The Do-Over (The Rooftop Crew #5) - Piper Rayne Page 0,2
buzzer, but I didn’t want to wake you.” She breaks the distance between us.
I grab her wrist to stop her before she touches me. “Where were you earlier?”
She shrugs. “I told you. I was here, waiting for you.”
I’ve been around this block twenty times tonight. This is the first time I’ve seen her. “Did you take up painting?”
The truth lies in her eyes. Or should I say the lies. It’s the same look I’d get when I’d ask her about moving in together, or her job prospects in town so she could stick around.
“You need to come down to the station. There are some officers who’d like to talk to you about your aim with a paintball gun.”
Red and blue lights reflect off the glass of the storefront, and I glance over my shoulder to see Patrice shrugging.
“You can’t arrest me. You have no proof that I’ve done anything wrong.” She squirms to get out of my hold.
I’m sure her assumption is that I’d let her go because in her mind, I’m probably still stupidly in love with her. I can’t deny there’s still a soft spot there, but I no longer pine over her like a sappy schmuck.
“I’m not gonna argue with you Leilani.” I grab my handcuffs and secure them on her wrists.
“What are you gonna do? Take me up to your apartment with these cuffs on? Just like the old days, huh?”
“No.” I try not to let the visual she’s so eager to produce in my mind come to fruition.
I turn her toward the cruiser and Leilani balks. “Seriously, the lights? Why not put your siren on too?” At least she finally realizes this is serious.
Patrice isn’t even trying to bite down her smile as I walk Leilani back to the squad car, open the door, and press my hand on her head to lower her in.
“Hello, Leilani,” Patrice says.
“Patrice.”
As I round the back of the car, I catch sight of all my friends on the balcony. I assume Rian must’ve alerted them. My gaze falls to Rian on the sidewalk outside her shop, her hand covering her mouth and a look of sorrow in her eyes.
I hate that damn look.
“Go back inside, Rian,” I say and climb into the driver’s side.
Just to be a dick, I turn on the sirens, but it’s me who’ll suffer for this. Move on over, Ben—I’m the new joke at the station now.
Chapter Two
Knox
“I think you’re the first to have to arrest your girlfriend,” DuPont says, snickering with Milliken as they pass by my desk.
“Ex-girlfriend,” Patrice says, but she’s talking to air because they’re busy spreading the gossip.
Back when we were an item, I brought Leilani to the precinct’s Christmas party and to a wedding for an officer at the station. So when Captain Donnelly saw me walk her into the station in cuffs, his chin fell to his chest. I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life—except for that time back in fourth grade when I stuttered my way through my read-aloud session and got stuck with the shitty tagline of “Knox is as dumb as a box of rocks.”
At the moment, Leilani is with the detectives and in a room where she’s out of my sight.
“How did you ever meet her in the first place?” Patrice asks, tapping her pen on the desk across from mine.
I shake my head, remembering that night for the first time in a long time. Leilani has weaved in and out of my life so often that I never really think about the first time we met. But the way I would describe it is that she flew into my life rather than walked in.
“We were at this bar named Duke’s. Me, Dylan, and a few other guys. There was this table of girls nearby that we started talking to.”
“Leilani was one of them?” Patrice asks over a stack of papers as she moves to the other side of her desk.
I shake my head. “No. They were friends with the waitress.”
I smile, remembering the waitress. She was Polynesian, just like Leilani. I’d been flirting with the waitress originally.
“Waitress?”
I nod. “She was waiting on us the entire night and brought us some drinks from her friends. One of them was into Dylan.”
“What’s not to be into?”
I raise my eyebrows. “You’re married.”
“And he’s engaged. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good-looking guy.”
Shaking my head, I continue. “She had this smile that lit up the entire room. She was sweet and funny and—”