“Um, yeah. About that…” She looked up to face him eye to eye. To her relief, she didn’t see anger in his expression. Not even wariness. Just a patient curiosity as he waited for her answer. And since he was being so calm, she found the strength to explain. The apology would come afterward. “My father started complaining about you years ago. He didn’t like that a bear was in the PD when there weren’t any wolves.”
He lifted his hand in a welcoming gesture. “I’d love some wolves in the PD.”
She nodded. She already knew he wasn’t territorial about his job, and there was room on the force for more than one type of shifter. “I started looking into you because my father never does his own research.” Actually, her father had ordered her to find some dirt on the detective, but she never found any. “I learned that you’d gotten your detective badge young, there were no outbursts typical of young shifters in a violent job, and everyone generally thought you were smart, capable, and had a level head. You were the shifter poster boy, and so I told everyone I could.” She felt her cheeks heat as she confessed her rookie mistake. “I thought if I talked you up, then people would look to you as an example. I even suggested some of our guys ask you for help in getting on the force.”
“No one ever approached me.”
“Yeah,” she said slowly. “I might have been too enthusiastic in singing your praises.”
He arched a brow, silently urging her to continue.
“Remember that string of burglaries in wolf territory? You were the lead detective on most of the cases.” He nodded. Truthfully, she doubted he could forget them as they’d ended his career in that department. “Um, a rumor started going around that you were turning a blind eye to any crimes against wolves.”
“I know,” he said, his voice low. “Did you start it?”
“Not me. Raoul, I think.”
“For the record, I was close to solving them.”
She knew that. In fact the officer in charge said as much during the trial of the burglary ring that was shut down not long afterward. But the damage had already been done. People’s first impression of Kennedy was that he was the bear who encouraged crimes against wolves. The rumor was loud enough that he couldn’t do his job. Eventually, Kennedy transferred to the gang task force.
Her gaze dropped to the floor. “I should have known that Raoul would turn people against you as a way to discredit me.” She swallowed. “I tried to stop it, but the more I spoke out, the worse it got.” She forced herself to look into his eyes. “I’ve wanted to apologize for a really long time.”
He kept his expression blank while her insides twisted. Would he be one of those people who never forgave? Would he explode into anger because she’d cost him his place in robbery? The longer he stayed silent, the more she wanted to apologize—again—over and over until he heard her.
“I’m really sorry,” she began, but he shook his head.
“That was a hard time for me. I hadn’t done anything wrong, and yet I was tossed out of robbery like a bad seed.”
She winced. The things she’d heard people say about him were awful. And the more she tried to defend him, the worse it got for them both. “I was trying to help.”
“No one trusted me,” he said calmly. “It didn’t matter what I did, the people I was trying to help assumed I was crooked.” His gaze canted away as he stood up, taking his dirty dish with him. But when he reached for hers, she touched his arm.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
His lips twisted into a rueful smile. “Are you so sure? If I had made an effort to have better relationships with the victims, to explain what was going on and what I was doing to help, then your brother’s lies wouldn’t have gotten so loud so fast. That’s what I learned from the whole thing. That if I don’t work on establishing trust with the community, then I can’t do my job.”
The openness in his expression shocked her. What had happened to him was her fault, and yet he’d just acknowledged his part in the problem. It left her gaping at him as if he’d just stripped naked in front of her. No man was that forgiving or self-aware. At least no one she’d ever met before.
Meanwhile, her momentary freeze had him pulling her dirty plate out of her slack hand. And he just kept talking.
“Bad rumors happen all the time. It’s part of my job to show them who the PD really is. Who I really am.” He flashed her a quick smile. “I took that lesson into my work with the gangs and that’s the only reason I’m so effective there. Because I let them know the real me, I let them see that they can come to me with their grievances. I’ll fight for justice no matter who comes to me with what.”
She knew he’d done well in the gang task force. Because of her guilt, she’d followed his career and been relieved when he’d gotten not one, but two separate commendations for his work there. “I still hate that I’m the reason you had to leave robbery.”
“I love that you’re the reason I learned my most valuable lesson in police work.”
What could she say to that? “So…I’m forgiven?”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for. You may have been the catalyst for that career change, but it wasn’t your fault.”
“It was Raoul’s.”
“And mine. For not showing people that the rumors were false.”
She exhaled, feeling a huge weight roll off her shoulders. He didn’t blame her for what had happened to him. And though she still felt guilty, his acceptance of what she’d done made her load so much lighter. Light enough that she crossed to him where he stood by the counter. He looked up, dishes in hand as she came close, and the openness in his blue eyes went straight to her heart.
“I’m still sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean for that to happen, and I’ve tried to fix it ever since.”
