Page 135 of The Problem with Dating

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“We can’t stay in here forever,” Alex whispered after he calmed down enough to be able to find his words. “You’re freezing.”

“I’m okay,” I lied.

“You’re shivering.”

“I’m fine,” I lied again.

“Goldie,” he said, his voice low. “It’s okay. I have to talk to the cops outside. I need to face this.”

“I’ll help,” I said, rising as he stood. “Whatever you need.”

“No. It’s fine. Really. I need to do this on my own. There’s probably a lot of paperwork and calls I have to make. Make sure your family is all right and tell them I’m sorry for ruining their evening.”

“Don’t you dare apologize for that, Alex.” I couldn’t even believe that thought crossed his mind. “But I’ll ask a few people to see if they saw anything. All hands on deck.”

He nodded. “Thank you, Yara.”

“Of course. And, Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“Everything will be all right. I don’t know how, but it will.”

He gave me a smile that felt like heartbreak. His beautiful brown eyes looked defeated before he walked off to speak to a few officers.

As I stepped out of the building, I saw that the most important person on the staff was missing from the investigation—the scumbag chief himself.

* * *

“What are you doing, Cole?!” I barked as I stormed into the police station to find him sitting at his desk, shoving his mouth full of a Thanksgiving dinner plate Lindsay had probably dropped off to him.

He looked up and cocked an eyebrow. “Uh, my job.”

“The hell you are. You’re the chief in this town. You should be at Alex’s restaurant, seeing what’s happening and figuring out who damaged that place.” I gestured to the other officers in the office. “The whole team should be down there. It’s a mess, Cole.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes messes happen. I sent out a few boys to check it out. But it’s hard to get a good read on who could’ve done it. It appears they wore masks, so there’s not much we can do.”

“Not much you can do?” I huffed. “You could at least pretend to care?”

His voice dropped an octave, and he snickered at me. “You expect me to go out of my way for the man you’re seeing, Yar? I could think of a million other things I’d rather be doing than helping that dick. Like eating my mama’s sweet potato pie,” he said. He lifted a forkful of the pie, and I swatted it out of his hand before throwing the whole plate against the wall.

“Whoa!” he snapped, shooting to his feet. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Have you?!” I spat back at him, my chest rising and falling from anger. I’d never felt so disgusted by a person in my life. He was really doing this. He wasn’t helping Alex’s business because he was jealous of me moving on. “You’re acting like a coward. A weak ass who was given a job he never deserved or earned.” I turned toward the other officers and pointed at them each. “And shame on all of you for not standing up to him. For covering for him and for not doing your jobs.”

Cole snickered. “It seems that I still get under your—”

Slap.

I slapped him. I didn’t even realize my hand rose and landed against his face until he stumbled backward. His eyes bugged out, shocked by what happened. I was shocked, too, as my hand stung from the impact with his face.

He shook it off, and a sinister smirk landed on his face. “Assaulting an officer, huh? Nice move, Yar. Real mature,” he scolded. “Jeff, come over here and toss Yara into a cell for a while. An hour or two should do her well. She’s a bit feisty around the holidays.”

Officer Jeff stood, uncertain of what to do. He cleared his throat. “Listen, boss—”

“Now!” Cole ordered, pounding his hand against his desk.

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