Page 13 of H E R

My answer is automatic. “No.” And like he didn’t expect that to be my response, Dylan leans his weight on one leg and frowns.Fuck. He’s even sexier when he seems vulnerable.

I look behind him and around, my skeptical neighbors watching us closely. It’s obvious, even out of his uniform, that he’s a cop. Damn it, if people around here begin to think I’m cooperating with law enforcement, I’m dead! It’s an unspoken oath of mine—I share my information with the people and the people alone. My credibility would be shot. Cops never help us, so why help them?

“Listen, I just want to help you. I understand you don’t trust me. Are your parents around? Perhaps I can speak with them instead, and seeing as to how you’re a minor—”

I cut him off right there. Any attraction is sliced off by the blade of his ignorance. “Youobviouslyhaven’t done your research. Have your partner tell you all about Case 97-081E. And don’t youevercome knocking at my door so damn early in the fucking morning again.”

I slam the door in his face and crawl back to the bed.

Or at least I think I do because when I finally wake up, I’m on the floor andstilla few feet from the bed. Jule is home from work and the smell of the strongest coffee hits me like a train.

Jule chuckles under his breath. “Hi, Nik.”

I roll to face the ceiling of our two-hundred-twenty square footage living quarters. I’m not an expert in measurements, but if I were to lie down with my hands raised above my head and my feet touching the wall, my hands would need to only reach a few more inches in order to graze the wall. That’s how big it is in width. Regardless of its size, it’s home.

I bend my knees, plant my feet on the ground, and stare at the ceiling until another scent reaches me. “Where did you get bacon?”

“Noah sent it over.” He chews a mouthful of a thin, crispy strip.

“It’ssogood, Justice, seriously. You’ve got to try it.” Jasmin sits in the tiny bed with a plate filled with bacon and a steamy mug between her knees.

My mouth waters. I hadn’t had bacon since my parents cooked in this kitchen. Jule tosses me a strip and smiles, reading my mind. When I sit up, he extends an arm, a mug in hand. “Black, just how you like it.”

“The bacon or the coffee?”

“Both,” he laughs.

I take a bite at the same time I reach for my coffee and sigh, a warm buzz in my belly that reminds me of home takes over. Well, it’s more like a moan. I sit on the floor, with my back to whatever wall holds me there, and travel to a much simpler time. A time when working like a slave through the night until five in the morning wasn’t on my agenda. I close my eyes while I chew and sip. I wanted to go to college, be a journalist. I had dreams.

It’s all I can do to hold on to the past until Jasmin brings me back. “Hey, didn’t that cute cop come by earlier, or was I dreaming?”

I groan. Dylan isn’t cute, he’s fucking hot.

“Ugh, I sent him off.Whoin their right mind would wake me up?”

Even my roommates, who are my family, know better than to wake me. Hell, even if I was on the ground they wouldn’t, hence them savoring breakfast while I snored on the floor.

Jule leans toward me. “A cop?”

I nod, unable to respond. I’d stuffed like three hot and crispy slices of bacon into my mouth.

Jasmin speaks for me. “I didn’t hear much, since I was really more asleep than awake, but he said he wanted to help. Then I think he asked to speak to your parents and Justice slammed the door in his face.”

“Now that’s my Nikoletta!” Jule chortles.

I shake my head, still unable to understand why Dylan insists on playing the role of ‘good cop’. It doesn’t suit him. He looks more like a well-groomed biker about to bash someone’s head in with a crowbar. Besides, he gives off this eagerness to be part of something and acts like wearing a badge is an honor. It doesn’t suit him.

I can’t stand the thought of a cop near my home after all they haven’t done for us. He wanted to help? Help with what? And that reminded me, how had he known I was there that night? I doubted that someone would actually fully cooperate regardless of recognizing me in that terrible storm. Did this mean Piper spoke about me?

“Justice, are you alright?” The concern in Jasmin’s voice unfreezes me.

I blink and set my coffee on the ground beside me. “I was just wondering how that cop heard I had a gun, how he found out where I lived,andwhy he’s pretending to care so much.”

Jule straightens. “We gonna go talk to those two girls now?”

I nod. “I think we should.”

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