Dangerous Kiss – Chapter Six, Part One

Jake had no clue how he’d ended up as the pizza delivery boy. He’d started off the afternoon as the valiant protector. Now he sat in the King Pizza parking lot waiting for a large pepperoni. The scent of warm grease did little to distract him from the redhead who had somehow submarined his free will. 

Claire said jump and he asked how high. And he liked it. Damn. The old man would be calling him six kinds of a wimp if he knew, but he couldn’t put off checking in with his father any longer.

“’Bout damn time you called.” The old man coughed. “Damn cigarettes. I quit two years ago, haven’t stopped hacking up a lung ever since.”

He nodded as if his father could see him. “If you quit, how come you have a pack in the freezer?”

“In case of emergencies.” The old man wheezed in a breath. “Enough with the pleasantries, what’s going on there?”

“Ran into a bit of a snag here.” Jake relayed the case developments to his father. “What the hell could be on that phone and flash drive?”

“This is crazier than a raccoon on meth.” The old man paused. “Let me do some digging on this end. In the meantime, you play it cool.”

“Will do.” He paused, chewed his thumbnail and spit it out the window. “You eat today?”

“Little of this. Little of that. You know chemo can’t kill my appetite.” 

Jake pictured the Francis Warrick of his youth. Tall. Strong. A Lucky Strike always dangling from his lip. Contrast that with the wisp of a figure he cut today. Damn. Cancer was a bitch. Lung cancer? The queen bitch.

“Glad to hear it.”

“Don’t need you to be glad. Need you to get this case in your rearview and get your ass back here. I can’t do it all, you know.”

“I know.” 

“Good. Now give Burlington a call. He wants a progress report.”

“Will do. Bye.”

“What, you’re too big to tell your old man you love him?”

“No, sir” Jake grinned into the phone. Dad had been all huff and puff as long as he could remember. “Love you, Dad.”

“Love you too.” A cough rang through the phone. “Now get your ass back to work.”

Jake hung up and flipped open the case file and found Burlington’s personal cell number. What the hell could he tell him? No parent wanted to hear their daughter’s killer spent his free time terrorizing other women. They had to be sick with grief. Jake wished he had better information to offer than he did. 

He’d worked with Burlington before, the guy was a pain in the neck, but no one deserved this. He pictured Burlington in his corner office. Short and skinny with Mick Jagger hair, the hedge fund manager thought of himself as a master of the universe. The fact he hadn’t saved his daughter must be agonizing.  

Burlington answered on the first ring. “Good to hear from you, Mr. Warrick. I hope you have good news I can share with my wife.” 

“No, sir. But the sheriff’s investigation is progressing.”

“And the phone? Have you recovered it?”

Jake’s trouble detector flared to life, raising goose bumps on his forearms. “No. Not yet.” 

“I understand that the woman who found poor Kendall is looking for the phone, too.”

His body stilled but his heart jacked up to a hundred miles an hour. “How do you know that?”

“It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I get that phone. Also, Kendall had a flash drive. I want them both.” 

Burlington’s superior tone and demands grated on Jake’s self-control. This wasn’t parental grief talking. “If I did find the phone and flash drive, I’d have to turn them over to the sheriff’s office.”

“Mr. Warrick,” Burlington’s voice turned icy. “You will do no such thing. The woman has what I want. She must. I do not care if you have to fuck her or frisk her to get them, but you will get them.”

Jake snorted with disgust. “I’m not one of your so-called bodyguards, Burlington, who take care of the less savory aspects of your personal life. I won’t break the law for you.”

“How about for your father?”

His gut collapsed in on itself. “Who the hell do you think you are?” 

“Who am I? I am the man who can guarantee your dying father lives long enough to see the company he built from scratch fall apart. Loans will be called in. Francis Warrick will be watching his business go belly up while hooked to a chemotherapy drip. Do you understand, Mr. Warrick?”

“You bastard.” Jake ground the words out.  

“Get me the phone and flash drive, or your father will face the consequences.” 

If Jake could reach through the phone, he would clamp his hands around Burlington’s privileged throat. “I’ll see you pay for this.” 

“I doubt it. I expect to hear from you soon, Mr. Warrick.” Burlington disconnected.

Jake glared at his phone. Impotent fury blazed through him, locking his muscles and sending his blood pressure sky high. 

The phone and flash drive had to be at Harvest, because they hadn’t appeared in Kendall’s dorm room, car or the Dumpster where Claire had found her. He’d talk Claire into searching again. Once they found them, he’d make the phone and flash drive disappear. She’d never have any idea it was him. He’d take the devices and hit the road. 

Kendall’s killer would still think Claire had the phone and flash drive. He’d come after her again.

The thought twisted Jake’s insides, but he couldn’t put the old man through Burlington’s version of hell. Anyway, Hank would take care of Claire and catch the killer. He was just a private investigator. Her brother had the entire county sheriff’s office behind him. She’d be fine. 

Jake had to pick, and family came first. He was making the right decision.

So why did he feel like shit?

He hurled his phone out the SUV’s open window. It shattered as soon as it hit the concrete parking lot. 

“Hey man, you okay?” A pimply teenage boy wearing a red and blue King Pizza uniform stood outside the passenger-side door.

“Yeah, fine.”

The boy gulped, his wide eyes aimed at the smashed phone. “Well, Benny said your pizza is ready. You can go in and get it if, uh, you’re, uh, ready.”

“Thanks.” Jake rolled up the windows and stepped down from the SUV.

He didn’t head to King Pizza. Instead, he dug his SIM card out of the pulverized mess in the parking lot and walked next door into the electronics store. A buy-one-get-one-free sign dominated the front window. 

A few minutes later, two new cellphones in hand, he picked up the pizza, ready to drive back to Claire’s. He slid the pizza box onto the passenger seat and tossed one of the phones into the glove compartment. The other phone sat charging beside him.

The twenty-minute drive went fast. Too fast. He spotted Claire’s house as soon as he turned off the highway. Painted a virginal white with dark-green shutters, the house stood alone on the vast prairie. Jake flinched at the idea of sullying it with his presence. 

“Damn.” He slammed his palm down on the steering wheel as he pulled into Claire’s driveway. “There’s no other choice.”

Onion trotted over to the SUV as soon as it stopped. Jake sat, frozen behind the wheel. Dread careened through his veins. It made his limbs heavy and created a dull ache in his chest. 

He grabbed the pizza box, its warmth stealing into his palm. Onion panted beside him as he walked up to the porch. Jake’s self-loathing grew with each step he took.  

“Fuck.” He couldn’t do it.    

There had to be another way. He’d find it, and Burlington would pay.

Did you miss part of Dangerous Kiss? Catch up here. xoxo, Avery

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