Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
When he glances up, I bite my lips together, lifting my eyebrows in a silent question: What are you doing here?
“Hi.” He grins. “I was about ready to give up on you.”
“Three teenagers riddled with bullets were waiting for us this morning. I’ve been busy.” I unlock my door and squeeze past him. “Last I heard, you worked homicide. Shouldn’t you be busy too?”
“That’s why I was about to give up on you. You’ve been ignoring my phone calls and texts. Don’t you think we’re too old for that?”
“Just the opposite, Detective.” I take a seat at my desk and fish my lunch out of my bag. “I had more time on my hands when we were younger. Now, I’m busy. I’ll give you five minutes. What do you need?”
“Have dinner with me tonight.”
“Terrible idea.”
“I could shut your door, and we could finish what we started in my garage.”
Opening the lid to my nori rolls, I shake my head without giving him the tiniest of glances. “I’ve blocked that near mistake out of my head. Are we done here? Three dead teenagers … do you have a suspect in custody yet?”
“We don’t. State took over, anyway. I feel like the mistake we made was not accepting the extra time alone my mom offered us.”
I chew my bite of food and blot my mouth with my folded paper towel. “I had a temporary lapse in judgment. I let my feelings for your mom and your adorable daughter blur my true feelings for you.”
“True feelings?” One side of his mouth curls into a smile.
“I hate you. But your mom and Reagan humanize you.”
“Ouch.” Colten grips his shirt, pulling the invisible knife from his chest. “Hate is a strong word. Just say you have strong feelings for me after all these years and let me interpret those strong feelings on my own.” He stands, moving in the wrong direction around my desk to me. When he leans his backside on the edge and crosses his arms over his chest, I scoot a bit to my left.
“We’re here for a reason. You’re back in my life for a reason,” he says.
My attention remains affixed to the computer screen with the occasional glance at my nori roll. “I’m in Chicago. We’re in the same city. I fear you’re reading into that.”
“If my mom would have had better timing, we would have—”
“Thank god for your mom. She had perfect timing.” I frown, picking a carrot sticking out of my nori roll. “Well, perfect timing would have been five minutes earlier before we …”
“Kissed? Lost our clothes?”
I grunt, shaking my head. “Lost our minds.”
“What are you afraid of, Josie? Are you afraid if we go too far, you won’t be able to hate me?”
“No. I can go as far as I want and hate you. I’m good at multitasking.”
“Great.” He knocks on the top of my desk twice. “My place at eight. I won’t even buy you dinner first since there’s no point.”
My head whips in his direction as he saunters to the door. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
He glances over his shoulder. “I can. It’s my turn.”
“Your turn?”
“After you broke your arm, you said I could be the bossy one in approximately twenty years. It’s been twenty-one years since you promised me control. It’s past due. Eight o’clock. If you’re late, I’m going to handcuff you to the bed.”
My lips part, fresh out of words, and he exits my office with a frightening level of confidence.
After work, I do what any good self-preserving woman would do—I line up a last-minute date for the night. Garrett is a nice guy. We’ve chatted off and on for months. It’s time I do the irresponsible thing and invite him to my place after dinner.
He says something funny as I unlock the front door and toe off my shoes.
“The fuck …” Garrett stiffens, glancing over my shoulder when I turn on the light.
My hand dives into my purse, fingers curling around my gun as I whip around.
Shoulder casually propped up against the wall, arms crossed over his T-shirt-clad chest, Colten returns a frigid look to Garrett before glancing at his watch. “It’s nine o’clock.”
Tipping my chin up and easing my grip on my gun, I narrow my eyes at him. “Go home.”
“So you can fuck this dude?”
“Yes.”
“Um … I thought you were single,” Garrett says. “And you have a gun?”
“I am. And I do.”
“Then who’s this guy?”
“Nobody,” I murmur.
My response draws a tiny grin from Colten. “Do you have a gun on you?” He eyes Garrett.
“N-no …”
“Well, I do and so does Josie. So I’m thinking you should go home, have some warm milk, jerk off to your favorite porn site, and forget about her.”
Garrett takes a step back, closer to the door. Without looking behind me, I grab his shirt and make a tight fist. “Stay, Garrett. Detective Mosley is out of his jurisdiction and out of his mind.”