Page 32 of Camden

He twisted the top off and passed it to me. Thanking him, I poured the water over her arm slowly. The cut ran deep. I popped open the first aid kit and rifled around for the gauze. Finding it, I held it against her skin. The white material slowly turned red, but I’d rather have the gauze directly against her skin instead of my shirt.

Sirens sounded from the front of the bar and two EMTs rushed in, followed by Noah and Chris, two officers from my unit. I quickly rehashed the situation to the EMTs and followed them out to the ambulance.

“Would you like to go out sometime?” Olivia asked as they prepared to load her into the back of the rig. Both EMTs paused, looked at each other, and then down at her. She kept her eyes trained on me, making me want to groan.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Wasn’t that your boyfriend?” I motioned my head toward the poor sap who stood a few feet away, answering Noah and Chris’s questions.

She rolled her eyes, scoffing. “Not at all. It was the first date. One that won’t be happening again.”

Huh. Could’ve fooled me with how much they’d drunkenly hung all over each other all night. If that was how she acted on a first date, lord help the guy who wanted a second. “Sorry. I’m taken.” The words flew from my mouth. It wasn’t a lie, per se. After all, if it were up to me, I’d be calling Stephanie mine soon.

Her face pinched together as she eyed my left hand. “You don’t have a ring on.”

“Don’t have to be married to be taken.”

“I won’t tell if you don’t” She winked, and I wanted to grimace. The girl looked like a wet raccoon, with black makeup ringed around her eyes and tear marks treading down her cheeks.

I raised a brow. “I’m not sure what type of relationships you’ve been in, but I don’t cheat on my girl.”

She sneered. “How would your girl feel knowing your hands were all over me?”

“Considering I’m a cop and I was trying to keep you from bleeding out on the dance floor surrounded by plenty of witnesses, I think she’d be okay with it.” Honestly, if Steph had been there, she probably would’ve beaten me to Olivia. And she would’ve handled the situation better than I did, but I wouldn’t waste my breath explaining that to this girl, who was likely still too drunk to understand anything other than the fact she was just turned down.

By the glare she shot my way while they loaded her into the back, I figured Olivia wasn’t used to being told no.

One EMT shut the door. “She was a piece of work,” he mumbled, slapped me on the shoulder, and jogged to the front of the rig. The tail lights faded as they pulled out of the parking lot.

I joined Noah and Chris, who were still talking to the drunk guy. I assumed to get some answers about what exactly happened from his point of view, even though it was a drunken accident.

“What happened, man?” Noah held his hand out for me to shake. I took it and leaned back against the cruiser with my arms crossed.

“I was sitting at the bar when I heard something break, followed by a scream. My guess is the girl finally fell after she’d been stumbling around all night and landed on her beer bottle.” I jutted my chin in the guy’s direction. “This guy pulled the glass out of her arm. Blood everywhere, man.” I blew out a deep breath. Dried blood still covered my hands and jeans.

“Hey! Where’d she go?” The drunk guy asked and stood, well tried to. His bloodshot eyes darted around frantically. “Where’d she go?”

“Relax, man. They took her to the hospital. She’s going to need some stitches.”

His entire body deflated against the cruiser. “Okay. Okay. I’ll find her later, right?” he asked and looked up, his glassy eyes going to each of us individually. “I’ve been trying to get her to go out with me for months and she finally said yes.”

Oh, boy.I grimaced. “Sorry to break it to you, but she said that it was your first and probably last date.” Actually, she said it was their last date, but I didn’t want to destroy the poor boy’s heart, though he deflated all the same.

“She said that?” His eyes flashed with pain. I felt bad, but he needed to know. If she was anything like some of the girls I knew at twenty-one, they were out for a good time and to get free drinks. They weren’t looking for anything serious.

“Why don’t you head back in and call an Uber,” Noah suggested and slapped him on the back. His shoulders hung as he walked away.

“Damn. Poor guy can’t catch a break. First, his date gets hammered, and then she hits on you.” Chris chuckled. “Didn’t stand a chance.”

“I can’t believe she fucking hit on you.” Noah shook his head.

I blew out a breath. “Drunk girls are crazy, man. You’ll learn.” Chris had only been on the force for a couple of months. We talked for a while longer until they got called out. I slipped my phone out of my pocket and saw three missed text messages. One from Mason and two from Stephanie.

Shit.

It’d been an hour and a half since her last text asking to talk. I scrubbed my face, immediately regretting it when I smelled the dried blood.

I ignored Mason’s message and immediately opened Stephanie’s.

Stephanie

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