“He’s a good Fed. Back off.”
He simply sat down.
There was a wrench in his plans, and now, he needed to regroup to figure them out. He hadn’t just given Daphne Carmichael an out for funsies. She had a wealth of information that they needed regarding situations out West.
“I don’t feel like talking to you right now,” he stated. “I’d head out if I was you.”
Well, she could do that.
And she did.
Before leaving the building, she grabbed her shit from her cubical desk and headed down to go out the front door. That’s when she saw him.
Gene was leaning against a vehicle.
Smoking.
Oh, well, he was still stressed.
Heading over, she faced him and mimicked his stance against the flashy red car parked next to his.
“Smoking is bad for you,” she stated. “Have another?” she asked.
Well, since this was his second one, he certainly did have more. He’d grabbed them in the airport, suspecting he was going to need something to dull that rage.
He pulled one from the pack in his pocket and handed it to her.
“Don’t tell anyone, but it’s my emergency vice,” he said. “I do it behind my partner’s back when I’m stressed, and I’m well aware that it will likely kill me, if Philadelphia doesn’t first.”
She snorted.
“Same,” she said, letting him light it for her. This was more about making sure Gene was calm than smoking.
She liked fornicating as her preferred vice, but she understood where he was coming from with this one.
They all had to go sometime. Granted, she’d likely go down by a serial killer rather than a ciggy, but whatever floated his boat.
“You okay?” she finally asked.
He laughed and sounded tired.
“Yeah, I’ll be okay. Thanks for what you did,” he said, blowing smoke out the corner of his mouth so as not to blow it at her.
She was to the point.
“He’s not a total asshole. He’s a good boss. He just can’t help but play games. He was a profiler before he became a director, and then the deputy director. His father was a profiler, too. It’s in his blood to tug strings. If Gabe isn’t up your ass, he hates your fucking guts. That he’s all over you and your partner should tell you that he sees promise in you—or that’s what I tell myself.”
Gene sighed.
“He’s saved us a few times. It just pissed me off. I don’t like anyone poking into my relationship.”
She got that.
“Same boat. Hey, we can double date. Christopher will be happy that men around us won’t be checking out my tits for the first time in our relationship.”
He laughed.
Yeah, he wasNOTletting Ethan anywhere near Elizabeth. She was a little too pretty for Gene’s own good, and they had a very similar personality.
