A Terrible Fall of Angels (Zaniel Havelock #1)(42)
“Me, too, Zaniel,” she said.
We had that awkward moment where we weren’t sure if we should kiss goodbye. In the end she said, “We better not risk another kiss, or we might get carried away, cameras or no cameras.”
I was almost certain she didn’t mean it, but I took the upbeat teasing and ran with it. “That would be a shame,” I said, putting the heat and eagerness into my words and face that she wanted. If she’d pushed it, I wouldn’t have gone through with it, and probably she wouldn’t have either. She was a high school teacher; she couldn’t afford that kind of scandal. Even with her husband. As a cop, getting caught making out with my wife wouldn’t be encouraged, but I wouldn’t get in serious trouble.
Reggie laughed then, happy with my response. “I’ll move my car so you can go catch the bad guys.” She moved past me between my car and the one parked beside us, so that she had to brush lightly against me. It wasn’t the body language of earlier, but it still stole my breath for a moment. She trailed her fingers down my arm as she moved past, getting her keys out of her pocket. She always kept a small key ring so if her purse got stolen, they wouldn’t have her house keys. A friend in college had gotten mugged and then the guy had cleaned out her apartment with the keys later that week.
I don’t know what made me go for broke, but I called after her, “Would it be pushing it if I told you I love you?”
She flashed me that sexy grin over her shoulder as she rounded the back of her car. “No, I love you, too.”
Another little jolt of electric hope shot through me. It felt like my hair should be standing on end from it, but I knew it didn’t show like that.
She got in her car, started the engine, and drove off, waving at me in the rearview mirror. I waved back until I knew she couldn’t see me. I stood there just letting the last few minutes sink in; I wasn’t sure how a promising therapy session had turned into a fight, and then into a kiss and two dates, but for once I didn’t poke at it. I took the win and got in my car. I’d talk to Charleston. He’d do his best to see that I got to see Reggie tomorrow. No guarantees on a case like this, but he’d do his best. Heck, everyone on the squad would help me see her tomorrow, at least all the regulars that knew Reggie, and the new people wouldn’t interfere. We actually had more successfully married couples in our unit than most of the other special squads. Charleston tried to run a family-friendly shop, and Ravensong as his second was seriously into happy wife, happy life. She and Louie had been together twenty-five years and married as soon as it was legal for same-sex couples to marry. Since they couldn’t get married any sooner, I counted our unit as having three couples that had passed the twenty-five-year mark and were all still blissful together. For the first time in months, I prayed that Reggie and I would celebrate our seventh anniversary with me back in the house with her and Connery. You can pray for anything, but I try not to pray if I think it will take a miracle unless it’s life and death. Being without my family felt like I was dying, but I wasn’t; I was miserable, but I wasn’t dying. Today I let myself pray that the talk tomorrow would go well, and the date would go better. We had two months until our anniversary; that didn’t seem like it needed a miracle, not if Reggie and I both wanted it. I hoped we did. I prayed we did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Lila was waiting for me at the head of the stairs inside the door that gave us the privacy of the landing, because almost everyone else but Charleston and me took the elevator. I must have looked surprised, because she said, “I wanted to be sure and talk to you before Adam Thornton found me again.”
I frowned at her, confused now instead of surprised. “Why are you hiding from Adam? I know he can be annoying, but he’s not that bad.”
“He wants the evidence that we took from the parents’ house.”
“He is the medical examiner’s assistant, so she probably sent him.”
“I have Dr. Trent’s permission to show you the items before they go to her lab.”
I widened my eyes at that. “Why would the evidence go to the ME anyway?” I asked.
“Because it’s biologicals, and anything that came off a living person or being goes to the ME now.”
“Unless it needs special magical protection,” I said.
Lila nodded. “Then it goes to the most appropriate authorized body, or organization, or personage that is best capable of dealing with it in a safe and sane manner that does not endanger themselves, the public, or any property or person that might be impacted by said evidence.”
“Wow, I’m impressed that you’ve got that memorized,” I said.
“I didn’t, but I do after Mr. Adam Thornton has repeated it to me like a hundred times while we waited on you.”
“If you have the ME’s permission, why is he here?” I asked.
“Because she sent him along to make sure that the evidence goes to her lab after we’ve investigated it fully,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“That means we have time to look at it magically,” I said.
“By our definition of ‘investigated fully,’ yes, but Adam’s interpretation is a lot different from ours.”
“What do you mean?”
“I am hiding in a stairwell, Havoc, hoping I can sneak you in to look at the evidence without Adam Thornton hanging all over us.”