Page 54 of Fracture

Karli texted back to Adam, then set her phone down. “I don’t get it, but if it means someone worse goes away for longer, I guess it’s a good thing.”

“Maybe I’m not a very good agent. I think they should all be in prison forever.”

Karli grinned. “There’s that spark that drove you to become an agent. When you first told me you were switching your major, I thought you were crazy.”

“I switched my major?”

Karli nodded. “You did. You were a psychology major, but one of your friends went missing. She was on her way home from class one night and disappeared. No one ever found her. You spent an entire semester searching for her in every spare minute you had, and when you pissed all off the campus officers and the local and federal ones, you changed your major so no one would ever be lost forever like she was.”

“Seriously?”

Karli nodded again, her gaze full of admiration. “I thought you were the most amazing person I’d ever known. You were so strong, and so smart, and so determined. I think a part of you thought you’d find Annie one day.”

“Annie?” Lorelei asked. The name didn’t ring a bell, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t in there somewhere.

“Yeah. Annie Lake. Do you recognize her name?”

Lorelei shook her head, hating that another person who mattered to her was gone from her memory. “I hate this.”

“You’ll get your memories back. I know you will.”

“I hope so.”

Vinnie couldn’t remember ever being so happy to be on his way home from work. He loved his job. It gave him purpose and direction at a time when he had neither. Being a police officer, and then a SWAT officer, said he was making a difference in the world.

But he had something else he was enjoying just as much. And she was waiting for him at his apartment.

Vinnie had a smile on his face as he climbed the stairs to his floor. He expected Karli to be there, but the only one he wanted to see was Lorelei.

Voices inside his apartment surprised him. A male voice blended with the female voices. More than two voices.

Tension put him on edge, but they laughed, and Vinnie tried to relax. He never said Lorelei couldn’t have people over. He just hadn’t expected her to have a party.

Vinnie unlocked the door and walked in to Lorelei, Adam, Raina, Karli, and Cade all in his living room. They looked up when they realized he was there.

“Vinnie! You’re back,” Adam said. “How was work?”

“Um, it was good. How are you? How was your honeymoon?”

Adam’s smirk, followed by his shared grin with Raina, told Vinnie far more than he wanted to know about Adam and Raina. “Honeymoon was very good.”

“Ew,” Karli said.

“Just wait until it’s yours,” Raina countered.

Karli’s eyes went wide.

Cade threw his arm around her shoulder. “Don’t scare her off for me.”

“Are you going to propose?” Raina asked.

“Not right now,” Cade said. “When we’re ready.”

“Ooh, I can’t wait!” Raina gushed.

“Lorelei was going through some of the files with me,” Adam said, extracting himself from the couch and moving toward Vinnie at the door. “Sorry we all invaded your space.”

“The files?” Vinnie asked, glancing at Lorelei. He thought she was going to wait for him.

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