10 Years Later

Tucker tossed his egg sandwich wrapper on the floor of the car. “This case is never gonna end. I swear to God, we’re still gonna be working it at your next reunion.”

“It’s going to end,” I said as I replaced the lens cap on the camera and set it down in the backseat.

We had followed this syndicate for years, gathering information and building a case. These things took time, a lot of time. We only had one shot to bring this major crime network to its knees, so we had to do it right. I had often wondered this myself, though, how much longer we’d be doing this.

“It has to end at some point,” I huffed out as I started the engine.

“When it does, we’ll be fucking heroes,” Tucker said with a laugh, and my blood instantly cooled.

The word hero was usually reserved for people who died doing brave things, and if that was what it took to become one, I wasn’t sure I was ready. I bit my tongue, and Tucker mistook my silence as another Cammie moment.

“Hey.” He nudged my arm. “At least you know she’s still single, right? That’s a good thing. Considering you want to go all caveman on her and shit.”

I laughed. Tucker was a dumbass, but he still cracked me up. “I don’t know what I would have done if she wasn’t single. Seriously.”

“You wouldn’t be going to this reunion, that’s for sure.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” I admitted, shaking my head. “No way I could have handled seeing her there with someone else. I’ve waited too long for this.”

I didn’t need Tucker to remind me about what a blessing it was that a girl like Cammie was still available. I thanked the freaking stars every morning I woke up and heard her talking on the air about not having a boyfriend. If anyone changed that status, it was going to be me. And I was going to start this weekend at the reunion, even if she tried to avoid me or push me away like she did before.

I remember the day she stopped talking to me, the hurt look in her eyes letting me know that I had done something completely unforgivable. I didn’t even know what the hell I did to make her so upset, but I planned to find out. I might have been a stupid young kid back then who allowed her to walk away, but I was a man now. And a man rights his wrongs, admits where he screwed up, and goes after what he wants.

And what I wanted was her.

Best Friends

Cammie

My cell phone rang around six p.m., startling me out of the sleeplike trance I’d fallen into. Getting up at four in the morning tended to take its toll on me, and I hated the fact that I could no longer be a night owl like I used to be.

Kristy’s name flashed across the screen, accompanied by a ridiculous selfie of her making duck lips, which always made me smile.

“Hooker,” I answered.

“Whore,” she responded, and I chuckled. “Nice show this morning. I almost keeled over the desk at my office.”

Kristy worked as an assistant at a law firm. I had no idea how she managed to listen to the show every morning without getting fired, but Kristy could be pretty persuasive when she needed to be. Which was a good quality in a future lawyer, if you asked me.

I sat straight up on my couch, pulling my feet underneath me. “Holy shit, Kris, I almost died. I thought they knew about Dalton, and I was freaking the hell out.”

“So was I. It’s not like the guy you liked in high school was named Matt or something. Everyone would have known exactly who you were talking about. And you know everyone from school still listens to that show. They

’ve been listening to Tom and John forever.”

“Trust me, I’m aware.”

“So, how’d the little shits find out about the reunion anyway?”

“My boss, Scott, must have mentioned it to them in the morning meeting.”

I tried to keep my personal life private at work, but it was harder than it sounded. We were more than coworkers at my office, and we tended to tell each other the kinds of things that friends would. I figured it was the same in most places of business. How could you spend nine hours a day with people and not become friends on some level?

“You can’t tell those people anything!” Kristy yelled, and I pulled the phone away from my ear.

“I know. I wish I could just keep quiet sometimes, but it’s hard. I mean, we talk about our lives and stuff. Don’t you do that at work?”

“Oh, shit yeah. We tell each other everything. I know exactly what half the people did here on any given weekend,” she said with a laugh. “But then again, I don’t work at a radio station where any stories that get told have the potential of being broadcast to over half the state.”