“Want to make them jealous?” a small voice saddles up next to me, making me jump.
I look down, seeing Officer Sanchez with agrim expression on her face. She’s young, probably too young for the detective who looks to be the same age as Katie and me. She’s in her early twenties, no doubt fresh out of the academy, and has those heart eyes when she looks at Biceps. I hadn’t seen Katie give him heart eyes, but then again, I’m not sure I could imagine her giving anyone a look like that. Just pure adoration. She’s more of a black widow. Ensnaring them before eating them. Wait, maybe that’s a praying mantis. I should look that up for when I want to insult her sex life next.
“There are plenty of people out there you could use for that,” I say, giving her a small, consolation smile.
“Yeah, but somehow I think it would piss him off more if it were you.” She shrugs. “Think about it.”
She heads down the corridor, following the detective and Katie.
Chapter Seven
Jonesy
I’m sitting at the airport, waiting for the flight to butt-fuck-nowhere, Ohio. Katie and I are traveling to meet Connor Maddox’s family today. It’s just the two of us, and we have some set questions that the police want us to ask, as well as a carefully curated list that Katie says she has refined over the years of interviewing family members.
As I’m waiting at the gate, I’m in my civilian clothes. There’s no real need for me to wear my uniform, and it attracts a bit of attention, which we don’t want. I’ll put my uniform on when we meet the family.
I watch Katie dithering about in one of the stores. I know she sees me; she just doesn't want to spend any more time with me than she has to, which is fine by me. This is the most time we will spend together since college, when we were pretty much inseparable. All our classes, studying in our free time, meals, then one of the group would host movie nights or something. But it’sbeen years. And now we don’t have the buffer of Alfie, Caleb, and Lottie to help us. We’re either gonna kill each other or fuck it out of our system.
My money is on the former. And the sting of disappointment is ever present, needling its way between my ribs. Fucking it out would be way funner, and it could lead to us actually reconciling. Even if she won’t ever see me as a romantic prospect, we could at least be real friends again.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out to check who’s calling, a silent prayer that it isn’t Tilly or the colonel.
Alfie’s name appears on my screen, and I answer immediately.
“Hey, bud.”
“Jonesy, how are you?” He's so formal, even though being with Mia has softened him, he still sounds like someone who’s about to perform a dental procedure.
“Not bad, just at the airport. We’re heading to Ohio for a few days for the case I’m working on with Katie.”
“Ah, yes. How’s that going?”
“Learning a lot about what Katie does. Don’t tell her this, but it’s fascinating. She’s damn good at her job.” I glance at her, picking things up and placing them back down, over and over. She looks so pretty today, especially when she’s trying to avoid me.
“Why do you sound surprised?”
“I don’t know. It’s Katie. I didn’t realize shecould be professional. She fights with people all the time; she should have been a lawyer.” Lies. She was always the smartest in our class, beating out the rest of our friend group every single time.
“She fights with you all the time. Katie and I never fight.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure. I know what she’s like. Always ready to argue, you can’t convince me otherwise.” I cough, swallowing down my pride. “I was gonna ask, did you know if she was seeing someone?”
“Why?”
“I got the vibe that she was seeing some beefed-up guy from her work.”
He sighs, pausing for a moment, which tells me two things. One, Alfie-stick-up-his-ass-Adams knows something about this guy, and two, he doesn’t know if he should tell me about it. Both equally make my blood boil.
“I don’t think she’s dating anyone right now.”
Okay . . . not the response I was expecting.
“You don’t sound sure.”
“I am sure,” he says ambiguously. “Jacob . . .”
“Jacob? Am I in trouble right now?” I laugh. What started as an army nickname has stuck. None of the dinner club call me Jacob...except maybe Katie if she’s really pissed.
