Chapter Twenty-Two
Jonesy
Jonesy: I need to talk. Either of you free?
Caleb: Mario’s in twenty?
Alfie: I can be there.
Mario’s, an Italian-style brunch place, is bustling as usual for a Saturday afternoon, but I manage to snag a booth in the back where I take up residence waiting for Alfie and Caleb. The waitress brings over a menu and a soda.
My phone chimes, and I see a text come through from Katie.
Princess she-devil: Are you coming over tonight?
Jonesy: I was planning on it. Are you busy?
Princess she-devil: I’ve been going over The Poser case in preparation for his appeal. I need a distraction.
I sense she needs more than that. If she’s reliving some of the trauma that caused her to have these sleep problems in the first place, she’ll need a little bit of what only I can offer to sort her out.
Jonesy: I’ll be round for seven?
Princess she-devil: Earlier, if you can.
I grin into my phone like a goddamn teenager.
Jonesy: I’ll do what I can, princess. Don’t get started without me.
Princess she-devil: I make no promises.
“Who has you grinning like you’ve just discovered porn?” Caleb sniggers.
“Charming,” Alfie butts in, shaking my hand and slapping me on the back.
“Yeah, yeah, shut your holes and listen. I don’t have a lot of time, and I have plans later.”
“Fucking Katie, yeah, we know,” Caleb’s laugh booms loud enough for another table to look over.
I point my finger right in his face. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
“Whoa.” He holds his hands up. “Easy, tiger. I was just playing. It’s me, Caleb, your friend. No need to hulk out.”
If I hadn’t known the guy for fifteen years, I would have slapped him already. But Caleb is like this: he pushes your buttons until you’re ready to snap. Unfortunately for me, he knows exactly which buttons to push, so I react immediately.
“Help me, please?” I look at Alfie.
“Let’s get to the point, shall we? I also have plans this evening,” he says in that dry tone of his.
“Yeah, fucking Mia, we know.” Caleb laughs as Alfie’s jaw twitches, his fist clenching on top of the table. “Yeesh, you two are so boring since you’ve fallen in love.”
I feel heat spiraling around my body, like one of those twirly firecrackers that start exploding off at random times.
Feelings . . . emotions. Sleeping with Katie is making me have these dumb needs, and now I’ve got to have this conversation with these two idiots to make sense of it all. We’re like the blind leading the blind.
“Oh my God, you have fallen in love with her.” Caleb laughs, and Alfie’s eyes widen, flashing with curiosity.
He’s not wrong, but he thinks this is a new development, and it’s not. I’ve been in love with her since I was eighteen. I’ve just been too stupid to ignore it and not fix things until now.
“It might not matter if I don’t sort out this pickle I’m in.”
“I believe Katie’s favorite flowers are sunflowers,” Alfie says.
“I haven’t messed anything up . . . yet. And her favorite flowers are tulips, dickwad,” I say.
His grin stretches slowly, and he gives me a nod as if I’d just passed a test. I run my hand over my eyes, wondering where to begin.
“My boss is transferring me to the East Coast,” I say, rubbing a hand over my mouth.
Caleb and Alfie’s jaws slacken, mouths parted like a pair of goldfish. Open, close. Open, close. The only noise is the low hum of other patrons and the sound of a coffee machine whirring in the background.
“Well, hey there. My name is Rachel. Can I get you boys a drink too?” our server asks, pressing a few buttons on her iPad.
“We’re gonna need a minute, Rachel,” I say as the guys have yet to remember how to use their voices. I thought talking to them would help, but they’ve been fucking useless so far since I dropped the bombshell.
“No worries, macaronies. I’ll be back in two.” She skips off to another table, and I wait for the boys to start using their brains.
“What happened? I thought you were settled here. They promised you wouldn’t have to move,” Caleb says.
It’s hard to explain to civilians. But if the military tells you to do something, you do it.
You don’t get a lot of say. And I’d been lucky enough to be based here for the long term.
It would have been longer if not for the case.
There’s never been a problem before, so I’m being punished for not getting the case under military control and then not getting it closed quickly enough.
The colonel seems to think I can manipulate an entire police department when I have no experience working crime scenes before.
It’s odd, more than odd really, but I can’t exactly call the man out on it.
He runs the show, and the rest of us say yes, sir, no, sir when required.
“He’s the colonel. He can do whatever the hell he likes.”
“Man, this is so shit. What are you going to do? Fuck . . . does Katie know?” Caleb asks, his eyes widening as if it’s just occurred to him that Katie and I have finally progressed our relationship, and now I’m going to be leaving.
It was my first thought when I got the call, and the reason I’ve called these idiots before talking to her about it.
I don’t want to ruin what we’re doing here, but how can I keep her safe from her demons when I’m on the other side of the country?
“Not yet, I’m going to talk to her tonight. But . . .”
“But you want to keep being with her,” Alfie adds.
I nod before pushing my fingers into my brows.
What the hell am I going to do? The girl I’ve been obsessed with for years is giving me a fighting chance, and some old prick is going to take that away from me.
Just as she was healing, hell, just as we were healing.
I’m furious. I’m ready to quit, or go AWOL if they don’t let me stay.
The old goblin can go suck on a turd for all I care. My home is here. My life is here.
My fucking girl is here.
“Is there any way you can get around this?” Caleb asks.
“Yeah, I can convince the police to let the military take over the case, and I can convince Katie that the guy is guilty. If she writes that in her report and a recommendation for a military tribunal, then he’d let me stay.”
“You’re not going to ask her to do that are you?” Alfie, a stickler for all rules and regulations, chimes in.
“Of course I’m not. But I’m not going to lie to her. I’ll tell her what he said, and then we’ll tackle it together. I just hope she doesn’t think I’m trying to manipulate her.”
“If she sees you like this, there’s no way,” Alfie mutters.
Glad to know I look as shit as I feel.
“Okay, boys. Thank you for coming. I’m going to go and rip the band-aid off. Drinks are on me.”
◆◆◆
I let myself into Katie’s house, not bothering to knock.
It may have had something to do with a certain detective’s cruiser parked outside, or maybe it was because I’d grown a little too comfortable invading the she-devil’s space.
Either way, I could hear Katie screeching my name before I even saw her.
Excellent. She’s in the kitchen.
I let the thud of my boots answer for me until I lean against the doorway of the kitchen.
“You could knock, Jonesy. This isn’t your house.”
“I’ve come to check on my tiling.” I shrug as her piercing eyes attempt to shoot through my skull.
Detective Biceps’s nostrils flare, and I give him a big grin.
“Jones.”
“Anthony, pleasure to see you.”
He rolls his eyes, turning back to Katie, who he is sitting dangerously close to. Dangerous in that if he shifts another inch, I’m going to rip him out of the chair and launch him into the new wall we built.
“As I was saying, the DNA evidence has been compromised. The CCTV was wiped so there’s no clear lead on what happened, but we’re positive some of his army buddies entered the lab and stole it.”
“What’s this?” I frown.
The detective sighs as if I’m an inconvenience in this investigation and not Katie’s equal. Okay, I’m definitely not her equal; she has the skills, but the judge ordered me to be here, too.
“The DNA evidence we collected at the original crime scene was stolen from the laboratory. Know anything about that?” He crosses his arms over his chest, which I realize is becoming his signature stance.
“How exactly would I know about that?” I scoff, and even Katie looks confused.
“You’ve been arguing that it wasn’t Connor Maddox from the start, and now crucial evidence that proves it was him has gone missing, and you’re telling me you and your army buddies had nothing to do with it? How would they have even known where it was if not for you?”
I hold my hands up. “Whoa, Detective. You’ve hopped, skipped, and leapfrogged into a new dimension here. I don’t even know where the lab is . . . let alone what to look for when I get there. I had no idea about this.”
“Why would Jonesy do this?” Katie asks softly, her hand resting on his forearm. I know she’s doing it to placate him, but it sends a hot steel pipe through my stomach all the same.
“They’ve been trying to get this under military control. His boss has petitioned the judge to move it under their jurisdiction and not civilian. He’s been working that angle the whole time.” He pauses for a moment before adding, “He’s been working you.”
Now I’m fucking pissed. I open my mouth to tell him to shove that accusation where the sun doesn't shine, but Katie intercepts.
“Jonesy told me that his boss had asked for that. But he has done nothing of the sort.”
“He’s manipulating you.”
I slam my fist on the counter. “Fuck you, Anthony. You wanna fight, then let’s do it. You’re pissed that Katie and I are friends and you’re not getting your face time with her now that I’m here.”
I almost want to swing my dick around and tell him we’re fucking too, but I know for a fact that I won’t be fucking her any longer if I do that.
“That’s not true,” he spits.