Page 12 of The Prey
“Officer Bernard has three complaints filed against him for excessive force in the last two years.” And she despised how Bernard had looked at her during the interviews.
Of course, Hudson hadn’t been there in the interview room at the time. If he had, that guy wouldn’t have been so slimy. She just knew it.
But Gia and Shayna—the things he had said just by his expression alone… No. She didn’t trust Bernard to have done his job at all. “It was all conveniently dismissed without investigation. I called a friend at the BCPD. She told me all about them. Bernard is not a credible witness. He probably needs to be investigated, too.”
Hudson was so close that she could feel his breath when he spoke, see the faint stubble across his jaw, smell him. His hand had somehow migrated to her lower back—pulling her ever so much closer.
Yikes. She was right. The man was up to something tonight.
She was the target.
The man was just toying with her.
“We keep going in circles.”
“Only because you refuse to consider that I might be right.”
“No, because you’re stuck in the past. You refuse to acknowledge that legal reasoning has changed since 1946. Welcome to modern times, Hanan.”
He laughed, a far toomanlylaugh. The man was an absolute frog.
“Walk away if you want, babe, but you might want to reviewMartinellbefore Monday. Just in case.”
Babe?
Not once in all the years they had worked together had he ever called her “babe.” Satan Incarnate—yes. He’d called her that before. Butbabe?
She wasn’t imagining it. He knew exactly how to get a rise out of her.
She glared back at him. He was leaning against the porch railing now, arms crossed over his chest, watching her with an expression that was equal parts challenge—and something else she refused to name.
She looked at Hala, who was watching the exchange with barely concealed amusement.
“Your brother is a complete and total lunatic. The moment you want help getting him committed, just let me know. I’ll do all the paperwork for free. No…I’ll pay you to let me do it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
7
The shapeless businesssuit was back, he saw first thing Monday morning. Hudson fought the rush of irritation seeing the plain brown brought. The beautiful,open,loving woman he had not been able to stop thinking about for days had disappeared again. Hiding.
This woman was in her place. He was in a foul mood all damned morning because of it.
And distracted. By her.
After about two hours he decided he found this Giavonna just as fascinating, in a puzzle kind of way.
She was most comfortable with Shayna, the slightly older woman who had hired on a year or so after Gia had. Gia worked with Mike when needed, but she kept a physical distance between them that she didn’t between herself and Shayna. They had two clerks, and three paralegals. Three were male.
She kept the men at a distance, too.
It was almost like she felt insecure interacting with the men. He’d seen Hala do that before, after what had happened to her with her ex-boyfriend. Nervous.
But with Gia, it was more than that…
It took him another hour to figure it out.
Gia was afraid. Of something. Something at the office specifically.
