Chapter 10
When Amarylis got a phone call toward the end of the day, she just knew it would be Tristan. She groaned as she answered it. “Are you canceling our dinner date?”
After a moment of surprise, he replied, “I guess it wouldn’t be good if I did, huh ?”
“If you have a good reason, then, of course, you do what you’ve got to do, but I was looking forward to it.”
“Good,” he said, “because I wasn’t calling to cancel.”
Smiling, she asked, “What’s the problem then?”
“I just wanted to ask if I could meet you at the restaurant, as I’m held up here for a bit.”
“Sure, we can do that. What time?”
“How about six? But make sure you take your guard with you.”
“Sure, it’s not as if he’s had an easy day of it, as I’ve been on the tables most of the time. The poor guy had it much worse than he expected,” she shared. “I had a lot of them today, but nothing quite so bad as what you’ve been dealing with though.”
“And yet your information brought about a breakthrough, so we appreciate that.”
“Good, I’m glad I could be useful. You can fill me in at dinner.” And, with that, she laughed and was gone.
He sent her a thumbs-up and a heart emoji in a text right away, almost making her feel bad for hanging up but not quite. As she got through the rest of her day, she went to find her guard. “So, apparently you’re still on duty, huh ?”
“Apparently so,” Scott said, with a nod.
“You don’t have anybody to switch out with you?”
“I’ll switch out when it’s time to switch out,” he shared, with a gentle smile. “Don’t you go worrying about me.” She frowned at him. He grinned back at her. “Besides, you should be getting away from all that nastiness in there soon, right?”
“Maybe,” she said, with a smirk, “but it’s a nastiness I’m used to.”
“How is it that you can even think about doing that stuff?” he asked, with a shudder.
“It doesn’t require thinking at all. It’s what I’m good at, what I trained for, and it doesn’t bother me at all.”
“That’s the part I don’t get,” he replied, staring at her. “You look so sweet and innocent, and now here you are, carving up bodies all day.”
At his description, she laughed. “I guess for some people that sounds very strange, doesn’t it?”
“Uh, yeah, like for everybody. I can’t imagine there is anything not disturbing about it for most people.”
“That’s because most people don’t want to think about death, but it’s a natural part of living. The one guarantee you have when you’re born is that you will die. You just don’t know when or how.”
“I prefer it that way myself,” he muttered.
“Maybe, but a lot of people do want to know,” she pointed out. “We can’t always give them that level of information. Sometimes I don’t think we should either.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I think we would probably live better if we didn’t know when that day was happening.”
He shrugged. “If we did know the day of our death, in some ways we might appreciate every day a little bit more and make the most of it.”
“Maybe,” she agreed. “Anyway, it’s time to meet Tristan at the restaurant.”
“ Right .” He chuckled. “From the morgue to a date.”
She rolled her eyes. “Still not sure about how this whole date thing came about.”
“That’s easy,” he replied, with a grin. “It’s when a man meets a woman, and they fall in love.”
She burst out laughing, which she knew was exactly what he intended, but he had said it in such a comical way that it was hard not to.
“Glad you’ve got a sense of humor,” he replied, with that smile of his.
“Yeah, I do, and sometimes it’s the only thing that keeps me going.”
“You do deal with all those creepy things on the table over there.”
She nodded in amusement. “Most people wouldn’t say bodies were creepy.”
“They obviously don’t spend enough time with you then,” he quipped. “My God, the things you do to them.”
“Yes, and all in the name of science and getting answers for people,” she explained.
“I get it. I do, but I don’t think I would ever want my body autopsied. You’re not kidding when you say you get into every bit of their life.”
“That’s because I have to, in order to get the answers. So, we have to cut open all parts of the body and see what’s going on,” she clarified. “And, once we’ve made as many cuts as we need to, if the answer is still not there, then we have to dig deeper, and sometimes we have to go even farther. But still, generally the body gives up its answers—not always, not every time. However, if we’re lucky, the body does release those answers and makes our lives just a little bit easier.”
He shook his head at that. “I still think it’s creepy.”
She laughed. “That’s fine. You keep thinking it’s creepy.” She waved him off. “I’ll keep doing my job regardless.”
With a mutual agreement to stay out of each other’s work, she headed home where she quickly had a shower and got changed. When she stepped out again, her guard, Scott, nodded approvingly. “You clean up nice, Doc.”
She batted her eyes at him. “Gee, thanks, damned with faint praise.”
He flushed. “I didn’t mean it that way,” he said awkwardly.
“Oh no, that’s okay. I always put away my knives before I go out on a date.”
“Good, I can’t imagine dating somebody who was touching dead bodies all day.”
“The thing is, I leave the bodies in the morgue,” she noted. “It’s not something I work on at home. Just think of all the guys who bring their work home, and be happy that I don’t.”
He stared at her in shock and asked, “The coroners couldn’t do that though, right?”
“No, they sure couldn’t,” she reassured him, and then she shrugged. “Sometimes we have to bring tissue samples and things like that home.” He shuddered and she laughed. “They would be under microscope glass, so it’s not that big of a deal.”
“Yeah, you say that,” he muttered, with a mocking grin. “So Tristan told me to drive you to the restaurant and that he would bring you home,” he shared, with a waggle of his eyebrows.
“Good,” she replied calmly, “that suits me just fine. That way I can have a drink and not worry about driving.”
“Right, drinking . So I guess I could be driving you both home then, huh ? Still, he did warn me that he might get called off of your date, so I should stick around, just in case.”
“Our date could be interrupted with a call from his team,” she noted. “As far as drinking goes, I don’t think Tristan ever allows himself to unwind enough to have anybody else drive him.”
“I think you may be right.” Scott frowned. “Those guys, they have a hell of a reputation.”
“I would imagine it’s more than a reputation,” she noted, “or at least a reputation that they earned fairly.”
“Oh absolutely,” Scott agreed, with a nod. “They’re still scary dudes though. They have that reputation, and it’s definitely something that we respect, but it’s also something that we hold slightly apart from the rest, just because we know they’re the people they are.”
“And yet good people,” she said uncertainly.
“Oh, you don’t have to convince me.”
“I was hoping you would convince me.”
“Ah,… well, I’ve been watching some of that team for a long time,” he shared. “I often wondered about becoming an investigator myself, but, if it means going into your morgue on a regular basis”—he held up his hands—“no thank you.”
She grinned at him. “Just think, by then you could be totally comfortable in my morgue.”
“I doubt it. I don’t think anybody could be comfortable in there.”
“And yet you forget that I don’t work alone. I have assistants, technicians, and Dr. Cox, my boss, who works there with me. Also we have admin people, and then all kinds of work that people clean up after us.”
“Oh no, no, no, hell no.”
That image may have been too much for Scott. She burst out laughing as they walked outside and got into the MP’s car. When he turned it on and pulled out of the parking lot, she asked, “Did Tristan tell you where we’re going?”
He nodded. “Yeah, he sure did.”
“Good, because I don’t know all that many places around here yet.”
“We have a lot of places to get a good meal here,” he noted, with a smile, “and Tristan seemed pretty adamant that you will like this one.”
“Good. I trust him, so whatever he picks out is just fine with me,” She yawned, rubbing at her face.
Scott frowned. “You shouldn’t have gone into work today. You’re tired.”
“I am tired, but it’s a good tired. It’s a tired borne of doing something good, of helping out. You know, that kind of tired.”
“Maybe so, but still you work too hard.”
“You’re not the first person to tell me that,” she admitted, with a chuckle, “and you won’t be the last, so thank you, but I’m fine.”
“In other words, butt out, right?” he asked, with a note of humor.
“Sure, butt out works.”
At the restaurant, Scott parked, checking out their surroundings, and said, “Come on. Let’s go.” And he walked her inside.
When she saw Tristan, she felt relief easing the tension inside her and gave a long sigh.
Scott chuckled. “See? I told you that he would be here, the lucky sod.” She shrugged. “Hey, outside of your job, you’re pretty hot,” Scott shared, and, with that, he stepped back out of the restaurant.
Surprised at his comment, she shook her head and walked over toward Tristan, who was standing up, waiting for her.
“Hey,” he greeted her, as she arrived at the table. “I hope you’re okay that Scott brought you here?”
“It was fine. I have to admit that I was a little perturbed because I wasn’t sure if everything was okay out there. You get a little spoiled having personal treatment like this.”
He smiled at her. “It’s okay, and Scott is nice.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I would hate for him to be one of the bad guys.”
Tristan winced at that. “We all would, and we definitely know somebody in our world is double-crossing us,” he shared, “but we haven’t figured out who just yet.”
She winced and nodded. “So, in other words, still watch my back.”
“Always, but I wouldn’t have had you with Scott if I didn’t trust him.”
“Sure, but it seems as if these days we don’t know who we can trust,” she muttered. She sat down in the chair that he held for her, and as soon as she was seated, he walked back around and sat down across from her. She smiled. “You look a little tired.”
“A little tired is definitely something I can deal with. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night.”
She nodded. “I was wondering about that. Just because I went back to sleep for a little while doesn’t mean you got that opportunity.”
“Nope, I sure didn’t,” he confirmed, leaning closer to her, “but our prisoner is still alive, so we’ll take that as a good thing.”
“I hope he stays that way,” she replied in a serious tone. “In all honesty, I do. There’s been so much death already.”
Tristan nodded. “That’s definitely something we’re concerned about, and we do have security on him, but it’s only as secure as we can make it.”
She nodded. “And I suppose you carefully chose his guard.”
He smiled. “The ones who we have looking after Terry have been thoroughly vetted, so that’s not a concern.”
“Glad to hear that, so…” She looked around to see if a waitress was coming.
“You’re hungry?”
“I am,” she admitted, with a smile, “so if food is available, bring it on.”
“Food is always available.” He chuckled.
Just then the waitress arrived, bringing two glasses of red wine. Amarylis smiled in delight as one was placed in front of her and the other with Tristan. “Look at that, a man who likes to make decisions.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve met a lot of guys who would never order a glass of wine for a lady,” she shared, with a smile, “just in case it was wrong.”
“If it was wrong, it could be easily changed,” he noted. “Besides, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t take care of the extra glass too.”
She chuckled. “It always seemed to me that it would be an easy thing to do, and I do enjoy a good glass of wine and a red one at that, so that’s an interesting choice.”
“It’s just how I like it and hoped you would appreciate some too.”
Amarylis hadn’t even had a chance to look at the menu, feeling too tired to even deal with it. More as a challenge to him than anything, she asked, “What are you having?”
“A steak with a baked potato and a Caesar salad.”
Smiling, she said, “That sounds great. Make that two.”
He nodded, and the waitress returned, so he quickly ordered, including toppings for the potato. “Was that a bit of a challenge or just you tired?” he asked Amarylis.
“Both,” she said, followed by a yawn. “I’m tired. The lack of sleep has definitely affected me.”
“Of course, but we’ll get you a good meal, hopefully in a relaxing atmosphere, so then you can go home and get some sleep.”
“That’s the hope, but I don’t know if it will work out that way.”
“Let’s hope so. We do have the one prisoner still, and he’s formally asked for protection.”
She stared at him, her jaw slowly closing in shock. “Seriously?”
He nodded, a grin on his face. “Jasper’s working on arranging it right now. I’ve been waiting all afternoon and was finally relieved of guard duty when Masters came in, so I headed out.”
“Interesting that our intruder has changed his tune on that,” she noted, staring at him.
“Every once in a while, we do catch a break.”
“But he hasn’t told you anything, has he?”
“No, not until we make an agreement with him,” he said, with an eye roll.
“I guess you can’t blame the guy.”
“Maybe not, but, once Terry realized his sister was dead, which did take a bit for him to believe, he looked at things differently. I also think he recognized Drew, Mason’s sniper, though Terry didn’t say anything, but his facial expression did. He didn’t appear to know anything about Nicholas.”
“And that’s the other investigator who was missing for so long, right?”
He nodded. “Exactly.”
“Interesting,” she murmured. “How much of this is multiple arms of the same headache?”
“Anything is possible,” Tristan noted cheerfully. “It’ll be hard to know, until we get further down this pathway. However, we are pretty excited about potentially having somebody to talk to and to get more information from.”
“And Masters is okay? You trust him?”
“Absolutely. Master’s is one of the good guys.”
“It seems all the good guys work in your department,” she said, with a smile.
“Some of them are our own hand-picked guys, and we totally trust them. Hard to keep the good guys down,” he added, with a smile.
She sighed. “But, if something does go wrong, you will lose yet another witness.”
“Don’t say that. That’s not what we want to hear.”
“Of course not. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“No, it’s all right. We’re certainly aware that this is a problem, but we’re hoping that it isn’t that big of a problem.”
She just nodded and didn’t say anything.
A few minutes later Tristan’s phone buzzed, and he winced and apologized. “Sorry, but I do have to take any calls coming in.”
“Take them, and keep me filled in.”
He laughed, looked down at his phone. “It’s Jasper.” In a low voice he answered the call, and she heard just a little bit of the conversation. When he hung up, he was smiling. “Good news. Sounds like your intruder made a deal.”
“That is great news. So, what will you do after dinner?”
“I was hoping to get some sleep, but instead I’ll head back to see what we can get out of this guy.”
“Oh, wow. Even tonight?”
“Yes, especially tonight. We can’t give the bad guys too much time to find Terry.”
She winced and nodded. “You’re right. I guess I was thinking that, at some point in time, you would get off this godforsaken case.”
“At some point in time I will,” he declared, with a smile, “but not today.” She nodded. “Does that bother you?” he asked after a moment.
“Does what bother me?”
“The hours I work.”
Surprised, she shook her head. “No. Do the hours I work bother you?”
“Sure,” he admitted cheerfully, “I might give you a talking to because you work too much. Then I may chew you out for not taking more time off.”
“Ah, and will you take more time off?”
“No, and you probably won’t listen to me either.”
“Nope, I wouldn’t. Yet I do think, in that regard, we will both understand each other.”
He looked over at her and smiled. “I’m pretty sure that’s a given.” As they talked about various things going on in their worlds, she asked him, “After you solve the Mason matter, will you be staying here on base and working in this investigation department?”
“Possibly,” he said, with a thoughtful look. “I haven’t been offered a full-time job yet, but I’ve certainly been offered a job with him. Jasper has taken over the department, although that’s not public news yet.”
“That’s good though, right?” she asked him.
“It is, but I also don’t know how many of the other guys on the initial investigation team will stay or will have the option of staying, and that in itself has caused some hard feelings.”
“And yet that’s not your problem.”
He burst out laughing and nodded. “You’re right. It isn’t, and yet somehow… it is.”
“Right. Things have a way of becoming our issues just because of who we are.”
“Exactly.” Their steaks arrived soon afterward, and that ended up being one of the best meals she’d had in a very long time.
When they were finished, she patted her stomach. “Gosh, I can’t remember the last time I ate that much.”
“You did fair justice to it,” he noted in admiration as he eyed her almost-empty plate.
She pointed to his and added, “Not quite as good as yours though.”
“Ah, I was very hungry.”
“Obviously,” she muttered. When his phone rang again, she held up her hands. “Sounds like our signal for dinner to be over.”
“It could be.” He checked the text and muttered, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. There will plenty of times when I’ll have to step away because of work too.”
He looked over at her and smiled. “Sounds like you think we should continue this relationship.”
“Oh, I do. It’s lovely to find somebody who’s as much of a workaholic as I am.”
He rolled his eyes at that. “I can see how you might think that, but I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to help each other to do less of it.”
“That will remain to be seen,” she noted, with a chuckle, “but the good news is that, even in this crazy turbulent time, it appears we have found each other.”
“I agree because that’s exactly how I feel.”
She nodded. “In that case”—she tilted her head and gave him a smile—“let me get home and get some sleep. Then we’ll talk tomorrow. Of course, if you figure out anything you can share, I would love to hear it,” she added.
“If I can share, I will, and that’s always the challenge,” he admitted.
“But I do this work too,” she noted, “so I get it, and I would never ask you for anything more than you can give.” The smile on his face warmed her heart.
Tristan walked her outside, noting Scott was waiting by his car. Looking up at Tristan, Amarylis suggested, “We could give Scott a bit of a show.”
Tristan burst out laughing and pulled her into his arms. “I’m not too worried about giving Scott a show, but, damn, I would love a good night kiss.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her with a ferocity that surprised them both. When he pulled back, he whispered, “Wow, I didn’t mean for it to come across quite like that.”
“Oh, don’t say that,” she murmured, “because I wanted it to come across exactly like that.”
His eyes widened, and a twinkle entered his gaze. “Does that mean I’m supposed to come to your place after work?”
She pondered that and said, “If I didn’t think it would likely be two o’clock in the morning, I might take you up on it, but how about another night?” She tapped his bottom lip. “Hold on to that ferocity, will you?”
“Absolutely,” he murmured, as he leaned over and kissed her again. “Now let’s get you home and into bed.” He walked her over to Scott’s vehicle, keeping a watchful eye out the whole way.
Taking his orders to heart, she got into the car with Scott and waved at Tristan until they were out of sight.
Scott muttered, “Okay, you’re both some years older than I am, but, damn, even I could tell that was laying it on pretty heavy.”
She chuckled. “It might have seemed like laying it on pretty heavy to you, but, honest to God for us, it was wonderful.”
“It did look that way too,” he admitted. “It made me feel envious for a moment.”
“Don’t you have a girl?”
“Nope, not at the moment. She didn’t like the hours I work.”
“That was part of the discussion we just had.” Amarylis chuckled. “The fact that we’re both workaholics may work for us.”
“From what I’ve seen, you both are workaholics, but it seems you suit each other.”
“Good, that kind of talk is never wrong.”
“Says you,” he muttered, with an eye roll, “but seeing the two of you makes me think it would be nice to meet somebody again.”
“It would be,” she agreed. “I’ve been alone for a long time, just waiting, seeing what was right in my world.”
“Do you think Tristan’s right for your world?”
“I do,” she stated, with a smile. “I do.”
“I hope you’re right,” Scott replied, “because, man, the two of you and that kiss? That was enough to make me want to go find a girl right now.” She burst out laughing, and he grinned at her. “Hey, at least I’m honest,” he protested.
“At least you’re honest,” she agreed, still chuckling. “Just pick the right woman for you. Now get me home so I can get some sleep, then wait for a chance to see Tristan again.”
“Won’t you see him tomorrow?”
“Oh, I’ll see him tomorrow,” she said, with a silly grin.
“Or tonight?” he asked, with a knowing smile.
“No, not tonight. We both decided sleep was a necessary thing, and he may not be off work for several more hours yet.”
“Right,” Scott murmured. “It’s always about sleep, isn’t it?”
“Sometimes it is, but sometimes it’s about grabbing the moment because the moment’s there. Other times it’s literally just about enjoying what time you have because you never know when it’ll be gone.”
“Ouch, and that’s you talking about the morgue again.”
She burst out laughing. “My job may color my thinking, but I’ve also seen a lot of life, and I want to see a whole lot more yet,” she pointed out.
“Good,” he agreed, as he pulled up to her apartment. “Now let’s get you upstairs so you can get some sleep and be all sparkling and fresh for your boyfriend tomorrow.”
She chuckled. “I don’t know about boyfriend .”
“Oh, don’t worry. We’ve all already heard that you are off limits.” When she raised her eyebrows, he shrugged. “Tristan made it fairly clear right off the bat that you were his.”
“I can’t say that I appreciate that highhanded possessive BS,” she conceded, frowning at Scott, “but considering Tristan’s keeping me safe, I won’t argue the point right now either.”
Scott laughed. “Somehow I don’t think you’re all that upset about him warning off the rest of us, especially considering he’s looking after you and is clearly smitten.”
“If you say so,” she muttered uncertainly, shaking her head.
“Oh, I do.” He saw her expression and laughed. “It’s all good.”
*