His tension draining away, he leaned in far enough to press his face into the curve of her shoulder while taking care to touch her nowhere else. He breathed in deeply, drawing in her scent. ‘Then let’s go upstairs,’ he whispered. ‘I need you tonight. It’s been too long.’
She took a step back, coming up short when her ass hit her car door. Bryan remained frozen in place, his back bent, his shoulders hunched.
‘I’m sorry, Bryan,’ she whispered. ‘I can’t. I’ve told you this, over and over.’
‘Can’t or won’t?’ he asked harshly.
‘Either. Both.’
‘Why?’ he asked, his whisper barely audible.
‘Because even though you haven’t changed, I have.’
He exhaled, dropped his chin to his chest. ‘Is there someone else?’
‘No,’ she said honestly. Not yet. Maybe not ever. She drew a deep breath. ‘But maybe I want there to be.’
He looked up then, eyes narrowed. ‘But that isn’t me.’
‘No.’ She smiled to soften her words. ‘We both know that you’re not forever material.’
‘True,’ he murmured. That it hadn’t even seemed to occur to him to deny it made her want to cry. He straightened slowly, studying her. ‘Are you forever material?’
Tears rose to burn her eyes, because she knew exactly what he was asking. Was she even capable of being some guy’s happily-ever-after? Importantly, could she be Marcus’s happily-ever-after? ‘I don’t know. I’m just as messed up as you are.’
He was quiet for a long moment and she instinctively knew he was thinking about that day, that horrible, horrible day. The day that had changed their lives so irrevocably. It might as well have been yesterday, the memory was so vividly clear. So much blood. In all the years she’d been a cop, she’d never yet seen another crime scene with so much blood.
She blinked, startled out of the memory by the feeling of soft fabric touching her face. Bryan held a cotton handkerchief and was using it to dry her wet cheeks. The tears in her eyes had spilled without her realizing it.
‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered.
She made herself smile. ‘For what?’
‘For not being forever material. I wish I could be. But I can’t. Not even for you.’
Touched, she cupped his cheek. ‘Maybe when you meet the right person it’ll seem easy.’
Again his eyes narrowed, this time in discovery. ‘You’ve met that person.’ He crossed his arms over his chest, going from wistful to menacing in a heartbeat. ‘Did he hurt you?’
‘No. It’s not like that. He’s just . . .’ She sighed. ‘He doesn’t know.’
‘Then he’s blind and stupid,’ Bryan declared, and the wicked gleam she knew so well was back in his eyes. ‘I could help you forget him,’ he suggested slyly.
Scarlett shook her head, more than a little glad that the moment was over. ‘I appreciate your offer to make the sacrifice,’ she said. ‘But the answer is still no.’
‘Coffee then?’ he said.
‘Sorry, not now. I have a body on its way to the morgue.’
He frowned, lightly lifting the thin strap of her tank top with his pinkie before letting it snap back against her shoulder. ‘You dress like this while you’re on duty?’
Her cheeks heated. It was on the skimpy side as tank tops went, baring her shoulders and hugging her curves. Neither her top nor her low-riding jeans were the proper attire of a law enforcement professional. But I didn’t get dressed for work. She’d dressed for Marcus. She thought now about the way his dark eyes had followed her as she’d processed the crime scene. He’d noticed.
‘I have a jacket in the car.’ A jacket she’d deliberately left off at the crime scene.
Bryan’s frown didn’t falter. ‘I thought you were off duty today.’
Scarlett blinked, then set her jaw. ‘How did you know that?’
‘I called your mother last night and asked her,’ he said unapologetically.
‘You asked my mother?’ she asked, incredulous at first, then resigned. Her mother had always had a soft spot for Bryan. ‘How did my mother know?’
‘She asked your father.’
Scarlett sighed. ‘And of course he knew.’ Her father knew nearly everything that went on in CPD, especially when it concerned the three of his seven children who’d followed in his footsteps to join the force. She tilted her head to one side, studying Bryan’s face in the harsh glare of the streetlights. ‘Why did you call my mom looking for me, Bryan?’
His shrug was careless. ‘You’d been pushing me away. And I was . . . lonely.’
‘What about Sylvia?’
‘Ancient history. We broke up six months ago. Kathy followed Syl, and then there was Wendy.’
‘What happened to Wendy?’
A one-shouldered shrug. ‘We broke up two weeks ago.’
Scarlett lifted a brow. This was the Bryan she’d known since their freshman year of college. His slew of recent visits now made sense. Had he and Wendy still been a thing, he would not be standing in Scarlett’s driveway. ‘So you came to me,’ she said.
At least he had the good grace to look ashamed. For a second, anyway. Then he lifted his chin, his jaw taut. ‘I came by a few other times last week, but you weren’t home.’
The accusing way he said it made her wonder if he knew she really had been home those times too. It made her wonder how he’d known she was home the last time, when he’d banged on her front door with his fists. Because she didn’t want to admit she’d been hiding under her bedcovers, she didn’t ask that question. ‘I work odd hours, Bryan. You know this.’
He gave her a pointed look. ‘I also know when your car is parked in your garage. It smells like dirty socks.’
She let out a breath. Damn diesel fuel. ‘I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t want to hurt you.’
‘Well I’m about to hurt you,’ he said flatly. ‘So brace yourself. I saw Trent Bracken downtown last week, eating lunch with the senior partner of Langston and Vollmer.’
Scarlett flinched, feeling like she’d been physically slapped. Then the fury hit and she had to take a deep breath to keep it contained. Trent Bracken should be on death row, not lunching with the most powerful law firm in town. ‘Why?’ she asked hoarsely.
Bryan’s mouth twisted. ‘Because they just brought him in as a junior partner. His win record in the courtroom is “legendary”. That was the word the partners used in the memo they sent out to everybody in the firm.’
‘Fucking bastards.’ Scarlett had to take another breath, this one to keep from throwing up. ‘They’d hire a murderer?’
‘They would and they did,’ Bryan said bitterly. ‘They said his “horrific experience with the justice system” had given him a passion for “defending the rights of the innocent”.’
Scarlett’s knees wobbled and she leaned against her car for support. ‘The innocent,’ she whispered. ‘Michelle was innocent. Don’t they care that he killed her?’ Huffing a bitter laugh, she answered her own question. ‘Of course they don’t. They’re just like the animals who got Bracken off in the first place.’ Defense attorneys looking for any possible loophole, not caring that they pushed a killer back on the streets. ‘Of course they’d hire scum like him. They are scum like him.’
‘I thought you should know in case you met him in court. I didn’t want you blindsided.’
New tears had risen to burn her eyes and she blinked them away. ‘So that’s why you’ve been coming to see me? To tell me about Bracken?’
He nodded, then shrugged. ‘And for sex,’ he admitted.
Her chuckle was unsteady at best. ‘Hell, Bryan. Go home, get some rest. Maybe you’ll meet someone new tomorrow.’
‘Maybe,’ he said sadly. ‘Who is he, Scarlett? At least tell me that.’
She frowned, still in enough shock over Bracken’s new mockery of justice that it took her a second to process Bryan’s question. Oh, she thought, and then the memory of Marcus’s voice was filling her mind, soothing the frayed edges.