Sometimes she wished she’d just stuck with the Marine Corps and finished her career as an E-8 collecting a pension.
You’d still have two years left.If you hadn’t been shot and killed first.
She called David and got his voicemail.“Hey, baby, just letting you know we got the results back.Nothing conclusive, but we might as well move forward.We’re probably not going to get a clear answer.Love you.Oh, and take Hammerton and Rogers with you.I’d rather not leave them alone.”
She had spoken a little cryptically to hide what she was actually saying, but it was still clear enough.She didn’t want David going out on his own and getting hurt.She finished with, “Keep me posted.Love you.”
She hung up and smiled down at Turk.“Okay, boy.That’s that.Let’s go find Jessica.”
Turk barked and trotted next to her as they navigated through the masses toward the TSA office in Concourse E.She looked down at her dog, older now but still so alive and so beautiful.How could anyone hurt such perfect creatures?
Then again, she’d seen people who got a kick out of mutilating people.It was, unfortunately, not very hard at all to imagine someone evil enough to hurt dogs.
But that was why they were here.They caught bad guys.No matter how big and scary those bad guys were.They’d catch the bad guy who had killed Jackson Entwhistle, and they’d catch the bad guys who tried to kill David.They would rue the day they’d decided to mess with Faith Bold’s husband.
CHAPTER SIX
“You’re kidding!”
Raelynn Hayes gave Sam a wan smile.“‘Fraid not.”
“That’s bullshit!You’ve been the backbone of that unit for eleven years!”
Rae shrugged.“That’s what I thought.I guess she sees it differently.”
“Well, she’s a bitch, and I heard her husband’s cheating on her with her sister.”
Rae giggled.She nearly spilled her beer, but the laughter felt good.It felt a lot better than the tears she'd shed in her car before driving to the Bark Lounge to commiserate with her best friend over the promotion she'd been passed up for yet again.
Sam was always good at cheering up.The crazy Cubanacholita—her words for herself that Rae would never repeat out loud—retained her exuberance and love of life even now that they were both on the wrong side of forty and had settled into a life of mundanity and survival instead of excitement and achievement.
Maybe that was Rae’s problem.She still hoped to achieve something.Maybe she should just be content being a middle manager in the ATF’s K9 program and stop trying to put her name on a list of leaders in the organization.
“I have to admit,” she told her friend, “It’s fun imagining Trudy getting cuckolded by her sister.Is that the right word when it’s women, or does that apply only to men?”
Sam shrugged.“Whatever.Fuck that bitch.Or don’t, actually.She can go fuck herself.”
“I wasn’t planning to fuck her, but thank you.”
“She’d be lucky,” Sam said, waving her finger at Rae before sipping her cosmo.“But seriously, girl, don’t sweat it.Your time will come.”
Rae tried to laugh but could only manage a soft scoff.“Yeah, maybe.”She sipped her beer and shrugged.“Whatever.I’m four years away from fully vesting in my pension.Maybe I’ll leave after that and just focus on my paintings.”
“Girl, you totally should!”Sam said.“They’re really good.I’m not just saying that because I’m your friend, either.I would totally buy one of your paintings.”
Rae smiled at Sam, whose most artistic purchase had been a plastic plate with the phrase LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE printed on it in cursive.“You’re a queen, you know that?”
“Hell no,chica.It’s your world.I just live in it.”She laid her hand over Rae’s.“You okay?”
Rae sighed and admitted, “Not really.But I will be.It’s just a tough day.”
“You know what they say.The sun will come out tomorrow.”
“Do they say that?”
“I don’t know.I heard they do, but I haven’t talked to them in a while.”
Rae chuckled again and the two friends pointedly ignored Rae’s missed promotion for the rest of the evening.For a while, Rae was even able to forget the fact that she was trapped in a career black hole from which she would never escape.Too late.She was already past the event horizon.Nothing left to do but orbit until she spiraled into the center and was finally pulled apart.