Sara Humphreys - Tall, Dark, and Vampire

Be there in 10 . He texted a response quickly and stuffed the phone in his pocket.

Thank God for texting. He hated talking on the phone, and with an ex it was always better to keep communication to a minimum. It helped avoid the awkwardness that inevitably followed after he ended a relationship with a girlfriend.

Well, girlfriend was probably a generous description. They slept together a few times, and she wanted more, but he simply was unable go there. He never could, and likely never would. Luckily, they were able to maintain a professional relationship, at least so far.

He felt like a shithead. He did not want to hurt her. Doug knew the more he prolonged any type of physical relationship would only make breaking it off worse. Hell, he didn’t relish being alone night after night, but he knew it was better that way. Better to bail out in the beginning before anyone had a chance to really get hurt. No ties. No commitments. That was the way to go and the way he lived his life. At first it was circumstance, and after a while it became the norm.

Commitments.

He wondered if Olivia had any commitments. His jaw set at the idea of her with another man, which was ridiculous. He barely knew the woman, so what right did he have to suffer from caveman-like territorialism? None at all. But that did not squelch the jealousy that bubbled up from the mere idea of her with another man.

His thoughts went to Ronald Davis and the bartender Maya. She was a pretty thing, and he bet that plenty of men wanted to claim her. Maybe Olivia could fill him in on the bartender’s private life?

Doug snagged his phone out of his jacket and stopped at the corner as he fished around in his back pocket for Olivia’s business card. He found the private number, dialed it, and pressed send before he could talk himself out of it.

She was probably sleeping.

He told himself that he would leave a message, and that was it. As the phone rang in his ear he knew he was full of shit. He just wanted to talk to her, to hear that sweet voice one more time.

Doug squeezed his eyes shut as it rang for the fourth time, and as he was about to chicken out and hit the end button—she answered.

“Hello?” Her honeyed voice drifted into his head, and his body froze as he struggled to remember why he called in the first place. The dagger on his back tingled. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

“Ms. Hollingsworth?” Doug said after clearing his throat. “It’s Detective Paxton. I—I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No,” she said with the hint of a smile in her voice. “I’m wide awake. What can I do for you?”

“I needed to ask one more question about Maya, your bartender.” Doug leaned against the brick wall of the building and watched two pigeons fight over a piece of hot dog bun. “Did she have an old boyfriend, the jealous type? Maybe someone who might be bothered by her flirtatious behavior with Ronald Davis?”

Silence hung on the line. Doug butted his head against the wall as he prayed she would not see through his bullshit reason for calling.

“His attack was particularly savage, a crime of passion. If it had been some random attack or mugging, there would be one, or maybe two, wounds, but Davis was hacked up.” Doug opened his eyes again and watched as the pigeons hopped out of the path of an oncoming car. “This was like an act of revenge, completely rage-driven.”

“I’m sorry, but Maya doesn’t ever stick with one guy for long.” Olivia laughed softly. “She likes to play the field, so to speak, and rarely goes out with the same guy twice. I wish I had more helpful information for you.”

Doug stuck his free hand in his pocket and fiddled with her business card.

“Actually, that is helpful.” He started walking again toward Miranda’s office. “Looks like we can rule out an old boyfriend, and sometimes ruling things out is the quickest way to get to where we want to be.” He paused before continuing, knew asking the next question was a mistake, and asked it anyway. “How about you, Ms. Hollingsworth?”

“Me?” she asked in a low, husky voice.

“It was your club he was hanging out at. Could you have an enemy or an old boyfriend who wants to cause trouble?”

To his surprise, she laughed. It was a smoky, sexy laugh that made him stop dead in his tracks. He fought the urge to turn and go back to the club so he could hear it in person, but he shook his head and kept on his present course.

“No, detective.”

“Doug,” he interrupted.

“Alright,” she said through a chuckle. “No, Doug , I don’t have any enemies, at least none that would’ve messed with Ronald Davis, and I definitely don’t have any old boyfriends looking to cause trouble.”

“Current boyfriend?” he asked quietly as he looked over his shoulder, worried that someone would overhear.

“No,” she said slowly. “I’m quite single. Not so much as a dinner date in a long time. You could say that it feels like centuries.”

Doug stopped at the corner and looked both ways before jogging across the street.

“How about Mexican?”

“Mexican boyfriends?”

“No.” Doug laughed loudly and ran one hand over his head. “Mexican food. Do you like Mexican food?”

Nail-biting silence filled the line as he waited for her to respond. He started to sweat. Doug suspected he overstepped his bounds, and just as he was about to take it back, she answered.

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

“That depends.”

“Oh really?” She laughed again. “On what?”

“Would you say yes?”

“Maybe.”

Doug tried to suppress the grin that bubbled up. She was flirting with him as much as he was with her.

“Maybe, huh?”

“Is there anything else that I can do for you?”

Doug bit his tongue because he thought of about a hundred different things she could do for him, to him, and with him, but instead, he replied, “I’ll be sure to let you know. Don’t leave town or anything,” he said playfully. “I may have a question or two tomorrow.”

“I can assure you that I’m not going anywhere, except to bed… alone.”

Before he could say another word, she hung up, leaving him with the beginnings of a hard-on and a blanket of guilt. Doug shook his head and stuck the phone in his pocket. He really was going off the deep end. Asking her out in the middle of an investigation? What the hell was wrong with him?

Doug made it the rest of the way to the examiner’s office in record time. He was beat and wanted nothing more than to crash in his crappy apartment and sleep for a week, but his curiosity about Miranda’s text trumped his exhaustion.

He peered through the small window on the door to the exam room and saw Miranda perched over the body of Ronald Davis. He swung it open and was instantly hit with the stink of death and antiseptic. Doug knew he should be used to the smell by now, but it still made his stomach lurch.

Miranda glanced over her shoulder and waved him closer. “Thanks for coming.”

Her brown hair was tied back tightly and went well with her strictly business attitude. She was professional, which made the tension in his shoulders ease, but it flared again when he set eyes on Ronald’s mutilated body. Granted, some of the damage was from the autopsy—but not the worst of it.

“Someone did a fucking number on this guy,” Doug said without looking at Miranda.

This was definitely a crime of passion. Doug would bet money that if Maya had not pissed off an old boyfriend, perhaps Ronald cock-blocked someone else.

“Someone or something,” Miranda said evenly.

“What do you mean?” Doug asked warily.

He turned his attention to Miranda and shifted his weight when her serious brown eyes met his. To his surprise, she removed the protective eyeglasses and burst out laughing.