Page 107 of Last Mile

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

“That answers my question.” I then knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Samantha called.

My stomach clenched nervously, which made me feel like a pussy. I pushed through the door. Sitting at her desk, Samantha once again looked polished and pressed like ATF Agent Barbie.

Our eyes met, and we stared at each other. She broke the stare by rising out of her chair. “Can I help you, Bishop?”

“Yeah. You can tell me what Hulk Hogan is doing outside your door.”

“It’s nothing you need to be concerned with.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Let me guess. It’s confidential or whatever bullshit it is you don’t tell civilians like me.”

“It’s something like that.” While she appeared cool, calm, and

collected, I could tell that deep down she was on edge.

“Whatever.” I tossed the folder with the depositions onto her desk. “Rev asked me to bring those over. It’s all the officers.”

“Good. Thank you.”

“Yeah, whatever. You’re welcome.”

“So you got home today?”

“A little while ago.”

“I’m glad to hear they didn’t drag their feet on letting you guys out.”

“No. It was pretty quick.”

As we stood there talking like strangers, I couldn’t help shaking my head. “What is it?” Sam asked.

“I was just wondering how the fuck we got to this point of being like strangers.”

She looked down at her lap. “Oh.”

“I guess if we’re acting like this, there wasn’t much there to begin with, huh?”

“I disagree,” Sam said.

“Do you?”

“I think there’s always been something strong between us. Even from the first time we met.”

“Maybe. But for the most part it was all about the physical.”

“There was always a strong physical attraction between us, but that wasn’t it.”

“The physical’s the one thing that never changed.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, the fact that you changed when you lied to me.”

Samantha rolled her eyes. “I lied to you about one thing— one fucking thing.”