Edge of Mercy (A Kate Reid Novel Book 11), Robin Mahle [freenovel24 .txt] 📗

team, or you. I made my bed, Kate. What can I do but accept it and move on?”

“Maybe I want you to be mad.” She turned away. “Maybe I want you to feel something about what happened in Rio. About how angry I was with you when you sided with Quinn.”

“I didn’t side with him…”

“You did. You said I shouldn’t have asked Dwight to follow him and that he had the right to be concerned by that. I mean, the guy was blackmailing us. What was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t want to go through this again,” Nick sighed. “We’ve been having this argument for months now and nothing changes. You get pissed, I feel like shit and we go to bed and start all over the next day as if none of it happened. You’re facing censure, Kate. You should be preparing for the hearing. The outcome could change the trajectory of the rest of your career.”

“I know that. Quinn gets a nice cushy transfer. I get censured.”

“Not yet you haven’t. It hasn’t been decided yet,” Nick added. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you haven’t forgiven me for what I did in Rio. I haven’t forgiven myself either. But the idea you haven’t; that’s what I can’t take.”

He was right. They’d circled around this same argument for months and it was usually Kate who brought it up. It had just become so infuriating that Nick refused to get angry about Cole’s decision to demote him. But maybe what it was really about was that he refused to get angry at her. He wouldn’t engage her, and she felt she had beaten him down as a result. It was as if he’d become a man with no fight left in him. A man who had given up on his dream; given up on her.

Kate turned back to him and placed her hands on his cheeks. “You were a man to be reckoned with. A man who stood down for no one if he thought he was in the right. When we first met, and you barged into my hotel room and Marshall was with me. The look on your face. I’ll never forget it. You looked at him as if he should have been ashamed of himself.”

“I was a different man then. Yeah, I knew he shouldn’t have slept with you. He was a cop and you were the victim. But on looking back, how am I any different now?”

She pulled away her hands. “I’m no longer a victim, for one thing. But I need to know you still have that fire inside you. That fight to stand up for what you believe. You pulled me out of a hole I’d fallen in after Marshall died. You convinced me I was on this earth for a purpose and you showed me that purpose. I’ll never be able to repay that. But something changed somewhere along the line.”

“I fell in love with you. I did everything in my power to protect you from the Bureau and from yourself.”

“But I didn’t need to be protected,” Kate said. “That’s where all this went wrong. It isn’t just about the drinking. It isn’t just about Rio. It’s about who I am supposed to be and maybe I’ve been diverting my attention from the heart of the matter. Blaming you for putting the team in danger in Rio.”

“I did.”

“You didn’t. We were all quite capable of handling ourselves, but I put it on you. That wasn’t fair.”

“Kate, what do you want me to do? Scream at you? Will that make you feel better? Do you want me to fight for my old job back because I’m sorry to say, that ship has sailed.” He paused for a moment and studied her. “Do you want me to quit?”

“No. No, of course not.” Kate stood from the sofa.

Nick rose and faced her. “You want me to be who I was when we met. Hungry, wanting to catch every bad guy out there. You want to see the fire in me again.” He moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight against his chest.

Kate was surprised by the move and hesitated to give in. Desire quickly overcame her need to pursue the pointless argument. Nick had that effect on her even still. This wasn’t the way to provoke change; they both knew that. But it seemed that once again, the root of the problem would be pushed aside for another day.

Bishop’s shift ended as his partner pulled into the station. He jumped out of the truck and grabbed his reports and medical bag. The sun peaked over the horizon amid the partly cloudy skies and brisk air. Most of the city still slept, but for the few who witnessed the orange and yellow-streaked sky, it made working nights just a little more tolerable.

“Hey man, I’ll see you tonight, right?” Desmond asked. “You aren’t going to bail on me again?”

“I won’t. I’ll see you tonight. Get some sleep.” Bishop watched as his partner left the building. He had other plans and walked into the locker room. “Morning.” He said to another tech.

“Did you just get back?” the man asked.

“Sure did. It was a pretty quiet night though,” Bishop replied.

“Good. Maybe today will be quiet too.” He slung a bag over his shoulder. “I gotta roll out. Catch you later, Bishop.”

“Catch you later.” Bishop had suspected who it was who had left the troubling image in his locker. And he waited for that person to come on shift.

Bishop walked into the breakroom and poured a cup of coffee, keeping a close eye on the back door where the employees entered. It seemed as though his wait was growing too long. His coffee was finished. But then, the man in question arrived.

“Bishop? I’m surprised to see you still here. Shouldn’t you be heading home?” The man asked.

“Yeah. I was just finishing some reports to hand in to the boss. Hey, is that