Page 109 of A Shot at Love
Work was the one thing she knew would take her mind off missing Ky, so she squared her shoulders and got to it. The coffee-table book wasn’t going to produce itself.
She had her memory discs, minus the Calafano pictures, and all the other photos she’d already taken around New York City.
Time to make some magic.
Hours later she stumbled back to bed, and, fully clothed, settled under the covers.
*
The number displayed across her screen was unfamiliar. Thinking, hoping, it was a certain special agent sent her pulse into race mode.
“Hello?”
Good Lord, was that breathless anticipation really her?
“Gemma? It’s Jon Winters.”
“Hi.” She tried to infuse some warmth into her voice. It wasn’t his fault he was the wrong agent calling her.
“We need to bring you in so we can get your statement about everything that went down.”
She’d been expecting the summons. “When?”
“Is today good?”
She told him it was. “But you don’t have to pick me up. I can get myself down there.”
“No can do. I’ve been ordered to make sure you get here safe and sound.”
Gemma wondered who’d ordered that.
An hour later he met her downstairs at her condo and helped her into another black Escalade.
“I’m beginning to think this vehicle is made exclusively for the FBI.”
Jon chuckled. Seated next to her in the second row of seats, he peered at her for a moment, then asked, “So, how are you doing? Really?”
Gemma shrugged and gave him a smile. “It’s good to be home. I’ve been working nonstop, after sleeping for about fourteen hours that first night back.”
“The adrenaline drop,” he said, nodding. “Happens to us all the time when a case is finally done. Exhaustion sets in and then after a day or so back to reality, you’re looking for the next shot of it to hit your bloodstream.”
She didn’t think she’d ever heard the experience described so well before.
“We should be there in a few more minutes. Let me tell you what’s gonna happen.”
He took her through the steps of her testimony. Barly insisted she be videotaped and he would be present to conduct the questioning.
“Don’t worry about him,” Jon assured her. “He’s a bit of a blowhard, and he might come across as an asshole, but you’ll be fine. He already knows all about the plan with Tiege. I told him before it ever went down what we were going to do. When your friend Bannerman contacted me that was the first thing Ky had wanted.”
At the mention of his name Gemma’s body went on alert. She desperately wanted to ask how he was, where he was, why he wasn’t the one bringing her in, but somehow, she couldn’t get the words out.
“Ky’s stuck in DC, by the way,” Jon offered. “The director needed to go over some things concerning Tiege and our division with him, otherwise he’d be the one with you today.”
“Oh,” was all she could manage to say.
He cocked his head as his gaze traveled across her face. In the next moment he said, “We’re here.”
Five hours later, tired and drained, he dropped her back at the condo with a kiss to her cheek and a promise to call if anything else came up she was needed for.
*
Two more days passed, and she still hadn’t heard from Ky.
Her mind was cluttered with thoughts of why, but the one that she gave the most space to was the simple fact that he didn’t want to see her.
She was no longer in danger and his duty toward her was done. Done with the case, and with her.
The physical closeness they’d shared had been nothing more than a reaction to two adults experiencing simple desire in enclosed quarters, during a stressful time.
That had to be it, because if it had been more, if Ky had felt one tenth for her what she had for him, he would have contacted her. Would have been here with her. Would have made the time.
All her thoughts that what they’d shared was different from anything else she’d ever experienced with a man were true. Unfortunately, she now realized those feelings were one-sided. Hers.
She dragged herself from bed, forced herself to take a shower and eat. She wouldn’t cry over him again or let his unexplained absence rule her life. She had clients lining up for appointments; she had the book to finish, and another to start. Tasks to keep her busy. Work to keep her from thinking about him.
