Read Online Confess (The Blue Line Series Book 1) by Reagan Phillips - Free Book Online Page A

neatly on his nightstand. Somehow, that one detail irked him the most. She’d taken the time to fold his clothes. The only thought that managed to snuff out the anger was the image of Lacy curled up in her own bed still wearing his boxers and reliving last night in her dreams.
    He’d always been the one to sneak his arm out from under a slumbering fling and exit stage left with an empty promise to call.
    Lacy hadn’t even felt the need for the guilt-induced promise.
    He’d never been on the receiving end of the dismissive treatment. It left him hollow.
    Maybe he shouldn’t have made her beg. Dominant personalities didn’t like to give up control. Maybe he’d been too forceful with her. Come on too strong for strangers.
    The thought made his guts twist tighter. She’d been so unyielding. So challenging. He’d let her get under his skin in a way he didn’t normally let women get to him. The more she held him off, the deeper he wanted to sink into her.
    In their last moments together, with her wrapped in his protection and the gentle sounds of her breathing in his ear, he could have easily lost himself. He could have forgotten about the sick son of a bitch hunting young girls like wild game for sport near Rebel. But he had to stay focused. Lacy could be next, just as easily as any other young, attractive woman wondering the streets alone in the dark.
    The thought unnerved him, the only reason he risked exposing himself to the chief by asking the secretary for access to the older case files.
    “Kilpatrick.” Deluna stood over his desk, coffee in hand, sarcastic grin glowing over the rim. “You didn’t waste time pissing off the old man, did you?”
    “I’m not in the mood.” Mitch scowled at the young officer, not sure if the comment was directed at his night at the bar and later Lacy, or the pile of files scattered across the borrowed desk.
    Deluna barked a dry laugh. “Well, you better get in the mood. The chief’s looking for you, and I don’t think it’s for a personal invite to the shin-dig at his house tonight.” Deluna nodded to the wooden door set into a wall beyond a row of desks. His gaze slid back to Mitch. “If I’d known you didn’t have jurisdiction in Rebel—”
    “You were too drunk to know the difference. You would have run your trap even if I’d told you I was Richard Wray, live and in person.” That comment seemed to shut the rookie up.
    “Either way, the chief’s hot, and I’d place bets it has more to do with the case than his daughter doing the walk of shame with a massive case of beard burn up her neck.” He sipped his coffee. “Small town. People talk. New guys tend to get the works from the gossip mill.”
    “They can all go to hell,” Mitch bit out. “A girl’s dead, and the most important news in town is the chief’s daughter’s extracurricular activities?”
    “That and the chief’s birthday party for his son. He’s invited the town. The whole town, which, at the moment, includes you.” Deluna winked.
    Mitch rolled his eyes up from the files. “If you have a point, I suggest you make it.”
    “Maybe I was wrong about you. I got the feeling last night you were fishing for information about the Wray cases. An invite to a party with the whole town drunk off their asses by nightfall would be easy pickings for Intel. I guess I pegged your motives wrong.”
    Deluna sauntered off, the look of amusement on his face giving away the fact he’d spent time on the wrong side of the chief and was more than willing to let someone else handle this shit-storm.
    But the party comment hadn’t gone unnoticed. For his age and lack of experience, Deluna had a level head on his shoulders.
    Mitch groaned and stood. He walked across the open room of desks in perfect lines, knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for a response. “Chief.”
    “Sit,” the older man instructed from behind an open case file. His graying hair and sunbaked skin made him look far older than