Nice Buns (Cheap Thrills 7)

Not lifting my head, I asked, “Can we not talk about him?”

“Evie, it’s been six days. Don’t you think you should just go over, knock on his door, and apologize to his face? If he doesn’t accept it, fuck him. If he does, problem solved. Just jump on his dick and enjoy the shit out of it.”

It took me a moment to figure out if she’d actually said what I thought she had, but when I heard some snickering coming from behind her, I realized she had.

Lifting my head slowly while I decided what to say back, I’d just opened my mouth to tell her to cut it out when I heard an, “Oh, shit!” Followed by a, “Hey, Detective Bell. What brings you here?”

Reluctantly, I flicked my eyes to the door, hoping it was a joke, and took in the two police officers who were trying not to laugh standing in it.

And yes, one of them was Detective fucking Bell.

Chapter Six

Alex

On the table in my new office sat ten boxes of evidence.

I was now officially in charge of Piersville’s cold cases. Either my son hated me, or he had way too much faith in me.

“Yo,” Carter said from the doorway. “Meeting in conference room one.”

Following behind him, I locked the door behind me, giving it a cursory wiggle to make sure it was secure. I’d been allocated an office with a room that had reinforced walls to put the boxes in and a reinforced door so they’d be safe until I got back. If I was away for long periods or out of the building, though, they’d be locked in the storage room.

Cold cases were my nemesis. Families and friends had gone years, sometimes decades, without answers, suspended in a repetitive cycle of pain and frustration.

With science and technological advances, we stood a better chance nowadays of getting answers on the evidence the officers had gathered at the time, so we reviewed them periodically.

Still, the witnesses for them had usually died, forgotten vital information, or they’d moved away, so you didn’t always get what you needed. Also, a lot of the evidence we’d collect nowadays hadn’t been gathered back then, so sometimes it was impossible to piece it all together.

The problem was, I was a determined and bullheaded son of a bitch who kept digging until he hit pay dirt. Until I got as far as I could, I wouldn’t be able to drop it and admit defeat.

Damn it, DB.

Maybe I could rewrite my will and leave him five bucks. I could add a note in saying, ‘You know why, you asshole.’

Seeing that everyone was inside the room, including our new mayor, Hurst Townsend, I closed the door behind me and took the last available seat.

“Sorry to spring this on you,” DB said. “We’ve got some updates that y’all need to know about, so we’re getting them out of the way.”

Standing up, Hurst walked over to a box. Anyone who worked at P.V.P.D. hated what those boxes meant—a uniform change.

Hearing our groans, Hurst smirked at us. “All will be revealed when I want to reveal it.”

“Mr. Mayor, we’ve only just gone through this,” Logan sighed. “My woman’s going to kill me if I come home with a new uniform.”

Hopping up to sit on the table next to it, Hurst looked over at us all.

“As you’ll all know, the previous mayor did jack shit that he was meant to do. Until now, we’ve had two people working on the emergency call lines for the town, and it’s causing problems.

“Well, because money was being plowed into things it shouldn’t have been, like some deep pockets, the old mayor’s office will be the new emergency dispatch center. Sheriff Bailey’s agreed to lend us two of Palmerstown’s to help train our recruits.”

“About fucking time,” Raoul muttered, sinking deeper into his chair.

“No arguments there,” Hurst agreed. “In addition to that, Palmerstown’s laboratory and crime techs will officially become P.T.P.D. and P.V.P.D. employees. They’re recruiting more to cover the increase in cases, and Piersville will be contributing financially towards anything required, including their wages.”

Holy shit. Now that was a shock.

“Whereas previously money was rerouted to some pockets and self-serving projects, all of it is going into the town now. With the assistance of some others, we’re updating things that need it, and that includes P.V.P.D. What y’all have been able to do with the resources you had is admirable, but it’s time we sorted this shit out.”

Looking around the room, Alejandro frowned. “Are we hiring more officers? We’re kind of stretched just now.”

I looked at DB to see if he had the answer to that, but he was staring blankly at Hurst, making it clear he respected the mayor and was giving him control of the meeting. It was hard not to respect the man, but I had even more for him now with everything he’d done in such a short space of time for the town.