AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her face ticked at one side, as though he thrown a physical punch. “It’s...it’s not the same. You know it’s not. I changed. I got help so I could start my life over —”
“Has it worked?” he asked. “You paste on that smile and try to find an upside to everything so you don’t have to feel your loss. You’re so desperate to avoid reality, you’ve created your own. Christmas parties, cookie bake-offs, movie nights and forced team dinners. You might not be on the drugs anymore, but you’re still looking for ways to numb yourself, Jocelyn.”
He regretted the words the moment they left his mouth, but Baker couldn’t seem to pull back. The cartel had taken everything he’d ever cared about. The bed and breakfast he built with his own hands, his sister. And now Jocelyn.
“Is that why you started working for Socorro? The reason you came to Alpine Valley?” Baker couldn’t stop the words. “To make yourself feel like you were actually fighting the cartel? So you could pretend to be the hero? You outright supported the very people you’ve been investigating with me. You see that, don’t you? You made them stronger while everyone in this town is simply trying to survive.”
Tears glittered in her eyes. “And what have you been doing since the cartel killed your sister, Baker? Because I can tell you what you haven’t been doing. You haven’t been confronting your pain. You might not be going about it the same way I did, but you’re just as guilty as I am of trying to escape.”
“You might be right,” he said. “But I wasn’t the one who kept that from my partner.”
She didn’t have an answer for him.
In truth, he didn’t want one. He didn’t want any excuses. He didn’t want to see reason. Baker pointed an index finger at her. “You know, I thought you were different. I thought we really had something, that it would be worth it to make it work between us, but I can’t spend the rest of my life wondering if you’re going to relapse or if I’m going to find you dead from an overdose.”
He unpocketed the pills and threw them at her feet. The container lid burst free, sprinkling her meds in a two-foot radius. It was childish and petty and didn’t do a damn thing to release the tightness in his chest. “Do whatever you want with these. Consider our partnership terminated. I’m done.”
“That’s it?” Her voice wavered from behind. “After everything we’ve survived together, after everything we’ve shared, you’re going to condemn me and what we have because of a mistake? I thought you of all people would understand.”
He didn’t. He didn’t understand how someone he’d convinced himself would never betray her beliefs could undermine his trust so quickly. “You were wrong.”
Jones Driscoll and Captain Pennymeyer stood at the door flap of the command center, unmoving. Seemed the entire site had turned its attention to him. Waiting for his answer. But he didn’t owe them anything. And he didn’t owe Jocelyn, either.
Baker kept on walking back toward the command tent. Part of him knew while he hadn’t taken up numbing himself the way she had, he’d taken this job to get back at the bastards that’d destroyed his life. He’d lived off of revenge, but he hadn’t given up his morals in the process.
“Fine.” A low whistle cut through the site, and Maverick’s dog tags clashing together reached Baker’s senses over the soft tick of rain. “But the next time you’re facing down a bomb, don’t call me for help.”
A car door slammed a moment before the SUV’s engine caught.
He crossed back into the command tent, knowing all too well the officers and operatives inside had heard every word. Baker took up position in front of the table with the deconstructed pieces of the bomb that should’ve killed him—would have if it hadn’t been for Jocelyn. His heart dropped in his chest as he caught the tail end of her vehicle through the open tent flap.
“Show’s over. We have a bomber to find.”
Chapter Thirteen
She would’ve given up her last cookie for him.
Tears clouded her vision as Jocelyn floored the accelerator. She’d never been so humiliated in her life. Not just by her darkest shame but by having it exposed in the middle of a crime scene, surrounded by her team and other officers she worked with. But that wasn’t what hurt the most. A hook cut through her stomach as Baker’s words echoed on repeat.
I can’t spend the rest of my life wondering if you’re going to relapse or if I’m going to find you dead from an overdose.
His concerns were valid. Every day she fought the same demons. Every day she went to bed knowing she’d done her best and tallied another day of survival. Because that was what she was doing.Surviving. Constantly on the defense of a threat. But she’d never expected it to come from Baker.
The pain in her shoulder was nothing compared to the agony closing in around her heart. Jocelyn swiped at her face as a pair of headlights inched into the rearview mirror. She’d escaped the town limits, halfway between Alpine Valley and Socorro. Not nearly enough distance to put between her and what’d just happened. Open desert expanded ahead. Ten minutes back to headquarters. Then she could pack and get the hell away from this place.
Maverick whined from the back cargo area. His face centered in the mirror. As much as he preferred to cuddle with a stick rather than her, he picked up on her emotions better than most humans. He was hurting, too.
“I know, but we can’t go back.” She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. While she hadn’t envisioned anything past this investigation, she’d gotten attached to this place. To Baker. He’d unlocked something in her over the past few days. Hope. Trust. Joy. He’d taken her pain and internalized it for himself, leaving her lighter and freer than she’d felt in a long time. He’d listened to her. Convinced her that grief didn’t always have to call the shots. That she could be more than an addict. And she loved him for gifting her that relief. Damn it, she loved him.
But he’d made his opinion on her history clear. His personal agenda against the cartel ensured there was nothing she could do or say to change his mind. “There’s nothing left for us here.”
The headlights behind her got closer. Recognition filled in the paint job along the sides of the vehicle. Alpine Valley PD. Every instinct she owned asked her to slow down and pull over, that she should at least give Baker the chance to apologize, but she’d made her point clear, too. The crossbar lights lit up with red-and-blue strobes. The piercing chirp of the siren triggered her nerves. She tried to make out the face in the driver’s seat through the rearview mirror. “Keep trying, but I’m not pulling over.”
Jocelyn focused on the road ahead. A couple more miles. As much as she hated the idea of hiding out at Socorro, it was the one place he couldn’t get to her.
The growl of an engine penetrated through the cabin of the SUV a split second before the patrol car tapped her bumper. The jolt ricocheted through the entire vehicle and caused her front tires to skid slightly.
Warning lightninged through her. She hiked herself higher in the driver’s seat to get a better view. She didn’t pull over, so now he was going to run her off the road? She was going fifty miles an hour. “Are you out of your mind? What the hell are you doing?”
