Last Mile (Vicious Cycle #3) - Katie Ashley Page 0,12
get too far before Gavin pulled me to him. “You wanna talk about it?”
“About what?”
“Whatever it is about this case that has you spooked.”
A shiver went down my spine at his words, but I quickly recovered. “There is nothing about a bunch of beer-guzzling lowlifes that has me spooked.” I wiggled out of his arms and once again started down the hall.
Just as I reached to grab my purse, his next words froze me from head to toe. “So a man named Willie Bates means nothing to you.”
My eyes pinched shut as my chest heaved. There is no adequate way to describe the emotional shit storm that hits you when your past and present collide. I didn’t even hear Gavin walk down the hall, but then suddenly he was at my side. “What do you know?” I questioned in a whisper so low my voice was barely audible.
“Everything.” When I dared to look at him over my shoulder, he gave me a sad smile. “I’d never seen you react the way that you did when Peterson gave us this case, so I did a little digging.”
“Does Peterson know?”
“No. Only me. And it’s going to stay that way.”
Although my heart swelled with the surge of love I had for Gavin and his loyalty, I still exhaled in defeat as I leaned back against the front door. “From what you’ve discovered, you should request that I be taken off the case.” When Gavin started to shake his head, I held my hand up to silence whatever argument he had prepared. “I’m a deficit, and you can’t afford a deficit out in the field.”
He reached out to cup my face. “You could never be a deficit, Vargas. You’re the only one I would ever want to work with. I know that no matter what happened to you when you were eight years old, when it comes down to it, you’ll have your game face on and your shit together.”
Although I hated myself for them, tears stung my eyes. “You really mean that?”
“Yeah, I do.”
I swiped away some of my mascara-blackened tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“I can understand why you didn’t. That was some horrible shit done to your father and in turn to you. It’s nobody’s business, really.”
Trying to lighten some of the tension in the air, I grabbed both of his biceps and squeezed hard before pushing him away. “Why, why can’t you be straight?”
Gavin laughed heartily. “You and I make a great business partnership, Vargas, but there’s no way in hell we could ever be married.”
Cocking my head at him, I countered, “Is that right?”
“It is, and deep down, you know I’m right.”
I did know Gavin was right. We were too much alike to ever make any relationship besides friendship work. In the end, we were closer than friends. We were more like brother and sister.
Waggling my eyebrows, I said, “Yeah, well, maybe I wasn’t talking about us marrying. Maybe I meant for us to have hot, sweaty sex.” At Gavin’s horrified face, I couldn’t help laughing. “Gotcha with that one.”
“So not funny,” he muttered.
“It’s good to know how repulsed you are by the idea of having sex with me,” I teased as I walked down the hall to the bathroom to fix my makeup.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Vargas. It’s not about having sex with you. It’s about having sex with a vagina, period, that wigs me.”
I snorted as I reapplied some powder to cover the tracks of my tears. Gavin appeared in the doorway.
“But regardless of all that, you’re the only woman I would ever consider going straight for.”
I smiled at his reflection in the mirror. “Aw, you can be awfully sweet when you want to, McTavish.”
He came over and turned me around. After bestowing a kiss on my cheek, he winked. “Come on, hot stuff. Let’s go show the bikers how it’s done.”
While I didn’t share his confidence or enthusiasm, I nodded in agreement. After turning on the security system, I followed him out the front door. In my driveway was a motorcycle the bureau had provided for Gavin. On a lowly mechanic’s salary, Gavin wouldn’t have been able to afford the bikes that he owned, so instead, the bureau had gotten him one that would fit in better with his persona—which he of course hated.
“What a hunk of junk,” I teased as I grabbed my helmet off the back.
“I fucking loathe and despise every moment on this piece of shit,” Gavin replied.