Page 46 of The Reality of Us
Alice bit into the pizza and made a noise he’d imagined her making in the bedroom. He shifted in his seat, made sure his plate was on his lap.
“You don’t know how lucky you are to have a place like Tino’s, especially the gluten free. Usually they taste like cardboard.” She picked up her wine, sipping it. She made the same floaty sound of happiness, tipped her head back against the brick wall and licked her lips.
This woman. She’d be the death of him.
Owen’s gaze dropped to her mouth. Once again, he wished they were both someone else and their circumstances were different. Then he wouldn’t have hesitated to kiss her. To pull her close, run his nose along the long column of her throat until his lips met her dusky pink ones. Find out if she tasted as sweet as he’d always imagined.
She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and shit, it almost did him in. Owen shifted, trying to get comfortable on the concrete balcony. Closing his eyes didn’t help. Visions of Alice tripped past his eyelids, her newly short hair all mussed, lips swollen from too many kisses. His kisses. He hadn’t wanted someone like this so much … well, ever.
He opened his eyes and was about to say something about her case when sirens cut through the night air, the loud wailing drawing closer.
They jumped to their feet, their makeshift picnic dinner forgotten. A white sedan sped down High Street with a police car on its tail. Strobes of blue and red lights flashed across the windows of the stores.
“What the hell …” Alice said. The sedan did a sharp turn in front of Owen’s office, tyres squealing. They shared an alarmed look before turning in unison and bolting to the back of the building where the apartment’s front door was. Alice was quicker than he’d expected, but Owen beat her to the landing.
The sedan’s driver’s side door was thrown open, the car parked at an odd angle, blocking Owen’s Jeep and Alice’s Volvo.
By the time the police car had stopped, Phoenix was on the second step.
“Go back inside, please.” Owen nudged Alice towards the doorway. She refused to move, her breasts pressing into his muscular back, which was a super helpful thing to be noticing right fucking now.
“Alice!” Phoenix yelled, stumbling forward, dropping to a knee. His body was moving too quickly for his brain to keep up. His jeans were torn, and his knees were scraped and bloody. “I didn’t do it! They’re setting me up!” Phoenix white-knuckled the metal rail, pulling himself up another step.
“Go inside. Lock the door,” Owen hissed, nudging Alice backwards.
“But—”
Alice couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. All her senses were heightened. Things she wouldn’t register normally were amplified, echoing inside her mind. The crackle of the radio clipped to the police officer’s vest. Her shaking inhales and exhales. How hard her heart was thumping against her ribs.
Up close, Phoenix was a wreck. All sweaty, pallid skin and wild eyes. He looked like he’d been on a bender for days … weeks, maybe.
“If I’m going down, you’re coming with me,” Phoenix slurred. “We’re a team, sötnos!”
Alice tore her gaze away from Phoenix when Owen grabbed her hands, their fingers linking together. Owen’s voice was soft, but the urgency of his words snapped her out of her daze.
“You don’t owe him anything.”
If only she’d been honest, which was the story of her damn life. She opened her mouth to speak, but Owen beat her to it.
“And I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to you. Please go inside?”
“Okay,” she whispered, a chill creeping over her skin as the warmth of Owen’s body disappeared. It took two tries to lock the screen door with her shaking hands. Alice crept onto her tippy-toes so she could still see what was happening.
“No,” Phoenix yelled, lunging forward, arms outstretched. Owen’s back slammed into the screen door, and Alice jumped. Her heart was about to beat out of her chest. “Owen!”
“Stay back,” Owen snarled, and Alice didn’t know if he was talking to her or Phoenix or both of them, but all the softness had disappeared from his tone.
She needed to get to Owen, but her hands weren’t working. Her fingers fumbled around the lock. By the time she got the door open, the two police officers had Phoenix in handcuffs and were leading him towards the stairs.
“Are you okay?” She could barely get the words out; her teeth were chattering so badly.
Snatches of the rights they were reading Phoenix drifted towards Alice.
“… driving under the influence … supplying a controlled drug to a child …”
“I could ask you the same thing.” Owen reached for her before stepping away when one of the police officers reappeared.
“What happens now?” she whispered.
