I pushed off the wall, and Trip lifted his head as he watched me make my way toward him and Rachel. He’d come back home a few days ago and hadn’t left Rachel’s side since. Scratching his head when I got close, I tried not to shake my own when I got directly next to Rachel and she still hadn’t realized I was here.
She jumped a little when I cupped one of her cheeks in my hands but smiled and pressed her fingers gently into my chest when she looked up at me.
“Gotta go to work, Sour Patch.”
Her lips twitched, and her fingers trailed up the side of my neck and into my hair. “Be safe.”
I leaned in and kissed her neck, and then closer to her ear before whispering, “Always. I love you, Rachel.”
“Love you too.”
I’d barely gotten out the door before my phone was blaring the department’s ringtone. Looking down, I saw CHIEF on the screen and double-checked the time to make sure I wasn’t running late before answering.
“Yes, sir?”
“You headed toward the office, or do you have something that has you going straight to the streets?”
“I believe Gates and I are both going into the office first. There isn’t much we had planned out today.”
“Good, can you come see me as soon as you get in? I have something I need to talk to you about.”
I paused just a few feet from the driveway and squeezed my eyes tightly shut. “Both of us?”
“Just you.”
Shit. “Uh, of course. I’m leaving right now.”
“See you soon.”
I threw my leg over my Harley and tried not to overthink what I could be called in for. I’d gone against the department to find Rachel, and Mason and I had both already had three meetings with Chief and some of the detectives who had worked the case regarding that. Everyone had agreed that we wouldn’t be suspended or punished, but that still didn’t ease the fear of being called in to talk to Chief.
As soon as I was sitting in front of him, the fear left and was replaced by confusion when he placed a journal in an evidence bag on the desk.
“This was recovered from the building where they had been holding your fiancée.”
Rachel’s mention of writing to me floated through my mind, and I gripped the arms of the chair so I wouldn’t grab for it.
“It’s up to you if you tell her that we had to go through every entry in order to gain more information about the situation, but there’s nothing here for us. Nothing more than what she told the detectives when they interviewed her, and most are letters to loved ones about her fears. So I’m handing it over to you. She wrote a lot to you, but you know your fiancée, so it’s your call on whether you think you should read it or not. As well as if you should give it back to her. She might not want to have that reminder.”
Of course I want to f**king read it. “Thank you, Chief. I appreciate it. Was there anything else you needed to speak to me about?”
“One last thing now that we’re alone, Ryan. Completely off the record, and I’ll deny it if you repeat it.”
My lips twitched and I crossed my arms over my chest. Chief’s off-the-record-speeches were usually him venting about someone in the department, or his in-laws coming for a visit. And for the most part, they were funny as shit. The rest of the tension in my body melted away and I relaxed into the chair as I waited for him to begin.
“I don’t blame you for what you did. If it had been my wife, or any of my kids, I would have done whatever it took to find them and get them back. The moment you got into the police department, I made the decision to pull you off patrol and put you in the worst situations imaginable by having you as an undercover narcotics officer. The things you and Gates had to go through there, and what you had to do to survive with those people, has made you both the incredible detectives you are today. Unfortunately for me, and some of our other detectives, it made it so that you don’t feel the need to follow the law sometimes. They don’t understand, because they’ve all had to follow the law, but to be honest, we can’t ask for much else after what the both of you did for us over the course of those years. I guess I just want you to know that I think you did what you had to as a man. As one of my officers, I will always stand behind you for what you’ve done for our department, and our city.”
Completely unexpected. Mason and I had gotten off free, but Chief still hadn’t looked happy with either one of us during our previous meetings. I sat there speechless until Chief stood and offered out his hand. “Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.”
“All right now, there’s already too much of a bro-mance in this office as it is, I don’t need you getting all mushy on me too. Get your ass out of here and go get some work done.”
“Yes, sir. And thank you for this.” I raised the bagged journal in the air and slipped out the door.
Mason was already at his desk when I got there, and after filling him in, I sat at my own and tried to get some work done. But hours later, even after I’d moved the journal to a drawer so it wouldn’t be there in plain sight to tempt me, it was all I could think about. I looked over at Mason throwing a baseball above his head over and over again and finally opened the drawer.
“Jesus, about damn time. I couldn’t concentrate thinking about that thing.”
Looking up at Mase, I glared at him as he continued to throw the ball up. “You couldn’t concentrate? How do you think I felt?”