by Remy Richard
Holden clenched his fists and considered his friend’s words. “I don’t think I could ever trust her again.”
“Hell, man. It’s pretty obvious you didn’t trust her to begin with. Otherwise you wouldn’t have given up on her so easily,” Dylan said in disgust. “I’ve got some paperwork to fill out. Why don’t you meet me out front in ten? I’ll drive you home.”
Dylan turned toward the door and then stopped. “Oh, and in case you were wondering, your sister and Sam are fine. He took a bullet to the shoulder but it was through and through. They patched him up at the hospital and sent him home. I think Lila is playing nursemaid even as we speak.”
His sister. He hadn’t even thought to ask about her. He refused to consider what it might mean that he was more concerned about the wreckage of his relationship with Sabrina than his sister’s wellbeing. Probably that he was a terrible person.
Holden nodded and waited until Dylan had preceded him out of the room and pointed in the direction of the front door. He tried to maintain his anger, but even as he wound past offices and interrogation rooms, he couldn’t stop himself from peeking inside to see if Sabrina was there. Some part of him still cared about what happened to her, worried that she was going to go to jail over all of this mess.
He should have just let her go after she first broke in. Or at least after he was sure that she was telling the truth about what she knew. Now he didn’t have her and it hurt to breathe. He was no better off than before. In fact, he was much worse off.
He pushed the doorway to the police station open with more force than necessary and let momentum carry him out into the evening. The sky was a slate gray and it a steady drizzle beat on the roof. He pulled the collar of his jacket up against the summer chill and looked around. At the far end of the portico was a small, slight figure.
Wearing only a light sweater and pants, she was huddled with her arms around her as she looked out into the parking lot. Holden felt his breath go as he recognized Sabrina’s profile.
Before he could make up his mind whether to talk to her or go back inside and beat the ever living hell out of Dylan, she turned and saw him. He couldn’t identify the myriad emotions that flashed across her face, because she carefully cleared her expression after the surprise of seeing him passed.
“Holden,” she said and then stopped. He didn’t blame her; he didn’t know what to say either.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted and he could tell that she hadn’t planned on saying it.
He just shrugged.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me at all?” she asked and when her voice broke, his heart broke a little as well.
“I honestly don’t know what to say, except maybe congratulations,” he said and shrugged again.
“Congratulations? For what?”
“For getting everything you wanted. You fooled me, you’re obviously not going to jail, the people who threatened you are in jail and you’ve got the program. Isn’t that what you wanted all along?” he asked.
She stepped closer to him and raised her fist, almost as if she would hit him if he was any closer. “You think I got what I wanted? I lied to the man who took care of me when no one else did. I lied to his face and now he’s going to jail. And I did it to protect you! After everything that happened between us how could you—” She cut herself off and whirled around so that he could only see her back. Her shoulders heaved and he could tell that she was trying to get control of her emotions.
“Bree…” He reached out but drew his hand back before he touched her. Already he was softening toward her, but to touch her would be his undoing. He needed to keep a clear head. “You have to admit that it can be difficult to tell when you’re lying and when you’re telling the truth.”
She let out a hoarse laugh. “Who’s not telling the truth? You said you accepted who I am and would stand by me and then the first time you had a choice you sold me out.”
Holden wanted badly to contradict what she’d said, but he knew he had no leg to stand on. He sighed. “You’re right. No matter what I told you it was always in the back of my mind that you would betray me. It seemed inevitable.”
“Because I’m a criminal, right, and that’s what we do,” Sabrina scoffed, and he could hear the pain in her voice. He heard her take a deep breath before she turned back around to face him. “For what it’s worth, I really am sorry. Not for pretending to have conned you though. That was just making the best out of a bad situation. I never would have forgiven myself if something had happened to you.” She swallowed and then continued, “But I am sorry for taking the program. I didn’t intend to after the first night I stayed in your house but Mike needed it to get out of trouble. And no matter what else he’s done or may be, I felt loyalty to him.”
She dug into her pocket and produced the flash drive. “But you got one thing wrong—well, you got a lot of things wrong—but this in particular. I have no plans to keep this. It’s yours. You worked really hard on it and I couldn’t do that to you.”
As if in a dream, Holden put his hand out and accepted the flash drive from her. Briefly, her fingers touched his palm and it felt like an electric pulse going through him. Already he craved the feeling of her skin against his. Would he ever get over it? Over her?
He cleared his throat. “Well, thanks for this. I really did fry my computer, you know.”
“I know. What the hell was that?” she asked with a laugh.
“Making the best of a bad situation, I guess,” he said, staring into her eyes as her smile faded. He shoved the flash drive in his pocket and shuffled his feet. “So where are you going now?”
It was Sabrina’s turn to shrug. “Who knows?” She gave a small smile. “I always land on my feet.” Her smile turned wobbly and it took every ounce of strength he had not to pull her into a warm hug and tell her he would take care of everything. He’d already tried that once and the results were less than impressive.
“Is there anything I can do?” he asked.
“Not really. I mean I have to leave town. Dylan sprung me for now but it’s just a matter of time until they run my fingerprints and bring me back in.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and rolled her eyes. “Plus there’s the fact that no one will work with me anymore after they hear about this. I’m a traitor on both sides of the line so there’s that…”
The door behind them opened and they both turned to see Dylan standing there, watching them. “Are you both done being idiots yet?”
Sabrina laughed softly and moved forward to give him a hug. “Thanks for everything. I don’t want to make things tough for you, so I’m going to head out of town.”
Dylan pulled back and shot Holden a look over her shoulder. “That’s really not necessary, you know. Don’t worry about me. I can handle things here.”
“It’s not just you. I need to go for me too. Figure out something else to do with my life, you know?” she said and gave him a kiss on the cheek before pulling away.
“Can I at least call you a cab? My treat,” he offered with a sympathetic smile.
“Actually my place isn’t too far from here. I’m just going to take the MAX.”
“All right then. Stay safe, Sabrina, and don’t be a stranger.” Dylan chucked her chin and went back inside.
Holden sighed and ran a hand through his hair, at a loss for what to do or what words would make it better.
Sabrina gave him a small smile and stood up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek as well. Of their own volition, his hands came up to bracket her hips and pull her closer to him. Every breath he took was filled with her sweet scent and he feared it was burned into his brain.
“Take care,” she whispered in his ear before patting his shoulder and turning away.
He watched her take one step, two, then a half a dozen away from him before he realized that he couldn’t let her leave. She might actually land on her feet somewhere else just as she said, but he would never recover from letting her walk away from him.
“Bree!” He ran out to her and grabbed her arm.
He turned her around and was stunned to see her eyes over flowing with tears. “Please don’t cry.”
He brushed away the moisture with his fingers and cradled her cheek in his hand. He tried to pull her closer but she put her hands on his chest and pushed him away.
“Get away from me,” she yelled.
“What? Why?”
“This is all your fault, you know? I was fine before I met you. If I had just stuck to the plan then I wouldn’t be all alone now. But noooo. I had to go and fall in love with you! And what do I have to show for it? Nothing! I have nothing!”
Stunned, Holden just stood still while she rained blows on his chest. Pummeling him and sobbing at the same time. Finally he was able to grab a hold of her flailing arms around the wrists and keep her from hitting him anymore. She sagged in his grasp and cried against his chest.
Holden pulled her closer and buried his face in her hair while she cried. Things were a total mess between them, but it felt good just to have her in his arms again. She was angry and overwhelmed now, but he had watched her walk away once and wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. He was a genius, after all.
She sobbed until he feared she’d make herself sick. “Bree, sweetheart, please stop crying.”
He stroked her back until she slowly stopped her tears and rested her cheek against his shoulder. “Better now?”
She nodded and sniffed loudly. “I’m sorry. You’re the last person I should be falling apart on—”
He broke in, “No, I’m sorry. I don’t know what for exactly, but I am. I can’t stand to see you upset and thinking that I caused it tears me up.” They both stood quietly for a moment, just holding one another. “You were right about one thing. I wasn’t seeing you clearly. I was so infatuated with you that I never stopped to consider what it must be like with me always telling you to be someone different. My version of better. But I don’t want us to end that way. I want to know you, good and bad and everything in between. And I want you to know me the same way.”
Sabrina laughed wryly. “How can you know me when I don’t even know myself? I can’t go back to who I was before. I liked who I was when I was with you, even if you do have a habit of thinking I’m better than I am.”
Holden smiled. “Maybe who you are is someone in between the terrible self-image that you have and the perfect image of you that I have.” He stroked her cheek softly. “Maybe you can take some time to find out who you really want to be without having to always look over your shoulder. Some time here, with me.”
She pulled back to look up into his eyes. After searching for a few seconds, she smiled widely. “We should probably lie low for a little while. Are you still interested in taking that trip?”
He grinned at her and pulled her closer. “I’ll go anywhere as long as you come with me. We can get to know each other again. Or for the first time, as the case may be.”
“Let’s start with this then,” she said and pulled away from him. He was about to protest the loss when she stuck her hand out. Cautiously he took it in his and shook it gently, baffled about why her smile was so wide. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Aubrey.”
He felt his breath go and could only stare at the beautiful, brave, smart and sexy woman in front of him. “Aubrey. I’m Holden Reed. How about a last name?”
She used her grip on his hand to pull him closer for a deep kiss, her arms going around him to clutch fistfuls of his shirt and bring him as near as possible without getting arrested for indecency in the middle of a police parking lot. “I never really liked my last name. It’s linked to a bunch of people who didn’t stick around. I was thinking about getting a new one. Say…Reed?” She smiled nervously as she gazed at him. “You know, maybe one day.”
Holden just grinned and pulled her closer. “I think that sounds like the smartest idea I’ve ever heard. And I know a good idea when I hear one.”
Epilogue
Dylan straightened his tie and took one last look at himself in the gold framed mirror that hung in the bathroom of the county prosecutor’s office. He really didn’t have time for the meeting-slash-set-down that was about to take place.
His boss’ secretary had been very cryptic when she had called to set up the meeting but Dylan was pretty sure the subject was going to be Sabrina. He’d heard through his grapevine of friends that Pamela, his boss, had assigned a junior prosecutor to look into the whole debacle that had taken place two weeks earlier. Plus, she’d been outright pushing him on finding the mysterious woman who had been released from custody before her prints had shown her to be a wanted criminal.
Luckily, Holden and Sabrina—make that Aubrey—were far away, probably sipping pina coladas on a raft somewhere. And getting caught in the rain if there was any justice in the world. He shouldn’t be the only one about to step out into a shit storm.
He took one last deep breath before picking up his briefcase and exiting the bathroom. Pamela’s office was at the end of the hall and her secretary stood sentry before her door, forcing everyone to wait the requisite five minutes before being allowed into her office. Pam had her quirks and sometimes liked to throw her weight around a little too enthusiastically, but she had an innate sense of fairness that Dylan liked. He respected the woman and was more than willing to take his lumps.
He folded himself into a chair that seemed to be about two inches too short to ever really be called comfortable and smiled at her secretary.
She smiled back thinly and glanced at the phone sitting on her desk. “She’s on the phone right now, but I’m sure she’ll be with you in a minute,” she said in an apologetic tone.
Dylan waved her apology away. “No worries. I’ve got plenty of time.” Not really true, he had a stack of cases knee high that needed to be looked at, but the boss’ office ran on the boss’ time.
He had just settled down for a long wait when Pamela opened her door and gestured him inside. With an easy grin that wasn’t returned, Dylan grabbed his briefcase and preceded her into the office. Behind him he heard Pamela tell her secretary to hold her calls. The secretary whispered some words and Pamela let out a frustrated sigh.
“Dylan, just have a seat while I get a couple of things worked out,” she said.
He nodded but she had already closed the door. With a sigh of his own, Dylan lowered himself into another too short chair across from her desk and surveyed the dimly lit office. It was an office he aspired to one day. Of course, he would get some more lamps and change out the floral-patterned chairs and loveseat for rich, dark leather, but other than that it was a very nice office. Something about the bookshelves lining the room and stacked with law tomes gave it a certain gravitas. Serious thinking about the law and truth and justice went on here. He couldn’t wait for his turn in the seat of the Prosecutor Poobah.
The door opened again and Dylan felt a breath of foreboding against the back of his neck—or was it just a draft? Either way, as Pamela shut the door behind herself and walked around the desk he started to feel uneasy. He would never call her a warm woman, but she wasn’t cracking so much as a hint of a smile.
He sat up straight in his chair and waited for her to get herself settled.
“Thanks for coming in on such short notice, Dylan,” she said, laying a manila folder on the desk in front of her and really looking at Dylan for the first time.
“It’s not a problem, Pam. What can I do for you?”
She laced her fingers together in front of her and leaned forward. “Well, I’m hoping you have some good news for me on the missing woman, Sabrina Kelly.”
Dylan leaned forward as well, but tried to keep his body relaxed. “As best we can tell, it seems like she’s fled the country.” He paused before continuing. “She seems like a pretty smart cookie so I wouldn’t bet on us seeing her around here again.”
Pamela let out a breath he hadn’t realized she was holding and shook her head. “That’s not very good news, Dylan. I was hoping
that you had resolved this mess.”
“I’m not sure what mess you mean. We were able to apprehend a group of con artists with minimal violence and one of the men is giving us information on the Disalvo mob. It sounds like a pretty good ending to me,” he said, shrugging.
Her mouth tightened as she let a moment of silence string out between them before opening the folder in front of her. “It would be a good ending…if everything looked a little more above board. But as it stands, I’ve got a woman who was in custody and then released for what seems to be no good reason. Everyone that I’ve talked to says that you came in and vouched for her. She was released on your say so. Without even waiting for the fingerprint scan to come back. Would you like to explain to me how that happened?”
Dylan rolled his shoulder uneasily. “I’ll admit it was a bad call on my part. She just seemed like a scared, shaken young woman to me. Mr. Reed said that she was with him when the stand-off took place with the suspect, Mike Rachety. I had no reason to doubt his word.”
“You’re a pretty good friend of Mr. Reed’s, aren’t you?”
“We are. That’s why I knew then, and now, that he’s telling the truth. Sabrina Kelly wasn’t involved in the stand-off as an adversary,” he reiterated.
“It’s come to my attention that Mr. Reed is also out of the country. Do you happen to know where he is?” she asked.
“No. After his…ordeal, Holden decided that he wanted to get away for a while. I don’t know where he is or when he’ll be back though.”
She surveyed him coolly from across the desk and Dylan fought against the urge to wipe his slick palms on his pants. This was far from the gentle set-down he had been imagining.