TRAPPED BY THE BAD COP

ion was

his was staged silence like a room that had swal

behind the marble kitchen island, fingers wrapped around th

d while everything else slipped through her crac

earched for weeks. Clocked the schedule of the cleaning crew, the private patrols, the bla

h the window shards of glass like

Thick. Watch

weight of the mansion pressing down like a vice. She should have run

n made her bra

teps

himself had rolled out of bed to stretch his claws across the shadows cast by t

her lip. Shit she g

ce whiplash

ee, but you look like the type

around, her hands c

riding low on his hips like even gravity deferred to him. One hand wrapped around a cup

ed her in place more e

Wil

o one remembered voting for. She'd never seen him up close before. Only the headlines. T

aid, sipping slow, like this was a ca

r throat was clogged wi

ard her. Unhu

rted your paycheck. Maybe someone you love is sick. The u

teeth. "I'm not

eyes narrowing. "

was studying an exhibit. Not a threat. Not a thief

ed the wr

d. "Didn't c

oice dipped, quiet now. "

omach

lling the cops

wasn't kind. "Wh

d wildly. "You g

y. "You broke in. That's levera

t have cracked, because his voi

ing you could hawk quick. But now you've stepped in

smell the faint trace of whiskey an

second chances. Only

ell. In a house with too many windows, too much silence, and a man

o can kill her with just one hurl of