Delicious - Page 29

Absently, I pull my hand to my mouth, chewing on my thumbnail as I watch her suspicious gaze flow over everything in the room. She’s looking for something, it seems. Her partner is just looking like he has nothing better to do.

“I’m Officer Rayez,” the woman introduces, pivoting to look at us. She hooks her fingers in her belt loops, glaring at both of us as she does. “This is my partner, Officer Brown.”

Yeah, he looks like a brown. Just standing there, wheezing, even though he isn’t doing anything physical and existing in abrownway. He’s unimpressive, non-threatening, and probably the worst partner for her possible, unless there’s a side of him that’s not exactly obvious here.

“Can we help you?” Jed asks, rolling his shoulders as he watches her with eyes that remind me of chips of ice, instead of the warm blue of a Caribbean island commercial I see when he looks at me. “Because I’m not sure what we did to warrant this visit.” He grins at them, all sweetness and innocent puppy-dog eyes.

But all I can think is that he needs to be careful. He has too many secrets and too many bodies buried here to piss them off. Surely he knows it, too.

Blinking, I realize too late the female cop has zeroed in on me. She crosses the room and, without invitation, plants her ass on the sofa beside me. She watches me the whole time, her dark eyes never leaving my face. “What’s your name?” she asks, whipping out a small pad of paper from her shirt pocket and nearly knocking her sunglasses to the floor.

I have a choice. I know that the moment she gives me that glare once more, obviously waiting for my answer. All I have to do is tell her what’s going on. Hell, I’m sure that if I evenlooknervous, she’d get me out of here. I could glance at Jed right now, to see his face, and I know even that would set off her instincts with how high-strung Officer Rayez is.

It’s so easy. I can get out of here just like that.

“I’m Saylor,” I tell her, tucking my black hair back behind my ear. “Saylor King.”

“How old are you?” She barely waits for me to finish telling her my name before she goes on, her tone demanding as my heart pounds in my chest. “And where are you from?”

“I’m twenty-four,” I inform her, keeping my voice level. My fingers still dig into the couch cushion, but I draw one foot up under me, trying to keep my shoe off of the couch while I make myself more comfortable, as if I actually live here or visit often. “And I live in Akron, when I’m not here.”

From the corner of my eye, I see Jed stir, but I’m too afraid to actually look at him, in fear of Rayez realizing something is wrong.

But don’t you want her to know? Some voice in my brain screams.Don’t you want her to take you out of here, you idiot?

Yeah, this probably isn’t my smartest move. But I still have time. I don’t have to decide just yet. There are a ton of moments between now and them leaving for me to change my mind so they’ll take me away from Jed and let me go back home. That has to be what I want, so why can I feel the ghost of Jed’s lips on mine, and the way he’d held my hips in his hands when we kissed?

Why can I suddenly remember every dream I had last night, when my face was buried in his pillows while I slept?

“How do you know Mr. Shaw?” she nods her head at Jed, jolting me out of my reverie. The way she’s looking at me, I wonder if she’d had to ask more than once before I’d realized she was talking to me, and I hope to God that’s not the case.

“He’s my friend,” I reply, then clear my throat, knowing that sounds…not very believable. “Sorry, it’s a habit that I tell people that. It’s new, so…” I suck in a breath. “Jed is my boyfriend.”

“That so?” There’s no shock on her face, but she jots something down in her little notebook. “How long have you been dating?”

“Two weeks, but we’ve been, uh,” I let my natural insecurity and inability to sound confident at the most necessary of times do me a favor here, and my hands come up to make stupid gestures in front of my chest. “We’veknowneach other for months. You know?” I know what I’m hinting at, and I raise my brows at her before glancing at Jed with a rueful half-smile.

The other officer, Brown, catches my eye and nods with a comforting smile, like he’s convinced I’m telling the truth. Well, at least I’ve got one of them convinced.

“Have you seen anything suspicious since you’ve been here? We got a call about strange cars coming up here from town. And there’s been a man reported missing this past week. We’re checking our bases,” the female officer asks, explaining her reasoning before she’s done.

“No,” I shrug. “No, I haven’t really seen anything out of the ordinary. We walk the trails a lot, so I’d probably see something?” I gesture toward the door, pointing one way, then the other, to illustrate the two paths that I’ve now explored since being here.

But I still can’t look at Jed. I’m afraid I’ll crack if I see the look on his face, and more than that, I worry what he thinks of me right now.

I worry, because my brain is calling me ten kinds of stupid and I don’t know what to do other than continue on this awful, terrible path I’m on. At this point, I’ve committed to it right? I can’t do anything else.

Convince me.That’s what I’d said to him. That’s what I’d dared him to do before he came closer and let me kiss him. Fuck, Jed’s lips are so soft, so inviting, and so, so dangerous if I’m lyingto the cops just to get another taste. But I’d told him to convince me. It feels only fair that he gets a chance to do so.

And it doesn’t feel right to expose him to the police now.

I continue to answer the officer’s questions, and while Rayez is more aggressive and fires them off at me without giving me much time to answer. Brown only chimes in a few times, asking me easy questions or allowing Jed to chip in with an answer of his own.

By the time Rayez stands up, my body and mouth feel numb from answering her questions and all the lying I’ve done. She sighs, like she’d hoped to find something, and I rise to my feet as well when she sticks a hand out for me to shake.

“Well, we just ask that you both keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary,” she tells me, looking between the both of us for the first time in at least ten minutes. It almost feels like she’s met Jed before, and isn’t impressed. Or maybe one of his friends? I’m sure Wren could do that to someone, if he’s given even half of an opportunity. “And we’ll be back if we have any more questions.”

She heads to the door, Brown on her heels murmuring to Jed in a tone much kinder than the one Rayez has been using. I wonder if she suspects that Jed is more than he seems. I wonder if she has areasonto suspect him. But I’m certainly not about to bring that up, when my first priority is getting out of this uncomfortable situation.