Page 24 of No Broken Promises

I stared, from afar, as I thought she spent her time mourning Danny.

I watched, and I could have tried to fix our friendship, but I didn’t.

Life went on, but I never even made an attempt to make things right.

Hell, I wouldn’t blame Parker if she never wanted to talk to me again.

“Okay, I’m gonna head out.” I put my phone back in my pocket. “Parker’s fine. She’s with Kennedy.” As I whistle for Daisy, who’s made herself comfortable under Danny’s dog tags in the living room, I give Emma a hard glare. “Next time, check with the other part of your weird little threesome you girls have going on. Especially before you call the police.”

Emma blows a raspberry at me. “I figured Linc would be the one to get the call. He told me he was working in this zone all month.”

My ears flame at that, but I don’t say a word. She doesn’t need to know I’d snaked this particular call out from under her brother.

“Later, Emma.” I give her a mock salute and leave, Daisy at my side.

When we both look over our shoulders, I realize that something has to change. I can’t keep mooning after Parker Hayes. It isn’t doing me any good.

Linc stands in the bullpen waiting for me when we get back to the station. He holds out a treat for Daisy, who takes it like the princess she always pretends to be in public.

Ignoring the question on his face, I check the large clock on the wall. “Shift’s up in five. You wanna go grab a beer?”

Studiously ignoring the fact that it is barely two in the afternoon, Linc shrugs. “Sure. But you’re buying.” He sighs dramatically. “Since you stole my call, I’ve had to sit here doing paperwork for the last hour, instead of breaking into my sister’s house.”

Questions buzz in my head as I think about exactly what he said. I have a few things I need to get straight, and Linc is probably the only man in the world who might have an answer for me.

“Hey.” I turn to see him watching me with a strange expression. “Is everything okay?” He looks around to make sure we are alone. “I’m all for day-drinking. But you’ve never been that guy. Not since the funeral.”

I wipe my lip with the back of my hand, trying to think of the best way to say it without actually saying the words. In the end, I don’t need to say anything. The officers for next shift come in, walking through the doors like fuckin’ superheroes, breaking the unspoken tension that somehow manages to fill the air between us.

“Hey, Dom.” Linc turns to the new arrival with a wry smile. “Remy’s taking me out for a drink right now. How’s it feel to be stuck with the new guy?”

Carter Malone, who walks in right behind Dom, flips Linc off with a grimace.

“Dick.”

“Don’t worry, Carter. One day you won’t be the rookie anymore.” Linc laughs at his own joke and walks away.

“One day…” Carter shakes his head. “Hell, one day I’m gonna make him eat his words. He does realize that I’ve been a cop for longer than any of you, right?”

“Yeah.” I stand next to him, watching the locker room door where Linc has just gone. “But we all served together overseas. Trial by blood and fire and all that shit we had to put up with in the middle of the desert and shit like that.”

The door to the locker room flings open from the inside, and Linc marches out still in his uniform. The only thing that has changed is his body cam is no longer attached.

“I’m ready. Let’s get this shit show on the road.” Linc shimmies his hips, dancing around slightly to adjust his pants. As we laugh at his idiocy, he shoves me out of the way, pushing me in the direction of the locker room while he drops his duffel bag on the ground and untucks his shirt. “Hurry the fuck up, Remy. I even gave you the whole locker room to yourself. I’m just gonna change when I get home so I don’t have to wait for your ass.”

When I’m not moving fast enough for him, Linc groans. “Come on, man. You’re the one who wanted to go for a drink. I just wanna go home and take a fuckin’ bath. My knees hurt.”

As soon as he has a beer in his hand at Lucy’s, though, all the complaints melt away.

“Was it the dog tags? Is that what threw you into an episode?”

I choke on the beer I’ve barely had a chance to swallow and shake my head while I try not to die.

“No…” I gasp for air. “No.” Coughing doesn’t seem to help, either. Not for a few long seconds.

Linc shrugs and then drinks his entire beer in one go. “Oh.” He belches. “I figured since you were in the house, you saw Danny’s dog tags and must have had a flashback. It’s happened to me a couple of times and taken me out at the knees.”

I motion to the bartender for another beer because we’ve started to talk about shit that I definitely can’t discuss completely sober. Once he nods from the other side of the bar, I down the rest of my drink. New drink in hand, I have everything I need to get right to it.

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