Page 36 of Beneath The Truth
Heath jammed a hand into his hair.“You know I don’t want to believe any of it, but we gotta look at all the angles.He was a lifelong cop looking at sitting in a cell for a long damn time after they arrested him.None of us would want to go through that.He wouldn’t have been the first cop to ...take anotherwayout.”
My jaw clenched at the suggestion.“I don’t believe it.Leave my mom homeless so he could avoid being arrested?It doesn’t make sense.If he wanted to end it all, he could’ve walked out of the house with a gun in hand and gone out old-fashioned suicide by cop.”It turned my gut to say it, but it was thetruth.
“Your old man was stubborn, there’s no doubt about that.Look, let us do our job.If there’s any evidence to the contrary, it’ll come tolight.”
“Yeah, because you can tell me with a straight face that’s really what the departmentwants.”
Heath’s expression darkened.“We’re not all dirty cops.Some are still in this to protect and serve.Youknowthat.”
“Iknow.”
“Did you know Ari might be sticking around longer than she’dplanned?”
The trajectory of my thoughts did a one-eighty.“Really?”
“She said she’s not going anywhere until we sort out all this stuff going on with Dad, no matter how long ittakes.”
“Shit, I’m sorry.As much as I’m glad she’ll be around longer, the reason sucks foryouboth.”
“Getting old’s a bitch, that’s for sure.I’m hoping for the best, but from what I’ve been seeing the last week, he’s goingdownhillfast.”
“If there’s anything I can do, letmeknow.”
“Appreciate it.Best thing you can do is keep an eyeonAri.”
The waitress delivered our orders, and the rest of breakfast passed with the same easy camaraderie Heath and I had always had.But as we ate, my mind kept bouncing between two differentthoughts.
What the hell actually happened with my dad, and how long would I havewithAri?
18
Ariel
“Ha!I still got it!”I jumped up from the chair and did a little dance around the office where I’d set up shop in the house.I didn’t care that Erik and Esme could see me shaking my groove thang through the live videostream.
“You’ve definitely gotsomething...”
My tweaks to the security system had rendered it impenetrable once again, and my top team of internal hackers, along with Esme and Erik, had failedmiserably.
“What I don’t understand is why you won’t take one of the hundreds of offers we get for you to do this for other companies?Do you have any idea how much money youcouldmake?”
“She’s already got plenty of money.Why would she want to go work for someone else and follow their rules, even if it were on a contract basis?”Esmepointedout.
“This is something I do for my personal satisfaction, not formoney.”
“But...”
“No buts.On to the nextsubject.”
“Speaking of butts ...did Mr.Hot Former Cop grow a pair and talk to your brother today to get permission tobangyou?”
Esme’s question sent a wave of heat up my cheeks.“We’re not talking about thateither.”
Heath texted me this morning to tell me that he and Rhett were having breakfast at ten.A glance at the clock showed that it was now noon and I’d received no updates.Not that I was expecting one, or, you know, Rhett to show up with a giant bouquet of flowers and toss rose petals all over my floor as he led metobed.
Actually, that would be creepy, despite what I thought when I was eighteen.Officially scratching that one off thefantasylist.
But what if we took that next step and it didn’t come anywhere close to living up to what I’d imagined?I’d expended an undisclosed amount of brain power on how it could be between Rhett and me, and the more I thought about it, the more I was terrified of the possibility ofdisappointment.
