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Jameson: Yes ma’am. I typed back and shoved the phone in my pocket.
I had a few more hours of work before dinner. And dinner with Madison was just what I needed after spending my day crawling through a bloody crime scene.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Madison
“So, what’s it like working with the Feds? Is it more exciting than working at Glitz PD?” I was so proud of Jamie getting a shot to work with the big dogs when he was still just a rookie. I wanted to hear all about his first day with the Feds.
Jameson’s mouth kicked up into one of those lopsided smiles that always made my heart speed up just a little bit. He sat back casually in his chair, arm flung around the empty seat beside him.
“So far it has been. They have me working Bonnie’s murder. And Mueller’s.”
“Holy shit, that’s huge, Jamie. Congratulations!” I was up and out of my seat before I thought better of it, wrapping my arms around him, squealing and doing a little shake.
“I’m so happy for you.” I secretly wondered if I could get any info from him about Molly, but as quickly as the thought came, I brushed it off. Right now, Jameson was the only person I trusted and I didn’t want to fuck that up.
“Thanks, Madds. You’re more excited than I was.”
I pulled back and sat across from him, slightly embarrassed by my emotional outburst.
“That’s a big case, and please don’t take this the wrong way, but why you?” He was a newbie without investigative experience, straight out of the academy. It was odd, to say the least. “Ah, that’s why you’re not all that excited.”
“Stop reading my mind, will you?” He barked out a laugh and took a sip of his craft beer. “Honestly, I don’t know why, but I think the agent in charge believes I was more involved in the MC than I ever was. I mean, I’ll use whatever connections I have to help solve the case. Still, I don’t want her assumptions hurting my chances at making detective.”
“Welp. There ya go. She thinks you know something you don’t.” I shrugged it off nonchalantly, but I hoped Jameson’s dream of making detective would come true.
“Maybe. Time will tell, I suppose.”
A waiter in a white apron came to take our order, and I ignored Jameson’s laugh at my growling stomach and ordered a garden salad and chili cheese fries. “And extra bacon on top, thanks.”
I watched Jameson interact with the guy, chatting with him like they were just two men talking about steak. Jamie was good with people. He would become a good cop if his family didn’t get in the way.
Jamie ordered a salad, steak, medium rare, and a baked potato. And asked the man to keep the craft beer coming. He nodded, turned and left.
“What are you thinking?”
I blinked and his gray eyes came into focus, half-smiling and half-laughing. “Who said I was thinking anything?”
“I do. You looked at me like you could see all my thoughts written across my forehead.”
“You’re good with people.” I said matter-of-factly.
“Thanks.” He shook off the compliment with a sigh and took another sip of his beer.
“You know, Bonnie had been going off on her own a lot, like secretly. And in that big ass house of theirs, I never knew if she was hiding in some secret wing or had left. Calvin thought she might have been cheating on him. But Kat thinks she was feeding info to the enemy. I assume she meant Mueller, but I imagine he isn’t—or wasn’t—the only Ashby enemy.”
He blinked. “Wow, thanks, Maddie.” He shook his head and typed some notes on his phone before giving me a wide smile. “Beck called her a disgruntled housewife.”
I laughed at that accurate assessment. “She was, actually. She wanted Calvin to leave his family because of Ava. It’s kind of ugly. Calvin married her because she got preggers. Were they even in love? Who the fuck knows?”
The waiter came by to drop off our salads and I poked at mine with a fork, stabbing a perfect cherry tomato. “It was like all of a sudden, she got angry and bitchy. Calvin thought it was pregnancy hormones, but dude, he’s like twenty-something years old, barely older than me, and wears fucking flannels and glasses. What does he know about girl hormones?”
I popped the tomato in my mouth and sighed. “Not a fuckin’ thing. That’s what he knows. Sorry, Jamie. I get a little worked up.”
“No, don’t be sorry. You’re plenty helpful, Madds. You’re not trying to help me make detective, are you?”
“Me? Hell no. I have to see you in your cop uniform first. Or it’s just a travesty of justice. I mean…”
“A travesty of justice?”
He laughed when I jutted my chin out defiantly.
“Weirdo.”
“Thanks, G-man.”
He shook his head, his smile affectionate. I could tell I was something more than a burden, more than a brash border who worked for him.
