Page 93 of When You Became Mine

“Son of a…” Lawson murmured as he glanced over at me and then at Pieters.

My gaze shot back and forth between the two men as they exchanged worried looks. “What? What is it?”

Pieters opened his mouth to speak, but Lawson gave a quick shake of his head and he clamped his jaw shut. “Be right back.”

He and Pieters stalked down the hall, slamming the door soundly behind them when they reached his office.

38

Lawson

I shook the legal pad in Pieters’ direction. “No way this is a coincidence.”

He ran a hand over his shaved head. “I don’t know, man. I think you’re grasping at straws.” He held up a hand to stop me when I opened my mouth to argue. “I know this is personal for you. But you aren’t thinking with a level head.”

I slung the legal pad at my desk and turned on my heel to stalk toward my computer, throwing myself into my seat. With an arm over my eyes, I groaned, “You cannot tell me I’m not on to something. How many people are named Josiah? How many different people have the surname Shadblow? And don’t even get me started on those other names. You know this is something.”

Pieters grabbed the extra chair and pulled it up next to where I was sitting before falling into it. He took on a placating tone when he said, “I’m sure there are millions of people named Josiah. And while Shadblow is a strange name, it’s also not one of a kind.”

I leaned forward. “Yeah, but prescriptions written for two people with the same names as the suspects we’ve been investigating for the last year? Written by Piper? For the exact same drugs? Same quantities? Come the fuck on. You cannot tell me you don’t think there’s something to it.” The more he argued with me, the angrier I became.

We’d worked together a long time and had rarely butted heads on cases. It was one of the reasons I’d been glad to come back home and work this case in the first place, knowing it was Pieters who was in charge. But he was being unreasonable in this instance and I was running short on patience.

I surged out of my chair, ready to stalk down the hall and tell Wheeler to call a special hearing when Pieters grabbed my arm. “Where are you going?”

I shook out of his hold. “To tell Piper we’ve solved her case.”

He shot to his feet, blocking my path. “We haven’t solved shit. If anything, all we’ve done is come up with even more questions.”

I clenched my jaw and leveled him with a stare. “Move.”

He matched my expression and with the same lowered voice responded, “No. Sit down and let’s talk this out.”

I did the opposite of what he as

ked and pushed against him until we were chest to chest. I pushed to my toes and our eyes met. Mine were narrowed with anger while his were full of irritation.

“I will not sit by while these pieces of shit ruin Piper’s career. This is all connected somehow. If you aren’t interested in helping me, then get the fuck out of my house,” I snarled, the frustration of not being able to figure this out bleeding over into my professional relationship with my partner.

“Have I ever left your ass in the wind before?” Pieters rumbled, poking me in the chest. “Now, calm the fuck down and pull your shit together.”

I took a step back, putting the space I needed to get my shit sorted out between us, and stalked back to the computer. Pieters blew out a breath and then followed me, pulling the chair up beside where I sat in front of my monitors.

“Let’s go over it again.”

I ground the heel of my palms into my eyes and groaned. “Okay. Here’s what we know.”

An hour later, we emerged from my office. I was stiff from being hunched over the computer, but I was more convinced than ever that Piper had somehow been pulled into the case I was working on.

It was time to tell her the truth.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you about why I came back to town.”

I’d always meant to tell her the truth of what my job was, but the timing had never been right. And even though it wasn’t labeled top secret, I wasn’t supposed to discuss cases. Especially with family matters.

More than the restrictions on what I could or couldn’t talk about, I hadn’t wanted my family to worry about me. I’d lived in Vegas for years like they all believed. But I’d also been assigned to cases that took me to dangerous countries. So, I’d made sure to always be vague about my work, letting everyone think I was just a computer guy who ran codes and programs for a security firm.

“What do you mean?” Piper questioned, her eyes guarded.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com