I leveled him with a look. “Because I went on a mission while still suspended from active duty.”
Disbelief clouded Eden’s eyes. A deep frown formed between them, and his tongue made repeated swipes over his lips. “That’s impossible.”
“And yet, it’s what’s happening.” I let my head drop back, studying the dots and lines on the ceiling as I blew out a breath. “Since I’m on suspension and they’re considering my dishonorable discharge, no one has let me in on what’s going on. If they’ve started with the investigation, no one has spoken to me about it.”
“Let me guess. You haven’t spoken to them about what happened at all?” His lips pressed into a thin line and his eyes narrowed when I shook my head. “We have to tell the truth, Linc. I mean it. The only way we don’t get kicked out for this is if we tell them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. No games, no nothing. Just walk them through what happened that day.”
“I don’t know.” I shoved my hands into my short hair and lowered my chin. “It might not make much of a difference at this point.”
“It doesn’t fucking matter,” he burst out, his fingers curling into fists above his starched white bed sheet. Red stained his cheeks, and his jaw tightened. “We have to try, Lincoln. I’m not walking away from a career we’ve been building for the better part of a decade and want for the rest of our lives when we’re being fucked.”
“I’m not planning on just walking away.” I shook my head at him. “There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that I’m just walking away, but we also need to time it right. If we don’t—”
The door creaked softly on its hinges as it swung open, and I cut myself off before I’d even turned around to see who was there. I figured it would be the doc, but I was wrong.
I found myself staring into the ice-blue eyes of the lieutenant commander. His graying brows swept up on his forehead and he shifted on his feet, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ve come to check on Phillips. I’m not surprised to see you here, Dobbs, but you have to leave.”
“But I—”
Those eyes narrowed to slits, and he planted his feet about a foot apart. “I’m being generous here, Dobbs. This is your one pass. The next time you open your mouth to argue or I find you anywhere near this hospital, you will be in jail. Got it? Good.”
He dismissed me by moving his gaze to Eden. Rage bubbled in my chest, but I climbed to my feet and gave Eden a wave.
I’d meant it when I said I wasn’t leaving without a fight, but this wasn’t the right time to have it. If I wasn’t careful, my ass would be thrown in jail today. Even if I wasn’t, I might still end up there. The longer I could keep myself on this side of the bars, the better shot I had at finding out what the hell had gone down before and after Eden and I had boarded that plane.
Now that I knew he was awake, clearing our names was at the top of my list of priorities. I didn’t know how to do it yet, but I’d find out.
No matter who my opponent was, I wasn’t backing down again. Not even from Charles fucking Cantor.
Chapter 30
Sofia
Every once in a while, everything felt like it was right in the world. When I woke up after an incredible day with the man I’d most definitely fallen for and had spent most of the night talking to, it felt like it was going to be one of those days.
A soppy but upbeat love song popped into my head the second I opened my eyes. Stretching out on my bed with a ridiculous smile on my face, I wiggled along to the tune in my head like the princess in a damn movie. Then I decided to grab my brush and sing into it as I climbed out of bed and made it.
By the time I was freshly showered and dressed, I felt like an actress in one of those romantic comedy movies Haley and I watched sometimes. I couldn’t quit smiling, my ass shook along to music only I could hear, and I swore I was only a pen and paper away from scribbling Lincoln’s name with little hearts all around it.
Floating on a fluffy cloud of elation and riding a unicorn over a rainbow in my head, I missed the thundercloud hanging over my father when I first walked into the kitchen. My voice even came out as a song when I chirped my good morning. “Hey, Daddy. What’s up? How was your fourth?”
When he lifted his head away from the newspaper and his eyes hooked onto mine, the cloud evaporated and the unicorn died. My shoulders slumped and dread pooled in my stomach. And he hadn’t even said a word.
Still without saying anything, he slowly set the newspaper down and pushed it across the table.
I frowned. “What’s wrong?”
He folded back a page, then tapped on it with his index finger. So many emotions burned in his eyes that I couldn’t begin to identify them all, but none of them were good. Nor was the fact he remained silent.
Slowly dragging my gaze away from his, I saw the article he had opened to. On top of the page in big bold letters, the headline read “Couple saves a life on the beach!”. Beneath it was a photo of my own smiling face and Lincoln’s arrogant yet sexy smirk. His arms were wrapped around me from behind and his head was right up against mine. Instead of looking directly at the camera, his eyes were focused on me.
There could be no denying that we were together in the picture.
