Page 52 of Shielding Aubree

He wasn't making much if any effort to do it quickly, giving Aubree pointed looks while he did it. He'd been ready to come across the desk at her a moment before, so the timing of the FBI agent had been a miracle. A godsend.

Agent Aparicio moved to the edge of the desk and tapped her fingers on the hard laminated surface just inches from the prosecutor's briefcase.

When he gave her a furious side-eye look, she looked right back at him. "I have pressing business to discuss with Officer Cueva."

He turned his upper body toward the agent, a stiff, almost robotic movement. "I have urgent business with her about her official cases." He lifted his chin in the direction of the FBI Agent and raised his thick brows. "I'd like to think active prosecutable cases would be more important than whatever," he gestured with his hand in weak circles, "little conversation you two ladies might want to have."

Agent Aparicio straightened her spine and Aubree's lips thinned into a tight line as she tried not to draw the prosecutor's attention.

She didn't have to worry for long, because the Agent stepped in and took live fire.

"I've already spoken to District Attorney Rowser. He is well aware of my presence here today and I'm sure that he won't appreciate the way that you're trying to dismiss myrequestto confer with Officer Cueva. I'm happy to make it a demand and bring DA Rowser into the situation, but I also want to let youknow that I'm going to tell him what I heard during the last twenty minutes of your interrogation of Officer Cueva."

The man sputtered like a walrus, his chest puffing out in an almost comical manner. Aubree would have laughed at the man if she wasn't so pissed off and exhausted.

"I've read the letter from her neurologist and after watching her detail the evidence and accurately recounting her report from the incidents you were investigating, I don't see where you'd have a concern about her recall or her chances in court. What I do wonder if there's a reason why you seem to be looking for an excuse to tank these cases."

Aubree's eyes widened at the other woman's words.

"How dare you!" The prosecutor seemed to be just as shocked. "I have one of the best records in my office."

Alara pulled out her cell phone and flicked her finger across the screen and opened up an app. "You've had Officer Cueva as your main law enforcement witness on three of your court cases before her accident and each of those cases you've won."

Alara flicked her finger across the screen and brought up another file. "According to the survey of the jurors after each of those cases, she was also your best witness overall. Every juror, when asked, cited her memory and her personal conviction of the evidence as one of the main reasons they voted to convict."

Shannon folded his arms across his barrel-chest. "I know how to prep my witnesses."

Aubree felt a little light-headed with the FBI agent sighed as if the man was wasting her time.

"Then I need the room. You can head back to the office. I’m sure the District Attorney would like to talk to you."

Shannon's mouth gaped open for a moment before he clamped his lips shut.

With that, he reached down, grabbed a hold of the files and papers, crumpling many of them in his haste and shoveled them into his briefcase.

Aubree wasn't sure but she thought she heard him grumbling something about "meddling bitches," as he stormed down the hall.

She didn't know what to make of that. Shannon had a tendency to be short with her, but she'd just chalked it up to him being a pompous ass, but apparently it was also her sex.

Not that it was completely unheard of in the course of her daily work.

Sometimes that fact that she had breasts made it seem reasonable for some men and women to look down at her for wearing the uniform.

"What an unmitigated ass!" Agent Aparicio moved the chair that Shannon was using away from the table and brought another chair forward and sat down. "I was tired of waiting for him to get his shit together. You really do have a stellar memory."

Aubree sat back against her chair. "Except for twelve hours of my life. Most of that is a blank."

"Most?" Alara leaned in against the table. "You remember something?"

Aubree shrugged. "I wasn't exactly looking at a watch so all I can do is gauge it by the timeline of what the investigators came up with. I remember coming around and then there was some time when I was awake but waiting for someone to find me. Basically twelve hours of my life. Poof. Gone."

For an FBI Agent, Alara seemed really... normal.

Not that she'd met any before her, but she'd always thought that federal agents would be a little more... buttoned up.

Alara tapped her fingers on the table between them. "Well, your accident is why I came to see you today."

"My crash?"

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