I’m still sitting on the floor contemplating what a gigantic screwup I am when Cav returns.
I spin around to face him. “Did you find out anything?”
“Autopsy isn’t going to be done until tomorrow. Dom’s already back home. There’s nothing to pin on anyone until there’s a cause of death. Right now, the cops are getting overexcited.” He frowns down at me. “What are you doing on the floor?”
I glance down, taking in all the clothes from my bag in messy piles around me, and the case file in front of me. “I . . . um . . . forgot I had to work on this case.”
Part of me wants to spill the whole situation, that I screwed up, but another part of me doesn’t want Cav to know that I’m so irresponsible. This is one of those things I feel like he could live without knowing.
Cav crosses the room and offers his hand. “Must have been pretty important if you had to tear your bag apart to get at it.”
I shrug, crouching down to pick it up. “I forgot about the deadline.” There, that’s part of the truth.
I walk over to the counter and set the folder down before returning to clean up the rest of the clothes. They all need to go in the laundry anyway. When I make my way back to the kitchen, Cav has the case file open, and a muscle ticks in his jaw.
“This is the guy you went to see at Rikers?”
I’m shocked he remembers, but then again, Cav seems to store away almost every detail I tell him.
“Yeah.”
He slaps the file shut. “Why the hell are you still on this case if you quit your job? It makes no sense. Give it back to the firm and have them deal with it. This isn’t the kind of scum you need to be dealing with. You’re better than that.” He turns to face me, his jaw tense, anger emblazoned on every feature.
I’m not sure how to respond to him, but the one thing I’m definitely not going to tell him is about my upcoming trip to Rikers. So I give him the most truth I can.
“I won’t be working on it much longer. I’m turning it back over to the firm.”
“Good.” He scrubs his hand through his hair, the dark locks now deliciously messy. “I’m gonna take a shower, and then let’s get something to eat. Check with Holly about your brother and if she hasn’t heard from him, let’s take dinner over to her. Pregnant woman has to eat.”
I’m touched by his concern for Holly. Cav’s a good man. “Sounds perfect. I’ve got a couple more calls to make, but I’ll be done by the time you get out.”
Cav reaches out and pulls me into him for a hug and presses a kiss to my hair. “I love you, Greer.”
It’s still so new to be saying the words on a regular basis, but they come so easily. “I love you too.”
He releases me and heads for my bedroom. I kind of like how at home he feels in my space.
I wait until I hear the water come on in the bathroom before I call Rikers and put in a request to see my client. It’s right at the end of the shift, and whoever is on the other line clearly just wants to get home.
“That’s fine. I’m not checking with the prisoner today, though. Be here tomorrow by nine o’clock with the rest of the visitors, and if he refuses to see you, it’ll be a wasted trip. Up to you.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be there.”
Guilt for doing this behind Cav’s back gnaws at me, but this is my professional reputation I’m trying to salvage. And after tomorrow, it’ll all be over anyway, and we’ll go back to having no secrets between us.
Have you ever had a premonition? Or even just an uneasy feeling that something is going to go horribly wrong? I can’t shake the feeling on the cab ride out to Rikers.
Yes, cab ride. I could have called Ed, but then this trip would have been run through Creighton, and I definitely didn’t want my brother to know about it any more than I wanted Cav to be aware.
I can’t shake that feeling, though, like something terrible is going to happen. With my luck lately, there’ll be a prison riot with a full lockdown, and I’ll get stuck inside. Cav and Creighton will have to tear Rikers apart brick by brick to get me out. I can only imagine the lecture I’d get from Creighton then.
Maybe I should have brought Ed . . .
Last night after I called the prison, I called Holly to see if she wanted some dinner, company, or both. Creighton had just walked in the door with her favorite fried chicken in the city, and she was happily moaning about how amazing it was. Creighton liberated the phone from her.
“You’re home?”
“Yes, I came as soon as I heard. Is there anything I can do?”
Creighton sighed before replying, and once again I felt like the little sister who was a constant screwup. I’m not that girl anymore.
“Nothing you can do. We’re all just waiting on the autopsy results, and that’ll determine what’s next.”
“And Dom?” My question was quiet because I didn’t want Cav to overhear.
“He’s in charge of looking out for himself. He doesn’t need either of us worrying about him.”
That was probably the truth.