Page 22 of Twisted Hearts

“Is that tonight?”

We were invited because Jaxon knew the owner and tonight was the soft opening, whatever the hell that meant. He’d promised Malcolm we’d show, so we’d show.

When I had been invited to go out with them, it had sounded like fun. Hang with the team. Get to know them so I stopped being the “new guy” on the outside. Now that it was Friday, my bones hurt I was so tired, and I wasn’t quite sure I had the mental capacity for a conversation.

“Yeah, it’s Friday. You coming or what?”

If everyone else was going and I didn’t, I’d not only keep being the new guy, I’d be the new guy who wasn’t a team player. Not good. “Save me a seat. I’ll be there in thirty.”

She opened the door and stepped in. “You okay?”

Charlie was sweet. She was also tough as nails, and I figured she knew how to kill a man with her bare hands in more ways than I did. She was petite, so I figured men often underestimated her by her size alone, but I didn’t. Her eyes were always too bright with awareness of everything going on around her.

That she picked up on my sour mood didn’t surprise me, but I wasn’t exactly in the frame of mind for a soul-searching conversation.

“I’m good.”

I shoved the last of the papers into the file from my most recent week of following a cheating husband through the streets of Raleigh and stood. “Just tired. Long week.”

“You’ll get used to it, and things will get better. Want to know what will help?”

“Dreammaker’s?” I asked.

“Yes. Drinks with the team. Rowdy and raunchy talk and actions. Darts. Pool. A few more drinks and then pizzas. Come on.”

I closed the file drawer and spun, crossing my arms over my chest. “I’m not really one for raunchy talk.” Never had been. To me it was just immature. If men didn’t want to be perceived as misogynistic assholes around women anymore, they needed to stop acting like it in public and with their guys. If that was what the night was going to become, she wasn’t making it seem more appealing.

“Not the guys.” She heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “I’m the one with the raunchy talk. It makes Jaxon blush, andthatmakes me laugh.”

“Jaxon can blush?”

“Hedoeshave emotions. They’re just well hidden, and you’ll learn that if you hang with your boss some more.”

I’d begun to suspect Jaxon was a cyborg hidden beneath human flesh. “Fine, I’m sold. But I’ll be there in half an hour. Let me finish up a few things.” It wasn’t anything except stalling. I had guy friends on the force, of course I did, but most of my friends had been guys I grew up with since we were in diapers. Benefits of a small town. In truth, I wasn’t thebestat meeting new people because I’d rarely had to.

“Fine,” she huffed and flung my door open on her way out. “But if you’re later than thirty, you’ll owe me a drink.”

“Sure, Charlie. Whatever you say.”

In response, I saw her middle finger fly high in the air before she turned the corner.

Alone again in my office, I took everything in. I had nothing to do. No mess to clean up because I liked my office clean and organized, no personal effects because outside of a few pictures with my buddies back in Kansas and my parents, I didn’t have much of a life.

So what was the damn problem with drinks with guys I’d hopefully be spending the next several years with?

Hell, maybe I could meet someone. Perhaps a nice woman would help settle the tension I’d been carrying in my shoulders for no known reason.

That wasn’t true.

I knew what caused it…orwho, rather.

The redhead in the alley who’d cried on the “best day of her life.”

That woman I’d thought about repeatedly. The fear in her eyes right before she fled quickly to the elevator, refusing my help. The terror in them when I’d first stepped close to her in the lobby of the hotel.

And I didn’t even know her damn name to find her.

“Fuck it,” I muttered. I grabbed my wallet from my desk and slid it into the back pocket of my jeans. I’d ditch the gun I carried at my hip once I got in my truck and stash it in the glove compartment.

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