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“I’m glad. I didn’t really see you as a police officer,” he comments, grabbing his Guinness.
“Well…” I pause, thinking back on when I decided on to become one. I didn’t think the FBI would hire someone like me, but at least the police academy would. I desperately wanted a job that would get justice for innocent people like myself who got caught up in stuff they shouldn’t, and the academy offered that option to me. I finally settle on saying, “I couldn’t go back to what I was doing.”
He nods his head and continues to look at me. “I’m sure you’re great at it,” he replies. When I don’t say anything, he goes on. “I’ve got a new job too.” His eyes shift away from me.
“You do?” I ask before I can stop myself.
“Yeah, a PI. I’m helping a detective at your precinct, actually.”
I stare at him, absorbing the words and the trying to hide the panic. He can’t come into my world. That’s not fair, not after all I’ve done to push him away. “Gray.”
“Yeah, he was telling me about how he was your partner.” He smirks at me and says, “I barely held back that you were my partner first.”
I scoff at his audacity. “I was never your partner.” I practically growl out the words, and the shine in his eyes dulls slightly. “A partner doesn’t abandon you. Partners don’t push each other away, and they sure as hell don’t make promises they can’t keep.” My voice is much louder by the end of my rant.
“Mo.”
“Don’t,” I warn, not wanting to hear his fucking excuses. “Where the hell were you anyway?”
He sighs. “I had to be debriefed. It was pure hell, and it took for-fucking-ever.”
“Two years?” I ask, my doubt clear in my voice.
“Not exactly,” he hedges, and I tilt my head, waiting for the right answer. Unfortunately, there is no answer he can give me that will forgive him leaving me. “I had to go into Russia.”
“So you’ve said.” I scoff again and take another gulp of Guinness, but the intrigued part of me is too curious to not hear what he has to say now. “Why?”
Another sigh. “There was more to the mission than even I thought. Apparently Anton had his hands in more than one pot, and there were a lot of fires to put out once he was behind bars. There was a leak in the FBI.” He looks at me and I finally settle into the seat, my back having been ramrod straight since we walked into the bar.
“Hmph. Figured there was. Who was it?” I ask, not sure I want to hear the answer. What if it was Gemma, or Ford?
“Perk.”
“Perk?”
“Yeah, you met him once, at the cabin where Jenny was.”
Fuck, that’s right. Perk—he was the dirty agent who helped Anton at the safe house, the one who dragged me and hit me in the back of the head. No wonder I didn’t remember—he must have hit me pretty good. “I met him twice.” Finally, it’s Liam’s turn to look confused, so I fill him in. “He was at the safe house. He dragged me around to Anton and whacked me in the back of the head when they took me to that basement.” I repeat what I was just thinking, and when I look at Liam’s face, I see a fire burning in his eyes.
“He hit you?” The anger is evident in his voice, his hands fisted on his thighs.
“Yeah. It wasn’t the worst thing that happened. Did you get him?”
“Life in prison,” is his short reply.
I take him in. Even though I hate him slightly, I know him at the same time. “The job wasn’t done, and you had to get your guy.”
He nods. “Yes. You of all people know how important this is to me.”
I relent a bit. “I do.” It’s a fucking excuse, but damn if it isn’t a pretty good one. “That doesn’t explain why you couldn’t have called or sent me something more than excuses and pathetic reassurances. It’s not like I was going to guilt you into staying.”
Okay, that might be a lie. Us women don’t always know we’re doing it when it’s happening.
“I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
“That what? You wouldn’t die?” I ask, a chuckle in my throat.
“Yes.”
