Burning Hearts

by Marci Bolden

  Of course she’d walk in right then. At Josh’s worst possible moment. But he supposed it could be worse; at least his face was still in one piece.

  Shane jerked Josh. “We’re just playing. Ain’t we, boy?”

  “Fuck off,” Josh squeezed out.

  “Get your hands off him.” Eva’s cold voice echoed around the gym.

  “Sure thing,” Shane said as his taunting smirk mocked Josh. “For a kiss.”

  Josh tensed and swung his fists. Shane didn’t seem to feel the impact.

  “Come get it,” Eva said in that deep, sexy tone she used in the bedroom.

  Hearing that now infuriated Josh even more. That was the voice she saved for him. He didn’t think for a moment that she was going to let Shane Tremant kiss her, but damn it, she shouldn’t let someone else hear that tone.

  Even so, Josh took some joy in knowing she was going to make Shane rue the day he’d decided manipulating women for sex was okay.

  He let go of Josh’s shirt and ruffled his hair. “Might want to take notes, peewee. I’m about to give your girl what she’s been missing.”

  Josh sneered. “Or maybe she’ll give you what you’ve been deserving.”

  The challenge, though he couldn’t possibly understand it, clearly thrilled Shane. He shoved Josh away and took four big strides to stop in front of Eva. He was taking his last step when she made her move. Shane had at least a foot on Eva, and one thing she’d taught Josh was to bring the attacker to his level. She did that by sideswiping Shane’s knee with the inside of her foot. He stumbled, and she had her arms around his neck, squeezing him in a headlock that made him swing his arms. Moving behind him to avoid his punches, she tightened her hold until Shane gagged. Then he dropped to his knees. Seconds later, he passed out and fell limp to the floor.

  Untangling herself, she stood upright and frowned at Josh. “What have I told you about roughhousing?”

  He barely heard her question. “What happened to your face?”

  She touched her wound. “Brenda Price is a bit of a hellcat. And you?”

  He winced at the pain in his side. “He said things about you I didn’t like.”

  “What things?”

  “Things that a boyfriend should defend.”

  “Aw, Joshie.” She closed the distance between them. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No,” he lied. His ribs were probably cracked. Breathing was almost as painful as moving. He looked at the scratch on her face. “I should clean that.”

  “Later. I’m more concerned about you.” She tilted her head and gave him sad eyes. “Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”

  “Well, maybe a little.”

  “Baby,” she cooed. Sliding her hands up his arms, she kissed him lightly. “You sure are taking a lot of damage this week.”

  He rested his palms on her hips, soaking up her sympathy. Eva didn’t pamper him often, but when she did, it usually led to really good things. Even if his ribs hurt and his face was still bruised, the pain was worth what he anticipated the payoff in the bedroom would be. “Just doing my part to help you.”

  “I appreciate it more than you know.” She pressed her lips to his again but pulled back when Shane coughed. She turned from Josh as the man at their feet got onto his knees and rubbed his neck.

  He looked up, narrowing his eyes at her. “Who are you?”

  “Joshua’s girlfriend.”

  “You a cop?”

  “No.”

  He rubbed his neck where she’d choked him. “Fed?”

  “No.”

  Turning his neck, he popped his joints. Joshua fought the urge to tell him that doing so too frequently could lead to perpetual instability which, in turn, increased his risk of developing osteoarthritis.

  Rolling his head back, Shane eyed Eva again but jerked his chin toward Josh. “He said you have some kind of evidence on me.”

  Josh held his breath. Oh. Shit. He did say that. And he would have told her about it. Eventually.

  Eva said, “You must have misunderstood.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Stay down,” Eva warned when he started to stand.

  He chuckled. “Spoken like a pig.” Shane stood, wavered a bit as his blood started cycling properly, and then looked between them. “I don’t care who you are. You don’t have anything on me because I haven’t done anything. Stay the fuck away from me.”

  He left the gym, and Eva turned on her heels, her jaw set as she stared at Josh. He lifted his hands, but before he could defend himself, she leaned in.

  “What did you say?”

  “I-I don’t remember exactly.”

  “Then summarize.”

  “He, uh, he made comments about…sleeping with you, and I-I lost it, Eva.”

  She didn’t look impressed by his excuse. “What did you tell him, Joshua?”

  “I said you knew what he was about, and he made you sick. And…”

  “And?”

  He winced at his own stupidity. “And that…you’re this close to busting him.”

  “Fuck,” she spat. Stepping away from him, she ran her hand over her head before glaring at him. “You’re an idiot, Joshua!”

  “Eva.”

  “You could have just blown everything I’ve been working on.”

  He tried to apologize, but she stormed out, leaving him standing there, knee deep in a shitstorm of his own making.

  15

  Eva had to walk away from Josh before she killed him. His misstep with Tremant proved the point she’d been trying to make all along. He wasn’t a PI, and he didn’t have any business being so involved in her case. He damned well better not have just ruined all the strides she’d made in nailing down the voyeur.

  In the locker room, she grabbed her keys and phone from her locker and slammed the door open, part of her hoping Josh was standing on the other side so she could bash his face again.

  She crossed the lobby in a few long strides and pressed the button to the elevator. Thankfully she didn’t have to wait long for the doors to slide open. She started to step in and nearly ran into Cody. Eva was sure she heard the girl mutter something about Eva being a stupid bitch as she passed, but Eva didn’t have the energy to give a shit about the moody teenager.

  She was over this case. Over these people. Over the bedroom-hopping and the significant-other-stealing ways of this condominium. She wanted to be done with everything that seemed to be going on in this building so she could put some damned space between her and Josh.

  That would be easier said than done. She shouldn’t have slept with him. She never should have slept with him, but she definitely shouldn’t have gone back there. How many more ways did he need to prove they were not compatible? How many more ways did she need to see that they did not work well together before she stopped trying to imagine them having some great life that would never come to be?

  Unlocking the door to her condo, she immediately sensed something was off. Her Spidey sense, as Alexa called it, went into high alert. Instead of slamming the door as she had intended, she eased it shut with barely a click. Since the condo was an open-concept layout, she could see the majority of the space was empty. That left the bedroom—where her gun was locked in a safe in the nightstand—and the bathroom as the two likely hiding places.

  The door behind her opened, and she spun, hands raised, ready to defend herself. Josh walked in. She put her finger to her lips, hushing him before he could speak. He opened his mouth, and she was tempted to slap him, but a noise from the bedroom drew her attention. Josh was all but forgotten as she started toward the back of the condo.

  She was closing in on the doorway when a tall, thin blonde backed out.

  “Sam,” Eva reprimanded.

  The woman squealed as she spun around, hand to her chest and eyes wide. “Shit, Eva. You scared me.”

  “You’re lucky I didn’t do worse. What are you doing?”

  “You weren’t answering my calls, and when I got here, the door was open.
I was worried.”

  “The door was open?” Eva clarified.

  “Yeah. I was afraid something had happened to you.”

  Eva glanced at Josh. He didn’t have to speak. She knew they’d closed the door on the way downstairs. “Did it look like anything was disturbed?”

  “No.”

  Even so, Eva stuck her head in the bedroom and bathroom, and skimmed the kitchen. Then she noticed Josh’s laptop. The numerous blocks, the ones that had been constantly streaming the hallways, were black. “What the hell? Josh, what’s wrong with the cameras?”

  He dropped onto the sofa and started clicking and typing and switching screens. “They’re not connected to the Wi-Fi.” He looked up at her. “I think someone turned them off.”

  “Can you review the footage?”

  He selected the camera that Eva had placed in the hallway on their floor and backed up the footage until a figure appeared, searched through the fake tree where the camera was planted, and snagged the camera. This time, however, it wasn’t a petite female. This time the offender didn’t hide his face. This time it was clearly Neal Price.

  “What the hell?” Eva demanded. “Go back to see who opened our door.”

  They watched as Neal walked down the hallway, pounded on Eva and Josh’s door several times, and then dug a set of keys from his pocket.

  “Son of a bitch,” Eva muttered.

  Neal let himself in and few moments later practically ran out and started scouring through the tree.

  “I didn’t even notice the laptop was still on,” Josh said. “I’m sorry, Eva.”

  She shook her head. She didn’t even know what to say. “This case is blown. The only chance we have now is convincing Brenda to talk, and good luck getting her to turn on her lover.”

  “Wait,” Sam called when she turned to go confront the man who’d hired her. “I’d been trying to reach you because I traced the credit card associated with the Dark Web account that uploaded the videos with the Tremants.”

  “Shane?” Eva asked.

  Sam shook her head. “Neal Price.”

  Eva creased her brow and took a breath. “What the hell is going on around here? I’m going to get some damn answers.”

  “Eva?” Sam said. “Maybe change?”

  Looking down at her bralette and short shorts, she nodded. “Did you scan for cameras?”

  “No.”

  Instead of taking the time, distracting her from her mission, she pulled a pair of jeans and a dark shirt over her gym attire. She put her gun holster on her belt, checked her Beretta, and slid it into place. “Sam. Scan while I’m gone,” she instructed, shrugging into the little black jacket that hid her gun from view.

  “Where are you going?” Josh asked.

  She cast a frown his way, but that was the only response she gave him. Turning her attention back to Sam, she asked, “Do you have the report on the Dark Web account?”

  Wide-eyed, Sam looked between Eva and Josh before grabbing a file off the kitchen counter and holding it out.

  After skimming through the information Sam had gathered, Eva grabbed her messenger bag from beside the sofa and opened it. Her breath caught. “My notebook is gone. Goddamn it!” Throwing her bag down, she exhaled.

  “All your reports are up-to-date at the office,” Sam offered. “I type up all the meeting notes every day.”

  Eva nodded, muttered her thanks, and then glared at Josh one more time. Dumbass.

  With her anger fully engaged, she stormed out of the condo on her way to confront Neal and Brenda Price one more time. She was done playing games with these people. All of them. She knew what the hell she was doing and what she should have done all along. Why had she pussyfooted around with this case? Josh. That was why. She’d been distracted playing house with her stupid ex. Well, that was done now. And so was she. This case was getting resolved now.

  Instead of taking the elevator, she climbed the flight of stairs to the fourth floor and headed straight to the Prices’ condo. She banged on the door and waited. And waited. Then banged again. After the third round of pounding her fist against the hard surface, the door was opened.

  Brenda peered out, her eyes wet and her nose red. “Go away.”

  “I have everything I need to get the police involved. If you don’t open the door, right now, I’ll do just that.” She held up her phone just in case Brenda wanted to call her bluff.

  Stepping back, Brenda opened the door and gestured Eva in. Eva scanned the room, making sure she was aware of any potential dangers but also noting how the room looked like someone’s mood board vomited over the space. Whitewashed furniture, fake vintage signs on the walls, and varying shades of white, blue, and gray filled the space.

  Staying close to the door, Eva met Brenda’s gaze. “Is anyone else here?”

  Brenda shook her head.

  “Did you speak to Neal about our discussion?”

  She sniffed. “What makes you think—”

  “Can you cut the bullshit, Brenda?”

  “You first.”

  Eva stared her down for a few beats. “A resident in this building found a hidden camera in her condo last week. I was hired to find out who placed it.”

  “I know. Neal told me who you were when I confronted him.”

  “Confronted him?”

  “None of this would have happened if he’d just…”

  “Let you screw around?”

  “Been more reasonable.” She swallowed hard and sniffed. “I want to leave my husband, but he has evidence of my affair.”

  “You said.”

  “I needed evidence of my own.”

  Eva nodded and did her best not to roll her eyes at the woman. “Yeah. I know this. What I don’t know is who is getting that evidence.”

  “I am.” She lifted her chin a notch. “I hid the cameras.”

  “You hid the cameras?”

  “Yes.”

  Eva didn’t have to be a PI to know this woman was lying to protect the real culprit. “You hid the camera next to my microwave?”

  “Yes.”

  Uh-huh. “And the one in my bedroom?”

  “Yes.”

  Sure you did. “And the one in the women’s locker room?”

  Brenda inhaled a slow breath. “Yes.”

  Crossing her arms, Eva scowled. “There was no camera in the locker room or my bedroom. The camera in my kitchen was nowhere near the microwave. Who are you protecting?”

  She creased her brow for a millisecond before digging her heels in. “No one. I did it. I wanted to catch Neal screwing around.”

  Eva sighed. “Did you also upload videos onto an amateur porn site?”

  Brenda’s face paled. Eva opened the file to show her a screenshot of the account Sam had traced back to Neal’s credit card. Next she showed her the screenshots Sam had printed off. In one, Brenda’s and Tiffany’s faces were clear, easily identifiable, as was the sex act they were engaging in. The second was of a naked Tiffany lying on top of a naked Courtney on Courtney’s oversize sofa. Shane wasn’t seen in either image, but Sam had indicated that he’d made an appearance in at least one of the videos on the site.

  Brenda nearly missed the sofa as she dropped to sit. “Oh. My. God.”

  “I’m guessing that’s a no,” Eva said. Part of her thought she should feel some sympathy for this woman who had just lied to her, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t exactly innocent in the events happening around her.

  Covering her mouth, she choked on a cry as another round of tears fell. She turned the pictures over and closed her eyes. She’d clearly had no idea someone had uploaded the evidence of her affair online. “That little bitch. I actually believed her when she said she’d been taking money from her savings account.”

  Eva took time to wrap her mind around the implications of Brenda’s words. “You said your partner in crime had just as much to gain by getting you out of this marriage as you did. I assumed you meant a lover.”

  Brenda didn’t see
m to hear her. She was staring at the photos.

  “You told me the other day that Neal was concerned about the money your daughter was coming into. You resented being forced into helicopter-parenting a teenager. I don’t suppose during all your hovering, you restricted her access to the Internet?”

  Brenda shook her head as another cry ripped from her chest.

  “The website has been traced back to Neal’s credit card. Would anyone else have access to that?”

  “I told you he’s been sleeping around. Anybody could have used his card. How would I know who?”

  “Why on earth would you ask your daughter to get evidence of her father cheating?”

  Brenda’s lips quivered until she pressed them together. “Cody heard Neal and me fighting one night. She was so mad at me for having an affair, but she had no idea how cruel Neal could be. I’d always been a buffer between them. After he got his hands on that video, he decided he got to make all the decisions and I had to go along with everything. We no longer talk about what is best or what we should do. He just decides. He pulled strings to get Cody accepted at this elite school. She hates it. She just wants to go back to her regular school to be with her friends, but he won’t hear of it. She got so mad one night, she said it was all my fault because I was with Tiffany. I told her if we got divorced…” Her face squished into an ugly cry as she seemed to finally understand the drama she’d unleashed. “I told her he wouldn’t have a say in what school she attended because I’d have custody of her, but I couldn’t do that until I had evidence that he had cheated, too. I had no idea she’d so something like this.”

  Okay. Now Eva felt badly for her. “Brenda,” she said softly. “Why would Cody put a video of you on the Internet?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she got mad when she saw me with Tiffany?”

  “What did you say to Neal after we talked in the locker room?”

  “I told him it was his fault that Cody put hidden cameras in your condo. He went down to fire you before you could figure out it was her. We thought if we could get you out of the way, we could make all this go away.”

  And then he’d gone into her condo when she hadn’t answered and noticed the camera feed. Damn it.