Page 29 of Necessary Evil

Chapter 7

Lucy was late getting to the office again—not the first time this week. She hadn’t been sleeping well, but she refused to blame Evan’s not calling her as the reason she’d stared at the ceiling and tossed and turned in a frustration that couldn’t be appeased. And she’d really tried to appease it. She was going to need more AA batteries.

“Good morning, Lucy,” Jenny said, adjusting her scarf as she shot to her feet. If Jenny hadn’t called attention to it with her jerky movements, Lucy probably wouldn’t have noticed the massive hickey she was sporting. “You just missed your brother.”

Who better not have been the one to give you that hickey.

“Again?” Lucy took the mail Jenny offered her and looked through it as she walked into her office.

Bobby had shown up every day this week. He’d spent a half hour flirting with Jenny and another half hour trying to get Lucy to give him some money or take him out to lunch. Yesterday she’d broken down and given him a hundred dollars just to leave her alone.

“Yeah, he said to tell you that he’s working all next week—a temp job doing data entry.”

“Wow.” Lucy blinked in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to get his shit together so fast. Maybe he had spent the money she’d given him on new clothes to interview in.

After she got settled at her desk, she gave him a call. “I’m proud of you,” she said when Bobby came on the phone.

“Yeah, well, it’s not a permanent position. But it’s something. Anyway, I didn’t want you to wonder where I was Monday when I didn’t show up for coffee at your office.”

“You never know. It might turn into something long-term.”

“Maybe,” Bobby said. “So do you and Jenny want to come over tonight? Grab a couple of pizzas and beer and celebrate?”

“I can’t tonight. I actually have a date.” With Internal Affairs detective Travis Munson. After things had heated up between her and Evan last week, Lucy had been prepared to cancel. But since Evan obviously didn’t want to pick up where they’d left off, fuck him. Or not fuck him, as the case might be. She sighed. She really wanted to fuck him, though. Tossing the pen on her desk, she wondered why he hadn’t called her.

“Have fun. I’ll touch base with you next week and let you know how it went.”

“Good luck.” She hung up the phone and started in on her morning phone conferences. Lucy tried to get Chloe’s lawyer, Lenny Meyers, on the phone yet again. But no matter what time she called all this week, no one ever picked up in his office. She figured she’d have to take a ride down there, but so far this week she had been too busy. Not to mention that Evan had wanted to go with her.

Lucy wondered if she’d messed up somehow that night in his sister’s garage. Had she been too easy? Not easy enough? Should she have gone back to his apartment above the bar and waited for him? Why the hell hadn’t he called her? Checking her phone, she scrolled through and didn’t see Evan’s number.

She could only think that he’d changed his mind about getting involved with her. But why kiss her into a lustful frenzy—again—and then leave her hanging? She swore to God she was going to get even with him. If he thought this was a game to string along the pathetic public defender, he was going to find out that she played hardball.

Lucy’s lips curved into a smile. Hardball. Hmmm.

It had been his idea for her to take on Chloe’s case. She could find a way to keep bringing them together. Maybe she’d tease the hell out of him and then be the one to walk away? Let him get caught in his own trap?

Lucy was grateful for the knock on her door that interrupted these unproductive thoughts.

“Hey, you don’t mind if I go over to your brother’s place tonight to watch Netflix and chill, right?”

“No, go ahead. Have fun.”

Jenny let out a sigh of relief. “Cool. Thanks.”

It wasn’t until after lunch that Lucy remembered that “Netflix and chill” was the modern day’s version of “Come up and see my etchings.” Oh, yuck. Her paralegal and her brother. Well, it couldn’t be any worse than walking in on Jenny and Sentinel doing the wild thing.

Mental note: stock up on brain bleach.

A part of her wanted to warn Jenny off Bobby. He wasn’t a relationship type of guy and was the biggest horndog on the planet. But another part of her realized that it was none of her business and that Jenny was an adult capable of making her own decisions and mistakes. It wasn’t as if Lucy had a leg to stand on in the healthy-relationship department anyway. She was lusting after an ex-cop turned bar owner who ran hot and cold like the shower at the YMCA.

The rest of the afternoon dragged, and Lucy was having a hard time keeping her mind on her casework. She was relieved she had an excuse to duck out early and get all prettied up for her date. Lucy decided on a simple red sheath dress and hoped she wouldn’t get any wine or spaghetti sauce stains on the silk. A pair of strappy red heels and her ruby earrings and teardrop necklace completed her ensemble of the lady in red.

“Evan Villiers, eat your heart out,” she said to her reflection, and then immediately regretted it. She shouldn’t be thinking of him at all. “You are going to have a nice date with a respectable, polite, professional man.” Lucy hoped she wouldn’t be bored to tears.

When she got to the restaurant, she was pleased to see that Travis was already at the table and had ordered a dry red wine that was breathing in a decanter on the table. So what if she’d been really looking forward to a crisp prosecco? This was his cousin’s place; maybe his cousin had recommended the wine.

“You look lovely,” he said, getting up and helping her into her seat. He brushed a kiss over her cheekbone, and it affected her as much as if it had been her brother greeting her.