“I’m actually staying with a friend in Brook Creek for about a week.”
The officer nodded. “Good idea.” He handed me a business card. “If anything comes up before I call you, please feel free to give me a ring.”
I read the card. “Will do, Officer Klein. Thank you for coming.”
Both officers shook all our hands and went on their way.
17
Tommy
“I think we should go to your place and pick up extra clothes for you. You might end up staying in Brook Creek longer than you originally planned.”
Olivia opened her mouth and looked like she was going to say no. “I’ll think about it.”
She wasn’t happy with me right now, so I wasn’t going to push. I’d work on convincing her before we left Des Moines.
I looked at my watch. It was well past lunch and heading toward dinner. “Why don’t we get something to eat? I’m starving. We can worry about clothes and driving back to Brook Creek after our stomachs are full.”
Olivia rubbed her head.
“Unless you need to do more work?”
“No.” She dropped her hand. “It’s fine. I’m just worried about Addison and Maddox. Doesn’t he want his windows?”
“I already texted Maddox and told him we were going to be late and that we’d explain everything later when we got back.”
Her shoulders sagged in relief. “Thank you.” She looked at her assistant. “Derek, go ahead and take the rest of the afternoon off.”
“Thanks, boss,” he said, his tone slightly mocking.
“What was that about?” I asked after Derek was gone.
“Oh, we just had a conversation about him going against my wishes while you were talking to the officer.”
“Everything okay?”
She smiled softly. “With Derek? Yeah, we’re good.”
“So, where should we eat?”
“I’m going to need something a lot stronger than food,” she answered.
Olivia’s office was in downtown Des Moines, and when we left, we walked a few blocks to a tiny bar.
“Wow,” I said, holding the door open for her.
“Don’t worry; they have food. It’s bar food, but it’s good.”
“No. I wasn’t saying that because I’m hungry, although that is good to know. I was saying that because it doesn’t look like your kind of place.”
It was clean but very dark and old. Classic rock filled the room. I took Olivia for more of a classical-music kind of woman.
It was a Thursday, late afternoon, but there were more people in the bar than I’d thought there would be. It wasn’t crowded though, and we found two free stools at the end of the bar, near the wall.
There was a stack of menus on the bar top, and Olivia grabbed two and handed one to me.
“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” she said to me. Thankfully, the music playing wasn’t too loud, so neither of us had to yell to hear each other. “We might have met a few years ago, but we haven’t spent that much time together.”
“Maybe I’ll just have to get to know you better.”
She flipped over her menu. “We’ll see about that.”
I looked at my own menu. “Why do you say that?”
She put her elbow on the bar and her chin in her hand. “A couple reasons.”
At that moment, a bartender came over and asked us what we wanted.
“I’ll take an old-fashioned.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“What?”
“I saw you as more of a wine drinker.”
“I like wine. It’s just not all I like.”
The bartender slid her drink over. “And for you, sir?”
“I’ll have a whiskey, neat.”
“I saw you as more of a beer drinker,” Olivia said to me.
“Touché.” I leaned close to her ear and said, “I like beer. It’s just not all I like.”
“Here is your drink, sir. Do either of you want to order food?”
We requested several appetizers because I was a big boy and needed lots of calories to keep me fueled.
“I’ll put your order in,” the bartender said. “It’ll be about fifteen to twenty minutes.”
“Thank you,” Olivia said.
After the bartender walked away, I asked, “What are your reasons for me not getting to know you better?”
“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”
“I think you already know that about me.”
“True.” She turned in her stool toward me. Whoever had bought them went the cheap route because they didn’t swivel. She rested her arm on the back of the chair since it was now at her side. “My first reason is that you were a little high-handed back at my office. I said I didn’t want to call the police, and you didn’t listen to me. You didn’t respect my wishes. And the second reason is, you said you were going to test my boundaries last night. While I admit that the sex was good, I had expected a little more.”
I tilted my head and studied her. “Noted.” I shifted in my seat to face her, too. “I’m sorry that I didn’t respect your wishes, but when it comes to someone’s life, I’m never going to ignore a threat. Not even if it were Maddox or someone else from my old team. Understand?”
She nodded. “Yes. I figured you’d say as much. Derek said something similar.”
I laughed. “Of course, you scolded him for not listening to you, too.”
She lifted a shoulder. “I am the one in charge.”
“As for your second issue”—I pulled her stool over to mine until her chair hit my knees—“who said I was going to push all your boundaries in one night?”
Her breathing deepened as her mouth opened slightly. “No one. I just assumed…”
“Uh-uh-uh. Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to assume anything?” My leg was on the outside, and I moved it up a rung to block anyone from seeing what I was about to do. I ran my hand up her thigh that was facing the bar, and I put that leg over my inside knee and spread my legs to open hers.
“What are you going to do?”
I didn’t answer. Rather, I continued moving up her leg, switching from
