Page 23 of Run to Ground
“I’m not ahugeone.”
Her smile returned as Jules tilted her head down a little, although she still held his gaze in a way that was almost flirty. “You look pretty big to me.”
He found himself leaning a little over the cart handle, as if his body was trying to get closer to her. He was fighting a smile again. His end of this back-and-forth felt a little stiff and rusty, but enormously good, too. It was like when he took an old, corroded engine and brought it back to life. He opened his mouth to respond, but another cart crashed into the side of his.
“Imagine bumping into the two of you here.” It was Hugh. Of course it was.
“Are you stalking me?” Theo demanded, glaring at Hugh, who just looked amused.
“Me?” he gasped, a meaty hand pressed against his chest. “Me stalking you? How do you know I wasn’t here first? Maybeyou’rethe one stalkingme.”
Theo narrowed his eyes. His glare could convince armed criminals to back down, but Hugh just kept grinning.
“What were the two of you talking about?” Hugh leaned on the handle of his cart. “Were you harassing our nice, non-spitting waitress again, T?”
The smoldering anger that sat in Theo’s chest flared at the thought of Hugh trying to save Jules from him. It stung sharply that Hugh thought Theo couldn’t be trusted even to grocery shop, for Christ’s sake, without going on a rampage. It wasn’t just Hugh, either. Everyone at the station, from his lieutenant to the rabbity guy in charge of parking control, treated Theo with the same caution they’d treat a bomb about to explode. Theo was sick of it. Before he could verbally rip Hugh apart, Jules spoke.
“He’s not harassing me.” Theo looked at her in surprise, his mouth snapping shut. “He’s just telling me things I need to know. About the grocery store. Since it’s new to me and all.”
Theo cleared his throat to disguise his snort. Jules really was a terrible liar. And she’d lied to protect him, even though he’d been interrogating her earlier.
After a startled pause, Hugh leaned forward, focused on Jules. “Really? Tell me. I’ve lived in Monroe my entire life, and I didn’t think there was anything to know about the grocery store. C’mon, share. I’m dying to know the Monroe Market secrets.”
Shifting uncomfortably, Jules sent Theo a frantic “help me!” glance, and Theo suddenly understood the lure of a damsel in distress—especially a hot damsel who’d just lied to protect him.
“Don’t you have shopping to do?” Theo asked, giving Hugh’s empty cart a pointed glare. “Unless you’re here just because youarestalking me.”
Hugh grinned at him. “You wish you had a stalker as fine as me.” He looked between Theo and Jules, his pointer finger following his gaze, back and forth like a metronome. “And don’t think I didn’t notice this sudden disturbing alliance between you two.”
“You’re delusional,” Theo said, giving a side-glance at Jules while suppressing yet another almost-smile. It was a nice feeling, to have someone on his side, even in such a minor way. Hugh and Otto had been teamed up for months in a save-Theo-from-himself effort. Even though Theo knew it was well intentioned, it still made him feel like the outsider.
“Delusional, and a stalker. A delusional stalker,” Jules added, her mouth quivering, as if she was hiding a smile. Hugh shot her a displeased glare, but Theo held out his fist to her. She stared at it, looking startled for a moment, but then grinned and bumped her knuckles with his. As soon as they connected, he knew he wouldn’t be interrogating her anymore. He was still curious about Jules—intensely curious—but his interest had changed when she’d come to his rescue. He didn’t just want to figure out what the squirrelly waitress was running from. Theo wanted toknowher, to learn the little silly things about her, like why she needed all that food and what she did when she wasn’t at the diner and how she looked first thing in the morning. The last thought made him swallow hard.
“My frozen stuff’s melting, guys. I’d better run.” With that, she backed up her loaded cart, did a U-turn, and headed for the registers. Theo watched her go.
“Thought you didn’t like the new waitress.”
Theo turned toward his partner, narrowing his eyes. “Quit stalking me.” He shoved his cart down the aisle away from Hugh.
“I wasshopping, you egotistical bastard!” Hugh yelled after him, the amusement in his voice making Theo clench his jaw and flip him off. Hugh’s laughter followed him through the store. Even that irritation couldn’t keep Jules from his mind, though. Despite his almost-empty cart and Hugh’s presence andstillnot having anything to eat for dinner, Theo was glad he’d gone to the grocery store after his shift.
He’d made an ally.
A hot one.
* * *
Theo was staring at his bedroom ceiling when the howling started.
It was a low whine at first, barely catching his notice. As usual, Theo was spending the hour between two and three a.m. rerunning the last few days before Don’s death. Sometimes he’d play the what-if game—what if Theo had said this? Or what if he’d done that? Tonight he was replaying the hours and minutes, catching every single clue he’d missed now that it was too late to do any good.
The high-pitched sound increased in volume, and Theo raised his head before letting it thump back onto the pillow.
“Stupid dog. Useless dog,” he muttered, but guilt and his innate sense of fairness wouldn’t let that stand. “Stupidme. Fucking uselessme.” As galling as it had been to hear, his LT had been right. Viggy had been a great dog and a great officer when he’d worked with Don. Theo was ruining him. He wasn’t just useless; he was destructive. It was sheer luck that no one had been seriously injured in the explosion at Gordon Schwartz’s house. Everyone would be better off if Officer Theodore Bosco wasn’t around.
The whine amped up to a full howl, as if Viggy was providing a soundtrack to Theo’s self-loathing. The neighbors would be calling dispatch soon, and then Otto would be making a house call. Before, Theo would’ve just gotten a cranky phone call, but the guys had been worried about him since Don had died. Although the rational part of Theo’s brain understood why Hugh and Otto had been acting like anxious mother hens for the past couple of months, he still felt smothered. Every “Are you okay?” made him want to punch someone…hard and repeatedly.
He didn’t know what to do with this kind of anger.
