“And he told me your birthday is Thursday.”
I decided to be quiet and hoped that our talk wasn’t going to be a long one. After two minutes I was over it and wanted to shut down, move on, fill my mind with something else, anything else, but Vance.
Vance watched me. I kept silent.
“Tell me about Park,” he demanded softly.
“No,” I said instantly and pushed away. The conversation was officially over.
His arms tightened, he came up, twisting me to my back and his body rolled into me so he was half on me, his thigh thrown over both of mine, pinning me to the bed.
He looked down at me. “You already know we investigated you,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“You’re a busy woman.”
I stared at him and kept silent.
“Even before this shit went down with Park your name is all over police records. You worked at a battered woman’s shelter, got involved in a couple of messy cases. You got mentions in a number of kids’ files, comin’ down to the station when they got into trouble, puttin’ in a word for them. Got ‘em out and into King’s.”
I stayed silent.
“Park was different,” Vance said in a way that I knew wasn’t a question.
I sucked in my lips and stayed quiet.
“So are Roam and Sniff, aren’t they?”
I couldn’t keep it up. “They’re my boys.”
He watched me, his eyes scanning my face and something came over him, not the sexy something, something else. Something that looked an awful lot like concern.
“Jules, you know, you gotta keep a distance. You don’t, it’ll destroy you.”
“I can keep a distance.”
“Yeah? Like spendin’ your nights puttin’ your ass on the line, makin’ drug dealers pay for what they did to Park?”
My eyes slid to the side. “Um…” I mumbled.
“And runnin’ around lookin’ after two teenage runaways like they were your own flesh and blood?”
I brought my eyes back to him and stayed silent.
“That shit with Roam today at Fortnum’s… Jesus, Jules, you aren’t his sister, you’re his social worker.”
“I know that.”
“Didn’t look like it to me.”
“Don’t tell me how to do my job,” I clipped.
“I’m tryin’ to talk some sense into you.”
“You don’t know these boys.”
“Yes I do. I grew up with kids like them.”