Urban Renewal (Urban Elite Book 1) (19 page)

Max

Spider holds my hair back for me as I puke again. I finally finish and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand before I turn around and look at him. “Does this mean we’re friends?” I chuckle, trying to lighten the mood.

“Damn straight it does. Nobody is going to terrorize my partner. You’re my responsibility now.” I start to disagree but he stops me, saying, “Listen, I might be a major league asshole but this guy thinks he can pick on you because you’re a chick. He’s going to have to come through me. I don’t take kindly to bullies.”

“I’m a big girl.”

“Too late, sweets. This guy’s pissed me off. Lucky for us, he’s underestimating your abilities.”

“Well, it’s good to see you’re all for a little ‘girl power’. You’ll fit right in around here. It’s sort of a requirement.”

His eyes twinkle as he shakes his head, “In this line of work it isn’t about male or female. It’s about geek power, babe.”

That makes me laugh, which makes him frown down at me.

“What?” he says, flexing his bicep. “Is it hard for you to believe a guy who looks like me can be a geek?” He doesn’t give me time to answer. “Brush your teeth and meet me back out here so we can catch this ass wipe.” He offers me a hand, pulling me up off the cold tile. Maybe working with Spider won’t be so bad.

He turns at the bathroom door and looks back at me, his expression grim. “He made a mistake today. I learned more about him in that last e-mail than I have since we started.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re looking for a man who killed his mother. There can’t be too many of those around.”

Jack

I use our drive time during our search for Lady Luck to address all the things I can’t say to anyone else but Valerie. She’s always been my sounding board and is unfailingly patient when I need to think out loud about a particularly challenging case.

“It’s so fucked up that our killer could be a doctor who’s actively practicing medicine. I can’t imagine living a double life than encompasses such extreme expressions of good and evil.”

“People do it every day, Jack, just not to that extent. Alcoholics have family members call in to their place of employment when they’re hung over. Women wear heavy makeup and sunglasses to hide the bruises inflicted by their high profile husbands.”

“That’s my point. Those are typical things that manifest themselves and have to be hidden. What traits are rearing their ugly head in our killer’s life?”

“What do you mean? Like what dysfunctional behaviors are cropping up that he has to hide?”

“Exactly! Does he have breakdowns when he’s behind the privacy of his own four walls? Has he always been this way or is this the result of a psychotic break?”

“Well…I would think when he gets the
itch
to kill, he would show some kind of symptom. Maybe he gets angry, depressed, hypersexual.”

“But he isn’t raping these women.”

“We don’t know that. He hasn’t graced us with a torso yet. Off the top of my head, I’d say you’re probably correct. He’s more intrigued with exercising control over the authorities than he is the women.”

“Well, how about we confirm that?” I don’t wait for an answer as I push the Bluetooth button on the steering wheel. “Call Max,” I command it.

Max

“You okay, kiddo?” Spider asks.

“Not you, too. You can’t possibly look at me like I’m that much younger than you.”

“Probably easier all around if I look at you like a kid sister,” he solemnly before breaking out a shit eating grin. “Hey, I just held your hair back while you puked. Whether you like it or not, we’ve bonded now.”

“Really,” I say flatly. “So what are we supposed to do now? Get drunk and belt out ‘I Got You, Babe’ on Karaoke Night? By the way, thanks for giving me a chance to jump in the shower.”

“I didn’t want to smell your stinky butt.”

“Me either,” I laugh in spite of myself.

Getting sick seems to have broken the ice between my nemesis and me and I have to say that I’m relieved. I’ve got enough to be stressed about, I don’t need problems at work too. Some people just can’t work together and I don’t want that to be the case between Spider and me. Yeah, we got off to a crappy start, but I gotta own that. Maybe it doesn’t have to stay that way.

“Good thing you got finished before the boss man calls. I’m thinking you probably don’t want him to know how much this killer is upsetting you.”

“Yeah, about that, Spider. How about we just keep our bathroom bonding experience between you and me?”

“You got it. You can trust me, Max. If you’re ever looking for someone you can trust.” His coal black eyes are burning through me and I can’t be sure if there’s some double meaning in his words.

“A friend I can trust would be nice, a colleague I can trust would be great, but I don’t believe in
looking
for relationships.”

“What
do
you believe in?” he asks quietly, stretching out his long jean clad legs and interlocking his fingers behind his neck, like now I have his complete attention.

“I believe in chemistry, Spider. I believe when two people belong together the force between them will assure they end up together, no matter how fucked up or bumpy the ride is.”

“Well, well. I guess there’s more depth to you than I gave you credit for.”

“Oh, really? Well, you strike me as a player, so what would you know about true chemistry or depth?”

He straightens and brings his arms down to rest on the arms of his chair. “Now, you’re judging me because of how I look and we both know it. The same way you didn’t peg me as being a geek, you’re probably assuming I fuck a different woman every night. Now, if I judged you like that, you’d be pissed.”

Hands on my hips, I jut out my chin and let him have it. “That’s because when a guy sleeps around he’s a ladies man. When a woman does it she’s a whore. You know as well as I do that we live in a world of double standards.”

“Fair enough. Well, how ‘bout this. We make the unfortunate puking incident our little secret so Jack doesn’t get overprotective. But in return, you let me do my job and protect you like he asked me to.”

“Okay, you’ve got a deal. You can follow me around – but you can’t tell me where to go or what to do. I’m not asking for your permission – got it?”

“Nothing’s gonna stop me from giving you my objective opinion if I see you heading for trouble. And what I do about it will depend on what kind of trouble it is. But other than that, fair enough. Oh, and one more thing -- no more judging each other.”

“Aww, how sweet,” I coo as I bat my eyelashes at him. ‘What’s next, we hold hands and sing Kumbaya?”

“Seriously, Max,” he drawls with a shake of his head, “what is with you and this desire to sing with me?”

He turns and saunters out of the room, leaving me to replay the conversation in my head and realize that he didn’t actually agree to anything. I roll my eyes at the sound of him whistling the opening notes of Kumbaya as his footsteps get farther away.

When he’s long gone, I sit at my desk, staring at the email from The Riddler. Just having his words here in my room is enough to make my skin crawl, as if evil in its purest form has somehow slithered into my personal space.

He managed to get close enough to me to steal a personal item. I don’t know how he did it, but he did. It’s a lot to take in all at once. I have to admit that this is one time ‘girl power’ isn’t going to be enough to see me through. I need Spider’s protection, as infuriating as that is. But, even if Spider and I aren’t on the exact same page with his bodyguard duties, I’m pretty sure we’re at least operating from the same book now. Then again, maybe not.

Either way, having an ex-MMA fighter looking out for me will give me some much needed peace of mind.  And I’m not sure how I feel about Liam at this point either. The jury is still out on that one.