I am glad you all hate Angelo as much as you should in this one! He's pretty vile, isn't he? Anyway, I really hope you enjoy the chapter. The next one (chapter 30) will be a bit more pleasant. Love, IJKS xxx
Chapter Twenty Nine
"Is everything okay?" Charlie asked as she drove Joey and Angelo out to Yabbie Creek in order to try and lure the killer out.
She glanced at Joey in the rear view mirror. She seemed very quiet and out of sorts, very different to the girl she had left earlier in the day.
"I'm fine," Joey snapped, a little more harshly than she'd intended.
Charlie glanced at her in the mirror again before returning her eyes back to the road. Then she glanced at Angelo, beside her in the passenger seat.
"Has something happened?" she asked quietly.
"I'm not deaf!" Joey snapped. "I can hear you."
Charlie sighed. Joey was cranky and Angelo was far from forthcoming with information. Giving up, Charlie focussed on where they were going. They had a big night ahead of them.
After another fruitless night, Watson took Joey back to her apartment in order to keep an eye on her overnight.
"I'm going to bed," Joey said, still moody but refusing to reveal why.
"Okay," Watson said. "Joey, are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fucking marvellous," Joey said, slamming her bedroom door.
She threw herself face down on the bed and surprised herself by bursting into tears, prompting Bear Cat to come and nuzzle her. She rarely cried and had always seen it as weakness but now, she couldn't control it. She knew it was stupid. She was a prostitute, for goodness sake. She made a career of sleeping with men she didn't want to go anywhere near. But today had been different. She'd felt forced and it hadn't seemed right at all. She felt like she was betraying Charlie, a woman she had grown to admire and respect. Angelo was her boyfriend, after all. How would she feel to know that he had slept with Joey behind her back? But then, Angelo had been adamant that Charlie knew what was going on. Hell, Charlie might even expect something like that herself. Angelo had claimed her body in exchange for rent, after all, although Joey couldn't help but think risking her life and acting as bait for a murderer was payment enough.
"What was with Joey tonight?" Charlie wondered as she lay in bed with Angelo.
They lay side by side, not touching and shrouded in darkness.
"How the fuck am I supposed to know?" he snapped.
"Alright!" Charlie snapped back. "There's no need to be so rude!"
They sighed heavily and in unison.
"I just thought you might know because you were the person with her when she must have got into that mood," Charlie added. "Pardon me for breathing."
Angelo rolled over to face her, seeking out her shape in the dark.
"Do you realise that the only thing we seem to do in this bed these days is talk about that hooker?" he asked.
Charlie sighed again and closed her eyes.
"It's just while this case is on," she said. "Come on, Angelo. We're both working so hard on an all-encompassing case. Of course that's what we're talking about. And of course we're too tired to do other stuff.
"It's not all I want to talk about," Angelo insisted. "And I'm certainly not too tired for anything else."
He reached out, beneath the blankets, capturing her hand and placing it inside his boxer shorts. Charlie cringed and recoiled quickly.
"I'm too tired," she said, not prepared to analyse exactly why touching him suddenly felt so disgusting. "Sorry."
"For fuck's sake, Charlie!" he growled. "Do you even want to be with me anymore?"
"Of course I do!" Charlie replied, not entirely sure she was telling the truth.
Had it really been only last week that she'd expected to spend the rest of her life with this man? And had she just been fooling herself all along, resigning herself to it rather than looking forward to the future? And most importantly, what had changed?
"Well, maybe you should start acting like it," he snapped.
He reached for her again. Closing her eyes and sighing, she gave in and gave him what he wanted.
Next time… Charlie guides Joey out of her bad mood and spends some quality time with her…
