Page 29 of A Forgotten Mistake

When I glance into the rearview mirror, Cole looks pretty happy about that. Gabriel is well on his way to gaining his trust, so maybe the next time the dad does something stupid, Cole will trust Gabriel instead of his father like Gabriel is really hoping.

I step out of the bathroom at work with water dripping off my hands. “Michaels, we’re out of paper towels.”

“What do you want me to do about it?” Michaels asks, like it could possibly be someone else’s job and not the sergeant’s.

“Robinson! Here, boy,” I say as Robinson walks by. He stops and looks at me as I head over and dry my hands off on his shirt. “Thank you.”

Robinson stares at his damp shirt but doesn’t say a thing about it as I walk away, quite pleased with myself.

“Liam,” Gabriel says, of course catching me at that very moment.

“Yes, my sweets?”

“Don’t use Robinson as a hand towel.”

“He likes it, don’t you, Robinson? Do you like being a hand towel?”

“I sure do,” he says.

“I would fucking love to know the dirt you have on Robinson,” Matthew says. “Like did you help him bury a body or something?”

“The only person I’d bury a body for is Gabriel,” I assure him.

Sgt. Michaels glances over at me. “Paige, when you’re done harassing your coworkers, we have permission to search the house that was broken into. We didn’t even need a warrant; the owners gave us permission. It was searched the other day, but you mentioned you wanted to go through it more thoroughly.”

“Awesome. I’ll head there after talking to Jesse,” I say as I head for the elevator. Gabriel and Matthew slip inside with me.

“Repeat after me,” Gabriel instructs.

“Maybe I don’t wanna.”

“I will not use my coworkers as hand towels.”

“Gabriel, why do you clip my wings like this?” I ask.

“Gabriel is doing selfless work here,” Matthew says.

“Who invited the wheel to join us?”

“Wheel? Were you two going on a date with the bodies?” he asks.

“That’s how our first date kicked off,” I retort as Gabriel fixes me with a look. The look means that I’m not as funny as I thought I was. It’s not like I straight up told him that it was Jon Davies’ body and definitely wasn’t a date.

“Let’s get back on track here,” Gabriel says.

“I don’t even remember what the track was. Something about seeing Matthew gives me a headache, like my entire body rejects him… was that the track?”

“No, that you shouldn’t use people as hand towels!”

“So picky, but fine.”

We walk over to the medical examiner’s office and find Jesse slumped in his chair as he stares at the computer.

“Oh joy, Liam’s here. Another thing to ruin my day,” he says as he turns in the chair to face me. Really, he shouldn’t pretend he hates me and then act like he only has eyes for me.

“Jesse, I would like to introduce you to Matthew, another man as irritating as you are.”

“I’ve worked here for years. I know who Jesse is. You’re the only one present who forgets who people are,” Matthew says as he pushes me out of the way. “Let’s see what you have.”

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