Page 33 of Z For Butterfly Man
Burning with jealousy. I just shake my head.
“Don’t be.” He kisses my ear. “I only got eyes for ya.”
He doesn’t mean it. He can’t. But even his lies make me happy.
Something hard presses against me. Shane must have something in his pocket. He always does. I’ve felt it before. When he sleeps next to me, when he hugs me tight. I shift to a more comfortable position, but whatever it is in his pocket seems to be poking me even more. I lift myself and try to adjust again.
He mumbles a curse, and his grip tightens on me. “Don’t,” he whispers, his breath hot against my skin. “Don’t move.”
“Sorry, but there’s something in your pocket. It’s poking me hard.”
His eyes widen at me, scolding, and the girls giggle. I look at them, a deer caught in the headlights. What is going on? What did I say? My cheeks sting with embarrassment.
“It’s just my keys,” Shane spits.
Mason’s eyes meet Shane’s in the mirror, and malice passes between them.
“Got something to say?” Shane’s voice is menacing.
Mason’s jaw tightens. “This’s fucked up, bro.”
The car fills with tension so thick I can barely breathe.
Shane’s arms lock around me the whole way home, possessive and unyielding. “Keep your eyes on the road, Mason. Before you say something you’ll regret.”
CHAPTER 14
Tristan
Ashford has been planning for all of it to happen the way it did. Birdie’s husband taking the blame for all his murders. Getting rid of me by framing me for a crime I didn’t do, and he gets to keep his badge and be her hero.
I stare at the house, at Ashford, with all the hate and malice I have in my heart. “Not on my fucking watch, motherfucker.”
“Tristan, calm down,” Marcus says, still on the phone. “We’ll get him, but we’ll have to play this smart. Clearly, there are things he doesn’t know, like the decoy and the car tracker. We can use his misinformation to our advantage.”
My mind races. “You’re right. Pull the house surveillance from last night. Tell me what time exactly he was here, what time he left and if anything is out of the ordinary. Then I want you to send Gatsby to the decoy in Aquinnah now.”
“Solo?”
“Solo insertion, zero footprint. I need car location confirmation and full inspection of the safehouse. If Detective Douche is planting evidence, we have to find it first.”
“Copy. I’ll secure a helo for Gatsby right away, maintaining silent approach. You’ll have to keep that vegan piece of shit busy until it’s done, though. Can you do that or do you need backup?”
“No. I got it.” I climb out of the car. “But I want you to do something else for me.”
“Anything.”
“Dig deeper into Ashford. Gather intel on any major cases he worked back in Miami, why he really left and…who he worked with.”
“Wait, you don’t think…”
“He mentioned he had a partner who screwed him over. What if that partner was Blake fucking Abel?”
CHAPTER 15
Reagan
The next day Mason finds me at lunch break. “Yo, Reagan, what’s up?”
