They headed into the large brick building, walking past the main front desk toward a brightly lit corridor. Easy chatter filled the station, the atmosphere serious but friendly. Uniformed cops breezed past them, looking harried and excited, and Rachel got the sense that this was why Travis had chosen detective work over designing anti-virus software. He seemed to thrive in this environment.
She also noticed how well liked Travis was around the department. People smiled and said hello as he walked by, and it touched her heart to see him pause and return all the greetings. It didn’t surprise her that everyone loved Travis. He was warm and generous, and he had the ability to make all those around him smile and feel important. That was why she loved him.
“Okay, here’s my office,” Travis said, gesturing to an open doorway. “I’ll be in my partner’s office next door. I’ll come back in a minute.”
After Travis left her inside his office, Rachel walked over to the desk and reached for the phone. She called Suzanna and went over some details for the show. When she hung up the phone, Travis still hadn’t come back. Realizing she’d never met his partner, she decided to pop into the next office to introduce herself.
She stepped into the hallway, smiled at a passing female deputy, then approached the door adjacent to Travis’s. It stood ajar, yet she still felt compelled to knock. She lifted her hand, but the hushed male voices wafting out made her freeze.
“Damn it, Matt.” It was Travis’s voice, and he didn’t sound happy.
“You’re still in love with Jess.”
The words spoken by the second man, who had to be Travis’s partner, made her blood run cold.
“This woman means nothing to you. She’s another project, Gage. So for God’s sake, stop leading her on.”
This woman? Were they talking about her? What project? A sick feeling tugged at her gut, making her feel nauseous. She knew eavesdropping was wrong and yet she couldn’t force her legs to carry her away, couldn’t stop her ears from listening to the troubling exchange transpiring in the office.
“You want to save her, just like all the others. You’ve been doing it since Jess died, and it’s time to stop this crusade you’re on. It only distracts you from your job.”
“I’m always focused on my job.” Travis’s tone was sharp.
“Then where the hell were you today when I was interrogating the Davis suspect?” The man interjected before Travis could reply. “Christ, how many more women do you need to save before you convince yourself you’ve avenged your wife’s death?”
The churning of her stomach became unbearable. She could have waited for Travis’s answer but it didn’t even matter anymore. Turning on her heel, Rachel edged away from the door and tore down the hallway, tears stinging her eyes.
She should have known. Should’ve figured it out. Oh, he’d wanted more than sex from her, all right. She’d been another pity project for him, a way to make himself feel better about the fact that he hadn’t saved the woman he’d loved.
Well, she didn’t need his pity. She didn’t need to be saved—by Travis or anyone else.
She could save herself, thank you very much. And, at the moment, saving herself meant gathering up the pieces of her shattered heart and getting as far away from Travis Gage as humanly possible.
Chapter Ten
“Rachel, you heard brief pieces of a conversation. You could have taken the whole thing out of context,” Suzanna said with a long, weary sigh.
Rachel sifted through samples of fabric, trying to make the final decision on the pieces she would be revealing at the New York show next week. The knot in her throat hadn’t eased since she walked out of the police station an hour earlier. Her work had always had a way of calming tension and draining troubled thoughts, but this afternoon it wasn’t working.
Nothing was going to take away the pain Travis left in her heart.
“I know what I heard,” she said, tossing a violet satin teddy in her keeper pile.
Suzanna placed a hand on her shoulder. “Rachel, you really care about this guy. Give him a chance to explain before you just toss him to the wind.”
Rachel didn’t just care about him. She was crazy about him. She loved him. With every part of her soul, she loved him so deeply it ripped a hole in her heart and shattered her very core.
“There’s nothing to explain,” she insisted, clutching a wad of satin in her fist. She held on to the soft fabric as if releasing it from her grasp would release the flood of tears that hovered just behind her eyes. She wasn’t going to cry over Travis Gage. She’d been here before, plenty of times. With her mother. Her sister. Paul. This time, she wouldn’t cry.
Her mother had cried enough for all of them. Day and night, the woman had wallowed in tears, never moving her life beyond the point of pain. Rachel had vowed long ago she wasn’t going to wallow in self-pity. She was stronger than her mother, and this situation with Travis would prove that.
“Rachel?” She heard the sharp click of the door and determined footsteps moving along her front office.
Well, that didn’t take long. She took a deep breath, gathered her composure, and stepped into the main room.