AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But what she really couldn’t figure out was why she’d thought anything would be different?
She recalled the smile on his face as he’d said good-bye that night, then the confident ease of his stride, the impression he gave that all was right with his world.
And now here she was setting her phone on her worktable and not feeling much of anything, except a need to be done with a relationship that just wasn’t working and probably never would.
* * * * * * * * *
Yolen stared at his phone and frowned.
He wasn’t sure what about Brianna’s call bothered him so much, but he felt unsettled like his world had tipped on its axis yet again.
He sat at his desk, a stack of drug-related cases waiting for him to review. He was in the middle of going through all the files from the previous twelve months that had any relationship to drugs, whether homicide, or dealing, or overdoses, anything.
Then Brianna had called. And something in her voice had disturbed him.
His work often required that he go with his gut, even if the numbers didn’t add up to the right sum. And right now his gut was screaming that despite what she’d said, things weren’t right with his woman and that she wasn’t fine.
For one thing, he didn’t like the overall tone of the call. Although, he still didn’t understand why the hell she’d called in the first place. He’d been up front with her from the beginning, that he devoted himself to his work, essentially to the city, to making Cameron a safe place for go
od citizens everywhere.
And right now he was inches away from uncovering the identity of the latest kingpin, the most recent asshole to move drugs heavily through this part of Bergisson Realm. If he could get rid of the monster quickly, he’d have a good shot at making serious, long-term progress in stemming the tide of drugs.
He went back to his original thought that Brianna didn’t really understand how important his work was or that her own safety depended on a certain amount of physical distance. The drug element in his world had started using wraith-pairs to beef up their operations and had targeted him and his fellow detectives. That’s how Alec had died as well as his woman.
He planted his elbows on his desk and made one big fist with both hands. He leaned down and pressed his chin onto his knuckles, a sure sign the whole thing disturbed him far more than his rational brain assured him was necessary.
He just didn’t get it. He’d given her what she wanted. He’d come to the gallery when she knew how opposed he’d been to taking time off from work. Yet somehow, she still expected even more from him.
He admitted that after being with her on Saturday night, even he’d been tempted to break his rule and set up a mid-week hook-up. But he believed in what he was doing and he’d kept his mind and his energies on solving Alec’s murder and on uncovering the latest head of Cameron’s drug-trafficking scourge.
In the end, he let the phone call go. In two days, he’d see Brianna again and talk this out with her once more. He’d take her back to his place like he’d planned to do last Friday, which he hoped would help her to know that he really did love her, that she was important to him.
With that, he pulled the file from the top of the tall stack, and started reading.
* * * * * * * * *
Brianna was about to set her phone down and get back to her painting, when her cell lit up.
Her heart jumped so hard in her chest that she gasped. Yolen. Maybe he’d called her back. That would mean something.
But when she saw the caller’s name, she frowned. “Hello?”
“Brianna?”
“Yes.”
“Mastyr Keynes here. Just thought I’d give you a shout and see how you’re doing?”
She hadn’t given him her number, which meant he’d taken the time to hunt it down. “I’m good.” Okay, that was a lie. She moved to her stool near her oversized work table and sat down. “How are you?”
“Terrific. Thanks for asking. And how is, now let me see, rose madder, zinc white, and Naples yellow all doing?”
She stared at the paints lined up in their neat wood box and even touched the tubes of the same names. “We’re all doing fine. Am I to guess that you’ve recently taken up painting in your spare time?”
“Nah. I just looked up oil paints online. Funny names.”
She smiled and twirled one of her long locks around her index finger. “I know what you mean.” He put her at ease.
