The waiter startled, tearing his eyes from Rebecca to look at him. He cleared his throat and fumbled with his order pad. “Sir?”
“I’ll have a beer, whatever you have on tap.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Bully,” Rebecca quipped when the waiter scurried away from the table.
“I’m no bully. That kid could probably take me.”
“In what world?” she snorted.
Nick laughed and pulled his phone out of the inside pocket of his jacket. It had been vibrating against his chest since he’d sat down. It was so irritating that he couldn’t ignore it anymore. When he looked down at his phone, there were three back-to-back missed calls from Elizabeth. Whatever it was, it had to be important.
“Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure. It’s my captain. I need to call her back.”
“Go,” she said, shooing him off. “I’ll order some appetizers.”
Nick stood and walked toward the exit. He couldn’t stand it when people had loud phone conversations in public. Once he got outside, he called Elizabeth back.
“Nick.”
“What’s going on, Liz?” He didn’t mean to sound so dry, but she was interrupting Rebecca’s birthday dinner.
“They found your fugitive.”
Nick frowned. “My fugitive?”
“William Robinson. They found him.”
He was pleased to hear that Boogie had been taken into custody. “Who has him?” he blurted. “Where is he being held?”
“The morgue. Nick, he was found in an abandoned building on the south side. He was dead on arrival.”
Nick frowned. “What happened to him?”
“The medical examiner said that he’d been dead for a while. Apparently, he succumbed to his injuries.”
“I can’t say that I’m heartbroken. As a matter of fact, I hope he died in pain.”
He heard Elizabeth chuckle. “I thought you’d wanna know.”
“I appreciate that. Thanks for calling.”
“No problem. See you tomorrow.”
“Yep, tomorrow,” he said before disconnecting the call.
Knowing that Rebecca was no longer in danger was a relief. However, Boogie’s death meant that she no longer needed him for protection. It meant he no longer had an excuse to come home to her every night.
He reentered the restaurant, definitely gloomier than when he’d entered the first time.
KING
Rebecca fumbled with the remote in search of a binge-worthy series to watch. She was sitting in the middle of her bed with her legs crossed, bored and alone. Her birthday had started out fun. Jessica had surprised her with a cake when she got to work, and Nick had treated her to dinner at one of her favorite restaurants.
Dinner had started out fine until he took the call that changed his entire demeanor. When he came back to the table, he’d announced that he had good news. Boogie was dead, which actually meant she’d killed two men. If she were to be honest, she didn’t know how to feel about that. She knew she should’ve felt some sort of remorse, but all she felt was relief. At least, that was her initial feeling.
