Ravenshoe PD works on a rotating five-day roster. I work five twelve-hour shifts before having five days off. It sounds ideal until you realize how long twelve-hour days are. Our days off aren’t guaranteed, either. If a big case comes in, we’re expected to delay our days off until things cool down. It could be worse. I could be back on Alex’s schedule, which was pretty much no days off for almost two months.
Feeling much better, I return Catherine’s message before sending one to Isaac.
Me:Me and you, brunch after the wedding. We have our own event to plan.
Isaac has been pestering me the past month for an official date, so you can imagine my shock when he returns a simple, one-worded text.
Isaac:Noted.
There must be more going on with him than he’s letting on. First, not noticing my spying eye. Now, a lack of excitement at the prospect of us hammering down a date for us to wed.
Recalling our promise to forever be honest with each other, I send him another text.
Me:Is everything okay?
His reply arrives rather quickly. He was either in the process of typing it when mine arrived or he intuited what I was going to ask.
Isaac:It will be. Are you on your way home?
I nod as if he can see me.
Me:Yes. I just need to log my gun into storage first.
Because I don’t want Callie raised around guns, I clock off at headquarters at the end of every shift, then my gun can be stored in a guarded vault, thus not only making it safer for Callie, but it will stop me being wrongly accused of murder—again.
I’m so determined for Callie not to grow up in the environment Isaac freed her from, Roger no longer enters Isaac’s residence if he’s carrying a weapon. Glitter LOL dolls, stuffed animals, and her beloved bunny should be the only things she views as toys, not Glocks, semi-automatics, and paper silhouettes with bullet holes. I will forever love my Uncle Tobias, but I often wonder how different my life would have been if he occasionally sat on the floor and played dolls with me like Isaac does with Callie.
My eyes drop to my phone when it vibrates
Isaac:Okay. I will see you soon.
I lose the chance to reply when Ryan pulls his unmarked patrol car into the underground parking lot of Ravenshoe PD. The usually desolate area is bursting at the seam with vehicles—FBI vehicles.
Suspicion runs rife in Ryan’s tone when he asks, “What do you think this is all about?”
As my eyes drift to his, my shoulder notches up. “I don’t know. But if this is Alex, this isn’t a good sign. He hates bringing in outside agents in general, and even when forced, he doesn’t come in this heavy.”
A vein in Ryan’s neck works at a million miles an hour. After a short deliberation with himself, he asks, “Since it’s your first month on the job, I’ll leave the decision up to you. Are we clocking in or clocking out?”
My first thought is out. I promised Callie I’d be home in time for dinner, and I’m super eager to start my five days off with her, Isaac, and our friends to celebrate Hugo’s wedding, but there’s a niggling feeling in my gut telling me it would be the wrong thing to do.
Enrique left me a coded message only last month, Alex requested Ravenshoe PD’s help to monitor a man we know is Russian, and Isaac’s town is being swarmed by the federal agents he only got off his tail months ago. Even exhausted, I owe it to Isaac to discover what’s occurring in the town he’s endeavoring to turn into a metropolis.
With my confidence high, I say, “In.”
Ryan’s smile exposes I answered as he had hoped. “Hopefully, it isn’t as bad as it seems.” Although that’s the second time he’s used that statement this afternoon, it feels less confident this time around.
A foreign feeling overtakes me when we enter the hub of Ravenshoe PD. For months, I was on the other side of the pissing contest. This is the first time I’ll be the one accusing the Bureau of overstepping an unmarked line in the sand.
My awkwardness doesn’t linger for long. That has more to do with the beaming hazel eyes peering at me from inside the conference room than anything.
“Brandon!”
I haven’t seen or heard from him in months. After sharing the news of Ophelia’s resurrection, it was as if he disappeared off the face of the earth. I searched for him, but he was hidden as well as he hid my credentials when I started at the Bureau.
Before I have time to consider what Isaac’s response will be to me throwing myself into the arms of another man, I sling my arms around Brandon’s neck and hug him fiercely. He didn’t disappear as I thought.
“Where have you been? I was worried I’d never see you again.”
