“What is it?” Brook asked.
“Yeah, what the fuck now?” Lincoln asked.
“Reynolds was shot outside of the police department. They don’t know if he’s going to make it,” Calder told them.
“Oh, fuck,” Brook said then looked toward the bedroom.
This was a nightmare in itself.
* * * *
“So you’re going to sit there and not fucking talk to us?” Conway asked J.J. as she sat on the small windowsill and looked out toward the fields.
“I said I needed a little bit of time. There are a lot of crazy thoughts going through my head. There are things I need to tell you. I’m just trying to digest everything.”
“Well, fucking digest it faster. I’m about this close to throwing you over my knees and spanking that ass. You don’t know how to take an order for shit. How fucking long do you think we’ll wait before we lose our fucking patience?
She glared at him.
“Sounds to me like you’ve already lost your patience.”
He stepped closer.
“Tell me why you reacted the way to did to that video. What have you not told us about this case, your life, and what’s going on? God damn it, J.J., we care about you, but you’re making this very difficult.”
“Conway, have you ever been in love?” she asked him and he was shocked. He blinked at her, felt his heart racing. She was fucking serious.
“No. I served too many tours in the military to commit to someone like that.”
She looked at him with her hands clasped on her lap and her shoulders pushed back as if she needed that for confidence.
“How about you?” he asked, as he walked closer.
“Yes. I was engaged to get married,” she said, and absently ran her fingers over her bare fingers where perhaps an engagement ring once sat. He didn’t know how he felt about that. He knew he cared for her a lot. Hell, if he wasn’t such a hardheaded bastard, he’d admit that he loved her right now.
“You were?” She nodded.
“What happened?” he asked, placing his hand on his hip as he stood right in front of her.
“He died.”
“Ah, hell.”
“Yeah, in the line of duty,” she said, and then wiped her eyes before another tear could fall.
“Shit, baby,
no wonder it was so difficult to watch that video,” he said and then placed his hand on her shoulder.
She stood up, causing his hand to drop. She shook her head.
“His name was Anthony. He was my training coordinator, my commander for undercover work.”
“How did it happen? How’d he die?” he asked her. Conway stared at her face. She tried to be strong as she stood there and her lip quivered despite her attempt to bite it from moving.
She locked gazes with him, as the tears poured from her eyes.
“You saw the video. That’s how he died.” She tried to muffle the cry but she couldn’t, as he put two and two together.