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She moved to stand, but Caden covered her hand with his. He had no idea how she was going to get through this, but he definitely didn’t want her on her feet right now. “Nothing I say will change what happened. I can sit here with you as long as you need me to. I can drive you home. I can do whatever you need me to do to help you get through this.”
Lori sat still for several minutes, tears silently streaming down her face. “You can go back. You can tell him not to do whatever he did that brought you here now.” After a long moment of silence, she wiped the moisture from her face and made eye contact with Caden. “Please, I really can’t handle that speech, but I would like to know what happened.”
“Unfortunately, there are strict rules about what I can tell you because it is still an ongoing investigation.”
Lori nodded. They’d been married for five years, so she knew how the FBI operatedas far as releasing information during ongoing investigations. “Did he suffer?”
“No,” Caden said. “It was quick. Painless.”
More tears streamed down her face as her hand went to her protruding belly. “Do you have someone in your life, Agent Dobbs? Someone special who you’re always thinking about?”
Her question caught him off guard. Hallie. “No,” he said.
She nodded. “Well, one day you will, and if this moment has taught me anything, it’s to never let them out the door without telling them how much you love them, because you never know if you’ll get another chance. I thought Steve would come home tonight and we’d make up. I thought he’d be there in two months when our daughter is born. I thought we’d have a life together as a family.” She paused, as though carefully considering her next question. “Will he pay? Or she? Whoever killed my husband?”
Caden nodded. They always asked that question and Caden couldn’t always say yes, but right now the asshole responsible for Steven Beeker’s death was in FBI custody where he would stay for the rest of his life. “He’ll pay.”
She swiped at her tears again and took a deep cleansing breath. “I need to tell my supervisor. We get five days of bereavement, but I think I’ll just use the rest of my vacation and PTO days, and take off until after I have the baby. I’ll need that time to...figure out how to live without him.”
Caden hated the defeat and sadness in the woman’s words and tone. He wasn’t sure how close she was to her own family, or with her in-laws, but the least he could do was talk to her supervisor for her. “Why don’t you stay here? I’ll find your supervisor and advise her of your wishes. Then I’ll come back and take you home. I can have an agent bring your car by tonight or first thing in the morning. Does that sound okay?”
She nodded, and both her hands went to cover her belly. Caden stepped out of the room, his back drenched with sweat as if he’d just come out of a pressure cooker. She was in shock. Later tonight is when she would need someone. When it would really hit her that Steven was gone.
He drove Lori home and helped her inside. He offered to stay, but she insisted she wanted to be alone. He promised to call her in a few hours and let himself out.
The drive back to his apartment was made in a heavy silence. He sat in the parking lot of his building with no desire to go inside. There was nothing waiting for him there except a frozen dinner and a TV screen, maybe a few cold beers in the fridge if he was lucky.
Lori’s words echoed in his mind like drums banging on his skull. It could’ve been him today. It probably should’ve been him, but instead it was a good man who’d left behind a wife and an unborn child.
The badge could take a lot, and Caden would give it all he had. Not because he wanted to, but because it was the right thing to do. He put the car in reverse, backed out of the parking spot, and sped out of the lot. He was going to the only place he wouldn’t feel so damn alone in this world.
Thirty minutes later he was pulling up into Luke and Orly’s driveway. By the time he got out of his car, they were both coming out to greet him. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Caden said.
“Not at all,” Luke said.
“I just got two pints of ice cream at the store,” Orly said. “Join us.”
Caden sighed in relief, shut the door, and walked toward his two closest friends. “Thanks,” he said, the weight of the day seeping into his voice.
“Heard you had a rough day,” Luke said.
“You’re welcome to crash in the guest room tonight,” Orly said. “Maybe we can go over to Garrett’s tomorrow for some fishing and lounging.”
Caden shook Luke’s outstretched hand and hugged Orly. “Thank you, Sweetheart. I might just take you up on that offer.”
After the day Caden had, he needed this more than he’d even realized. There weren’t too many people in this world who had friends they could drop in on unannounced, who would rearrange any weekend plans they had just for him. He was a lucky son of a bitch and he knew it.
But why then did he wish he’d gone to see Hallie instead?
Chapter 14
“Why don’t you come over this weekend, Baby? I’ve been itching for a good dose of retail therapy, and your father won’t come out and say it, but he really misses you.”
Hallie had been on the phone with her mom for almost an hour, and she was proud of herself for not once mentioning Caden. She had talked about him a little during her weekly therapy sessions, but that was only because she didn’t really have anything else to talk about and they had to fill the time somehow. Talking and even thinking about him still hurt. She’d liked him a lot, and even though they hadn’t even known each other that long, it felt like a part of her was missing.
Maybe her mom was right and she did need a change of scenery. But with the ongoing glimpse of the shattering glass, and Caden no longer being in her life, something she hadn’t shared with her parents yet, she worried that going home might just be even more stressful and upsetting than holing up in her little apartment.
“Hallie, are you still there?”
