Page 68 of Hushed

Gage nodded. “Let me make a call.”

An hour later, Austin Yates and two high-ranking police detectives stood in her living room. The detectives bagged the evidence and took her statement before they headed downstairs to talk to the lobby staff about security footage.

When the police were gone, Austin stayed behind. She’d shown up right when the police did, so Kenzie had no time to talk to her beforehand.

“You really didn’t have to come, Austin. It was just a police report.”

Austin shook her head. “It’s never just a police report. I don’t really practice criminal law anymore, but you should always have legal counsel present in situations like this. Gage was right to call me. I’ll monitor things as they progress. Hopefully, you won’t need to hire an attorney, but if this doesn’t get settled criminally, you may consider a civil suit.”

Kenzie shuddered. “I hate the idea of that.”

“It’s not fun. I can understand your fear. But let’s cross that bridge when we get to it.”

“Can I offer you some coffee or wine?” Kenzie asked, wanting to do something useful.

“No, thank you. I need to get home and get some sleep. Work comes bright and early in the morning. I’ll call you after I show the other partners your work and we’ll talk about finalizing those graphics.”

Austin hugged them both, and they walked the attorney to the door for another round of goodbyes.

Gage hugged Kenzie when they were alone and kissed her forehead.

“What do you say we get some sleep ourselves, babe? We’ve had a long weekend.”

She snuggled close to him and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

Gage

It was Gage’s turn to toss and turn that night. After an hour of watching Kenzie sleep, he got up and poured a glass of water in the kitchen.

The fitful sleep was a result of his trip to D.C. It left him with an uneasy feeling he couldn’t shake. The last case Reggie worked before he died appeared to have recent developments. Gage’s former boss used a security breach as a lure to get him back to D.C. to read him in on Reggie’s operation. Now they wanted him to follow a lead.

Gage didn’t tell Kenzie any of this because he didn’t want to worry her. He especially didn’t tell her that the lead he was following was in New York. It was important that she believed he was only in town to see her. He was good at his job, but he didn’t like keeping secrets from Kenzie. Especially not ones about her brother.

After an hour of pacing Kenzie’s living room, he changed into shorts and a tank top and grabbed her keys to make use of the community gym. It was that, or he was going to wake her up and fuck her. But sleep was hard enough for her some nights, so he couldn’t bring himself to give in to that urge.

In the gym, he stretched and stepped onto the treadmill. Since he was alone, he flipped on the news and watched while he worked his way up to a run. Thankfully, the news cycle was pretty boring these days, so there was little of interest to him. There were still no suspects in the murder of the NYC mayor a few weeks ago, but that didn’t stop the pundits from talking incessantly about who might have been behind it. Gage suspected that his new friends from Las Vegas had a better idea of who committed the murder than New York’s finest did.

The crime in the city was one of the major reasons he hated Kenzie living here, but it was good for her business, so he just had to make it as safe for her as possible.

The anchor moved to the next story, and he smiled when Carrie Davenport-Mercer popped up on the screen to talk about something going on in another part of the world. She was an investigative journalist at heart but had spent several years as a foreign correspondent in conflict zones. She often made appearances on UNN and other networks as an expert.

He ran and watched the news for at least an hour before he forced himself to slow down and cool off.

When he made his way back to the apartment, Kenzie was in the living room looking worried.

“There you are. You scared me. But then I saw my keys were gone, and I figured you went to the gym.”

He wanted to hug her, but he was coated in sweat. “Sorry to worry you, babe. I couldn’t sleep and I didn’t want to disturb your sleep.”

She gave him a wolfish grin. “I wouldn’t have minded.”

He laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. But sleep is important. Since you’re up, though…” he trailed off and raised one eyebrow, making her giggle.

She stood and headed toward the bedroom, then stopped to look back over her shoulder at him. “You should shower and then meet me in bed.”

Despite being exhausted from pushing himself on the treadmill, his cock sprang to life, and he joined her in the hallway. “Now that’s an offer I’ll never turn down. Go get naked and I’ll join you in a few minutes.”

As he watched her scurry into the bedroom, a sense of completeness settled over him he hadn’t realized he’d been missing. Despite everything they faced, it was less frightening because they could face it together. He just hoped she felt the same way.

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