Page 88 of Enraged

Finally. She’s ready to go again.

Walking across the bay, I glanced up at the analog clock.

Only an hour and a half left. Please, Lord, keep it calm.

I stepped into my office.

“Too late to go back to sleep. May as well organize this crap,” I groaned, staring at my desk. I gathered the stacks of paperwork, making sure they were in correct order, and put them in the file cabinet.

Finishing quicker than I thought I would, I pulled my phone from my desk drawer.

No texts from Lena, two video messages from Cassie, and two missed calls from my dad.

She and Jace must have made up. Nothin’ but the cold shoulder or radio silence all day.

Jace’s words replayed in my mind.

“Lena came by the house.”

“That’s why she wanted her car!” I shouted out into my dimly lit office.

Bile rose in my throat.

Why would she stay with him knowin’ the type of person he is?

I made a plan to go to her house to talk some sense into her the second that my shift ended.

“Burnin’ the midnight… or 5AM oil?” Chief Hennessy interrupted my thoughts.

“I figured I’d get these reports finished and filed,” I lied. “Why are you awake?”

He leaned against my doorframe. “Worried about my Lieutenant.”

“I’m good, Chief.”

“Quit all that lyin’.”

I sighed. “I just… I realized today that I’ve lost someone that was like a brother to me… and it stings a little.”

“Everyone in your life is either a blessin’ or a lesson.”

“That’s what I’ve heard.”

“It’ll get better, Dakota. Not tomorrow, probably not next week, maybe not even next month… but it will get better. One day at a time.”

“Yes, sir. Thanks, Chief.”

We walked out of the office, leaving me to my own devices. One of which I picked up and used to type a text out to Lena. I read it and reread it, and before I could talk myself out of it, I pressed send.

This will either be the lesson or the blessin’.

Jolene

I stared at Dakota’s text on my phone screen.

Me, him and the whiskey in the hot tub… where’s his fiancé in this scenario? Passin’ out towels?

Pissed off, I locked my phone and sat it on the nightstand.

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