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"Look, I don’t know about you, but going to jail for a crime I didn’t commit is really not onto head out"

"And do what? Hide out? Oh, no you’re not I’ll tell thelared at me and cocked his head "You were here, too" I blinked, realizing for the first time that I had just spent the last twenty minutes tied up and trapped in a closet by and with a possibleto pick up the slightest twitch in Pike’s eyes--so that said he was guilty

"What? You trying to read my mind?"

"That would be a short story"

"Why would I kill Eirlfriend"

Pike opened the door "She wasn’t irlfriend and I hardly ever saw her"

"Maybe that cop was right and you killed Reginald, too For Eirlfriend, but she scorned you--although I can’t see Ears-can’t-be-choosers thing, but whatever That’s it, huh? You loved her It was one of those ‘if-I-can’t-have-her-then-nobody-can’ things, huh?" I bit my lip "No, that’s preposterous Euilt touched the back of hed "But she didn’t deserve to be shish-kabobed by a pair of designer shears"

A syo hoo anywhere alone"

I frowned "What are you going to do?"

Pike sighed, his chest rising o track a killer"

The air in the roorees once Pike slipped out I stood in E to the silence for a full minute before I took off like a shot down the hall, nearly pu Pike in the apartment vestibule

"You can’t hunt down a killer," I said,breathless and desperate "You can’t do it alone You need backup"

Pike paused, listening, and I moistened my suddenly dry lips "You need me"

A hint of exhausted smile pushed at the corner of Pike’s lips "And you’re credible backup?"

I pressedthe fas "You’d be surprised," I e would be followed by a e of Pike and reasy takeout boxes of congealing Chinese food The e of seasons, the stubble growing on Pike’s chin as we grew more and more disillusioned But this isn’t a movie

"Hoe start?" I said after what seemed like an hour had passed

Pike rested a hand on my shoulder, his eyes intense as he looked directly at me "I o anywhere alone" He spoke slowly, like a father explaining dating rules to his daughter and though I should have been offended and indignant, all I couldthe bottoo, I kneith every fiber of rittier, dirtier, and far erous than even he expected

"Do you want to knohy I couldn’t feel the fire?" I said to the back of his head

He stopped, his hand on the door, back still toward me I sed heavily when I saw his hand close over the door handle, theas he went to push it open

"Do you want to knohy you can’t take htened and he turned to ue dart out of hishis lips "Why?"

I took a step down, unsure of how--or why--I had bartered est secret to find the murderer of a woman I couldn’t stand and a man I barely knew

"Upstairs"

Vlad actually looked up from his laptop when Pike walked in I felt my eyebrows rise and a sarmth spread in my stomach when Vlad’s dark brows shot doard, his thin lips pulled into ascowl as his eyes flickered over Pike

Aw, Vlad He cared

"I’ from Vlad to me "I didn’t realize you had company"

"He’s not company, he’s my nephew" I crossed over to Vlad "Vlad, this is ht on the word--"Pike Pike, arded each other casually, critically, before offering each other one of those barely perceptible manly head nods

Vlad went back to his screen and Pike followeddown besidereveal?"