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“He’s ancient history, but he thinks he can just pick up where we left off.”
“Damn. I don’t know what to say. I’ve been told I’m good at giving relationship advice, but I’ve never dealt with a couple where the guy is believed dead.”
She slumped. “Nobody has, Brown. Literally nobody.”
“Maybe you better tell me about how things ended. Was there an ugly breakup?”
Her mind launched back in time to when she got off work and saw Apollo had left a message on her phone. She still recalled how her smile had stretched so far and wide that her parents in India must have seen it. Only instead of making plans with her, Apollo told her he had to leave on an op and would be in touch when he returned.
But look how that ended up.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts. “He was deployed. Then I got the news that he was missing, presumed dead.”
Brown’s lips compressed. “I remember. Hell, Indika. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. So when did he spring back to life?”
“Not long ago.” She wanted to lay her head down on her desk and sleep to escape her life for a while.
“You were devastated for years. You’re just now starting to smile and those stress lines around your eyes are fading.”
She gave him a blank stare. “Thanks for bringing up the lines. I didn’t feel bad enough already.”
“Sorry. So…what’s the guy’s name? You never did tell me.”
Because she knew Brown, and he’d run to a computer and look into Apollo. Then he’d only find the false ID that Apollo used on the rare occasions he needed to go public. Under his true identity, there wasn’t a credit history, a birth certificate or anything else on the planet to say Apollo had two feet planted on it.
When she didn’t answer Brown, he used that wheedling tone that got illegals to give up information nobody else could get from them. “Indikaaaa.”
“Forget it. I’m not telling you his name.”
He sighed. “Guess I’ll have to call him Lazarus then, since he came back from the dead.”
Finished with the conversation, she stood. “I have to speak to Burke about a matter. I’m going to have to talk to you about this later. Ornever.”
With a chuckle, he moved to the door. “You know I’m here for you, Indika. I know you, and you don’t get shaken up like this.”
They faced each other. “You’re right,” she said quietly.
“Which is why I’m here when you want to talk more. Or I could distract you with a movie tonight. None of the romance crap you hate. I’m talking gun fights and cowboys…” He caught her eye. “Unless you have other plans.”
“I want nothing to do with—” She broke off before slipping and using Apollo’s name. “Lazarus.”
Brown’s grin widened. “I was talking about Robert.”
“Crap. I do have plans with him…only I can’t remember what I agreed to now.”
Brown bobbed his head on the way out. “Never seen you so frazzled, partner. Hit me up about the movie if you want a no-strings night with a friend. I promise we’ll only talk about yourmenif you want to.”
She gave him a shove as he left. “I don’t havemen.”
He laughed all the way down the hall to his office. Leaving her to lean against the doorjamb, evaluating all three conversations she’d had in the past hour with three men who were in fact, in her life in some way or another.
Brown was here to stay. Best partner ever.
Robert… Well, they were still feeling things out there.
And AJ Apollo? He’d taken himself out of her life once. He could damn well do it again.
THREE
