Hot Case by Hot Case

Author:Hot Case [Case, Hot]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

When I protested going to his place, Jake said, “That cut on your arm needs some attention, so you have a choice—the E.R. or my place,” and I could tell he meant it.

Since I didn’t want to spend hours in some overcrowded emergency room, and I wanted to know more about Jake himself, I went along with his plan. He’d just put himself on the line for me. He could have been hurt, at the very least. In my book, his backing me up counted for a lot. At his place, he could fix me up and I could peel him open and find out what he was all about.

Jake lived in a gray-stone two-flat on the west side not far from the bar, but beyond the gentrified area. No name on the mailboxes, either. When he led me up to the second-floor apartment, I noted the hallway was clean and the faint scent of lemon oil lingered on the wood trim. The stairwell led into the middle of the apartment where there were no windows.

The central pieces of the room were a ceramic-faced fireplace with a carved wooden mantel and a sofa whose deep red suede-looking material glowed mellowly in the dimly lit room. Not exactly a guy color, I thought, making me wonder if someone else had picked it out.

“Do you live here alone?”

“I do,” he said. “Can I get you something? Wine?”

“Sure, I could use something to help me relax.” Truth be told, my adrenaline had been at an all-time high earlier, and I was still pumped from the action.

His back to me, Jake said, “So you’re a cop.”

“Detective Shelley Caldwell.”

“Silke’s twin sister, if I’m not mistaken.” He turned from the cart, two stemmed goblets in hand. “Your looks are similar, but you’re not really alike. That’s why I knew you weren’t Silke.”

“No one else seemed to notice.” At least I hoped not.

“I assume your going undercover has to do with the deaths in the area.”

I didn’t feel obligated to confirm the obvious, but how did he know there had been more than one death? I was pretty sure Norelli and Walker had only been questioning people about Raven.

Jake handed me one of the glasses of wine. The red was dense, reminding me of blood. I thought to check my arm.

“Let me see.”

He set down his glass and gently pulled my arm toward him. At first touch, my breath caught in my throat.

“It’s fine.”

The blood had begun coagulating—I’d done a pretty good job of stopping the flow in the car—but dried blood stained my makeup-whitened skin and the cut itself looked pretty nasty. It was just now making itself known by throbbing sharply, as if in warning.

Jake seemed fascinated by it. He traced his finger along my flesh parallel to the still oozing wound. “You’ll have a scar.”

The comment drew my gaze to his scar, half-camouflaged by his beard stubble. I wondered how he’d gotten it. I hadn’t thought on it much. I guess I’d assumed he’d had an accident.

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