Page 13 of Mac
She had other reasons to avoid police stations. She’d been in enough of them in her past to last her three lifetimes.
“Jackie? What the hell are you doing here?” Mac asked, coming around the corner of the breakroom with a cup of coffee in his hand.
“You left before we had a chance to say hello.”
“Hello.”
She walked right into that one. “Hi.”
“We good now?”
“No.”
“Do you need me to say good-bye too?”
“No.”
“Then what? I’m working here.”
“On what? There’s no one else in here.”
“Paperwork.”
“It can’t wait?”
“What do you want?”
“Why did you leave?”
“I didn’t want to stay.”
“Why not?”
He sighed and set his cup down, then braced his hands on the edge of the desk. Her gaze was drawn to the corded muscles in his arms. His beard shifted as he clenched his jaw while staring down at the metal surface below.
She was the cause of his mood, his surliness. She was the reason he left Vinter’s, but she needed him to say it. She didn’t know why. She just did.
When he lifted his head and looked at her, fire blazed in the dark depths. “You. I didn’t want to stay and look at you anymore. I didn’t want to stay and pretend that I’m all right when I’m not. I didn’t want to stay and watch you hugging and holding hands with another man. Happy now?”
“Not exactly.” But she’d take it. “You said I could take all the time I needed.”
“I did. And you can. I didn’t say I had to like it.”
“Are you mad?”
He smiled then. Not a joyful smile, but a smile nonetheless. “Nah, Princess. I’m not mad. I’m frustrated.”
“He’s like a brother to me. Trae.”
“Yeah, y’all looked a little cozier than that. He didn’t even cozy up to Mandi like that.”
“Trae’s a good guy. There’s nothing between us.”
“Doesn’t matter. The fact is I didn’t like seeing you with him. I didn’t like being jealous.”
“Given the nature of my business, being jealous is something that would never work.”
“Don’t you think I know that? Your business doesn’t bother me or make me jealous. Since last night in the club, I’ve been operating on a hair trigger. The slightest thing sets me off. I was going to deck the guy if I didn’t leave. Now, what are you doing here?”
