“Jesus, man. I don’t want to know that shit.”
“Sorry. But what the fuck? She goes from not being able to get enough of me one minute, to dumping my ass the next. And she didn’t even give me a reason. I could fucking work with a reason.”
He starts scrolling through his phone, no doubt debating on sending her another pleading text message. I’ve had to stop him seven times already today from embarrassing himself.
“Do I need to throw that out the window?”
He shoves it back into his pocket with pure aggravation. “She didn’t say anything to you?”
He was in deep. I knew Luke was infatuated with Tessa, but I hadn’t realized until today that he was in love with her. I don’t think he knows that though, and if he does, I doubt he’ll admit it. Especially after getting dumped for the first time in his life.
I turn the receiver volume up on the radio before answering. “No, in the ten minutes it’s been since you last asked me that same question, she hasn’t said anything to me. The only thing I know is that she looked really upset.”
I begin tailing a car that is going twelve over the speed limit. I’d normally let it go if we weren’t currently in a school zone and I wasn’t in a shit mood. Having a kid has made me stricter on certain things, and the asshole in front of me picked the wrong day to go a little heavy on the gas. We’ve already ticketed nine people today, all of whom decided it was in their best interest to give me an attitude. And once you argue over a driving violation with me, I’m not giving you a fucking warning.
Luke grips the back of his neck with both hands. “Goddamn it. How the fuck am I supposed to fix this if she won’t even talk to me?”
He turns the laptop toward him and begins looking up the license plate information.
I flip on the lights and the driver pulls over onto the shoulder, barely leaving me enough room to get behind him. That just annoys me further.
“I’m not okay with being dumped without knowing what the hell I did wrong. If she doesn’t talk to me soon, I’m going to go fucking crazy.”
I grab the bottom of the mount that holds the laptop and turn it so I can see it. “Give me the fucking thing. Do you realize you just looked up my sister’s information in here, dick?”
Luke leans over, looking at the screen that displays every past address and speeding ticket Tessa’s ever had. He flinches before falling back into his seat. “Fuck me. I’m in deep, man.”
“No, you’re in love, asshole.”
And when he doesn’t argue with me, I don’t feel the need to say anything more. He’ll have a hard enough time dealing with that realization himself without me fueling the fire. But I do owe it to him to at least try and get some information out of Tessa. And I silently vow to do that.
I didn’t dare mention my sister’s name again while we finished patrolling. Luke had dropped all conversation involving her after he looked to see if she had a record accidently. And I wasn’t a glutton for punishment, so my conversations with him stayed as far away from that topic as possible. I didn’t even mention Mia, because I knew that would just trigger him. And not talking about Mia was more difficult than I had anticipated.
I am mentally exhausted by the end of the day.
The only thing I want to do is hold Mia against me and fall asleep with her. So you can only imagine the surge of disappointment that runs through me when I arrive at my parents’ house and she isn’t there.
I grab my phone and dial her number, needing to at least hear her after the day I’ve had.
“Hello?” she answers in that voice that can drop me to my knees.
I smile against my phone and sit down on the couch, aimlessly flipping through the channels. “Baby, I’m at the house and you’re not. It kind of sucks here without you.”
“Oh, God, is it after six already? I’m so sorry, babe. Tessa wanted to get our hair and nails done today and I completely lost track of time.”
Muffled voices come through the phone, and I can tell she’s in a crowded place.
“You called me ‘babe’,” I state.
She’s never called me anything besides Ben, except for some profanity that I’m sure she labeled me with when she first discovered who I was. Or multiple profanities.
“Oh, yeah, I guess I did.” She laughs softly. “Is that okay? You call me so many different nicknames and I wanted to try one out. I liked babe.”
I shift on the couch, resting my feet on the coffee table. “I like it too.” My phone beeps, indicating that I’m getting another call. “Oh, hold on a second, angel.”
“Okay, babe,” she responds, the obvious smile in her voice.
I press a button and answer the incoming call. “Hello?”
“Hey, Ben. It’s Rollins.” Phil Rollins is another officer that works in my precinct. I don’t see him or his partner much, considering that they worked nights. “Listen, man. You’re gonna need to come down to the 14th block of Canton Street. I just pulled Angie over for drunk driving and she’s got Nolan with her.”
I am on my feet and moving toward the door as soon as I hear Nolan’s name.
“What? Is he okay? Rollins, fucking tell me if he’s hurt!”
My entire body tenses up, and I feel my heart pounding in my head.
“He’s fine, man. I’m about to arrest Angie though. She’s way over the legal limit and she seems to be on something besides alcohol.”
That stupid cunt.
I sprint to my truck, not being able to make my legs move fast enough. “Don’t arrest her until I get there. Do you hear me? I wanna
