Oracle Seeing (The Phoenix Files Book 2) (18 page)

Roxy glanced over at her best friend. “Wow, someone hates Wendy.”

“Guilty as charged. I don’t hate often, but when I do, Wendy Lockwood is my favorite target.”

“This is concerning,” Silas offered.

“No, it’s a freaking witch hunt, and I’ll stake my reputation and my family’s reputation on Lucian. He’s not involved in this.”

The older man relented. “Okay, sweetheart, but you need to find the person doing this.”

“
REALLY
? Shit! That’s my job? Here I thought I was just some sicko who liked hanging out with dead bodies. Thanks for clearing that up, Silas.”

He snorted. “There is plenty of bad attitude in here. I think I’ll head back up to the office where my secretary at least smiles at me and thinks this shit—but doesn’t say it out loud.”

The two women hugged him.

“Oh, and Bishop?”

“Yeah?”

“You are not to engage her no matter what. You stay away from Wendy, ignore her, and don’t let her get under your skin. You two have history, and that’s a bad thing in this case.”

Having anything with that skank was a bad thing. She made STDs look like a pleasure cruise. Wendy was the reason Lucian wouldn’t even talk to her. She was the reason he hated her freaking guts.

“Fine.”

“I mean it. I will bust you down if you get into an altercation with her. She’s waiting to bait someone, and you’re her favorite target.”

“I don’t get why,” Nate said. “Can someone please fill us in here?”

They couldn’t expect their help, if Bishop kept this to herself. “When Lucian was hurt, I was on guard duty.”

She told them everything—including what Wendy did. The most surprised person in the room was Roxy, who was staring at her as if she’d lost her mind.

“You never told me that.”

“It’s not a memory I like reliving.”

She gave her best friend the look. Bishop knew they were going to have to talk about this at a later date. She dreaded that to her core. Roxy was a detail whore.

She had to have them all.

The mayor patted her on the back. “How about you let me help you with the media? I’ll do the press junkets, and you can focus on work.”

She wished it was going to be that easy. Only she knew there were a couple issues standing in their way.

“We have a problem. While I love that you’ll take one for the team, Silas, I can’t avoid the media.”

“Why the hell not? In this case, that is exactly what you should be doing.”

“Arron Abrahms was hooking up with his secretary—his buddy’s wife. His buddy is Gaylor Zimmer.”

The people from the town got it.

The ones not from Ravenswood didn’t.

“A hint please?” Nate asked, running his hands through his hair in frustration. He really hated not being in charge.

“Gaylor Zimmer is on the crime beat, and he works for the Ravenswood Chronicle. The second I start questioning him, or he sees the FBI, we’re news.”

“Shit!”

“Yeah, so I can’t avoid the media. Holly Zimmer was getting her needs taken care of by the judge. So, this is delicate. This is going to be so much fun.”

Yeah, not.

It was going to be one hell of a tap dance on her behalf.

“The man has the best motive. His wife was having an affair with our first victim.”

Great.

“As for Dale Plunkett, he was the most hated ambulance chasing attorney in town. I’m willing to bet half the people here wanted him dead.”

They didn’t take that bet.

“I’m glad my job is over,” Roxy stated. “I have the easy one.”

“Yeah, I know you do. I can’t let the FBI near him or he’s going to put every detail in the paper. It’ll be a hot mess.”

They agreed.

“What about a gag order on the media?” Nate asked. “Do you have a good working relationship with them?”

Everyone in the room laughed.

“Bishop isn’t easy to get along with on a good day,” Roxy stated. “She’d as soon as punch you in the face for crossing your eyes at her.”

“Thanks. I’m a raging bitch. I love that my best friend defended me on this one.”

She winked.

Then she thought about it. Maybe the FBI had the right idea.

“I can talk to York Spencer,” she offered. “He runs all three papers. It’s his life. The owners are some fancy magazine in the city, but he puts everything he has into the three papers. They’re his life. He lives for journalism.”

It was worth a try.

“Will he be friendly?”

“Ehhh.”

“Can you bribe him?” Luke asked.

“That’s the
ONLY
way he’ll be helpful. It’s like once they become journalists, integrity goes out the window, and they become soul sucking monsters.”

Yeah, they got that.

No one liked working with the media. It was the bane to every cop’s existence.

“Here’s my other dilemma,” she offered. “We’re going to have to split up. If you’re with me, the media is going to be all over you. I thought we’d have a few more days before it got really bad, but we’re jinxed.”

“Nate and I can take the much hated attorney, and you can handle York Spencer and Holly Zimmer. That should keep the pressure off you for a little while. We’ll hide the badges and walk into the office. Maybe someone will think we’re clients.”

“Or you can go in and kick their asses. That’s so much hotter,” Roxy offered.

She had everyone’s attention.

“Well, it is.”

She was having a hard time focusing with the Marine watching her. She was wondering how many tattoos he had all over his body, and if he’d be offended if she asked him to strip so she could count.

“No, that’s okay. Let’s do it the FBI way,” Bishop stated.

Pulling out her cards, she passed them to the three Feds. “If you need me, here’s my number. On the back is my house line. No one has that one, so tonight you can reach me there if something comes up.”

“Want us to meet you at your home tomorrow?” Nate asked. “To debrief you?”

“Let’s meet today at my office when you’re done. I’m going to have to check in with my team. Leaving them alone is a recipe for disaster. I wouldn’t want the mayor chewing me a new one about how I’m letting them have fun at work. God forbid.”

The man being discussed laughed and headed out. “So bold, Bish. So damn bold.”

When he was gone, the Feds and Bishop were right behind him. That left Jagger and the coroner.

“Can I help you with something?” he asked.

She was surprised.

He’d said nearly nothing to her for hours. It was making her crazy.

“I have to put Mr. Plunkett away, and then we can pack up the boxes for you to take to the FBI lab. It’s not too much paperwork. You’ll be on your way within the hour.”

“Okay.”

It was fine with him. He didn’t mind following her around. Watching the doctor was interesting.

As she went to put the victim away, Jagger pushed the table into the cooler, making sure he was behind her. She’d been wearing scrubs most of the time doing the autopsy, but now she was back in a skirt and blouse. The little glasses did him in, and they made her look like some studious teacher.

He wanted to feel her against his body, but he knew that was a damn bad idea. He had no business playing fast and loose with this woman.

He liked his hook-ups to be nameless, quick, and never with anyone he’d run into again.

It made it easier.

It made it safer.

Well, for him.

He could picture himself tangled up with her, and she’d cry, he’d feel bad, and then they’d have a mess on their hands. He really hated when a woman cried. It reminded him of his mother, and his sister, Jaxon.

That was entanglement, and it was always bad news.

Still…he had needs.

By the time they got the body onto the sliding tray, he had talked himself out of doing anything stupid. He was a man of great control. To do what he did, you had to be. Somehow, he found that tiny thread and held on.

His mind was made up. He was going to get the stuff to transport, and head back to sit in a tree.

Trees were safe.

Women like her…they were bad news.

She’d want too much from him. Things he wasn’t willing to share with anyone. Women, the good ones, always did.

As Doctor Faust turned around, he was right there. She walked right into his body. Lushness met that hard military build, and they both stopped.

“Sorry,” he said. “I must have gotten in your way.”

“You’re not sorry at all. In fact, you’re looking a little smug, soldier.”

He watched her with unblinking green eyes. “Am I?”

She let her gaze drop down his body, past his chest, to his belt, and right to where all the good thing were hidden on a man. “Yeah, you aren’t sorry at all.”

Jagger knew he was hard.

He was shocked she’d point it out.

He’d been fighting a raging hard on all day—in fact, since the second he’d seen her. With each minute, he’d wanted to taste that forbidden fruit. He was disappointed that it would be trouble in the end. If he thought he could satiate that thirst and walkaway, she’d be naked, on the floor, and trapped beneath him.

“Well, you really can’t prove it,” he offered smugly.

Oh, she loved when a man was all cocky and hard. It made it that much more fun. She’d love wiping the smirk off his face. She’d met many Jagger Armstrongs in her life. They were almost always soldiers, always damaged, and always hot in bed.

She was going to make her point.

“I think I can.”

He laughed. “Yeah, okay.”

When he went to walk away, she grabbed his arm and tugged. He turned, and that’s when she attacked. Roxy didn’t give him a chance to think.

She jumped up, wrapping her legs around his hips. As she did, her mouth found his, and the kiss was nothing short of explosive. She felt it to her toes.

The Marine?

He stumbled back, but managed to stay on his feet.

What was to come was going to be a whirlwind of heat, fire, and frenzy.

Jagger barely held on.

The last thing he remembered was taunting the doctor, and then her tongue was in his mouth. Yeah, and her delicious girly bits were pressed to his erection.

He was thinking about her skirt.

Jesus.

He was going to burn up—even in a cooler. That said a lot.

Someone moaned.

His shirt was pulled over his head.

Her hands wandered.

Then someone bit him on the neck.

Jagger nearly dropped her. He couldn’t believe this woman was ravaging him in a morgue cooler.

Him.

She was all over his body—
literally
.

He wasn’t disappointed, but his brain couldn’t seem to wrap around it.

When she broke the kiss to tug his shirt off, he was breathing heavily, and so was she.

Instead of speaking, he pressed her to the wall, balancing the doctor on his hips. Her hands were in his pants, and he wasn’t going to be able to be sane for much longer.

“Are you…?”

She cut him off with another scorching kiss. When her teeth sank into his lip, all sanity left him. He did something so crazy that he’d remember it until he was an old man.

He reached between her legs, found her wet panties, and tore them from her body.

Then he drove himself into her with one forceful push.

Bare.

A stranger.

In a morgue cooler.

That’s when they both moaned, and she came on his dick. Jagger could barely hold on as she tightened down on him. It didn’t slow him down.

He pounded himself into her. If she wanted sex, he’d supply it.

This was raw.

Hard.

Wild.

This was fucking at its finest, and he couldn’t stop himself. Well, he probably could if he tried hard enough, but why would he want to?

He’d slept with a lot of women, but Doctor Faust?

Yeah, she was the hottest ride ever.

She whispered in his ear, and he nearly came. She wanted harder, when he was already pounding himself into her. The dead in the cooler were going to wake up soon.

As he was driving into her body, slamming them into the cold metal behind her, he needed more. His hands found her blouse, and he ripped it open.

She moaned.

He nearly exploded when his hands found soft mounds of wonderful smelling doctor. Roxy’s perfume was that of a rich bitch taking a lowly slum with some soldier.

It drove him insane.

Her skirt was torn next, so he could watch his erection slide into her body.