Love by Association
If she didn’t have the report, the commissioner wouldn’t have as much reason to be concerned—assuming he was on to her before she was ready to go to the mayor. Or higher. Assuming he really was in on the corruption.
“Let’s just say it could be much less messy and my chances of success would be much better.”
“And if I don’t help, there’s no chance you’re dropping this, is there?”
“You know me well enough to figure out the answer to that.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“You’re the best, Max...”
Daniel would be out soon.
She needed to thank Max for his time and finish her burger.
“You okay otherwise?” Max asked when she hung on the line.
“Of course. I’m always good. You know that.”
But...
“Can I ask you something?” she said into the silence when he didn’t do the polite thing and end the call.
“I’m still here, aren’t I?”
“When you were married to Jill, were you happy?”
His hesitation was to be expected. It wasn’t a fair question. Not with Meri right there. Not with Meri in his life.
“Because of Meri, you mean? Because you know how completely she’s the love of my life?”
“No...”
“It’s a valid question, Chantel. Especially for you to ask. You were her best friend. And the answer is...sometimes. I loved Jill. You know that. I just...”
“Hated her job.”
“I hated how helpless it made me feel. I hated knowing my wife, the woman who had sole possession of my heart, was putting herself in harm’s way on a daily basis and there was nothing I could do to protect her.”
“Except trust her, her training, her fellow officers, to do the protecting.” It’s what she’d need any man who was in love with her to do.
“How well did that work out?”
She’d walked right into that one. “So you’re saying a female cop shouldn’t ever get married because her job interferes with a man’s natural instinct to protect?”
“No! This isn’t about Jill at all, is it?”
“It’s not about anyone. It’s hypothetical.”
“You’ve met someone.”
“I have not.” She was emphatic about that. “I’m far too busy right now to even think about meeting someone. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m currently working a full-time double with maintaining my regular shift and then doing this undercover thing.” But if she didn’t give him something, he’d start drawing erroneous conclusions. Like maybe that her undercover work was getting to her. That she was falling for someone in the fake life she was leading. “I just... I’m almost thirty-three,” she told him. “And starting to face that fact that I’m probably never going to have kids of my own.”
Yeah, keep it about the kids. Max was a pediatrician. His whole life revolved around kids. His patients—and even more, the two he shared with Meri. He’d get the kid thing.
He got the kid thing. So much that he was still talking about her making whatever changes she needed to make so she didn’t rob herself of the best thing life had to offer when she saw Daniel at the register inside the restaurant. Cramming the rest of her burger in her mouth, she told Max she had to go.
* * *
JULIE WAS LOCKED in her room when Colin stopped home to shower and change before meeting Luke Hudson, a law school friend. They talked about college, the law review they’d both been a part of. About sailing and golfing. And getting together again soon.
Neither of them had married, which was probably part of the reason they’d maintained close enough contact to meet for dinner at least once a month.
Luke asked about Julie. Colin said she was well. As soon as dinner was over, he headed home to find out what had upset his sister at the library committee meeting earlier that day.
* * *
DINNER WAS OVER, and the cavalcade was out in front of a resort just down from where Johnson was staying. At her post across from Daniel, Chantel guarded the sidewalk at the left side of valet parking—an area cordoned off from resort guests that evening. The red carpet, which had seen the governor, his entourage and a couple of Hollywood’s most successful darlings earlier that evening, was still laid out flat, waiting for those same shoe prints to traverse it one more time as they left the governor’s birthday celebration. She wished they’d get on with it. It had to happen before Chantel would be free to hightail it back to the station, change and catch her cab to the Landau.
Johnson’s phone, in the shirt pocket of her uniform, vibrated just above her nipple. Liquid heat bubbled for an instant in her midsection. Looking around, Chantel slid out the phone. Daniel and three other cops were talking quietly among themselves while keeping an eye on the secured area around them. She glanced at the text.