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When I came back around the corner, they were out of the room and nurse chatty was at it again. I nearly gagged but still came down the way. When I was a few feet away, they spotted me and charged at me like bulls or something.
“What the—” I started, when Alex grabbed my elbow and tugged me into the nearest supply closet, followed by Nate and Max.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Alex gave me a stern look as he released my arm. Nate leaned against the wall, scratching his neck like he wished he had something to say to lighten the situation. That couldn’t be good.
“Look, Rose…” Alex trailed off.
He didn’t seem to be very good with words. Which made sense. Max stepped in, with a comforting voice I was sure he probably used on children. I tried not to frown.
“We think the guy, our suspect, is part of the Irish mob. The victim today matched his MO.”
“But…he was robbed.” I dropped my shoulders. “The others were killed.” I chewed the inside of my lip. I glanced at Nate, who was trying to drill a hole in the ground with the tip of his toe.
“Yeah. Um. A few years back there were a string of robberies similar to this one. We’re thinking the suspect either got sloppy three times or didn’t finish the job this time. The attack happened in a more public place this time as well.” Max continued.
I found the edge of a shelf and sat down slowly. I rubbed my eyes in frustration and tried to comprehend everything. But it was no use. I still wasn’t seeing the big picture.
“And…” I pressed, looking at all of them. “You guys don’t have to treat me like some delicate flower you know. I spent my morning digging a fishing hook out of some frat boys’ ass, so nothing can be worse than that.” I laughed humorlessly, and Nate actually laughed.
“Shit. I feel sorry for you.” Nate cracked a smile. The ease of it was exactly what I needed to loosen my chest. I took a deep breath and prepped for their explanation.
“We need to put some extra protection on you for the time being. But we’re going to do it off the books because we don’t want to have any records of it that someone can get into,” Alex said.
I stared blankly at him for a few seconds before I could respond. I was already used to them watching me, so I wasn’t sure what the difference would be. Except they obviously seemed more worried about it than before. But what had changed?
“O—okay…um, why? I mean why do you not want to have records of it? Why do you need to watch me more? If it’s about that guy from yesterday, he was probably just some creep. There are a lot of them in my neighborhood,” I rambled, standing up and pacing.
Nate touched my shoulder gently and looked right into my eyes. “We don’t think it was just a neighborhood creep, Rose.”
The severity of his voice seeped into me and I let it settle in. It was worse than I was thinking, and if they were worried about it, I knew I should be too.
“Oh,” I whispered. I turned and looked at Max and Alex, who stared me down with concern.
“We want to keep you safe. And we don’t want to put it on paper officially because there are some moles in the precinct. Not much can be done about that. But just trust us, we can protect you.” Max said.
I sighed and nodded. “Okay, but…why do care about that? Isn’t this more isolated? It isn’t like I was the one who was shot.” I almost laughed, but their faces were too grim.
Max circled around me, and Nate rubbed my shoulder gently. Alex finished, “We think the Irish mob has a hit on you, Rose. That’s why we need to watch you, and keep you out of the system.”
My eyes widened in shock and I stared back at them as my breath hitched. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do. Of course, I trusted them, but how could I ever sleep okay again knowing I wasn’t safe? Knowing they were putting themselves on the line for me…I couldn’t ever fathom one of them getting hurt.
And that thought was even more scary than the possibility of getting killed.
Chapter Eighteen: Max
A few years back I tried the whole dating scene, but I was never good at it. It wasn’t that I was not interested or couldn’t be faithful, but more that work was time consuming and no one understood I wasn’t intentionally cancelling plans all the time.
Needless to say, hanging out with Rose with the premise of watching her kind of eased me into the whole thing. Even when I was just outside her building and not inside her apartment, I felt like I was spending time with her, and having her around was just nice. I enjoyed her personality, even though the whole case had put a little bit of a damper on things.
We kept on with our usual watch shifts, keeping a closer eye on not only her but her surroundings. Everyone in that building turned into a suspect to me, and I didn’t like seeing everyone that way, but it was just the way things went.
It had been a few days since the gunshot victim gave us his full statement. The guy was a massive prick, but that was beside the point. He was loaded, some kind of investment manager with his own firm. Actually, five across the continental US. I didn’t know what he could have done to be attacked in a parking garage, and apparently, he didn’t know either. Or he wasn’t being honest. My gut told me he was doing something on the down low that got him in trouble. We all thought that, but we had to be careful because he screamed lawsuit against the city if we rubbed him the wrong way. We left him with a blanket statement and hadn’t talked about it since.
There had been no other updates since then. Only the increasing worry that someone was coming after Rose. I wished it could be otherwise, but it was the truth.
I always watched her after her work shift, since I sleep most of the day away for my night patrol. I loved and hated it the most because it was so damned frustrating. I would sit in the living room while she showered, and I pictured her naked and on that day, I highly considered getting rid of my hard-on while I imagined her wet, sexy body in the shower. Not even the close football game could distract me.
