“Who?”
“I checked for prints and came up with squat. But it’s a fellow officer.”
“Frank?”
“Maybe. More like his partner. Tom Hicks.”
“Thanks. Now I know who to kill.” He started to walk past her but she put her hand on his chest, stopping him.
“Which is exactly why Sylvie didn’t want you to find out, okay, big guy?” Carla widened her stance and braced herself. “We don’t even know for sure it was him. I’m waiting to hear back from Sylvie about that. She doesn’t need you fucking things up right now more than they already are.”
“You saying I fucked her over?”
Carla put her hand up. “Not intentionally, but yeah, you kinda fucked up my partner. Thing is, she loves you. And I think you love her too. And that’s real inconvenient right now.”
That stopped him in his tracks. “So why are you even here?”
“Because even if she didn’t want you to know about the photo, you need to. I’m not gonna get anywhere with this if I go through the regular channels, you know what I’m saying? And my partner, well, that’s the only way she knows how to do things. She’s the best of us, and it’s gonna get her more than just screwed over for a job, it’s gonna get her dead. I’m showing you this so that you know she’s got a target on her back, and the nature of that target is a sensitive one.” Carla sighed. “She practically worships Frank, and if he’s caught up in this… You’ve gotta keep quiet for now, but when the time comes.Ifit comes…”
He nodded in understanding. “Thank you.”
“I was never here. You saw nothing.”
He started to agree, then stopped. “No. This is bullshit. I’m talking to her about this.”
Carla took the photo back out of his hands. She turned on her heel and marched back through the door without another word.
Fuck.
The image was burned into his brain, the ugly, untrue word in fiery red letters. He clenched his fists, deciding what to do. His first instinct was to track the motherfucker down and make him disappear. Nobody was going to fuck with his beautiful, noble Sylvie. Goddamn, he’d never—ever—felt this way about anyone. He wanted to do everything he could to protect her, including going overboard.
Take a breath. Think.
What if there was more to this than smearing Sylvie? What if someone knew he’d react this way, go after a cop—innocent or not—and then what?
Watchdog is screwed. So much for hearts and minds.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
He needed to talk to Sylvie. Alex let himself cool down as he took care of the dogs, then texted her. He waited a few minutes for her response.
I’m at the festival. Want to come down and meet me? You’ll love it.
He didn’t; right now he just wanted to talk to her alone. He texted back asking her to meet him at his house instead.Tomorrow we’ll go?he added—a bit of placation.
I’m working tomorrowshe texted back.
Alex gritted his teeth in frustration.What I have to say needs to be said in private. He hit send and waited.
And waited.
Did I piss her off?
Finally, she responded.I’ll be up soon. Just have a few things to take care of first.
Not very reassuring. But it didn’t matter.
Alex loaded up Mac, Champ, and Chewie and headed for home to wait.
