Fatal Attraction (Love Kills Duet #2)

13. Thirteen

Thirteen

Phoenix

“ D o we really have to do this?” Spike asked first thing when I parked and shut off the car.

“Get out of the fucking car, Spike.”

“ Please don’t make me ,” he begged, his green eyes wide and pleading. “You know I can’t stand him.”

“Felix is harmless.”

“ Harmless? ” Cold-blooded murder flashed through his narrow eyes. “He’s been trying to peg me for months , Phoenix. You know that.”

“And I bet he jizzes his pants by looking at that handsome face every time you visit,” I couldn’t help but tease, which earned me another death glare. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. He likes you, Spike. Get the fuck over it already. He knows you aren’t interested, so just at least let the man fantasize a little.”

“If he touches me,” Spike warned in a venomous whisper, his eyes flashing. “I’m breaking his wrists. Both of them.”

“And then we’ll have another lawsuit on our hands. Tell me, is that what you really want to happen at a time like this?”

Spike leaned back in his seat, angry pouting like a child with his arms crossed tightly against his chest. “No,” he grumbled. “It’s not.”

“What the hell is your deal, anyway? Why are you so homophobic?”

“I’m not homophobic,” he said a bit thickly, sounding pissed like I’d utterly insulted him. “It’s just…”

“What?” I asked, quirking a brow at him. “What is it? ”

“I kind of…” he started, sinking lower in his seat and bringing his hands up to hide his face. “I got plastered one night and accidentally made out with Felix.”

My mouth dropped wider than a tunnel. “You…you WHAT?”

“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT,” he screeched, launching up to deck the fuck out of my shoulder when I’d burst out laughing so hard, there were tears streaming down my cheeks.

“How the fuck did you ‘accidentally’ make out with Felix? When did this happen?” I finished wiping my face and blinked, finding Spike sitting up now, his face beet red as he scrutinized me.

Tell me, tell me, tell me!

“It was about eight months ago, before I’d convinced you to start coming with me. There was some special LGBTQ thing going on where the men were supposed to dress like women and the women were to dress like men.”

I pinched my lips tighter, my face swelling.

“I didn’t get the memo, so I showed up as myself. Let’s just say after about three beers and ten shots of tequila, between the masks, I couldn’t tell the difference between man or woman. We made out for a while, and it wasn’t until I was getting sucked off when I grabbed a bundle of blonde hair, and his wig came off. We were both shocked. I stood there absolutely horrified for about ten seconds before I recognized the duck mask and realized it was Felix.”

Now it made sense, why Spike was so leery around Felix all the damn time. I honestly believed Spike was a homophobe given how he’d react any time Felix or any male made googily eyes at him in the club. But this…

This was GOLD.

Absolutely, one hundred percent, authentic GOLD.

I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I chortled so fucking hard I snorted.

“If you repeat this to anyone ,” he growled, the threat laced in his tone. “I. Will. Butcher. You. ”

I sucked my lips in and marked a fake X across my chest, struggling not to grin as another hot tear slid down my cheek. Spike rolled his eyes and with an annoyed huff, departed the car and slammed his door shut. Once I got myself together and retrieved the folder I’d shoved inside my glove compartment, getting the last of the chuckles out before I got out of the car, Spike met my watery eyes and just to further make his point, brought his thumb up and dragged it across his throat.

Felix came storming out of the entrance then, offering us his famous, uncheerful smirk, hands pressed tensely against his hips. He had on his favorite rainbow crocs, a pair of dark skinny jeans, and a rainbow T-shirt to match the crocs.

It was all I could do to hold in my laughter.

“Come on, Detectives,” he groused, lazily throwing up a hand before he turned toward the door. “We can talk while I stock.”

It wasn’t until Felix disappeared inside the building that Spike moved, ambling behind me. As I walked in, holding the door for Spike, Felix was nowhere in sight. As we stepped through the threshold leading to the lounge, we found him behind the bar, removing unopened liquor bottles from a large cardboard box. He took one look at Spike and then stopped working long enough to fetch a glass and a random bottle.

“Here,” he tiffed, pouring the drink and swiftly sliding it across the counter.

I blinked, impressed not a single drop had spilled over.

“You look like you could use it.”

Spike, to my utmost surprise, wasted no time snatching the glass up and chugging it back. He sank down on a barstool, refusing to say thanks or much less meet Felix’s longing gaze. Felix snapped out of it once he caught me staring, brows raised with a knowing grin, and grabbed another glass. He filled it halfway and then handed it to me.

“Just take the damn thing,” he sneered at my protest.

Geez .

Someone obviously woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

I reluctantly drank the booze, just to sigh my disapproval when Felix poured more in Spike’s glass and discarded the rest of it in mine. “Something bothering you, Felix?”

“You could say so,” he muttered, his lip curling as he looked away to grab a bottle and put it away where it belonged.

“What’s going on?”

“Business has been shitty thanks to Amber’s husband, Daniel. He showed up here about a week ago, got drunk, and told anyone who cared enough to listen about how he and Amber were drugged here and well—you know the rest.”

I winced slightly, as did Spike, who then shrugged it off and finished the last of his drink. “That bad, huh?”

“Customers are canceling their memberships and there are others who’ve begun to accuse my staff of spiking their drinks. You two should know me well enough by now to know I don’t condone drugs in my establishment. Especially not after what happened to my twin sister. So, yeah, it’s pretty fucking bad.”

“I didn’t know you had a twin,” I replied, and Felix nodded, looking away in a failed attempt to hide the tears dotting over his eyes.

“Her name was Fiona. Fiona McMann. She died almost a year ago from a drug overdose.” Felix grabbed a random bottle and took a giant swig from it, cringing as he swallowed. “Enough with that though. I assume there’s a reason you’re here, so let’s just get on with it.”

“We need you to look at some photos,” said Spike, who nudged his head at me. “Correction— he needs you to look at some photos.”

“I think I may know who’s behind these attacks.” Opening the folder, I lifted up Karl’s picture first. “Do you recognize this man?”

Felix glanced at the photo, shaking his head after a moment. “Sorry, no, I don’t. ”

“His name is Karl Greene. He’s being framed for Amber and Delilah’s rapes.”

“Framed?” Felix reiterated, his brows furrowing. “Framed by who?”

“By this man,” I said, sounding confident as I grabbed Peter’s photo, watching as Felix took it and thoroughly scanned it over, his lips parted. Spike rolled his eyes, still under the impression I was wasting my time.

And hell, maybe I was.

But I refused to rule Peter out until I got the phone call from Kendall, which I hoped would be soon. She promised she’d check into it after she was done pilfering through his financials.

“His name is Peter Welch. He—”

“I know who he is,” said Felix, who blinked down at the picture again, his face stamped with shock. “He’s the lawyer who helped put the son of a bitch responsible for my sister’s overdose behind bars. He works with Gibbs and Hammett in Narcotics.”

Spike and I shared a look.

That, most definitely, was not a coincidence.

“Narcotics, you say?” Spike asked, fishing out his pad so he could jot the details down.

“Yeah. Fiona used to be a CI for Gibbs and Hammett. She’d gotten involved with this thug who calls himself Rio. Not long after they started dating, he’d gotten her hooked on some nasty drugs, and then had her out in the streets, selling them. She got busted with a hefty load and in exchange for not locking her up, she agreed to be their CI. Two months later, I found her in her apartment with a needle sticking out of her arm. There was nothing I could do. Peter showed up with Gibbs and Hammett after I reported her death.”

“Is Peter a member of the club?” I asked.

Much to my dismay, Felix shook his head. “What has you so certain he hurt those girls?”

“I’m sorry, Felix. You know we can’t disclose that information. ”

“Bullshit,” he scoffed, pinning me with a nasty glare. “We’re talking about the same man who helped get justice for Fiona’s death. You can’t just come in here, drop this bomb on me, and then expect me not to demand an explanation. My business is suffering because of this shit. I deserve to know.”

I sighed, facing Spike for his input.

“Harley will probably put him on the stand when Karl goes on trial.”

“Exactly,” Felix stated firmly, giving us both pleading looks. “You think I haven’t already considered this shit ahead of time? I’m not dumb, Detectives. I need to know what the hell is going on, that way I’m not hit with more surprises down the road.”

It fell silent as I weighed my options, not liking the odds the longer I pondered it. I hadn’t expected Felix to have a personal connection with Peter, and the fact he’d helped Felix get justice for Fiona’s death could possibly compel Felix to warn Peter about my suspicions—assuming they were still in contact with each other—if we didn’t tell him. Hell, he could still warn Peter either way.

Fuck this was not good.

“Okay,” I said after a moment, raising a stiff, stern finger at Felix when his face broke out in a relieved smile. “We’ll tell you everything we know. But you cannot, under any circumstances, repeat this to anyone, not even Peter. You’re sworn to secrecy, Felix. I don’t like threatening people, but I swear to fucking God if you fuck us over—”

“Then you’re dead,” Spike said simply, offering Felix a grin that had him cowering a few steps back, swallowing hard as he gaped fearfully between us. “We’ll put a bullet in your head faster than you can blink. Understood?”

“Ye-yes.” Felix frantically bobbed his head. “Understood.”