Page 60 of Overstaying His Welcome

“What did he say?” I asked as soon as I heard him drop the phone on the table.

Archie huffed, then came around to where I could see him. “He said there’s something happening that he can’t talk about in the office. He’s on a case that he feels is a waste of time, but his boss wants him to investigate. His partner thinks it’s a dead end too, so he’s arguing with their supervisor over it right now. Stabler needed to go in order to calm the pair down.”

“Sounds like Pratt is a hot head?”

“That’s what I got out of it too.”

He turned to look at his husband, likely because he was signing something. From the corner of my eye, I saw him nod as he signed back, “Good point”.

“Takeshi’s thoughts?” I asked.

“He thinks there’s definitely a connection somehow. It’s not clear, but his intuition is saying we need to get the team together in one place and stay close. Whatever is going on with Lune is linked to Pratt in some way. Even if it’s just they’re both against Tank in some way.”

I nodded as I mentioned the stray thought I’d had earlier. “You don’t think Lune and Pratt are the same person do you?”

“What? That seems a bit far-fetched, don’t you think?”

“Not really. We don’t have a lot on Lune. Even the photo we have is one I’m not fully certain is him. We mixed up Ajax and Mordecai. What if we’re wrong about this too?”

The doubt in my voice made me sick to my stomach. This wasn’t who I was.

My career with NightShade was built on gathering the facts and presenting them to the team. We didn’t have to guess at things because I knew how to get the truth.

But with this, I was at a loss.

So much of what we were doing felt like it was up to chance. And often, we were steps behind the men we tried to take down.

How the hell would we ever finish this if I couldn’t pull it together?

Archie’s hand on my shoulder startled me. “Hey. You know you’re not alone in this? Tell us what you need, and we’ll help.”

“Food! The man needs food!” Sinclair demanded as he slid past Archie to climb in my lap. I barely had time to back up my chair before he positioned himself just how he wanted.

My mouth opened to tell him I needed to work, except instead of speaking, I wound up with a mouth full of fries. Sinclair grinned at me, like he was happy he successfully foiled my actions.

He’s lucky I loved him.

Turning to Archie, he said, “Catch me up on what I missed.”

CHAPTER 19

DETECTIVE STABLER

I fucking hated Lachlan Pratt.

The bastard was the type that made my job far harder than it needed to be. So what if our boss told us to look into a cold case? Who cares if he thought there was something we’d missed?

Our job was to do as he said. There was a reason he had the title and the paycheck he did.

Besides, I found it much easier to get along with others than to rock the boat simply because I was chasing a promotion I wasn’t ready for.

It felt like Pratt had come into the bureau aching to climb the ladder as fast as possible. It wasn’t even about good police work for him.

He wanted the recognition.

He wanted power.

I’d be damned if he got either. At least not before he was ready.

---