“You don’t know a damn thing about my relationship with Tenley.”
“Relationship? Is that what lowlifes like you call what you’re doing with her?”
His words were like an acid bomb going off in my brain; corrosive, destructive. “You’re a cocksucker, you know that.”
He made a tsking sound. “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Oh, wait, that’s not possible.”
I exploded, a string of vile profanities spewing forth. I shut down the reaction quickly, realizing that he was riling me up on purpose.
When I was under control again, Cross smiled. “You done? ’Cause if you keep it up, I might just have to take you in. You and me, we’ve been there before, haven’t we? I’m not so sure you’ll like that option the second time around, any better than you did the first.”
“Fuck that. You can’t hold me.”
“I think this time I’ll put you in a holding cell with all the other losers until someone can come pick up your sorry ass. Then I’ll be a Good Samaritan and drive Tenley home. How does that sound?”
I nearly bit off my tongue to keep from telling him what I thought. He was goading me, looking for a reaction that would give him the reason he wanted to put me in a cell. At least for the rest of the night. There was no way I wanted Tenley in a car with him. Especially when he seemed to have it out for me.
“Decided to keep your mouth shut for once, huh?” He opened the door and got out, leaving me locked inside.
I knocked on the window, shouting after him. The threats to take me in had to be empty; he had nothing on me. He wanted to make me sweat, and he’d succeeded. My inability to protect Tenley made me feel powerless as he crossed the pavement to where she sat inside my car. The door was still open; she had to be freezing.
He leaned against the side of the car when he reached her, blocking my view.
Tenley shot up out of the seat and peered around him, her hands flailing wildly as she gestured toward the cruiser I was locked inside. Officer Miller put a hand on her shoulder and leaned in close; whatever she said calmed Tenley down. She glared at Cross and swiped at her cheeks while Miller helped settle her back in the car. Cross braced himself on the doorframe, looking the part of the concerned police officer as Miller headed for me.
It was the divide and conquer. Cross had done the same thing in the interrogation room after the murders. One of them would leave on the premise of getting coffee or taking a break. While the other was gone, they’d change tactics to see if the story would change.
Miller got into the driver’s seat and turned so she could see me head-on. “We don’t seem to run into each other on your good days.”
“Looks that way.” I sagged against the seat. Letting my head fall back, I closed my eyes. If I had to justify myself one more goddamn time, I was going lose it.
“First impressions tell you a lot about a person.”
I cracked a lid. “Guess I’m screwed on that front, huh?”
Her mouth twitched, but she remained serious. “Take your girlfriend, for instance. The first time I met her, she seemed like she had it together. This time? Not so much.”
“She’s had a rough day.”
“You want to tell me why that is?”
“You spent the last fifteen minutes with her. Are you saying she didn’t offer any details?”
“She did. But I’m asking you.”
I sighed and rubbed my forehead, sharp pain slicing between my eyes. I’d be lucky if I didn’t end up with a migraine. “She was in an accident around this time last year. Her whole family died. Everyone she loved is gone. Holidays are difficult.”
“That must be hard.”
“Like I said, today’s been very emotional for her.”
“I meant for you.”
I frowned. “It sucks. I can’t do anything to make her pain go away.”
“You could start by getting a handle on that temper of yours. That’s the second time you’ve gone off on a police officer in a very public place. Gotta tell ya, it doesn’t reflect well on you.”
“I don’t get heated often, and never with Tenley.”
“And how do I know that? Because you told me? Because your girlfriend will tell me the same thing to protect you? Have you ever considered where the collateral damage lies when you pull something like that?”
I looked out the windshield. Tenley was still huddled inside the car, her stocking feet curled around the edge of the doorframe. Cross was kneeling down in front of her, looking up. She leaned forward, chin jutting out in defiance. Any other time, she’d back down in the face of authority. I was the only reason she would do otherwise. It unnerved me.
“You know, I ran your background after that first meeting, and I checked your girlfriend, too.”
Which meant she knew about the crash before she asked. Running my background wouldn’t turn up much besides a couple of the interviews I was subjected to after my parents’ murder. The initial ones had likely been erased, as I’d been a juvenile.
“Other than a speeding ticket about a month back, your record is clean as a whistle.”
“Surprised?”
She got out of the cruiser and opened my door. The pounding in my head and the tightness in my throat let up a little once I was free of the cruiser.
“With your attitude? Damn right. But then I went deeper because I was sure there had to be something else. The way you acted when you came into the precinct didn’t add up. You know what I found?”
“I have no clue.”
“Nothing. You have a perfect credit rating. You have financing pending on a joint property investment in a very good neighborhood. You own both your condo and your tattoo shop. You’ve never missed a payment of any kind, and you make several charitable donations a year. Interesting for someone who presents like you, don’t you think?”
“And how do I present?”
“Like you’re giving society the perpetual bird and you’ve got an ax to grind.”
“My only problem is Cross.”
“Yeah, I figured that out. Made me wonder what the problem was, until he told me he was the lead investigator on your parents’ murder case.”
“He and his partner were first on the scene. They thought I’d done it, so they arrested me. Cross interrogated me.”
“I’m going to guess that didn’t go well.”
“You could say that.” I shoved my hands in my pockets, rocking back on my heels.
“Wanna tell me more about it?”
“There’s not much to tell. I found my parents’ bodies, called the police, and ended up in an interrogation room. I was there for a long time before I was allowed my phone call.” I wasn’t sure how much detail she wanted, or how much I felt inclined to provide. I didn’t know how closely she worked with him. “All I know is that the evidence in the case was deemed inadmissible because it was compromised. I don’t have all the details, which is why I went to the precinct that day.”
“Why’d they target you as a suspect?”
“Convenience? How should I know? I was seventeen. I came home and found my parents murdered. I called nine-one-one and freaked out because they were dead.”
If she’d read the file, she knew I’d torn apart the living room, so mentioning it was redundant.
She regarded me with a speculation that was not uncommon. “I’ve been through what’s left of the evidence. There’s not much there. I have some questions, too, but without something new it would be hard to make a case to have it reopened.”
I thought about the constant, unyielding dreams I had lately. “What if I had something? Who would I go to?”
“You think you do?”
“It’s possible.”