AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Except it didn’t include Liam O’Connell and those brooding blue eyes or the mega tree trunks he called arms. That expansive chest.
She rolled her eyes and focused on the drive instead of the distracting specimen of police officer. It wasn’t polite to ogle, even in her memories. Roxie tried not to be a cliché, but when a guy looked like that…and worse, didn’t even realize it, what was she supposed to do? Everything in her took notice.
The only problem? Every single time in her life that had happened, what came after it was nothing but pain.
Reason wanted her to believe Liam might be nothing like the others. He might be a good guy. A safe guy. He’d never done anything to make her believe he wasn’t trustworthy.
But her heart couldn’t afford to take the risk.
She parked close by the building and shut the car off. Peter stood scanning around them, close by the door when she got out. He walked beside her to the front door.
She said nothing as they tapped their badges to the entry scanner and nothing as they stepped into the elevator. When the doors slid closed, she turned to him. “Destiny should go stay with her brother, or we should get someone to sit on the house, right?”
“I looped in Blake. He’s up to speed—” She was about to interrupt to ask about Liam when he quickly added, “With the agreement that he not share outside of his sister. And she already knows.”
Roxie nodded. Destiny knew it all— even more than what she’d told Clare and Bob at her interview.
“We offered a detail. Blake is going to cover it himself, and he’ll let us know if he needs anything.”
The doors slid open.
Bob stuck his head out of his office, lifted his chin, and then disappeared.
“We should put cameras in at Destiny’s house.”
“That’s a good idea. You can do it when you take your stuff back there later.”
She flinched, then just kept going so she turned all the way around to face him. “He knows where I live.”
“You knew it was a risk.” Peter held her attention with the steady gaze of a guy who’d seen more than most. “So why did you move in?”
“Because I was stupid.”
He shook his head. “It’s because you had hope.”
“That’s gone now. It’s over.” She dumped her backpack at her desk and slumped into her chair, then leaned forward with her forearms on her knees. “I can’t go back there.”
Blake would tell Liam, no matter what he’d promised. If Liam hadn’t looked her up already and found reports that amounted to the apparent ramblings of a crazy person, he’d hear it from his SWAT teammate.
They would realize how impossible it was going to be to keep everyone safe. The best course of action would be for her to bunk down here, maybe in the break room. Shower here. Eat here. Work here. Wait it out. Let Mark get so frustrated with her being out of reach that he made a misstep. Slipped up and exposed himself.
“Let’s get to work.” Peter settled into his own chair. “We have a meeting in ten, and we can figure this out by end of day, right?”
He played it off, but she got the idea he had something cooking.
At the end of the day, she was probably going to wind up in a safe house or somewhere else not of her choosing. That wasn’t going to work for her. She wouldn’t be a captive in her own life.
Not again.
“Hi, Ms. Turner. Can you hear me?”
Roxie slid her chair over to sit beside Peter so she could talk to Sierra as well. Though she hadn’t had time to mull it over—what with the snake and having to explain why she wasn’t going to file a police report—she was still looking into a case related to Liam’s father’s death. How they handled it mattered.
The woman on-screen wore a pink scrubs top with flowers on it. “I can see and hear you.”
Roxie said, “We appreciate your time.”
Sierra Turner, the niece of the homeless OD victim, lifted a mug with a tea tag wrapped around the handle. Behind her was what looked like a hotel room or a hospital waiting area. Maybe a quiet place to chat since she was on shift. “I gave up a while ago wondering when someone would ask questions about what happened. Seems like no one cared that I didn’t agree.”
