Page 45 of Black Bird

Athan tried not to smile. “Rhaena took care of the press. I don’t think you’ll be getting any calls of complaint. Lot of expensive cameras broken. If they’re smart that’ll be message enough.”

“Damn, detective. None of y’all are gonna make it easy on me, are you? But she’s okay? Unharmed?”

“Yes, sir. Just a little shook up.” Athan rested his chin on his hand, and a finger across his bottom lip.

“Yeah, well … you just make sure if you do anycomforting… you do it away from prying eyes. Got it?” Foley narrowed his eyes and gave him a slight smirk.

“Understood, sir.”

Foley nodded once and turned away, folding his jacket over his arm, and not looking back at him when his voice echoed through the precinct. “That paperwork ain’t gonna do itself, detective!”

He supposed it was a small price to pay for Rhaena’s help tonight. When he realized he hadn’t heard from her, he snatched his phone up from his desk drawer. No texts, no calls. He rang her.

“Hey!”He could hear her smile over the phone.

“Hey, where are you? Everything good?”

“Yeah, she’s safe. I dropped her off at her friend’s place.”

There was hollering in the background, and it sounded a lot like it had to do with sports. Athan glanced at the clock on his computer and smirked to himself. “Where are you?”

“Ahhh … I’m out.”

“Mmhmm … taking my advice about getting laid?” Athan mused.

“Perhaps.”She laughed.“We’ll see, I suppose.”

“Good for you, pup.”

“Yeah … bugger off, bat boy.”

Athan huffed a laugh. “Knock three times on the wall if I need to go kill somebody later.”

“You got it, partner. Hey … before you go, there was something that crossed my mind.”

“What’s that?”

“You ever heard of the five stages of grief?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I was thinking about the shit Sarah’s going through. You swear she um … well, I can’t really say.”

“Died … yes. I follow.”

“Right. So … do you think this spiraling that’s happening with her might be something kinda similar? I could be wrong, but like … it seems logical to me.”

He pondered that for a moment, toying with his lip. “That actually—that makes sense. I’ll read up on that. You know, after I finish this textbook of paperwork …by myself.”

“Yeah, happy to help, brother. Take a pill for the ache in your wrist, okay? They’re in my drawer. Oh, and I use them for shark week. I’m sure that’ll make it go down easier for ya.”She snickered.

“Fuck you, Rhaena.”

“I love you too, prick.”

He smiled and hung up, tossing the phone on his desk. He didn’t have to wonder who she was out with. He had known for a while thatJenkins had a thing for her. She had always said she couldn’t stand him, but it was obvious she thought the opposite. Whatever feelings she thought she had for him were stopping her from venturing out. He hated being responsible for that. Athan picked up his pen and leaned over the paperwork. Poe would be as ruffled as a peacock when he finally made it out of this place.

But at least she was safe.

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