“I didn’t see anything.” He’d seemed annoyed and disappointed in me.
I want to text him.
Yesterday, anytime he popped into my head, I texted him, but somehow a sassy, flippant remark about scaring him off no longer seems appropriate.
Should I say I’m sorry? But for what?
He told me to play it cool, and I did.
He’s the one who didn’t rise to the challenge.
Hailey nudges my shoulder again, shaking me from my thoughts. “You didn’t see anything because you treated him like he was a ghost.”
Stubborn, I shake my head. “You told me to lie low.”
“Jessica, admit it. You’re terrified you’re into him because you thought you were above all that.”
She’s so accurate it makes me dig in my heels harder. “No, I was trying to be good.”
“Maybe, instead of playing all these games with him, you should try talking to him.”
My throat tightens. Which infuriates me. I do not cry over men.
I put my elbows on my knees and hang my head, swallowing the tears down. “This is for the best. It’s not like we were ever going to have a relationship.”
“How do you know that?”
“I don’t want to be tied down. I don’t want some man trying to mold me into what he wants, instead of who I am. I want to be free.”
“Maybe he’s different.”
I raise my head and look into the infinite darkness that now reminds me of Charlie’s midnight eyes.
Look how far I’ve fallen, and for what? “This is for the best.”
Hailey is still next to me, and I don’t look over for fear of what I’ll read in her expression. “If you say so.”
Chapter 13
Charlie
“So, what are you thinking?” Ryder asks.
We’ve been combing through the case file, looking for clues as to what we’re missing and searching for a motive for why someone wants the mistress, a congressional aide who worked for the congressman named Hazel Myers, dead.
Ryder, Sadie Rodgers—my lieutenant in charge of the investigations division—and I have spent the morning reviewing every detail, trying to come up with angles, only to end up empty-handed.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Continue to interview friends and family and see if they can fill in the blanks. Then let’s go back to the witnesses at the accident and ask different questions.”
Sadie shifts in the chair. “It’s a place to start.”
Ryder nods. “We focused on the details of the accident the first time around, but now we need to look for possible connections.”
“I’ll talk to Claire to see if she’s come up with anything unusual in the background checks,” Sadie says, naming our cyber investigator.
“Good idea. First order of business is to establish if the accident is related or coincidental.” I pick up a pen from my desk, fiddling with it as I roll through the intel, the eyewitness accounts, and the seemingly random collection of people involved in the pileup. “On the surface, it seems unconnected. But I don’t know…something is bothering me.”
“Yeah, me too,” Ryder says.