Page 31 of Sinful Deception

“Why is everyone so certain there will be shouting?”

He firms his lips and looks dead into my eyes. “Is that a serious question?”

“Ya know what?” I rise from my chair and spin to shove it under his desk.Why? I don’t know! It’s what we do in middle school. Then I point a finger in his direction, “If you aren’t going to help, then don’t speak at all. But this was a fun visit.” I drop my hand and storm toward the door. “Nice to see you again, Lawrence.”

“A pleasure,” he rumbles tauntingly. “As always. Every time we’re near, you leave my heart warm and comforted.”

“Shut up.” I yank the door open and prepare to storm out, only to skid to a stop when I almost walk face-first into Fifi. Her hand is up, prepped to knock, while she holds a tray in the other, three steaming coffees perched in their individual slots. “You?” I shout.Why am I shouting?

But then her eyes turn to ice, and she throws her temper right back at me. “You! Why are you here? I hardly consider this appropriate.”

“You ducked out yesterday like you thought none of us would notice! Friends don’t make their friends worry like that, Fifi!”

“You were clearly busy and had more pressing matters to see to. Why on earth would I steal attention and announce my intention to go home?”

“Ladies?” So fucking calm, so assured, Lawrence stands and gestures Fifi forward. And because she’s completely incapable of disobeying him, she steps around me and strides across to his desk.

“Your coffee, Mayor.” She offers the tray and nods her approval when he selects the correct cup. But then she turns back to me, a sneer plastered on her beautiful face. “I should have known. Strong coffee, no sugar, barely a dash of cream. Minka freakin’ Mayet is in the building.” She glares back at her boss. “You set me up and had me bring her coffee?”

“I gave you a chance to be somewhere else,” he counters. “And her a chance to say what needed to be said before you’d arrived. I consider my plan genius.”

“I don’t fetch her coffee anymore! I don’t work for her.”

“Oh, please.” I stride her way and take my cup since I am, in fact, desperate for my next hit of caffeine. “You’ll leave this dump before the end of the month, and then you’ll come crawling back to me, begging for your job back.”

“This dump?” Lawrence looks around his office in wonder. “Really? I thought it was quite nice.”

“I’m not leaving here to go back to the morgue! And even if I was jobless and at risk of homelessness, I wouldn’t beg you for a thing.”

“Pride has left better people hungry. Luckily for you, your performance outweighs your crappy attitude, so I’ll welcome you back when the time comes. Perhaps Lawrence will accept Callen as your replacement. Which isn’t a bad deal, really, considering you trained her.” I flop back into the seat I began in and sip my coffee. “Why’d you sneak out yesterday?”

“Because there was no reason for me to be there!” She takes the third coffee and tosses the tray on Lawrence’s desk so it lands with a slap and skids across the smooth top. “Announcing my departure would have been tacky.”

“Not as far as I was concerned. You were there, and then you weren’t. And I was so damn busy with what was going on, I didn’t have time to find out where you’d gone. That means I worried, Fifi, when all you needed to do, even if you didn’t want to announce anything, was shoot me a text and say you were headed home.”

“And remind me again,” she perches on the edge of Lawrence’s desk, effectively giving him her back and cutting him out of our fight, “why am I texting you life updates? We’re not those types of people! You never text me to say, ‘Hey, I’m home and alive and just checking in’. Why on earth would I start a tradition like that on the day of such tragedy?”

“Because I was worried! Fletch and Mia needed us, but that doesn’t mean I forgot you existed. I sat with Mia for hours, holding her when she let me, while she cried for the mom she would never get to hug again. Because even if their relationship sucked, and even if Jada rarely hugged her even when she was alive, losing that potential future is devastating for a little girl.”

“She knows?” Finally, Fifi’s voice crackles with pain. “You told Mia last night?”

“Yeah!Itold Mia. Fletch tried to help, and Cato and Archer inserted their thoughts here and there, but the heavy load was onme. Because I’m a medical examiner and I’ve talked to the families of the deceased my whole career. But the whole time I was with her, I thought of you! Because I knew you would hurt for the little girl whose heart was breaking.”

“Is she okay?” Her willow-green eyes well up, ready to spill over. “I know the news would have been devastating in the moment. But is she doing okay?”

“She fell asleep while crying, and then she screamed when Fletch dragged her off of me and put her to bed. She didn’t want to be alone, and she refused to sleep anywhere unless she was touching one of us. Because that’s what happens when a child receives news that would rock her entire life.”

“Minka—”

“She cried for you, too.” Fifi’s already down, so now I’ll kick her too, I suppose. “She wept, and she hugged me. She cried for Aubree because Aubree wasn’t there. And she cried for you because she hasn’t spent time with you in months. She feels abandoned.”

“Don’t.” She sniffles and reaches up to swipe a tear from her cheek. “Don’t pile on. I didn’t abandon her.”

“You did, actually! You and her dad had a fight, so to save yourself, you hit the road and are yet to go back.”

“I’m trying to save her from hurting in the future!

I bring my coffee up, though I can’t stop the roll of my eyesalmosthidden behind my hand. “A topic we’ve discussed ad nauseam. Agree to disagree. Either you love her or you don’t, but basing your relationship with her on your relationship with her dad is lame.”

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