Bad Boy Mystery Boxed Set (6 in 1): Dark and Crazy Mystery and Billionaire Stories (BBW Cozy Mystery Bad Boy Billionaire Romantic Suspense Series)

by Oscar Watson

  “It must be all the money and confidence.” Perhaps he was too subtly flirty, or she pegged him as a man who knew what he wanted and always went after it, women falling into that category. And that was the type of man she had no interest in being with even if just for a holiday fling.

  She drained her glass once more and fought the urge to indulge in another refill. She set it down on the table and dropped down onto the uncomfortable wooden chair. “What a day. What a night.” Luke sat down across her. He still held his glass of Sangria firmly in hand. He turned to look at her. That was the first time she noticed it. “You’re looking at me.”

  He chuckled but did not turn away. “Do you blame me?”

  She playfully glared at him. “Not now, please. Too much. You’re always too much.”

  “Am I really?” He sounded taken aback. He finally set the glass down and leaned forward on the table. He was waiting for her answer.

  “No.” She reached out and tapped him on the shoulder. She scrunched up her nose. She laughed. She did everything possible to make him see it had been nothing but a joke until she saw his body visibly relax. “Time for bed, I think.” She stood up, and he nodded. He grabbed both his glass and hers and, without waiting for her, walked straight inside and down to the kitchen. When she caught up with him, he was already finishing up washing the glasses.

  “Thanks.” He smiled and leaned forward to give her a one-arm hugged. She reciprocated. Only it was not exactly the same hug he had given her. He had given her the casual hug of a man interested in a woman. She had given him the casual hug of a woman who only saw the man as a friend. She suspected he knew. She also suspected he would not be giving up anytime soon.

  She shut the front door. She shut the windows. She made sure everything was off and locked. She walked upstairs and threw open her balcony doors. She let the sheer curtains drape over the open frame. She watched them billow in the breeze. She climbed into bed and curled up on her side, just watching and watching the movement of the curtains. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Perhaps tomorrow would bring better luck.

  Chapter Three

  “WHAT?” It could not be true. The words that had just been spoken to her simply could not be true. She slid down the wall until she sat on the floor, burying her face in her hands. She could not even feel how cold the tile floor was against her bare skin. She did not notice the small crowd of people gathering on the other end of the walkway. All noise and details outside were lost on her. She could only focus on trying to make sense of this. It was simply impossible.

  “Impossible!” She stood up and marched to the police officer that had just spoken to her. He grimaced. “It’s impossible!” He scratched his head. She scoffed. He should have had some kind of training in giving a better response than that. She marched up and down the terraza fueled by utter disbelief. This simply could not be true.

  She walked to a woman wearing a jacket with the word ‘Coroner’ emblazoned on the back in the brilliant yellow thread. “Excuse me.” She tapped the woman’s shoulder and hung back, waiting for her to turn around.

  “Yes?” The woman’s eyes seemed to be adjusting on Annie’s face. Once they did, her expression changed noticeable. “Annie Walker?” Annie nodded. “Yes, Ms. Parker? What seems to be the problem?”

  Annie snorted and rolled her eyes. “You’re really asking what seems to be the problem? Look around! Think of why you’re here!” She motioned somewhat wildly with her arms at the surroundings. Was everyone on this team trained to be something of a moron?

  “I should have chosen my words more wisely. I apologize. What is the reason you approached me, Ms. Walker?”

  Annie gulped. “I need to hear it from you.” Her eyes pleaded with the woman to fulfill her request. Even if she heard the same words fall from the coroner’s lips, she doubted she would believe it anyway. But at least there was a chance this way. Not that she wanted to believe it. But Annie had never one for pretending unless she was writing it. And this was certainly not a scene from her novel.

  “Ms. Walker. I can see how affected you are by Mr. Russell’s death. I am very sorry for your loss.”

  “So he is…dead? Luke is really dead?” Before the coroner could answer the question, Annie wailed. She turned and held onto the retaining wall, wailing out onto the wind. Her cries of pain and disbelief traveled with the breeze and landed on the surface of the sea. Every noise of agony she made echoed everywhere. It was all so surreal, but the pain felt all too real.

  She crumpled down onto the floor, leaning back against the retaining wall she had countless times hung out on with Luke. And now she would never have the chance to do that again. It sounded like a joke. How could it be possible she would never hear him call her ‘señorita’ again? It surely could not be true he would not be there to take walks with her anymore, especially when she most needed them? Now who would be the first to know all about the adventures of her spirited navigator? She buried her face in her hands and let out an endless stream of tears.

  She had no idea how long she was out there before someone finally helped her up and escorted her back to her own condo. She did not even realize when she crawled onto the couch. But she was there for hours, alternating between lying awake and staring at the ceiling in shock or crying and crying. Eventually, her body gave out, and she drifted off into a much-needed sleep.

  It was nearly noon the following day when she finally woke up, still on the couch. The moment she opened her eyes, she sat up straight and gasped. It was as if she had just been woken up by someone dumping a bucket of cold water over her entire body. The moment she opened her eyes, she heard the words of the coroner run through her mind once again. And yet, it all still seemed so surreal. She could not wrap her mind around the fact she would step out onto the terraza and not see Luke anywhere. It was beyond her ability to grasp that she could go down to the mini-mart and not run into him balancing a bunch of items in his hands on the way back.

  None of this seemed real, but she knew it was because of the way she felt. She stared at her wall for several long minutes, just completely lost in her thoughts. Finally, after nearly forty minutes of this, she finally found enough physical strength to get up off the couch. But once she had stood up she had no idea what to do. She could hardly write under these circumstances. She had nowhere she wanted or needed to go. All she had was to sit at home and think about Luke, but that did not seem like the best idea.

  She soon found it was impossible not to think of Luke. Standing near her window and looking out at the sea also provided her a view of the terraza. She looked at the exact spot at which she had spent so much time with Luke. She saw the same view as when she would tell him about her main character or the novel as a whole. She saw the walkway along the condos they would take whenever they were heading out to the little town. Everywhere around her was a place she’d been with Luke. And every one of those places would never see him again.

  Even her own balcony was no longer safe. The place she’d found so much solace every time, the place that provided her so much inspiration, was now somewhere she did not even want to look at. She’d been out on the balcony with Luke, for the first time, just the night before his body had been found.

  She still did not know any of the details but doubted she wanted to be filled in with them. Knowing he was gone was already more than enough information. That knowledge was already more than she could handle. As she leaned against the wall and continued to stare out at the retaining wall she’d seen Luke sit on so many times, she slowly came to the realization she did not even know how he died. It could have been anything that took him and she just had no idea.

  She gave a jump. A knock on the door had startled her. She swallowed and placed her hand on her chest to steady her breathing before going over to open it up. As she pulled one of the glass double doors open slowly, she saw Ethan come into view. Her stomach turned into a knot, but she was not quite sure why. She did not know if she was glad to see him, if she
felt guilty, or if he was someone she did not want to see right now. Nothing made sense. “Ethan.” She pulled the door open wider and stood across him with a blank look on her face.

  “I wanted to check in on you.” He looked at her sympathetically. She was relieved to see he had nothing in his hands. She did not have the energy to react to flowers or whatever sorts of things people found appropriate to bring in these situations.

  “Oh.” She looked down at the tile beneath his feet. The slightly orange tinge to the brown made her think of the ridiculous photo Luke had once shown her when his tan had gone wrong. He never wanted to admit he’d given in to trying a spray tan to see what all the rage was about, but the evidence was in the picture.

  “It’s good to see you smiling.” She looked back up at Ethan. She reached up and touched her lips. They were curved into a slight smile that instantly disappeared. His face fell.

  “I just remembered something.” Even she realized how hollow her voice was. But this was not exactly the kind of situation she had ever expected to encounter. She doubted if anybody was ever prepared to experience something like this.

  “Oh. Listen, is there anything I can do for you? Anything I can get you?”

  She shook her head. “I appreciate it but no, thank you.” He looked disappointed, but he nodded. He reached out cautiously and placed his hand on her shoulder.

  “Anything changes, you let me know. I’m here for you.” She nodded and closed the door as soon as he withdrew his hand. She knew he was just trying to be nice and find a way to be helpful in a situation he could do nothing to remedy, but she did not want him around. Though she supposed that was not unique to him. At that moment, she really did not want anybody around – except Luke.

  Never could Annie have imagined staying locked up in her own condo for three days after Luke was found could be considered suspicious behavior. She had not even stopped to think about how others might perceive her actions. That was never a worry to her. But one morning there was a knock on her door and on her doorstep stood a person who would change her life.

  “Morning.” She looked at the man dressed in a suit. He had a stern expression on his face, and it was clear he was not there to deliver good news. Her stomach dropped. She figured this had to be about Luke and, quite frankly, she did not want to hear it.

  “Miss Annie Walker?” Annie nodded. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a badge. “I’m with the police department. We’d like you to come into the station for some questions regarding the murder of Luke Russell.”

  Annie choked on her spit and was thrown into a coughing fit. She doubled over, holding onto the doorframe for balance. “The… The murder?” she choked out. She had tears streaming out from the corners of her eyes and partly from her coughing fit and partly from the news she had just been given. This entire time she had no idea Luke had been murdered. She looked back up to see the man just looking at her, patience wearing thin. She wondered if being unhelpful and insensitive was a requirement to work for this police department.

  “Miss Walker, it’s important you come down to the station for questioning.”

  “For questioning? Can’t you give me a sec? I just found out my friend was murdered!”

  “Is that your official statement?”

  Annie just stared up at the man, completely dumbfounded. She had no idea what he was talking about or what he was getting at. Why would she need to make an official statement? She did not even know what was going on. That was when it all hit her. They wanted her for questioning. Her claim she did not know Luke was murdered had registered on the man’s radar. And, as she looked at him, she noticed he was looking at her like a suspect and not someone mourning the death of a friend.

  She straightened up and looked at him with very obvious disdain. “Am I a suspect?”

  “Miss Walker, it’s best if you just come down to the station.”

  She felt sick. The floor felt as if it were shifting beneath her and her stomach clenched up so tightly; she thought vomit could come up any second. She gripped the doorway with both hands and stumbled forward a bit, causing the man to take a couple steps back. Even then he did not bother to ask what was wrong with her. He just stood there, waiting. “Please excuse me for a moment.” It had taken nearly all her strength just to mutter that sentence.

  She walked to the bathroom downstairs and shut the door, dropping to her knees at once in front of the toilet. She retched. It felt as if everything she had eaten the past few days, which was not much, left her boy right then. She emptied everything inside her into the toilet bowl and made no move to quiet her loud retching. All of this was impossible. Luke could not be dead. Luke could not have been murdered. She could not be a suspect in this. How had everything wound up like this?

  After a few minutes, she rinsed out her mouth and cleaned up her face. She grabbed her purse and walked back to her door, still open with the man standing in front of it. She heard the lock of her front door click, and she turned to the man. As they walked, it seemed like a movie. She felt like a character in a movie being escorted to the police station to be placed under investigation. But how could she have killed him when she did not even know he was murdered?

  There was a knock on her door. She carefully peered through the curtains to see who it was. Out there, with the moonlight casting a strange glow on him, was Ethan. He looked anxious. Or perhaps she was deflecting. She pulled herself together and walked over to open the door.

  “Annie.” He looked at her with wide eyes. Now she was certain he looked anxious but she could not figure out why.

  “Come in.” She walked away from the door and sat down on the couch at once, facing away from her closed window. On nights like these with a gentle breeze at night, she always loved having everything opening. She preferred to be outdoors. But now it was all she could do to stay cooped up inside her condo. “They took me in for questioning a couple days ago. Now they ‘strongly advised’ me not to go anywhere far or do anything that might be deemed suspicious.”

  She sighed and leaned forward, burying her face in her hands. She had not particularly wanted to do much since Luke had been found dead. But there was a monumental difference between that and feeling like a prisoner in your own home. Not that this was home but, for the time being, it was what came the closest. Now the charm of relocating to San Sebastian permanently had completely vanished.

  “Do you know why they’ve made you a suspect?”

  Annie scoffed. “They have nothing else to go with.”

  “Not quite.” He cleared his throat and shifted his body, so he was turning toward her. “This is a small town. It has always been a place that has prided itself on being both beautiful and peaceful.”

  “And so I’m the odd one out.” She leaned back on the couch and balled up her fist. It was ridiculous. She had been visiting San Sebastian year after year. She was hardly a newbie to the place.

  “In essence, yes. Many people find it a bit coincidental this happened now you’re here. And it happened to someone you were seen with a lot.”

  Annie scoffed again. She stood up and walked to the bar to pour herself a glass of Sangria but opted for something stronger. She settled on an unopened bottle of scotch. She took a large gulp from her glass after having poured the cider colored liquid in it. “As if I came to San Sebastian to seduce and murder a man.” She drained the glass and slammed it back down on the counter. This was all beyond frustrating. Now she had to deal with this on top of mourning the loss of a friend.

  Ethan stood up and walked over to her, placing his hand on her upper arm. She looked at him. There was a look in his eyes she had not seen before. Her stomach clenched, not for the first time when she was with him. She still did not know what that was about. He started rubbing her arm gently with an up and down motion. Was he trying to be reassuring?

  “I’m sorry you have to go through this. I would have never wanted it.”

  Annie gulped. That felt like something of a charged thi
ng to tell her. Perhaps it was not the time. But she was so fed up with everything in her current reality that she just longed for an escape. She needed to step away and live freely for a moment. But she could only live freely within the confines of the condo where she was staying. She shifted slightly, so she leaned in more to his touch.

  A smile flickered at the corners of his lips. “You don’t deserve this. It’s preposterous for them to think you had anything to do with this.” He took a step forward and placed his other hand on her arm. He looked at her meaningfully before pulling her into a tight hug. He ran his hands in circles on her upper back, in an attempt to comfort her.

  “I don’t want to talk about this.” She wanted to not think about any of it for at least one minute. That would be the most exquisite and welcome one-minute break of her life. At least, that was how she felt right then. She pulled back slightly and searched Ethan’s eyes. She wanted to find in there just how much he cared about her. He barely knew her. But, perhaps, that did not always matter.

  “Okay. So let me distract you.” She held her breath. What did he mean by that? She exhaled. She decided she did not care. Any distraction was a welcome one. He pulled her into another hug. He ran one of his hands straight down until it was resting on her lower back. He was pressing her body into his.

  She was not sure what was happening but, somehow, they were kissing. One of his hands had moved to run through her hair and hold her as they kissed. Her body kept moving in to press against his more and more. The air around them grew warm. It was intoxicating. It was the kind of sweet escape she needed. He ran his hand from her lower back up her side until it was resting just off to the side of her chest. She moaned a little into his mouth before jerking her head back suddenly.

  “What is this?” She looked at him in confusion.