Page 62 of Nothing At All

Chest heaving, Krista Barnes, one of our dispatchers, glared at Lila. “Nothing to say, you cheating whore?”

Anger detonated in my chest, squeezing my lungs, kick-starting my heart. I forced myself into a defusing-the-situation cop stance. “Krista.”

“I’m not talking to you, Dan.” Her raised voice carried over the music, drawing attention, and Allison’s smirk widened.

Josh and Vic pushed through the frozen crowd. I held up a hand, palm facing Krista. “Let’s calm down and talk about what’s going on.”

“What’s going on is your little Atlanta-trash girlfriend is sleeping with Chase.” Krista narrowed her eyes to slits. “Slut.”

Lila fisted my t-shirt between my shoulders. “What are you talking about?’

Trembling with fury, Krista shoved a cell phone at her. “I’m talking about this.”

A contact card glowed on the screen. Lila’s name appended with a peach emoji and a photo of her laughing, a white sheet clutched to her chest, shoulders bare.

I recognized that photo because I’d taken it.

Krista dragged shaking fingers over the screen and held up a text thread. “See?”

Even with her shaky hold, I clocked the suggestive nature of the thread – sexting, arranging to meet, a dick pic, a shot of bare breasts.

Those were not Lila’s.

I didn’t need that evidence, though.

“No.” I lifted my gaze to Krista’s. “She’s not that person.”

“So fucking naive,” Krista spat. She waved the phone. “You’re looking at–”

I pressed the contact photo at the top of the thread to take me back to the card. Lila smiled at me there once more, an intimate, joyous moment that belonged only to us.

And only on my phone.

“That’s not her number.”

The reality didn’t seem to compute with Krista, but people didn’t think straight when they were angry. Or betrayed. Again. She blinked. “What?”

“It’s not her number.” I circled my finger over the screen. “She has an Atlanta area code. This is local.”

“Krista, give me my damn phone.” Voice full of bored irritation, Chase Green muscled through the gawking bystanders.

“Whose number is this, Chase?” Screaming, Krista shoved the phone at his face. I shifted to shield Lila completely with my body. “Why is her name and face on it if it’s not her number?”

Chase shrugged. “It was easier.”

“Easier?” Krista shrieked.

With another shrug, Chase looked at Lila, but I didn’t hear a damn apology. Fucker. Just wait until he needed backup on a medical call gone wrong while I was on shift.

Krista waved the device in a wild circle. “Who is she for real, Chase?”

I slanted a sidelong look at Allison Barnett’s smug face. I had a pretty good idea how Lila’s photo had ended up on a contact in Chase’s phone and what Allison was covering up.

“Krista, hush a minute for me.” I pitched my voice low and steady, and sympathy flashed through me when she turned her tear-stained face to me. My mama had felt that same pain, and this was the second time someone Krista was building a life with cheated on her. “Give Chase his phone.”

Her fingers clenched on it before her shoulders slumped and she threw it. He caught it against his chest. I shifted my attention to the smug asshole and lifted a finger.

“Delete that photo.” I narrowed my eyes. “And anything else you have.”