Sheridan stopped a few feet from her in his uniform, looking worse than she’d ever seen him. Dark-purple half circles sat under his eyes and his hair hung gel-free and lank around his face.
She scoffed, and he tucked his hands in his front pockets with his shoulders slouched forward. Her pulse was loud in her ears as it struck her that Sheridan washere, in Virginia Beach.
“How did you find me?” she asked.
“I volunteered to transport the evidence to the courthouse. I needed to get the chance to see you, to talk to you. I got here early to make sure I didn’t miss you.”
She tensed further. He’d manipulated the situation to force her to talk to him? And right before a major trial?
“I want to explain, Kelsi. We need to talk. I made a mistake.”
Kelsi snorted derisively at that. “A mistake is accidentally confusing ‘their’ for ‘there,’ Sheridan, not cheating on your wife and conveniently forgetting to tell me that you’re currently married.” She took a moment and scanned the parking lot around her, but they were still the only two people in sight.
“Please, Kelsi.” His amber eyes tried to catch hers, pain and desperation clear in their depths and the furrow between his brows. “Please,” he implored again. “I really want to explain. I hate how we left things.”
She debated what to do. On the one hand, Sheridan had been a friend to her, and he owed her an explanation for his duplicity. On the other, she didn’t want to give him the time of day, notwhen she was, maybe, possibly, with Dylan now. Were they together? She thought so.
Eventually, her curiosity won out.
“Fine,” she said, uncrossing her arms and gesturing for him to speak, “but you only get one chance to explain. If you lie to me again, that’s the end of it. We will not go back to being friends. And you need to know that I’m with Dylan now, and there’s no chance for you and I to be anything more than friends.”
“I get it, I blew my chance at anything more, but I would really like to go back to being friends.” He looked around the parking lot too, shifting weight from one foot to the other. “Actually, can you help me with the evidence boxes in my car? We can talk while we bring them inside.”
“Fine,” she repeated herself. “Lead the way.”
He stepped back from her and pointed to his car parked a few spaces down. Sheridan led her to it, a small sedan not unlike his police cruiser, with one hand resting on her lower back. Kelsi stepped away, putting some distance between them and reminding him he was not allowed to take such liberties anymore. He didn’t press the issue and opened the rear door, leaning inside.
“So, what was it you wanted to explain?”
“Look”—he sighed, straightening from the car holding a handkerchief in his hand—“I know I fucked up, okay? I should have told you right from the start that I was married, I know I should have. But we’d been split for months, and I didn’t want to scare you off by telling you about her.”
Kelsi opened her mouth to protest that it wasn’t any excuse, but he quickly cut her off, anticipating her retort.
“I know it’s not a good excuse, I do. But I thought you were beautiful and smart, and I wanted to get to know you. Can you honestly tell me that if you’d known from the beginning that I was married you would’ve given me the time of day? No matter that she and I have been separated?”
Instead of answering him immediately, she closed her eyes and counted to five. Kelsi knew he was right. Had she known that he was married, she never would have gone out with him. Even if he and his wife were in the process of legally obtaining a divorce, her romantic ideals wouldn’t have let her.
“No, I wouldn’t have,” she finally said.
A car backfiring startled her, and she turned to face the noise. While her back was to Sheridan, the hand holding the handkerchief clamped down tightly over her mouth and nose. A chemical odor invaded her senses and her eyes watered. Another arm wrapped around her torso like a vice, binding her against the attacker.
Kelsi panicked, dropping her phone and Dina’s pastry on the ground while trying to pry the hand away from her face. But her breaths were already slowing and her body growing heavier, and she couldn’t budge the tight grip.
Right before her world went completely dark, Sheridan whispered, “I’m sorry, K. You gave me no choice.”
CHAPTER 41
Dylan
2 Hours to Trial
Dina’s face wasthe first he saw when he arrived at the courthouse.
“Good morning, sugar,” she said with a wink. “Where’s our girl? I thought you two would show up together. She’s normally here by now on a trial morning. And she always brings me a chocolate croissant.” She eyed his empty hands with a slight pout.
Dylan laughed at her, but a sense of unease began to trickle in. “She was staying at a friend’s house last night and I was in a hotel. It made more sense to meet here rather than carpool. She should be here soon I’d think.”
He headed up the elevator toward the commonwealth’s attorney’s office. Once the metal doors opened, he saw Tom standing outside, waiting to ride it down.
