Frisk Me(52)

“I didn’t,” Anthony said, shoving past and using his shoulder to jar Luc’s. “You’re the one being weird. I’m going to bed.”

Luc watched his brother head to the bedroom. “Hey, Anth.”

His brother paused, turned his chin almost to his shoulder, although he didn’t look back all the way.

“Thanks. For listening.”

Anthony held up his hand in a silent you’re welcome, before slipping back into his bedroom to spoon his overnight guest.

Luc stood for a long while in the dark, the sharpness of his dream fading into the usual shadows of his mind, even as his instincts hummed that that episode in his life wasn’t over yet.

Not by a long shot.





CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE



This is bullshit,” Luc said, running two hands through his hair. “You’ve already seen the video. Everyone’s seen the video. What’s the point of reenacting something when you can watch the real deal?”

Ava’s chest expanded slightly in what Luc now knew was her don’t lose your shit internal pep talk to herself. “So we can have dinner together, but we can’t just walk and talk along the river’s edge in Battery Park?”

Sawyer turned and gave Luc an incredulous look. “Sharing meals? Like, you guys split a candy bar from the candy machine, or…”

“It wasn’t like that,” Ava snapped.

Only because you won’t let it be, he wanted to snap back. Still, keeping things platonic had been his idea too. Sort of.

But f*ck. That kiss.

“Can’t you have a stand-in go through the motions?” he asked. “You know, a body double, or some shit like that.”

“Great idea, Officer, that’ll make for really compelling television. Here, folks, we have a random person off the street pretending to be a—”

She broke off suddenly and gave him a look. “You know why I stopped just then? That’s a million people changing the channel.”

He shrugged. “Not my problem.”

Ava rolled her eyes to the sky as though dealing with a petulant child. He knew he was being difficult, but that was tough shit.

Just because he had some seriously raunchy fantasies about this woman didn’t mean he was going to become her lackey.

As a woman, he wanted her. As a news reporter, she was more a pain in his ass than ever.

If he went through with this, it would make his “heroic” actions seem manufactured and calculating, and the last thing he needed was people thinking that he was the type of cop that over-thought things.

Overthinking led to tragic circumstances.

He knew that better than anyone, and no way was he going to sell himself out on national television.

“It’s not like I’m asking you to jump into the river, Luc,” Ava said, her voice slightly softer. “Just talk us through what happened that day.”

“You mean talk to a couple thousand viewers who I don’t even know.”

“No, talk to me. Ava. Ignore Mihail, ignore the camera, ignore the shit that Lopez will be flinging your way before and after.”

“Who says I’ll be flinging shit?” Luc’s partner asked.

They both looked at him, and Lopez lifted a shoulder. “Okay, maybe. Probably.”

“Look, Luc, what the hell did you think was going to happen when you agreed to this?” Ava asked.

“I didn’t agree to this!”

“Well it’s happening,” she shot back. “And it’ll happen a lot faster, and a lot less painfully for everybody, if you’d cooperate.”

Luc stuck this thumbs into his belt and remained resolutely silent. He knew he was on the verge of being out of line, and he didn’t blame her for being confused. He was all over the place with her. Amiable one minute, prissy the next.

Kissing her one day.

Yelling at her the next.

A match made in heaven, they were not.

Still, in the grand scheme of things, her request should have been harmless.

But with last night’s nightmare fresh on his mind, he felt…threatened. Being asked to perform like a trick pony was bad enough on most days, but on a day when he was running on hardly any sleep and a couple years’ worth of bad memories?

Let’s just say Ava didn’t have a clue.

You could tell her.

He pushed the thought away almost as quickly as it had popped into his head. Tell a woman he hardly knew his deepest, darkest pain? Bad idea.

Telling a reporter his deepest darkest pain?

Really bad idea.

Nobody wanted to see a cop pretending to be a hero. But wasn’t that exactly what he was doing every damned day?

“Dude,” Lopez said under his breath. “You okay? I know you’re not the biggest fan of all this but you’re being kind of a dick.”

Luc almost smiled. Sawyer Lopez was completely different from Mike Jensen in almost every way…Mike had been quiet and focused, whereas Lopez was outspoken and spontaneous. Mike short and broad, Sawyer lean and lithe. Mike fair, Lopez dark.

But his former partner and current partner had one very crucial characteristic in common: they were both damned good at calling Luc on his bullshit.

“Christ,” he muttered. “Fine. Sims, let’s get this over with.”