Page 86 of Renegade

I gasped, “You came all the way down here?”

She watched my face hopefully. “You texted me when you were on your way and call me a sap, but I wanted to know how it turned out for them. You were very good.”

I laughed and shook my head. “No I was awful! Geez Louise—I had no idea what I was doing. Courtroom dramas need to step up their game. They are misleading the people.”

“You did great.” She reached out and squeezed my arm.

Life was funny. Monica and I had met twice since that morning at the coffee shop and it was going well. Not so well that I was ready for her to meet Mike, but maybe soon.

My phone began ringing and I dug through my purse for it. My pulse picked up when I saw it was Mike. “Just give me a second,” I held a finger up to Monica before walking a few feet away.

“Hello, handsome,” I beamed.

“How’d it go?”

I bit down on my lip, trying to decide how much to share. I decided to leave out the part where I threatened to call him down to deal with the court police…and the part where I barged in screaming. “Um,” I squeaked, “It went great. They called it off. How is it going with the thing? Had any breaks?”

He chuckled, “So when David said you burst into the courthouse like it was an episode ofLaw & Order, he was…”

“Exaggerating, obviously.”

He grew quiet. “I miss you.”

I held my breath, afraid to ruin the moment. I was convinced that if I opened my mouth,I love youwould come pouring out.How had he managed to tie me up in knots like this?

I finally cleared my throat and any thoughts of proclaiming my undying love for the man on the other end of the line. “Are you working late tonight?”

He clicked his pen and sighed. “Yep. I’m trying, Red. Believe me, I’d much rather be with you.”

I nodded, trying to regain control of my emotions.

“You still there?”

I took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’m nodding.”

I could hear the smile in his voice as he replied, “Right. I thought I sensed that. If I get out of here at a decent time, I’ll swing by.”

“Sounds good.” My voice sounded falsely bright to my own ears, but he didn’t seem to notice. I thought I knew what I was signing up for when I agreed to be his girlfriend a few days ago, but I guess I thought that it’d be like the beginning of summer where he was available more.

Instead, he was still investigating the case of the missing model, while juggling his other cases too. I’d sacrificed dinner at seven for sex at three AM—or whatever ungodly hour he decided to step away from his desk. Not that the sex wasn’t amazing, I just wanted a deeper connection.

Call me old-fashioned, but I wanted intimate talks over long dinners. I wanted to argue over where to eat. I wanted to take a weekend trip out of the city.

Jesus, what I wanted was a full eight hours of sleep.

I was starting to make stupid mistakes at work due to sleep deprivation. It wasn’t going to be long before Dr. Mulloy noticed either.

Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a cop’s girlfriend.

“Hey,” Monica patted my arm, “Is everything okay?”

I pushed the worry down and nodded. “All good. Let’s grab that dinner.”

Chapter Fourteen

October 2014

“We’ve got an issue.”Grey had said before hanging up.

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