Chapter Eighteen
Dan
A night out should not feel like walking up to a sketchy traffic stop.
Even with my dash cam and body cam, sometimes my gut twisted with knots when I settled my hat on my head and stepped out of my unit. I’d learned to lean into the sensation because my instinct was rarely wrong.
Lila flinching when I laid my hand on her lower back to usher her ahead of me into the Cue Club put those same tight lumps in my belly, narrowing my focus, making the music and chatter both too loud and a muted rush of sound in my ears.
She freaking flinched from me.
That couldn’t be good.
Shit, was she going to break up with me?
I pushed down the dread and panic – that never helped anyone.
I didn’t get it, though. Last weekend had been good.
I mean, things had gone well with her parents, and we’d checked in all week.
I had those pretty gold earrings in my pocket, too, ready for an opportunity to give them to her.
If she’d been a little distracted during our video calls, well . . . that didn’t have to be bad.
Pulling my hand back, I schooled my face to the neutral expression I used on those about-to-go-bad stops. “You’re jumpy tonight.”
Her eyes flew to mine, wide and panicky, a little guilty.
Oh, hell.
I stepped to one side, away from the huge party of locals streaming in behind us. I didn’t touch her, just led so she could follow. Tiny lines of anxious misery settled about her mouth, and my gut rolled over.
Shoulders straight, I kept my breathing even. “Do we need to go somewhere so we can talk?”
Relief flashed in her eyes, and I watched the end of us roll through my brain like the inevitability of a disaster movie.
She was about to dump me.
The earrings grew into a heavy lump of disappointment in my pocket.
Somehow, I pulled my shoulders taller. I would not be a dick about this. Might go home and bawl, but I would not make her feel bad for not wanting me like I wanted her.
I needed her loving me freely or not at all. I needed a relationship – or an ending – that was fair to both of us.
Jaw clenched, I glanced around. The Cue Club was packed tonight, but we could talk in the parking lot. I frowned. She might not feel safe doing that in the dark. Maybe I should just take her home–
“Dude.” Josh slung an arm around my neck. “Wait ‘til I tell you about Nicole.”
“What?” I glared, dragging my attention from Lila’s tense, miserable face. I didn’t care about Nicole.
Tightening his hold, Josh steered me toward the high-top where Vic, Santillan, and Lacey gathered, wings and longnecks littering the table. Vic’s gaze honed in on Lila behind me, flicked to me, and back to her.
Hell.
She saw it, too.
Shrugging Josh off, I turned, intending to gather Lila and get us out of here. Santillan slapped my back. With his beer, he gestured toward a booth near the bar, where Nicole and Allison leaned forward over nachos in an intense conversation. “Hear about your girl Nicole?”
I gritted my teeth. “She’s not my girl.”
“Dude, she got suspended by the city.” Josh reached for a cheese stick. “For taking fraudulent leave. Apparently, you can’t lie about being pregnant and on bedrest.”
“Wait.” Lila pushed into the circle, shoulder jostling my arm. “What?”
“HR asked for medical excuses.” Josh grinned around a slug of beer. “She couldn’t get a doctor’s note.”
Frowning, I held up a hand. “How do you even know this?”
“Pillow talk.” Josh waved away my concern. “Evelyn in HR is sleeping with Mel, and she should know he can’t keep a secret.”
“Who lies about something like that?” Lila’s infuriated tone bordered on a shriek. Her narrowed gaze, blazing with wrath, locked on mine. “You got hurt because of her.”
“I’m okay.” I shrugged. “Her behavior isn’t, but I am.”
If anything, her anger flared hotter. “How are you so calm? Dan–”
“Hey.” I wrapped my hand around hers and drew her away, aware Allison’s attention had settled on us, a slight smirk of satisfaction curving her mouth. I took a chance, cradling Lila’s jaw in my palm even though she might be on the verge of dumping me. I didn’t want her upset. “I’m okay.”
Frustration vibrated through her, fiery gaze sliding over my shoulder to the back of Nicole’s head.
“You’re not kicking her ass.” I sighed. “Don’t want to bail you out of jail.”
“You’re not funny. That night was awful, Dan, and could have been worse. You were in that situation because she lied. And she lied because she wanted you.”
“I know. But she doesn’t have me.” I inhaled, about like I did before I stepped up to the driver’s window on a stop. “You do–”
“You bitch.”
Lila stumbled into me, colliding with my chest. I wrapped an arm about her waist, shifting to put myself between her and a familiar blonde.
I scowled. “What the hell, Krista?”
Chest heaving, Krista Barnes, one of our dispatchers, glared at Lila. “Nothing to say, you cheating whore?”
Anger detonated in my chest, squeezing my lungs, kick-starting my heart. I forced myself into a defusing-the-situation cop stance. “Krista.”
“I’m not talking to you, Dan.” Her raised voice carried over the music, drawing attention, and Allison’s smirk widened.
Josh and Vic pushed through the frozen crowd. I held up a hand, palm facing Krista. “Let’s calm down and talk about what’s going on.”
“What’s going on is your little Atlanta-trash girlfriend is sleeping with Chase.” Krista narrowed her eyes to slits. “Slut.”
Lila fisted my t-shirt between my shoulders. “What are you talking about?’
Trembling with fury, Krista shoved a cell phone at her. “I’m talking about this.”
A contact card glowed on the screen. Lila’s name appended with a peach emoji and a photo of her laughing, a white sheet clutched to her chest, shoulders bare.
I recognized that photo because I’d taken it.
Krista dragged shaking fingers over the screen and held up a text thread. “See?”
Even with her shaky hold, I clocked the suggestive nature of the thread – sexting, arranging to meet, a dick pic, a shot of bare breasts.
Those were not Lila’s.
I didn’t need that evidence, though.
“No.” I lifted my gaze to Krista’s. “She’s not that person.”
“So fucking naive,” Krista spat. She waved the phone. “You’re looking at–”
I pressed the contact photo at the top of the thread to take me back to the card. Lila smiled at me there once more, an intimate, joyous moment that belonged only to us.
And only on my phone.
“That’s not her number.”
The reality didn’t seem to compute with Krista, but people didn’t think straight when they were angry. Or betrayed. Again. She blinked. “What?”
“It’s not her number.” I circled my finger over the screen. “She has an Atlanta area code. This is local.”
“Krista, give me my damn phone.” Voice full of bored irritation, Chase Green muscled through the gawking bystanders.
“Whose number is this, Chase?” Screaming, Krista shoved the phone at his face. I shifted to shield Lila completely with my body. “Why is her name and face on it if it’s not her number?”
Chase shrugged. “It was easier.”
“Easier?” Krista shrieked.
With another shrug, Chase looked at Lila, but I didn’t hear a damn apology. Fucker. Just wait until he needed backup on a medical call gone wrong while I was on shift.
Krista waved the device in a wild circle. “Who is she for real, Chase?”
I slanted a sidelong look at Allison Barnett’s smug face. I had a pretty good idea how Lila’s photo had ended up on a contact in Chase’s phone and what Allison was covering up.
“Krista, hush a minute for me.” I pitched my voice low and steady, and sympathy flashed through me when she turned her tear-stained face to me. My mama had felt that same pain, and this was the second time someone Krista was building a life with cheated on her. “Give Chase his phone.”
Her fingers clenched on it before her shoulders slumped and she threw it. He caught it against his chest. I shifted my attention to the smug asshole and lifted a finger.
“Delete that photo.” I narrowed my eyes. “And anything else you have.”
Chase rolled his eyes, but pulled up the pic and deleted it in front of me. I knew – and he did, too – that the GBI lab would be able to pull it forensically, but I felt better having it off his screen.
I held his gaze a moment, then fixed Allison with a steady look. Her smirk morphed to a full-on gleeful grin.
Yeah. Just wait, girl.
If I had my way, she wouldn’t be grinning long. Keeping Chase and Krista in sight, I pulled out my phone and texted Billy, who I knew was on shift and liked to run radar just up the highway. Within seconds, his be right there appeared.
Satisfaction settled in my chest, and I lifted my gaze to Allison’s and grinned. She faltered, expression shifting before she lifted her chin, like her posturing meant anything. We’d handle this little felony of hers legally, and I bet the hospital would frown on it, too.
Maybe the state nursing board.
Krista tracked my gaze, furious disgust settling over her features. She’d always been smart, despite her shit luck with men.
She turned on Chase. “Her?”
Boots thumping on the wood floor, she stalked toward Allison. Chase groaned and jogged after her with a muttered fuck.
I shifted to face Lila, keeping half my attention on the yelling shitshow now unfolding across the bar.
Billy might need backup, and Dix was going to be pissed that one of our dispatchers seemed intent on beating Allison’s ass.
With a longsuffering expression, Chase put himself between Krista and Allison.
Face pale, Nicole had scrambled to stand on the seat on her side of the booth.
Phone at his ear, Josh strode toward the chaos.
“You okay?” I wrapped gentle hands around Lila’s shoulders. Fine tremors vibrated into my palms. That was a stupid question, and I was a damn dumbass. Of course she wasn’t okay. I flexed my fingers in a soft squeeze. “I’ll make this right.”
Blinking back tears, she pressed her lips together.
Good hot damn, I was going to fuck up Allison Barnett’s life every legal way possible.