So now, my sole focus had turned to Jesse.
Well, at least when my cock wasn’t trying to grab hold of that focus.
A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts. Moments later, Holly’s face appeared in the crack of the opening door. “Rocky, I’ve got Jesse here to see you.”
“Perfect,” I said, Holly opening the door all the way. Jesse walked past her and stepped into the office. He wore a forest-green shirt that had a small hole near the neckline and a pair of khaki cargo shorts that offended me just by looking at them.
He walked over and took a seat across from me. Thankfully, I didn’t have to stand to shake his hand, seeing as how the thoughts of Sam still had me up at full mast.
“Thanks for coming in today.”
“Sure,” Jesse said, shrugging. “I just want to get this over with. You’re going to see Sam’s a fucking creep.”
Good. Jesse still thought he was coming to Stonewall so that he could further incriminate an innocent man. I knew there’d be no other way of getting him here, so that was the bait I had laid out, and he happened to greedily snatch it up.
“So, let’s start with what you can tell me about Sam and Hazel.”
Jesse didn’t waste a second. He started rattling on about how they’re both freaks who got off on making him feel uncomfortable.
I stopped him midsentence. “So why don’t you just move out?”
He seemed a little stunned by the question. As if the thought had never occurred to him.
Maybe because you’ve got an obsession with Hazel and don’t want to live apart from her?
“I, well, the lease. I can’t break it. Plus, moving is difficult. I don’t want to be bothered with that shit. And I shouldn’t be forced to move either.”
I nodded, pretending to accept all the bullshit he was shoveling. “Have you tried talking with them then? Figuring out why you three don’t get along?”
“They just don’t like me.”
And it sounds like they have good reason not to.
“Listen, I came here to talk about Sam.” Jesse was getting agitated. A large vein pounded on the side of his forehead. “I don’t want to talk about me. He’s the one with the panties under his bed.”
“About that.” My eyes narrowed to slits. “When we came back in the apartment, you were midway between Sam’s room and yours. Is it unreasonable to think you could have planted Hazel’s underwear in Sam’s room? You had enough time to do it.”
He let out an odd laugh. He sounded like a damaged whoopie cushion sputtering out air. “That’s not what happened. Sam’s had an obsession with Hazel, it’s obvious. He’s wanted her since I met them.”
It wasn’t unusual for a criminal to project their emotions onto someone else. Jesse was doing exactly that. I could see it written across the worried look he now wore; his eyebrows were halfway up to the sky while his pupils had dilated two sizes too big. There were beads of sweat forming across his hairline even though the AC was kept at a cool seventy-one degrees.
Jesse’s chair had turned into the hot seat, and he was feeling the flames. I just had to get him to crack.
“Jesse, just be honest with me. You’ve had a secret crush on Hazel. It grew out of control, and you did some fucked-up shit because of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not too late to fix things. To stop things before it got worse. Come on, Jesse. The truth.”
I could almost see the inner workings behind those scared brown eyes. He was calculating which option worked best for him: continue the facade and digging himself in deeper, or come clean now and try to work something out. His phone vibrated against my table, drawing both our eyes. I saw Sam’s name pop up, and I could read a brief piece of the text before the screen locked again.
SAM: Let’s meet at—
Jesse seemed to be thrown out of his thoughts with the text, making up his mind. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
He chose to keep digging his grave.
“Jesse.”
He wasn’t listening. He stood up, the chair almost tipping over with how quickly he pushed it back. I followed suit, standing, hoping I could diffuse the situation.
“Jesse, we can talk this out.”
He was already at the door. Without even so much as a glance over his shoulder, Jesse disappeared, the door shutting with a force that made me wince.
I didn’t waste a moment. I snatched my keys and phone and hurried out of my office, down the hall, and into the lobby. Holly sat behind her desk, looking spooked.
“Did that guy just walk out?” I asked her.
“Yeah, he looked pissed. Slammed the door on his way out.”
“Thanks,” I said. There was a cap hanging by the door. It was all black with a wide tongue, and it wasn’t mine. I grabbed it anyway and slipped it on. “I’ll bring this back,” I said over my shoulder to Holly, opening the door and stepping out into the Miami summer heat. The humidity bitch-slapped me across the face. I tucked the hat lower on my head and hurried down the street, looking left and not spotting any sign of Jesse.