Page 3 of Justice for Daesha

“Sorry,” Jack said, grinning. “Well? Isn’t she nice?”

“She is.”

“She’s a physical therapist,” Jack pointed out.

“I know. She said she was,” Amos fired back.

“You should talk to her some more. She has quite a story.”

Amos stared at him for a few seconds. “When she walked away, there was something?”

“Don’t have a fit, okay?”

“About what?”

“She’s an amputee. IED in Afghanistan.” Amos rolled his eyes. “And she had this radical treatment for PTSD that took care of that. And she’s got a state-of-the-art prosthetic. You didn’t even realize, did you?”

“Jack, damn it, why would you?”

“Stop. Look at the person, Amos. Stop being so fucking shallow and look at her. Really look. Talk to her. Hear her story.” Before Amos had a chance to argue, Jack turned and started away.

“Fuck you,” Amos tossed at him quietly.

“What was that about?” he heard a feminine voice say and turned to see Daesha standing there.

“Nothing. Brother stuff. So, it’s getting late, and I should probably?”

Her gaze bored into him. “He told you, didn’t he?”

Amos decided to play dumb. “Told me what?”

Rolling her eyes, Daesha sighed. “Yeah. He did. It’s okay. Whatever. Thanks for the drink and the dance.” He didn’t get a chance to say anything else before she turned and started to walk away.

Look at the person, Amos. Stop being so fucking shallow and look at her. Really look. Talk to her. Hear her story.He heard his brother’s voice in his head and couldn’t stop himself when he called out, “Wait!”

She spun and glared at him. “This is where you say, ‘It doesn’t matter. I don’t care about that.’ Because you do. You will. You wouldn’t believe some of the things guys have said to me. I get it. Nobody wants to fuck a woman with a stump.” For the second time, she wheeled and headed away.

Amos bolted toward her, passed her, and spun to face her, stopping her in her tracks. “Don’t go. We can just?”

“Be friends? Sure. We can just be friends. Because I want dozens of guy friends while I’m sitting at home on the sofa, watching TV and eating potato chips every Friday and Saturday night. I get it, Amos.”

“No. I was going to say we can just sit down and talk for a while, get to know each other. I’m not concerned with fucking you. I don’t even know you. But I’d like to get to know you, if you’d care to get to know me.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re serious.”

Amos held up two fingers in a scouting gesture. “Scout’s honor.”

Daesha shrugged. “Okay then. Wanna go find a place to sit down?”

“Sure. Go ahead. I’ll follow you.” One thing he hadn’t noticed when he’d seen her walk away before was her ass, and it was gorgeous. The satin dress didn’t hurt either. It made her every curve even more appealing. When she stopped at a table, Amos pulled out the chair, then pushed it up when she was seated. He didn’t sit down across the table; instead, he sat down at the side adjacent to her seat. “So, how long have you worked at the VA?”

“Ever since I came back from Afghanistan, so about eight years.”

Amos blew out a breath. “Wow. It’s hard to believe we’ve been over there that long.”

“Yeah. Long time. How long have you been with the bureau, or whatever you call it?”

“We call it the department, and I’ve been there for about eleven years. Got a criminal justice degree and worked as a deputy sheriff for about a year, but that just wasn’t for me. It was going to take too long to get where I wanted to go, and KDCI does what I wanted to do anyway.”

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