“Dammit.” Jameson had been looking at her lying on that bed for too damn long. The urge to say fuck it and just go over there nearly overwhelmed him but he’d promised Axel he wouldn’t interfere unless it was a matter of life or death and last time he checked sleeping too much wouldn’t kill you. The beast got up and started licking her face. She opened her eyes and smiled at the little devil. The ache that ripped through his chest made him short of breath. Goddamn he missed the two of them. His place felt like a tomb now without Candy’s little sounds and the beast’s yipping for attention. His fingers curled into fists. He would swear he felt the silk of her hair as it slid through his fingers. He missed touching her. Who knew you could even miss that? Hell, he even considered getting a dog of his own but he’d gotten attached to the beast and missed him. Not that he had any intention of telling anyone that bit of information.
“Hey. Got a minute?” Axel stuck his head in the office door.
He closed the Candy tab, no need to make the kid think he’d gone over the deep end. He had, but the kid had enough on his plate.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“I checked property records. You were right. Snell’s been slowly but surely buying up properties at way below market value but more importantly below the price they’d get from the feds through eminent domain. He stands to make a killing financially. I also checked to see if there was any criminal record and he’s fucking church lady clean.”
“Figures. Jeez, it’s like some bad western movie scheme.”
“Exactly. So what are we going to do about it?”
“We?” Candy was his. If anyone was going to ride to her rescue it was going to be him and he didn’t think he needed to give the kid a refresher course.
“She’s not so happy with you right now but I’m fucking charming as hell.” He flipped Axel off. Damn, the kid’s confidence in his skills as a player were off the goddamn charts.
“And exactly what are you going to do? Waltz in there, tell her that her neighbor is a dirt bag who’s been scaring off the old people so he could buy them out cheap? Knowing Candy, she’ll want to confront the asshole because while she doesn’t have the balls to help herself she’d go to fucking war to help people she cares about.”
“So what are we going to do?” Axel asked.
“Nothing.”
Axel crossed his arms. “Nothing! Fucking nothing? Are you shitting me?”
“You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
“Who the fuck do you think I learned to swear from? God, you really do miss her don’t you?”
“Makes losing the use of my legs feel like a goddamned scratch.”
“You aren’t really going to do nothing, are you?”
“Nah, but I want enough evidence to bury Snell, so slap some cable company decals on the van and get yourself up a couple of poles. I want eyes all over that neighborhood. I want patrols by any of the guys not working a case. I’m gonna call in a few favors with the PD and see if I can’t get them to up their presence. At some point he’s gonna fuck up and someone will see something.”