interested in the Donavans’ criminal history. I couldn’t understand, and still can’t really, why you’d be out with Sean. I don’t know why just weeks after you and I are rummaging through their court cases, discussing how unworthy they are of the benefits of our justice system, you’re sitting across from one of them having drinks. So what I’m asking is: who are you? Who were you two years ago? And what were you doing last night? If you can tell me that, I promise you I’ll help you in any way I can. You need to trust me.” With that last sentence, Piper pulled her hand away from his, and he felt a piece of his heart go with it.
“Sure I’ll trust you, let me run a background check on you first.” She pulled herself up to a sitting position knowing she looked too weak crumpled under her blankets to be taken seriously. “I think you’re being a little dramatic, and I’m guessing so was Michael. The two of you together probably blew this whole thing out of proportion. I’m sorry that I’m not turning out to be who you hoped I was, but I’m not going to sit here and be accused of having questionable motives. I think you should go.” Piper pointed at the door, and she wondered how her mouth and her mind could betray her heart so deeply. Would there ever be a time in her life that they pulled in the same direction?
“I don’t want to go, Piper. I’m not looking for an easy out.” Bobby stood and raised his voice slightly. He felt this conversation, this woman, getting away from him and it wasn’t how he wanted it.
“What do you want?” She threw her arms up in exasperation and immediately regretted the sudden movement. She had momentarily forgotten how much her body was hurting and how fast her head was spinning. She didn’t want him to leave, but she wanted him to take back everything he had just said.
“What do I want? I want to take off this uniform and crawl into bed with you. I want to spend the entire day under these covers. I’d tell you how terrified I was when I saw you lying in the back of that ambulance. I’d tell you how I’ve never been so full of rage or had such a desire to track a man down and kill him for what he had done, what he could have done to you.” Bobby’s hands clenched into fists as he thought of Sean. “I want you to feel like you can tell me everything about yourself, the hard stuff, the scary stuff. I want you to talk until you lose your voice, and I want to hold you until I can’t figure out where I end and you begin. I want today to be the first day of something incredible for us. There is nothing that you can tell me that would scare me away, nothing that could change how I feel about you.”
He was practically yelling now, his face red with frustration. He realized how worked up he had become, and he softened his voice. “I want to stay here and find out who you are.”
Piper forced the tears forming at the corners of her eyes to stay right where they were. She swallowed back the lump in her throat and dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand to help redirect the pain away from her heart. She let the thought flash through her mind for a moment. What if she did tell Bobby who she was and what she had planned? Would he do as he said and stay?
“I don’t think there is anything more real to you than your convictions, Bobby, and I can assure you there isn’t anything more important to me than mine. The problem is that ours happen to sit at opposite sides of the moral spectrum. I won’t ask you to stand by me when I know it would mean you’d have to set aside things that make you who you are. I’m also not naïve enough to believe you’re even capable of that. Who I was two years ago isn’t something I’ll share with you. What I was doing last night isn’t something you’ll approve of. So the only thing I can do, because I do care about you, is not lie. I’m asking you to go, so that I don’t have to.” Piper knew it would