Black finally spoke. “I think we should stop questioning Sage here and start looking into Paola Marren.”
“Agreed,” the nerdy guy spoke up again. “While you’ve been pissy, Dunn, I’ve started compiling a little list. I think all of this fits. Contact with children. Fake pregnancy. Trying to fill the hole with kidnapped children.”
He said some more stuff, but Black was inching me out of the room.
Black had me in what looked like his office without the three mean FBI people noticing.
Gentry was there with his arms crossed over his chest looking pissed.
I looked at the man who was supposed to have my back. “What the hell? Why didn’t you share with them how I got that information?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Because Black told me not to.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because Dunn’s a smart cookie,” Black answered for him, coming into the room and shutting the door. “So is Dempsey. We don’t need them looking into Gentry as an officer.” He leveled me with a look. “For obvious reasons.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
He was right.
Gentry didn’t need a spotlight shining on him.
Then again, neither did I…
“The same could be said about me,” I pointed out.
“Yes, but you’re a civilian. It’s easier to explain away you ignoring protocols since you’re not law-bound to follow the rules. You can get away with things that we can’t. You are a loose cannon, they think ‘oh, she’s just a crazy lady.’ Gentry gets tagged as a loose cannon, and all of a sudden my department, Gentry, and the entire town gets a light shined on it. And I know you know as well as I do that we need this place to have as low visibility as possible.”
I sighed. “I felt humiliated. They treated me like a criminal.”
Gentry pulled me into his arms. “Was this what the call was about earlier?”
I narrowed my eyes up at him. “The one you ignored?”
His lips twitched.
“Black!”
Black sighed. “I’ll handle this. Gentry, you hold down the fort here while we go check it out.”
Black’s office door closed, and then I focused once again on Gentry.
He looked down into my eyes as he said, “I’ve missed you.”
I pouted. “You’ve been busy.”
He leaned down and rubbed his lips against my own. “I know, but that’s not a really good excuse. I’ve been all over the place.”
Twenty-Seven
Can I lick it?
—Things you don’t want to hear when you’re arresting someone
Gentry
I could tell by the look on her face that I’d been a coward these last few days.
