Page 80

Gabe walks deeper into the area, and it's all I can do to face him. I feel like every emotion is on full display, raw and painfully visible.

"You can't be here if your head isn't in the game. Lives are at stake."

I flinch a bit at that. "You know I focus when I'm out there. It's when I'm not working and can think too much that it messes with me."

“I’m going to argue that because I saw you the night of the robbery.”

I open my mouth to counter but can’t. “Are you saying you’d be okay if you knew Bronwyn wasn’t answering and we were heading to the bookstore after a robbery?”

Gabe seems to size me up before he shakes his head.

"I wouldn’t be. Which is why I’m going to let you slide this time. Just be smart enough—man enough—to take yourself out of play if you can’t give it all you’ve got. That's an order."

I know that tone. And I know not to go against it. "Yes, chief. Understood."

"What can I do to help?" he asks next.

At a loss, I flip a chair around and straddle it, resting my arms along the back. "I don't know. It's just messed up. I know we see DV cases all the time, but I'll never understand how a man can lay his hands on his wife. Threaten her? Intimidate her? It's twisted."

"The fact you see that might be why you got the girl, Sully," Gabe says.

I look up at him with a frown.

"You think you're the only one to shoot their shot with Violet? I've watched plenty of guys try over the years since she's been back in town, but she never gave them the time of day."

The words ease some of the tension locking my chest up like a fist.

"Maybe she senses that awareness in you," Gabe continues. "That you won't ever be the guy we see handcuffed in the back of a squad car while we treat the partner's wounds."

I grip the sides of my head, fingers ripping through my hair. I need a haircut, but it's time away from Violet I don't want to take on my upcoming days off. Not until they find her ex. "She's scared, and she's trying so hard not to be."

"Well, off shift you've got this crew to help you keep an eye out in addition to the Saints. With that many guards on her, he won't be able to get near her."

The words settle in, and I nod, but something feels off. Wrong.

What if that just frustrates her ex even more? Makes him do something desperate?

The alarm goes off with a blast, and I shoot to my feet.

"You good?" Gabe asks.

I know exactly what he's asking, and I nod. "I'm good."

For now anyway.

Chapter 37

Violet

* * *

Two days later, I wake slowly and stretch, feeling every sore muscle and tendon in my body. The strange thing is, it's a good feeling, reminding me of the step I've taken toward making me stronger and protecting myself.

I hate feeling helpless and weak, and while Lawson Pike repeatedly stresses my best course of action is to evade and escape and not to confront, the first two sessions helped me to not feel as helpless.

I open my eyes and roll to my back, startling at the fact I'm not alone. Sully's too-gorgeous face is relaxed in sleep as he lays fully clothed in loose gray sweatpants and a T-shirt atop the edge of the throw blanket I'd brought with me from the couch.

So much for being situationally aware. Obviously that is something I need to work on. Then again, I kinda helped myself to Sully's king-size bed last night because I…missed him. His teasing, his touches. His scent.