Kissed Blind (Hot Pursuit #2)(61)

“Sit.”

“Yes, sir,” we said in unison.

“What the hell happened last night? I’ve already talked to you.” He pointed to Vance, and then turned his finger on me. “But now I’m ready to hear what you have to say. You breached protocol, and I’m disappointed with how you’ve both handled the situation.”

My armpits were already saturated. I swallowed, took a deep breath, and then presented the situation as I recalled it, finishing up where I took Oliver to the safe house.

“We have pretty clear cut guidelines to handling situations like this, don’t we?” His eyes darted back and forth between mine and Vance’s.

“Yes, sir,” Vance answered. “But everything happened so quickly there wasn’t time to check in. Our client’s safety was our top priority. It was afterhours so we did what we thought we had to do.”

“Yeah, you told me that already.” He exhaled an angry breath through his nostrils. “We have two dead bodies. Have you been cleared by Cincinnati PD? I can’t believe you dragged Rivas into this.” He shook his head at me.

“Yes, sir. They understand what we walked into,” Vance answered.

“And the client? He’s safe and sound?” He turned his glare on me.

“Yes, he’s back at home and resting. We had a long night, but aside from a couple of bumps and bruises, he was mostly unharmed.”

“Mostly? So the client was injured?”

“Sir, I was knocked unconscious, and when Oliver was in custody of the abductors, he was roughed up a little, but nothing major.”

“Christ, what a disaster.” He shuffled through the papers on his desk and handed each of us a packet. “Both of you go to your desks and fill these out.”

“And that’s it?” I asked.

He laughed. “No, that’s hardly it. You both are going to be under review when this job is over. You’ll finish this assignment out, go to California like the client has requested, and then we’ll discuss the next step. Now, get out of here so I can finish this and go home.” As we left his office, he grumbled about being there on a Saturday morning.

Vance and I filled out our incident reports at our desks. My heartbeat slowed to a normal rhythm by the time I’d gotten to the end, but the queasy feeling in my stomach remained. I did a mental inventory of my pantry and fridge—I was going to need to stop at the supermarket to load up on all the wrong things if I was ever going to get through this weekend.

We handed in our reports, and outside, I tossed the keys to Vance. “Drive me home, will ya?”

He looked down at the keys with surprise. “Really, that easy?”

“I don’t have any fight left in me today. I’m exhausted.”

He unlocked the car and drove me home. I opened the door at the curb and was getting ready to get out when Vance stopped me. “Hey.”

“What?” I said, without looking at him. I just wanted to get inside my apartment and forget about the last twenty-four hours.

“Look at me.”

I sighed and slipped back into my seat. I stared blankly through the windshield. I felt like a zombie.

“Thanks for everything. I know you did what you did for me and you didn’t have to. I know you’re wrestling with some things inside your head right now.”

I nodded. “I am.”

“Look, I want you to know, if it comes down to it, I’ll tell Cavanaugh everything and I’ll quit. I won’t let you go down over this.”

“I could have said no. It’s not all your fault.”

He tilted his head and stared at me with his puppy eyes.

“Stop looking at me like that.” I smiled. “I could have said no.”

His lashes fluttered like a butterfly’s wings.

“You have problems,” I said through a laugh.

He nodded.

“Okay, I’m going inside.” I checked the time on the dashboard clock. “Some people are coming by with clothes for me to try on in a couple of hours, and I have some things I need to take care of before they get here.”

Vance chimed in before I closed the door. “See you tomorrow. Around noon?”

Oh God, lunch at Vance’s parents’ house. Gabe was supposed to go with me. I forced a smile. “I’ll be there.”

I hauled my body inside my apartment and collapsed on my bed. I called Gabe a few times, but the phone didn’t even ring; it went straight to voicemail. I didn’t know what I would have said if he had answered anyway. I showered and took a trip to the store to load my shelves.

As I walked the aisles, I imagined over and over what Gabe had seen, staring through the panes of glass. He’d watched me kiss Oliver and saw Oliver kissing the every loving hell out of me. The thought of seeing Gabe doing something similar made me nauseous. There are some things that just can’t be undone.

I stopped at the little wine shop up the street from the market and picked out an expensive bottle of Italian wine. I’d lie to Vance’s mother and tell her Gabe was called away on business but insisted I bring a great bottle from his cellar. It cost almost a hundred dollars, and normally I would have choked on that price tag, but not this time. The money Camille was going to give me would cover it, and then I tried to think of ways I could spend it as quickly as possible. If I saw it in my bank account, it would remind me of what I’d done. Maybe I could give it to charity, but one thing I knew for certain was I didn’t want it.