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Maddie’s dead silent. “Nope. Sorry sis, not happening.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve already been on the bad side of the law. I quit.”
I roll my eyes and rescue the remote from becoming Shawn’s chew toy. “That was severely misleading and I’m mildly disappointed now that you only got fired from a law firm and not arrested for something wilder.”
“I don’t want wild. I’m happy as I am.”
“Come on Mads, don’t be the only Cheerio in the box full of Froot Loops.”
“I happen to like Cheerios.”
“You would.”
“Stop going all Shawn Spencer on me. I’m not stalking a cop!”
“That could be a great movie title,” I muse.
“Are you going to go into screenwriting next?” she asks with a laugh.
“I could.” I’ve only had thirty-nine jobs since I graduated high school. I owe it to myself to make it an even forty. I think my friend Zara is a screenwriter, actually. It can’t be too hard.
“You’re right, you can because you can do anything. You’re amazing like that. I mean, you went from being a gravedigger to a zombie.”
“Wow, remind me to hire you for my presidential campaign speech,” I snort. “I was a zombie extra in one movie, and I never actually got to dig a grave, apparently they do it with tractors now and I didn’t have the correct license.”
“I just mean you can do anything,” Maddie continues on.
I feel like I’ve tried everything. Cosmetology has paid the bills for two years now…and I love it. I think. I love being able to talk to and make friends with anyone who sits in my chair, helping them feel better about themselves if only for a moment. But some days I get that itchy feeling under my skin, like what I’m doing isn’t enough. That’s usually when I start googling new job opportunities. The only thing that’s held me longer is the volunteer class I teach once a week at my dad’s old school during the school year. That school was my dad’s passion and Connor and I couldn’t let it die with him.
Maddie finally finishes her pep talk and I jump back into the conversation.
“So, was that a yes or a no to hunting down a detective with me?”
“No,” she sighs. “It’s a terrible idea.”
“Then why am I so excited to do it?”
Chapter 4
Caleb
“Let’s walk through it again,” Cruz says.
“We’ve walked through it a hundred times already.” I push my chair away from my desk and stand, circling the tiny, suffocating cubicle I’ve been confined to after last night’s screwup. Jones and Hadley are on Hawthorne now while Cruz and I “regroup.”
I step to the left, then toss a wad of paper halfway across the bullpen, banking it into the trash can.
Agent Carson high-fives me on the way back to his desk.
“What’s left for us to even walk through?” I ask Cruz. “Hawthorne is a criminal, but we don’t have enough proof to arrest him, so instead we are wasting government money babysitting him.”
Cruz stands and tosses a wad of paper from even further back and…sinks it, of course. “You know, I thought you’d be happier after finally getting some action last night,” she taunts, flipping her long dark hair over her shoulder.
She’s been hanging around a bunch of guys for too long. I press my lips together to keep from telling her off, then wince. My bottom lip is bruised, and the physical reminder of Amelia’s wild kiss gets my blood pumping faster. The woman drew blood. She was as terrifying as she was beautiful.
I push all thoughts of her from my mind. I need to focus. Like I should have last night.