One Taste of Crazy (A One Taste Novel Book 3) Read online

  “Sauer.”

  “Why? Did he get suckered into working while all of you enjoy the rest of the game?” Dee cocked a brow. She wouldn’t put it past all of them to make Sauer handle it while they had fun. That’s just what they did to him sometimes. He was easily manipulated that way. He never argued.

  Zeke refused to look at her. “No. He just left.”

  “He slammed the door like he was pissed. He’s always a happy guy.”

  He still refused to look at her. “Newman might’ve been giving him shit about something and he didn’t appreciate it.”

  Well, it wasn’t hard to figure out what that meant. Newman must’ve heard Sauer ask her out.

  “Now you think I’m a bitch.”

  Finally, his eyes whipped to her.

  Rina softly gasped. “Why would you say that, Dee?”

  Zeke pursed his lips into a frown. “What did you say to him?”

  Zoe glanced between her and Zeke, her brows dipped into obvious confusion.

  “What’s it to you?”

  A throat cleared. “Would you two care to clarify what you’re talking about? Obviously, you’re talking about Sauer.” Zoe continued to glance back and forth.

  She started to fiddle with the bottom of her wine glass. “I accidently bumped into him in the hallway and he…”

  “Asked you out,” Rina softly finished.

  Dee glanced at her. “He’s a sweet guy. It surprised me.”

  “I think you should go out with him. He’s a great guy. And you’d finally have a sexy detective like we have.” Rina smiled brightly.

  Zeke laughed, giving her a wink. “I think he’s liked you for a while, Dee. He’s a little too shy for you, though.”

  She pierced him with a hard stare. “Hey, Zeke, mind your own damn business. Maybe you should apologize to him. Whatever was said, he didn’t leave here happy.”

  “Okay, let’s all calm down. Go watch football.” Zoe started to push Zeke out of the kitchen. “Did you come in here for another beer?”

  “He came in here to see what I said to Sauer.” Her brow lifted again. “I can tell you I didn’t say anything to make him leave like he did.”

  “But you turned him down?”

  She cocked a brow as she threw a hand to her hip. “I repeat. None. Of. Your. Damn. Business.” Shaking her head, she glanced between Rina and Zoe. “I think I’m gonna go, too.”

  “Dee, don’t leave.” Zoe lightly slapped Zeke’s chest. “See what you guys did.”

  “I…we…” Zeke mumbled as Dee grabbed her purse from the kitchen counter.

  “Don’t worry about it. My feelings aren’t hurt, but Sauer deserves an apology.”

  Rina said goodbye as Zoe protested again, but Dee had enough. She enjoyed the sweet way Sauer asked her out. And the guys, acting like a bunch of douches, were ruining it. She walked out of the kitchen, grabbed her jacket from the closet, then stopped at the front door, swiveling her gaze to the living room. All eyes turned her way.

  She stared hard at all of them, producing a small smirk as they started to squirm in their seats, especially Newman. No words were necessary. They understood what she was saying just by that simple look.

  Swinging open the door, she slammed it as hard as Sauer did just because. She wanted them to know whose side she was on. Even though she didn’t say yes, she was still on Sauer’s side. Always. No matter what. He was a sweet guy.

  Ten minutes later, she pulled into her driveway. As always, she was glad she didn’t live too far from Zeke and Zoe’s house. Before Zoe married Zeke, she lived much farther away. She liked not having to drive thirty minutes, especially when she was irritated. A shot of whiskey was calling her name. Numb the pain a little.

  Slamming her car door, still peeved, she marched to her front door. Her steps slowed as she neared it. A red rose lay on the mat in front of the door, a white card next to it.

  Really? She was so not a flower kind of girl.

  Picking up the card, her brow rose.

  I’m sorry.

  Sauer? Did he swing by her house to say sorry for asking her out?

  No. That didn’t seem like his style. He was way too shy to do something like that. He also didn’t know where she lived. He had never been to her house before.

  Ugh, her neighbor. Mathias. He was the worst pest ever.

  He had been asking her out since he moved in five months ago. She enjoyed men. A lot. But one thing she never did was date someone who lived in her neighborhood. Talk about awkward when it didn’t work out. Which it wouldn’t because she didn’t do relationships. Not the long term kind. Another reason she turned down Sauer. Sort of. Maybe she should’ve said no in a nice way. Was she leading him on right now without a clear answer? Probably.

  What a bitch. Well, at least she earned the title honestly.

  She crumbled the note as she swiped the flower up. Stalking to the garbage can on the side of the house, she tossed the note and flower inside. Now she had to have a conversation with Mathias. Again. The guy never stopped with his antics.

  Just last week his dog came into her yard and took a shit right on her walkway that led from the door to the driveway. She nearly fell trying to avoid it once she saw it. She knew the dog was well trained and listened to Mathias without fail. Which meant, Mathias purposely let him shit on her property. He was obviously a guy who didn’t like to hear the word no.

  She knew he let his dog do it so he’d have a reason to talk to her. What a dumb reason. All it did was piss her off even more. Now he thought a dumb rose and a simple note would make it all better. Not!

  Forget it. She wouldn’t say anything to him. That’s probably what he wanted her to do. Not going to happen. If it got much worse, she’d have no problem siccing Zeke and Ben on him. Even though she didn’t get along with them all the time, Zeke mostly, they’d still do anything for her. That’s just the nice guys they were. It probably helped she was best friends with their wives as well.

  She slammed her front door, still in a pissy mood, not even sure it would dwindle down any time soon. Disabling her alarm, she re-armed it and locked the door.

  A loud thump echoed around the kitchen as she slammed a shot glass to the counter. Bending low, she pulled out the bottle of whiskey she had hidden in the bottom cupboard way in the back. She hid it for a reason. If it was visible all the time, she’d down it way too fast. She didn’t have a drinking problem, but when irritation hit her, which happened more and more often, she needed a shot to chase the mood away. One shot normally did the trick. Sometimes it required two. And only if she was really, really pissed.

  Two shots it would be tonight.

  She’d like to say it was because the guys gave Sauer a hard time. It was more like she felt horrible for denying him. She was damaged. Unworthy of a man as sweet and good as him.

  What in the world did he see in her, anyway? She never attracted the good guys. Her aim was always the slightly bad guys with sex on their mind. She might complain to Zoe and Rina she wanted what they had, but she knew she’d never have that. She wasn’t dumb enough to believe she could have something as good as they did.

  The warm liquid slid down her throat. She cringed from the burn, then filled up the shot glass again. Without thinking, she drank that one just as fast.

  Besides slamming back shots, one other thing simmered her down.

  Sex. Hot, dirty sex.

  She only wanted that with one guy right now. One guy she shouldn’t even think about.

  Sauer.

  Chapter 2

  Sauer rubbed his eyes as he made his way up the walkway to the front door.

  “You still pissed at me? I’m sorry, man.”

  “We’re cool, Newman. Let’s just forget about it.”

  He wanted to forget about it. Not be reminded of it over and over. She turned him down. She didn’t give him a clear answer, but he took it as a no. What else could he think? He should’ve known better. They were total opposites. It would never work.r />
  Newman slapped him on the shoulder. “You get any sleep last night? Because I sure as shit didn’t. The game went late and I didn’t get home until one o’clock. It’s too damn early for this.”

  “I slept fine.” Or not. He wasn’t going to admit that he dreamt about Dee’s sweet laughter or her beautiful face as she said, “You’re so adorable.” So she turned him down. He still made her laugh. That counted for something, right?

  They walked into the house, nodded at the officer by the front door, and headed for the kitchen. Sauer stopped in his tracks. Newman bumped into him.

  “Holy shit.”

  “That’s one way to put it,” Susan, the crime scene tech, said with a small chuckle to Newman. Although, her eyes held no amusement whatsoever.

  Sprawled in the middle of the kitchen floor was a woman in her mid-thirties covered in blood. She wore a flimsy nightgown, her underwear still on. Maybe she wasn’t raped. Or maybe the killer shoved her underwear back on. Stab wounds covered her chest. The blood soaked through the material, making it hard to determine how many times she was stabbed. Her blonde hair looked tangled, dipped in crimson red. Her eyes were wide open in terror. There were faint traces of bruises on her arms as if the killer held her down.

  “Murder weapon?” His voice floated out in almost a whisper. He’d seen many disturbing crime scenes, but for some reason, this one was hitting him hard.

  “None that I can see. There’s a kitchen knife missing from the knife rack, so I’m guessing he used that and took it with him.”

  “The boyfriend called this in. Maybe he did it and stashed the knife somewhere in the house,” Newman offered.

  “Well, he is covered in her blood. He said he came home late, found her on the floor and tried to revive her. I’m not sure how much I believe him because you can clearly tell there was no way you could revive her. I haven’t looked everywhere yet, but maybe he did hide it somewhere around here.” Susan nodded toward the evidence bag on the counter. “That note was shoved in her mouth.”

  Sauer stood closer to the counter. He grabbed the bag and shuddered. I’m sorry. Weird, and a little disturbing. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much. Two simple words, yet, they packed a powerful punch.

  He passed the note to Newman.

  “I’d look hard into the boyfriend. He found her around two o’clock this morning.” Susan raised her brow as she said that.

  “It’s nearly six in the morning,” Newman said as he handed the bag back to him. “Why did he wait so long to call it in?”

  Sauer tossed the evidence bag back onto the counter. “Good question. Let’s go ask him. Anything else, Susan?”

  “Not right now. I’ll update you when I can.”

  Newman winked at her, then followed Sauer out.

  Strange. Newman could flirt like there was no tomorrow, except when he was in a relationship he never did overt things like that. While it was an innocent wink, it still wasn’t like him.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m cool. Besides the dead woman, of course.” Newman grinned, yet Sauer didn’t hear the honesty. He’d press him later about it.

  The boyfriend sat in the back of an ambulance sitting cockeyed in the street. Blood covered his shirt and jeans, a few smears on his face as well.

  Sauer didn’t know much about the victim other than her name was Vanessa Colton. Captain Ganderson might’ve mentioned a few other things when he called him earlier, but he barely recalled her name. He’d been thinking about one thing. Dee. He still couldn’t get her out of his head.

  “Oh my God, do you know who did this to Nessy? Please tell me you know who did it.” The man wiped his hand across his mouth, smearing more blood.

  “I’m Detective Newman, and this is my partner, Detective Sauer. Why don’t you tell us what happened? Start with your name.” Newman had a small notepad and pencil in his hand ready to go.

  Sauer had a good memory. Not eidetic, but he remembered information from an interview until he reached his computer and wrote it down. It really didn’t matter. Newman took meticulous notes and always emailed them to him. He told Newman all the time he didn’t need to. Some people thought he was lazy, making Newman do all the work. It wasn’t the case, and honestly, he didn’t care to argue with people. He wasn’t a confrontational kind of guy. People were going to believe what they wanted.

  “Shawn Gross. Nessy and I have been dating for about nine months. I met her at a yoga class.” Shawn blew out a deep breath as he clenched his fists. “We had a small fight. I left the house pissed and went out to watch the game with some buddies. I was gonna crash at my friend’s house, but I changed my mind. I came home around two and…and…” A sob escaped.

  “What did you fight about?” Sauer asked.

  “She was supposed to come with to watch the game. Then she changed her mind because the party was at my friend Brian’s house. She doesn’t like him much. And she hates his girlfriend Darla.”

  “Any particular reason why?” Newman asked as he scribbled on the notepad.

  “I might’ve dated Darla before Brian. She still kinda flirts with me. But I’ve never cheated. I ain’t no cheater. I’ve told Nessy this how many times. She didn’t believe me.”

  “Did she have any problems with anyone else?” Sauer wanted to glance away. The blood was starting to make him a little nauseated. That didn’t normally happen.

  “I don’t know. She’s been having issues with her boss. He’s a jackass.” Shawn’s face became hard. “He’s always trying to control her. Even tried to break us up.”

  “Who’s her boss?” Newman asked.

  “Tony, from the Dancing Slipper.” Shawn shuffled his gaze back and forth between them. “Yeah, Nessy was a stripper.”

  And their suspect list just skyrocketed. Any number of men could’ve killed her, could’ve taken an unnatural liking to her. Sauer almost groaned out loud, but held himself in check. “Did she have any problems with any customers?”

  “Nothing too serious that I know of.”

  “So, Shawn, tell us, why did you wait three hours to call this in?” Shawn flinched from the accusation in Newman’s tone.

  “I…well…I don’t know. I think I kinda blanked out for a while and realized I should call the police.” His eyes bulged. “I didn’t kill Nessy.”

  “Can you write your name for me?” Newman handed over his notepad, giving Shawn no choice.

  Shawn quickly scribbled his name. They left him after asking a few more questions about his relationship with Vanessa. They didn’t get anywhere with him. He just kept repeating, “I didn’t kill her.”

  Sometimes acting so adamant was a huge red flag. Other times, it meant they truly were innocent. Sauer wasn’t too sure at the moment what he believed.

  “What does his handwriting look like?”

  Newman showed him the notepad and shook his head. “He didn’t write the note. I don’t even need a handwriting analysis to prove it. Look at that chicken scratch. I barely can read it. The note was more legible than this crap.” He opened his car door and grabbed an evidence bag from the back seat and slipped the notepad inside of it. “And now I need a new notepad. He got blood all over this one.”

  “Did you miss the fact he had blood all over him?” He chuckled.

  Newman flinched. “Of course not.”

  “Seriously, man, what’s going on with you?”

  Newman grabbed his pack of wipes he carried everywhere, because he could be a huge germaphobe at times, and wiped his hands several times over before responding. “Everything’s good.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You don’t generally lie to me.”

  “Chrissy and I broke up.” Newman threw the wipes into the small garbage bag he carried in his car and shrugged.

  Not that it made it right, but Sauer figured that’s why he acted like a jackass last night. So many things made sense now.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Newman shrugged again. “We got tons of shit to do. Wor
rying about Chrissy isn’t one of them.”

  Sauer decided to drop it. When Newman wanted to drop a subject, it was dropped. He respected that. He didn’t know what else to say. I’m sorry didn’t even seem appropriate. He shivered. He never thought two words could give him the heebie-jeebies.

  ♡

  Work sucked. Normally she didn’t think like that. She enjoyed working at Young’s Accounting. Since the death of his two partners a few years ago, he chopped off the Mills and Murphy part. With their deaths, the entire company went to him. For a while, it was a little touch and go the company would go under. Seriously, you didn’t have two partners in the company, a co-worker and an office manager, die, and things not get a little dicey. Young was a determined man. Dee, herself, was just as determined. She made sure shit got done. It was her job, especially to make sure his life went uninterrupted without issues. She made a damn good secretary.

  She liked having control. Some people might think a secretary didn’t have much control. You followed orders like a little lapdog. Nope. Not her. She figured Young realized it as well. She made the orders around here. He didn’t complain. First, well, complaining didn’t get anywhere with her. Second, she saved his company from falling apart. She kept it together.

  Which made it strange. Why was she falling apart now?

  She hated to admit it, but it was gutting her inside that she dismissed Sauer so easily. They didn’t interact much. Sure, he was there at certain get-togethers, but they didn’t talk to each other. He was too shy. And the few times she tried to make small talk with him, he didn’t say much.

  Still. She shouldn’t have dismissed him so easily. She could be a bitch. She knew this. But being one to such a sweet guy rankled her. Made her sick to her stomach. She had to make things right between them. How? That’s what puzzled her.

  Going on a date was a no go. He was too adorable of a guy for a girl like her. She’d break him before they got far and that was the last thing she wanted to do. As much as she hated to admit it, she liked being alone. It suited her. It was for the best.

  Not many men could handle her. Her sharp words. Her honesty. Her loud personality. She refused to do one thing. Change for a man. No man was worth that. She learned that the hard way. Through her mom.