“But—”
“Dana, the last thing I need is more drama. I’ll call you when we get everything settled.”
Twenty minutes later,I pulled up at my house the same time my boy Jace, a Washtenaw County detective, did. “What’s up?” I walked over to him. “Is she still here?”
Jace slid out of his car. “Yeah, and she’s pretty belligerent, according to the officer.”
On our way up the driveway, I scanned the front of my house. It didn’t look like she’d broken any windows, but the door was wide open and…the woman holding my grandmother’s vase wasnotDory.
“That’s not her,” I murmured.
Jace looked up from his phone and muttered a curse before jogging over to the officer as he was handcuffing the woman who’d broken into my house. I followed him. “Blake, what the hell are you doing here?” he said.
She glanced at us, and her shoulders fell on a sigh. “Thank you! Jace, tell this man to take these damn cuffs off. Everything is a mistake.”
“I’m not doing that,” the young officer said. “You’re under arrest.”
“You can’t arrest me because your wife left your sorry ass.”
“I’m arresting you because you committed a crime, ma’am,” the officer argued. “And I caught you holding his property.”
She appealed to Jace again. “He’s biased. He already told me my article contributed to the deterioration of his marriage.”
“What article?” Jace asked.
“‘It’s Not Me, It’s You,’” the officer grumbled.
“See, I told you,” Blake said. “He can’t be fair. Uncuff me.”
“You broke into a house!” Jace yelled. “Why?”
Blake met my gaze, then tilted her head my way. “Him.He’swhy.”
I should’ve been pissed, but for some strange reason I couldn’t be mad. Chances were she didn’t even remember me, but I definitely knew her. And just like the first time I’d met her, I couldn’t help but be amusedandintrigued by her.
Jace groaned. “Lennox Cole is the—”
“ProfessorCole is the man who slept with his student, kicked her out of his class, then kept her shit from her.”
In a few short months, Dory had damaged my reputation in ways I’d never dreamed possible until now. She’d managed to convince Blake that I was a piece of shit. Granted, our first meeting must’ve been pretty forgettable, since she didn’t recognize me. But still…it didn’t sit right with me. “That’s not what happened,” I said.
Her eyes locked on mine. “How did she know about the vase if she’d never been to your house?”
“I talked about it in one of my classes,” I told her.
“Why should I believe you?” she asked.
“Why did you believe her?” I retorted, my voice low.
After a moment passed with no response from her, Jace said, “You’re in trouble here, Blake.”
She shrugged. “Well, get me out of it, Jace. Isn’t that what you do?”
Curious, I wondered about the relationship between the two of them. Obviously, she was comfortable with him. But were they just friends? Or more than friends?
“Just answer the damn question,” Jace snapped. “What are you doing here?”
“I was helping a client get her shit back,” Blake said, matter-of-factly. “You know I wouldn’t do anything crazy like this without a good reason. I’m not a thief.”
