Page 63 of Ruthless Ambition
“Tell me again why you hate each other?” I asked him as I went to leave.
“Stuck-up bitch,” he answered as he opened her closet. “Always has been.” As I looked over at Charlie, he conveniently looked away, pretending he hadn’t heard.
“Mm-hmm.”
Leaving them to their work, I found Angel at her back door, examining the lock.
“All good?”
“Yes.” She looked up at me in resignation. “I changed the locks. They’re new, so how did they get in? They can’t have a key.” She sighed heavily and turned back to the door. “I don’t know the last time I used my vibrator, and there’s never been a man in my bed here.”
“Woman?”
“I’m not gay, Onyx,” she barked at me. “Though Christ knows, if any man could turn a woman gay, it’d be you.”
“What a compliment,” I said to her with a shit-eating grin.
“What? That you turn women off so much they want to forget men completely?”
“Is that what you meant?” I said with fake surprise. “Sounded more like you were telling me once you slept with me, no other man could compare.”
“Of coursethat’swhat you would hear.”
I heard the others leave, and I looked back at Angel. “They have what they need,” I told her.
“Okay.” She looked over my shoulder at Charlie’s retreating back. “And what is that exactly?”
“Evidence, I think you would call it.”
She looked like she wanted to ask what they were going to do with it, but she never did. Instead, she simply nodded and waited.
“Chivalry demands I ask if you are okay to stay here alone.”
“Chivalry and you don’t belong in the same sentence,” Angel said as she passed me, her body brushing past me.
My hand snatched her arm and pulled her back. She looked up at me in anger, but I simply stared her down. “We don’t need to be here. We don’t need to help. Remember who called who.” Again, I watched her fight her instincts to snap at me. Instead, she gave me a curt nod, and I let her go. “Lock up tight when we’re gone. Don’t call the police. This is our business now.”
Angel looked at me warily before she licked her lips. “Devils’ business?”
“Cooper and I will get you answers,” I reassured her, and saw her lips press together when I mentioned Cooper. “What did you do to Cooper Carter, vampire?” I asked her outright.
“Mind your business,” she snarled as she walked to the front door. “Thank you for coming, and if you find anything, well, can you let me know?”
“I’ll put you on speed dial,” I smirked at her as I passed, and my grin was wide when I heard the front door close forcibly behind me.
At my car, I turned to my friends. “Who wants to go first?”
“I will,” Cooper said without making eye contact. “I have stuff in the trunk I can use to test her shit.”
“You do?” Charlie asked him in surprise. “What the fuck do you say to the cops when you get pulled over?”
“I tell them to keep driving,” he told him with a wicked grin. “I got this,” he told me. “Go.”
“No problem,” I said as I checked the time and headed to the car. “Keep me posted.”
“Good luck,” Charlie said with a wave as he drove away.
Sharing a look with Cooper, he and I shared a grin. This was what he did, and he loved his job. Knowing I was leaving it in good hands and knowing he wouldn’t move from outside her house, I was heading home myself.
