Page 6 of So Dark

“Nothing that’s an order. Plenty of advice, but you won’t listen to it.”

“Probably not. I’ll see you later, sir.”

She left the office in a terrible mood. It must have shown on her face because the other agents on night shift avoided eye contact. Turk looked at her with concern, not sure why she was suddenly so upset.

When they reached her car, he laid his head in her lap and looked up at her with his beautiful brown eyes. She smiled wistfully and scratched him behind his ear. “You’re a good dog. You’re not old yet. Look at you. I’ll bet you could beat up any of those young pups at the dog park.”

Turk barked firmly, not sure what he was agreeing with but sensing it was important to Faith that he agree anyway. She chuckled and hugged him close. “You’re not old.”

But he would be. Sooner or later—probably sooner—he would be. Maybe the Boss was right. Maybe it would be better to let him have some time in the sun while he was still strong enough to enjoy it.

But if she did that, would she hasten his end? With nothing left to do, what else remained but to grow old and die?

She sighed and said again, “You’re not old.”

CHAPTER THREE

Faith didn’t want to spend the night with David. She loved her boyfriend, and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, but…

But did she?

She sighed and pressed her head to her steering wheel. “Ugh!” Turk nudged her, and she sat up and said, “I’m all right. I just have a lot on my mind right now.”What else is new?

It was just too much. Everything was changing all at once. She was a half-step away from being shuttled off to a desk for doing her job well. Turk was a few weeks away from being put to pasture and left to grow old and die. She had put away one serial killer who was obsessed with her, only for another killer to pop up out of nowhere just as obsessed with her. And now he wasn't allowed in her own home, and her own home wouldn't even be her own home a few months from now because she would be living full-time with a man for the first time in her life.

She loved David. He was kind and sweet and funny and drop-dead gorgeous. He loved Turk, and Turk practically worshipped him. He had put up with Faith’s moods and her stubbornness and the dangers her job posed to both of them. He had stuck with her through all of that. She should want to be with him. She should want to spend the rest of her life with him.

But…

But he didn’t understand her. He accepted her, and she thought that would be enough, but it just wasn’t possible for a civilian to understand the life of a law enforcement agent, particularly one whose career had been spent dealing with the most violent and depraved people on Earth.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t talk to him. It was just that when she did, all she would get was sympathy and affection.

God, that sounded so horrible. Like he was a bad person for sympathizing with her. It was just… well, she couldn’t talktohim. She could talk to him, and he would listen, but he wouldn't understand the feelings she had when she looked at an innocent body or interviewed a man who thought it was funny to watch his victims bleed to death.

Of all the people she knew, there was only one person who truly understood her. She felt horribly guilty for calling him now, but she had to talk to someone, and he was the only person she knew who would get what she had to say.

She dialed the number. A moment later, Michael replied, “If this is a case, then go fuck yourself. If this is a personal emergency, then get David to—”

“I need to talk to you,” she blurted out. Considering the doubts she was just having, she didn’t want to hear Michael joke about her and David being intimate.

“Okay. Do you want to come over?”

Heat climbed Faith’s cheeks. She definitely didn’t want to see Michael’s wife, Ellie, after the thoughts she’d been having.

Thinking of Ellie only increased her guilt. She didn't view Michael in a romantic light, but it still felt wrong to think of the two of them as the closest people in each other's lives. She almost said never mind, but she really did need to talk to someone, or she'd spiral out of control.

“Umm… a lot of it is work-related. Buy you a donut?”

He sighed theatrically. “Considering what you’re making me miss out on, you’re buying me two donuts.”

Her face flamed. “I really didn’t need to hear that.”

“And for the price of a cup of coffee to wash down those donuts, you won’t have to.”

“Find me a steak restaurant, and I’ll buy you a Kobe filet paired with a Macallan Fifty. Just change the subject, please.”

“Is it weird that I’d rather have donuts and coffee?”

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