Dirty Laundry (14 page)

As apologies went, I’d had better blow jobs from the air dryers at a bus station, and those only ruffled the hair on my crotch.

“Yeah, I don’t need things shaken up,” I replied sarcastically. “Least of all my fucking brains.”

“Said I was sorry, Princess.”

By the time we got to the showers, I was feeling better and my legs were responding on their own. I detached from Bobby’s grip, stripped, and headed in to let the shower work my muscles loose. My arm stopped tingling, and, slowly, my shoulder responded. I’d strained it too much, and in a couple of hours, I was going to be purple and black from the bruising I’d given myself. Bobby joined me, taking up the next stall, eyeing me every once in a while to make sure I was steady.

“He texted me last night,” I said over the pounding water. “Told me he loved me. In Korean, but fuck it, I’ll take what I can get.”

“Good,” Bobby grunted. “You guys are good together. At least he makes sure you eat your vegetables.”

“Dude, I
am
a vegetable.” Laughing, I dried off and headed to my locker. Sitting down on the bench between the locker rows, my fatigue hit, and I sagged, letting my muscles begin their complaining.

“You okay?” Bobby touched my shoulder. “Really, if you’re feeling it, I’m taking you in, Cole.”

“No, I’m fine.” Scrubbing at my face with the towel, I soaked up the water dripping from my hair. “I sent him a
saranghae
back and went to bed.”

I left out the part about hugging the phone like it was my long-lost teddy bear, but there was only so much of my pride I was willing to swallow.

“Good.” Bobby grabbed me by the chin and stared down into my eyes. I tried getting loose, but it was useless. I didn’t know how he didn’t rip his dick off when he jacked off, because his damned grip was like hardened cement. “Pupils are normal. Okay, I feel better now.”

“I don’t.” I worked my jaw around. “Shit, that hurt.”

“Poor baby,” he snorted, pulling on his boxers. “Get dressed so we can get out of here. I’ve got some stuff to tell you about that Lee murder.”

“You couldn’t have started the morning off with that?” I grumbled.

“Nah.” He slapped my ass, leaving it stinging. “Got to get you into shape. Once you and Jae get back together, you’re gonna need your strength for all that hot rock-star sex you’ll be having.”

M
Y
EARS
were still ringing a little bit when I unlocked the door to my front office. I’d arranged for Martin’s daughter, Sissy, to come in to answer the phones in the afternoon, promising her dad she’d do her homework while she worked while guaranteeing her she’d have access to a heavy-duty Wi-Fi. But Sissy’s arrival was a few hours off, and the office was cold and lacking the smell of brewing coffee.

I took care of that first, then handed Bobby a bunch of napkins. Undoing the bacon, egg, and cheese burrito I’d gotten from a drive-thru taco shop down the street, I poured a container of tomatillo sauce over the whole mess and wrapped the tortilla back up.

“Talk to me about Lee,” I said before Bobby could bite into his burrito.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “This can’t wait until after I eat? Not like she can get any deader.”

“Nope.” I selected an extra crispy french fry from the nacho cheese soup the server ladled over my
papas
order. “I paid for the food. You sing for it.”

“Okay, keep your panties on. I got some notes on my phone,” Bobby grumbled. He scrolled through a few screens until he found what he was looking for. “Here we go. Got in touch a few days ago with the deet who pulled Lee’s case. You were busy being emo, so I figured it could wait. It’s a guy by the name of Jenkins. Stan Jenkins.”

“Wait, why is that name familiar?” I playfully slapped Bobby’s fingers as he made a grab for my fries. “Fuck off. You can have what I don’t eat.”

He made a fist and shook it under my nose. “Fuck off yourself, Princess. Or I’ll tag you across the head again.”

I let him have the fry.

Chewing with his mouth open so I could see his prize, he continued to read, “The name’s familiar because it’s Stagnant Jenkins.”

“Fuck, he’s still around?”

“He’s only got a year left, and then he’s off to a duck blind in Wyoming. Or wherever it is that people go to shoot ducks out of the sky.” Bobby stole another fry, shaking the cheese off before he folded it into his mouth. “You might say he’s moving even slower on this one than he does his other cases.”

“Why the fuck do they still have him around?”

“Because he’s old and has shit on everyone wearing a gold badge since the Pony Express,” he shot back. “Now shut up and let me finish.”

“Sorry, Your Highness. Please, continue.”

“Anyway, Jenkins caught the case but hasn’t really done much with it. Wong contacted him a couple of days ago about a possible connection to Choi, so Stan’s been trying to shove Lee off on him.”

“Like Dexter needs another case.”

“What Chinese family names their kid Dexter?” Bobby looked up from his phone and caught my glare. “Okay, onward. Jenkins did learn a couple of things you might be interested in. Autopsy came back. Eun Joon Lee was pregnant when she was killed. About four months along.”

“Fuck—” I left off picking through my fries.

“Yeah, hope the asshole who killed her gets caught in a crocodile pit. A gay crocodile pit. Very horny gay crocodiles with really big fat dicks. Barbed dicks.”

“No, no.” I waved my hand to cut off Bobby’s protest. “Eun Joon Lee couldn’t have kids. That was one of the things she and her husband fought over. The neighbor told me that.”

“Maybe Eun Joon wasn’t the problem.” Bobby wiggled his fingers toward the ceiling. “Maybe Mr. Lee’s swimmers were DOA and she went elsewhere to get her burrito filled.”

“That was probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

“Ah, kid.” Bobby bit into his food with relish. “You haven’t been listening to me, then. So Mrs. Lee’s bundle of joy might not have been all that joyful?”

“Terry, Gyong-Si’s soon-to-be-ex assistant, said his boss would have private counseling sessions.” I made air quotes and winked. “Maybe that last time she went to see him, they argued about her being pregnant.”

“So he sent someone to kill her?” Bobby eyeballed me warily. “Kind of quick thinking on his part. And he’s got a hired killer on speed dial?”

“Hey, I’m hashing things out.” Complaining only made Bobby roll his eyes at me. “It’s something to look at.”

“Yeah, it’s something for
Wong
to look at,” he shot back.

“It’s Jenkins’s case,” I pointed out. “And you know he’s not going to do shit about it. Probably the only reason they gave it to him is because there’s no leads. It explains why the police report says they came in through the balcony. There’s no fricking evidence of that. Jenkins just lowballed the investigation.”

“Sounds like him.” Bobby leaned back and patted his flat stomach. “Okay, I’ve got to go run this off. I don’t suppose I can say something to make you drop all of this shit.”

“Probably not.” Shrugging, I balled up the remainder of my now-cold fries into the crumpled drive-thru bag. “Wong’s up to his balls in Na’s murder, and he’s still got Choi’s death hounding him. Lee’s not going to get the time of day because she was given to an asshole who’d rather warm his chair than catch a killer. The guy’s solve rate must be in the negatives.”

“Fault belongs to the captain in charge as much as Jenkins.” He tapped out a few letters on his screen. “Got some good pictures of the report he filed. I’ll forward them to you, but it’s not much. He hasn’t spoken to the husband since they found the wife, not even to talk about the pregnancy. For all we know, Mr. Lee found out about the unexpected miracle and did her in.”

“Dunno,” I admitted. “But I’ll be careful. What’s the worst that can happen?”

S
ISSY
arrived right on schedule with her slightly older brother, Mo, in tow. I’d only contracted one of Martin’s children at a time, but they decided they’d both squat in my office whenever possible, if I didn’t mind. To be honest, I felt better having Mo with Sissy if I were out. He was built like a slab of redwood melded to granite and wouldn’t put up with anyone giving his sister shit. Sissy was no slouch, despite her petite, willowy frame. I’d seen her hold her own in a game of touch football with her brothers and cousins. Upon second thought, maybe Mo was there to stop Sissy from taking out anyone who pissed her off.

I strongly suspected every baby born into Claudia’s brood endured Green Beret training before it was allowed to bear the family name.

After showing them their assistant responsibilities, I settled in to read Jenkins’s report. Sissy sat down to do her homework, while Mo picked up the broom and headed out to sweep the front porch. I watched him for a moment through the screen door, and something on my face caught Sissy’s attention.

“He likes sweeping.” Sissy’s voice was nothing like her grandmother’s. Claudia dripped brash Southern hospitality and burnt molasses, where her granddaughter sounded as if she were ready to anchor the evening news. “I’ll do the dishes and dust. Even trade. We don’t believe housework is for women in our family, Uncle Cole.”

“Oh, I know that.” I reassured her with a small, tight smile. “I was just… thinking about your grandmother.”

Sissy glanced out the screen door at the last place Claudia’d been before the ambulance took her. “Oh, the porch. Yeah, she’s pissed off about that. Said she’d gone for some groceries down at the farmers’ market that day. I think she was more mad she paid money for stuff she didn’t end up using.”

“She talk to you about what happened?” It was difficult not grilling a sixteen-year-old girl about her grandmother, especially since the older woman was the closest thing to a mother I was ever going to get. “I told her I’d understand if she didn’t want to come back.”

“Hah, good luck trying to get her to stop,” she snorted, returning to her math homework. “Nothing stops Nana from doing anything she wants to do. Not a bullet. Not
anyone
. You’re as much family to her as any of my uncles. She’ll be climbing those steps up to work on principle alone.”

“She’s a good woman, you know?” I murmured, finding my spot in the report.

“Yep,” Sissy agreed. “And like my dad says, everything we do is to make her proud. Guess that holds for you too, Uncle Cole.”

I
SHOOED
them out at five. They went reluctantly. Apparently, sharing a Wi-Fi network at home meant splitting it with the rest of their siblings. Here at McGinnis Investigations, Mo and Sissy were the sole riders of my bandwidth train. It affected Mo so much he offered to move into the conference room and sleep on a cot if I needed him to.

So I assured him there wasn’t any need. That’s when he upped his offer to include mowing the lawn and mopping the floors. It was tempting, and as I wavered, Sissy yelled at him to get into the damned car.

Being a smart young man, he got into the damned car.

Locking up behind them, I was making plans in my head to loop around to speak to Eun Joon’s husband when I spotted a battered white Ford Explorer parked behind my recently returned Rover. I stood staring at it, waiting for it to disappear into a haze of smoke or sparkling, laughing demons when I blinked.

I blinked. Car was still there. My heart was not. It’d decided to hook little barbs into my lungs and throat to climb up to the base of my brain. It lodged there, whispering carelessly about throwing itself onto glass shards of doubt. I told it to shut the fucking hell up and headed down the walk to my house.

And found a broken angel had fallen down onto my stoop.

He looked good. I’d not seen him in over a week, and seeing Jae…
hurt
. It was more than just a pretty face and a lean body I could make sing under me. I missed the shy smiles he gave me when our eyes met while we watched television and the murmuring complaints he made when I stole a raw mushroom when he cooked. I wanted my Sunday mornings lounging in bed with our toes tangled together to protect them from the cat and the taste of his mouth when I kissed him after he’d had his first cup of tea.

My heart no longer whispered. Instead, it wept, because it damned well wanted to be stroked and reassured it still had a home in that man’s hands.

I crossed the long cement mile separating us. It was over in an instant but seemed like forever. After not seeing him for
too
many days, my rapier wit and smooth charm were sharp and ready.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” Ah, his cunning mind served him well.

He stood up and brushed grit from his jeans. They were one of my favorite pairs, so thin in spots the denim was nearly translucent and with tears across his knees and thighs. He picked at them when he worked, playing with the strings hanging from the rips. The shirt he wore was one of mine, a vintage Dr Pepper tee I picked up someplace. The faded purple-red was nice against his pale skin, nearly the color of the bites I could make on his throat when I wasn’t careful.

And, God, I was tired of being careful.

“Why didn’t you go in?” I opened the front door and held the screen open for him.

“It was nice outside. Thought I would get some fresh air and wait for you.”

“Your cat must be going crazy inside.”

“Have you been feeding her?” Jae ducked around my arm, but his hand brushed over my belly. My stomach muscles clenched, and my dick saluted him as he went by.

“Yeah, or she’d eat me alive as I slept.”

He laughed, a burbling, rough sound he also made when I hit the delicate core of his body with my cock. “Then, no, she’s probably been too happy to miss me. She is pretty much a stomach with fur.”

“
I’ve
missed you.”

Yeah, it was cheesy—long, gushing cheesy romance stuff that I was never good at, but it was the truth. He turned, pausing long enough to breathe and lick his upper lip. A storm flicked up in the air between us, hot and crackling and full of a fire we’d banked between us for too many days for our bodies to count… or to care about anything but touching skin.