone like him in every community like this. I knew one where I grew up.”
“And where was that?”
“Good try,” he said, smirking. “You’re not going to get me that way.”
The man on the bed groaned, and I grabbed Aramis’s hand. “Get your shit. Don’t leave anything behind.”
He gave me a long look like I was stupid but didn’t argue with me.
“Why can’t I kill him?”
“Out, now.”
He pouted at me again, then his throat bobbed. “But you want me to kill Donny?” he asked, his words full of sugar. “You seemed angry about him. I can do that.”
“Now is not the time to discuss it.”
He nodded as I dragged him along to leave the room, grabbing his bag as I went. I touched the bedroom door without thinking. He hissed and used his shirt to rub at the wood, then slipped it over his head.
“Sorry,” I said with a wince.
He shook his head at me and snatched my hand in his.
