Oh, she wished she could, but she couldn’t. There was no way she could break that confidence and tell him that Corbin was sexually attracted to him, and he reminded him of his dead husband.
That would be even more problematic.
“Like I can’t tell him about your psych eval, and your past, I can’t tell you about his.”
He stood up.
Only, she wasn’t done.
“Park it. Don’t make this a spectacle, Alexsander. This isn’t exactly what I wanted to do tonight. You know that’s the truth. I have a million problems on my shoulders, and I don’t want a screaming match in a restaurant. The media is likely going to descend on us shortly, and we need to get our shit together.”
He sat, but he was honest.
“You promised that I would have stability. You promised that this was the last partner I’d have. You know I need that,” he said, the pain in his voice evident. “I believed you.”
She hated this.
All of the people on her team were like family. She didn’t just hire investigators. She hired people she loved.
And she loved Alex.
God knew he’d been the most difficult‘child’too. He’d run her ass through the wringer, trying to get him settled. The bottom line was that she believed that Alex and Corbin were good together.
It was just the haunting of the dead husband that was the problem.
Not.
Alex.
She could tell that for Corbin, that attraction to Alex was the real reason. He wasn’t ready to let go of his dead husband, and Alex would bear that burden because of it.
“I know, Alex, but he has needs, too. It’s not as simple as just moving people around. In order for my unit to work, I take a lot of things into consideration. Corbin asked to move, and the reasons are valid.”
He went there.
“I know about his husband dying.”
Still, she said nothing, making sure she kept that poker face, too. Again, being boss sucked seven ways to Sunday, but here she was, taking it like a champ.
Or trying to.
“I can’t tell you why, Alex. We’ve been together for aLONGtime. You’re one of the original people on my team. You, Johanna, and Brody have been with us the longest. I love and respect you, but I have to giveEVERYONEthat same thing.”
He was to the point.
“So, I’ll never know?” he asked. “I’ll just be ditched and broken all over again. One more partner shoving that knife in my back?”
She stared into his blue eyes.
“Alex, I can’t make him tell you why,” she offered. “That’s his personal business,” she said, giving him a hint that if he needed to find out, that was where he needed to go.
To.
The.
Source.
If you lit a powder keg, it would blow up. He needed to be that match.
