Page 46 of Justice for Francesca

“Uh-huh. That’s why it took four phone calls for you to pick up the phone.”

“My phone was in the other room.”

“Mm-hmm. If you say so.” The squeaking of his desk chair could be heard in the background. “It’s probably nothing, but be careful, okay? Watch your back. I’d tell you to take Tripoli with you, but that really would be breaking the rules.”

“I promise to be careful.”

“Call me if anything comes up.”

“Will do.”

Cruz disconnected the call, and Francesca felt Tripoli’s eyes on her as she redressed in yesterday’s clothes. “I have to go.”

“What’s going on?”

“Tip came in. Ortiz wants me to go check it out.”

“Want me to come with you?”

“You can’t. If it turns out to be something, it would be a serious breach of protocol.”

She heard him sigh. When she finished dressing, she sat on the edge of the bed to put on her socks and boots. “I have to go change, then head to the location.”

“Will you come back here when you’re done?” Her hesitation told him the answer he didn’t want. “Dammit, Francesca. Quit running. Come back here when you’re done. Nothing’s going to happen that you don’t want to happen.”

It was time to reestablish distance. “Tripoli… don’t you think this is a sign? We’re just not meant to carry this through.” Completely dressed, she crossed to him in the doorway. With barely an inch between them, her hand raised to caress hischeek. “Please understand. I can’t. Not now. When the case is over…” She blew out a breath. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

He backed off from her so she could get through the door. “Go.” His voice was rough. “But I’m begging you, Francesca, come back here when you’re done.”

She felt herself weakening. “I could be out all night. Then I’ll have to go in tomorrow. I’ll have reports to fill out. Calder’s supposed to have a completed report on Jessa. I have work to do. We need to catch this person.”

“If it’s an hour from now. If it’s tomorrow night when you’re finally done. Whenever it is. I don’t care. I’ll be here.” His message was clear. He’d wait as long as it took. She didn’t deserve that, no matter what anybody said.

Without saying a word, Francesca strode to the elevator. She hit the unlock button, and when the door opened, she stepped inside and turned around. The doors closed, Francesca staring at the seam between them, feeling the lurch as the elevator headed to the ground floor. Tears fell.

All the wayto her hotel, Francesca tried to block from her mind Tripoli’s pained final look as the doors of the elevator closed. She felt herself dividing in two. On the one hand, she wanted to immediately begin building her walls to protect herself again. Return to the way things used to be. It would be comforting, although lonely, because she knew what to expect.

On the other hand, she felt this new part of her wanting to tear down those walls faster than she could rebuild them. Could she do that? Being outside her walls was a scary place. Would she be able to let go of everything holding her back to be withTripoli the way he wanted? The way he deserved a relationship to be?

She changed her clothes to ones suitable for spending the night staking out Mila’s house from her car. She drove to the office, went through her emails, looked at the latest reports from Calder, as well as skimmed the interviews from the day before, including the ones with the ex-boyfriend and her brother. Cruz attempted to apologize again, which she waved off. Before long, it was time to go to Mila’s home.

It was a relatively quiet neighborhood, especially now that it was after ten o’clock. She’d been here all afternoon and evening, ignoring the beeps from her phone. Texts from Tripoli. Texts from Cruz. Emails from the office.

While she sat and watched, she pulled up the searches she’d been doing since the Dallas case. She knew there had to be a link between who she had seen there and the Sequeira don, but she still wasn’t coming up with anything. While she was normally a patient woman, she was starting to get frustrated with the lack of confirmation she needed.

Maybe it had been just a coincidence after all. Maybe there was nothing to find. Something kept nagging at her, though, refusing to let go.

Her phone rang. Glancing down, she saw Cruz’s name pop up. With a sigh, she decided she couldn’t let this call go unanswered. “What?”

“Wow. No regulation answer of the phone. I really did interrupt something today.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Francesca put him on speaker. Was it terrible that she found herself hoping Mickie smothered him with a pillow? She didn’t want him to die. Just… be dead until morning.

“What do you want?” she repeated.

“Just checking on you. Anything?”

Francesca took a swig of her energy drink. “I’ve been here for a couple of hours. Nothing yet.”

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