Reaching for my purse, I stood. “I know it’s frustrating, and if I thought it could wait until next week I wouldn’t be bothering you. But this is rather important.”
“Okay, well, I’ll need to cancel lunch with my fiancée.”
“There’s no need to do that. Tell me where you guys are meeting and I’ll meet you there, as long as you’re comfortable talking in front of her.”
“Yes, totally.”
Robert gave me the address. They were meeting in less than thirty minutes, which meant I needed to hustle. As I made my way out of the building, I couldn’t help but notice Russell standing at the security desk flirting with one of the interns. I rolled my eyes and kept walking.
Hailing a cab, I ducked inside and said, “Dillon’s restaurant, please.”
It wouldn’t dawn on me until the taxi driver pulled up that I was next to Engine 33. My father’s…and Finn’s station.
When I stepped out of the taxi, I glanced down to the firehouse and took in a deep breath. What I wouldn’t do to be able to just walk in and see him. Tell him how sorry I was for leaving like I did.
Pulling my phone out of my purse, I pulled up Finn’s name while walking toward the restaurant.
Me: Hey. I’m really sorry for taking off like I did. I kind of got a bit freaked out.
I held my breath as I waited for his response. When nothing came after two minutes, I walked into Dillon’s and looked for Robert and his fiancée.
“Excuse me, are you Rory Adams?”
I turned to see a young blonde grinning at me. “I am, yes.”
“Your party is up on the patio. Please follow me.”
Taking one more look at my phone, I sighed when I didn’t see a response from Finn. My heart hurt just a little as I followed her up the stairs, and each step felt a bit heavier.
When we got to the top of the stairs, I heard a familiar voice.
My eyes widened when I saw my father sitting at Robert’s table.
“I see them, thank you,” I said to the hostess as she nodded her head and headed back down the stairs.
Lifting his head, my father brightened when he saw me. “Rory, sweetheart.”
He stood, as did Robert. “Hey, Dad. What are you doing here?”
“Came in to grab a quick lunch and saw Robert and his beautiful girl, Rochelle, waiting on a table. He told me he was meeting you, and I thought I would hang out for a bit to say hi and to catch up with Long here.”
I knew my smile was forced. I wanted to get this lunch over with and get away from the station. The risk of running into Finn was growing by the minute.
“It’s great seeing you, Dad.” Turning to Robert, I reached for his hand. “Mr. Long, it’s a pleasure seeing you again.”
“Please, call me Robert.” His face lit up as he pointed to his fiancée. “This is Rochelle.”
Reaching for her hand, I gave her a warm smile. “It’s a pleasure.”
“Same here. Thank you so much for helping to clear Robert’s name.”
A sinking feeling hit me in the chest. This girl was counting on us to keep her future husband from going to jail.
My father pulled out a chair for me. “Here you go, sweetheart.”
I thanked him and took a seat. “Dad? Are you staying here during lunch?”
“I invited him, if that’s all right? Captain Adams was one of the first captains I worked under.”
I shrugged. “If you don’t mind him being here while I ask questions, then neither do I.”
Pulling out my notebook and the few files I had, I’d just started to talk when the waitress showed up. “Hey, Captain Adams! How’s it going down at the station? Haven’t seen you guys in here in a while.”
With a huge grin, he replied, “It’s going good. Yeah, the boys have been keeping busy.”
She chuckled. “Well, tell Colton and Finn that Kate said hi.”
Instantly I froze.
“Colton and Finn, huh?” my father stated. “Them boys hang out here a lot?”
The waitress shrugged. “They’ll usually come in when their shift is over, either to grab a drink or some food. They haven’t been in here in a few weeks, though.”
Swallowing hard, I cleared my throat, getting her attention. “May I please have a Diet Coke?”
“Sure. Are you going to eat?”
I knew with my father sitting here I had no choice but to eat. So much for a getting in and out.
“Sure. I’ll take a bowl of clam chowder, please.”
Her eyebrows wiggled. “Great choice. Captain Adams?”
“I’ll have the chowder and the lobster roll.”
Robert and Rochelle each ordered a bowl of chowder and a salad.
After writing our order down, the waitress glanced around the table. “I’ll get this put in with the other order.”
Once she walked off, I got back to where I left off.
“Robert, I understand you volunteered at the Boston Public Library during reading time.”
He nodded. “Yeah. How did you know?”
“The children’s librarian told me.”
“Do you volunteer there too?”
Oh shit. Here we go again.
Chapter 21
Rory
One crazy lady and one suspicious father
All eyes were on me, waiting for me to answer how I knew about Robert volunteering at the library. Why, oh why, did my father have to show up?
Before I blurted it out like I had earlier, I stopped and took in a deep breath. “No. A friend of mine does, and I noticed another firefighter volunteering. I asked the librarian on a hunch if you volunteered there as well.”
Robert’s expression softened as he spoke. “Yeah, it’s kind of a tradition for us to go and spend some time with the kids. I really enjoyed it.”
“She said you had somewhat of a stalker there and that you had to leave the main branch and transfer.”
Rochelle grunted. “That woman was insane.”
I asked Rochelle, “Did you meet her?”
She shook her head. “No. I never met her, but Robert told me about how she started asking him to do all this stuff for her. Then she was following him to his car, and found out what station he worked out of and called up there a few times. I thought he should call the police about her.”
With my eyes back on Robert, I asked, “Did you ever call the police on her? Why didn’t you mention her to Russell or me?”
“No, I never called the police, and to be honest I didn’t think she was relevant.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “I think she made Rochelle more uncomfortable than she did me. She had a crush on me, that was obvious. I made it clear to her I wasn’t available and asked her to not call me when I was at the station. She did what I asked.”
“So you never heard from her after that?”
Robert moved about uneasily in his seat.
“Oh. My. God. You did, didn’t you?” Rochelle asked.
Robert’s hand went through his hair as my father leaned over to me and said, “I think you just made a bad situation even worse.”
Glaring at him, I replied, “Dad. Please be quiet.”
He lifted his hands in surrender.
“Um, Rochelle, I don’t mean to be rude, but if I could ask Robert the questions and have him answer them without interruption, that would make this a lot easier and faster. That or we can plan to do this in the office, in private.”
Rochelle shot me a dirty look. “Fine. Ask away.”
“There’s no need to be rude to my lawyer, Rochelle.”
She turned away and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Robert, did she contact you again?”
“Not really. Every now and then I would see her and her son walking by the station. Or they would be in the same store as me. Little encounters every now and then. She lived close to the station, she said, so I wasn’t surprised when I would see her at the grocery store, ya know. Half the time she wouldn’t see me, so I didn’t even think anything of it…
until the night at the club.”
Rochelle looked back at him with a shocked expression. “What night at the club?” I asked.
“Me and a few other firefighters went out to celebrate one of the guys getting married. I saw her at the bar and at first, didn’t think anything about it. Then she came up to me. Started asking me to dance, telling me how much she liked me and her kid liked me. She said she wanted to marry a firefighter. I laughed it off at first and told her I was there with the guys and that my fiancée would be joining me soon.”
I looked at Rochelle. “Did you join him?”
She nodded, and said, “After I got there, she started hanging on a few other firefighters. Flirting big-time with them. Even tried to get one of them to…you know…take her home.”
“Do you remember who the firefighter was? Did he take her home?” Why did I ask that? A part of me feared it was Finn.
Robert laughed. “Hell no. As much as people think we’re out for one thing, that ain’t the truth. Some of the guys like to have fun, but they’re not stupid. Colton told her she needed to take a cab home.”
“Colton Harris?” my father asked.
Robert nodded. “Yeah. She was pretty much trying to get Colton and Finn Ward’s attention.”
“Finn Ward’s?” I asked before I was able to stop myself.
“Yeah. You know him?”
I could feel the heat from my father’s stare. “Um, yes, I’ve met him. So none of the guys left with her. Do you know who she left with?”
“No one. She got pretty wasted. I had the bartender call her a taxi, and I walked her out to it, made sure she got in, and that was the last time I saw her.”
I quickly jotted down a few notes before looking up at Robert. “Did anything happen before she got in the cab?”
He looked down and tapped nervously on the table. Rochelle was staring at him, and I could tell she was about to unleash on him. Clearly, something happened he didn’t tell his fiancée about.
Leaning in, I took Robert’s hand in mine. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me everything.”
He glanced up and looked directly into my eyes. “What does this have to do with Casey Stevens accusing me of assaulting her?”
“It depends on if my hunch is right, and the only way I’ll know is if you tell me what happened between you and…what is her name?”
“Bryn Derks. Her name is Bryn Derks.”
I wrote down the name before piercing his eyes with mine again.
“Before she got into the cab, she begged me to kiss her. I told her no, that I was very happily in love with Rochelle. She got pissed off. I mean really pissed off. Started going on and on about how all men where the same. Then she just started crying. I couldn’t figure out what in the hell was going on. She finally told me her husband was a firefighter and that he had died in a car accident a few months before she started bringing her son to the library. When Mark—that’s her son’s name—started showing an interest in me, she thought it was a sign. I gave her a hug. I was only trying to be kind to her. When I went to pull away, she kissed me. I broke off the kiss immediately. Opened the cab door, told the driver to make sure she got home, and then started to walk off.”
“She kissed you! You didn’t tell me that,” Rochelle said.
“I didn’t want to upset you over something that didn’t seem to matter.”
I cleared my throat, getting Robert’s attention again and giving Rochelle a cool-it look. “Did she say anything to you?”
He shook his head. “No. Well, wait. She did.”
My father and I both leaned forward. “What did she say?” my father asked.
I glanced over to him, my mouth ajar. “Dad! I’m the one asking the questions!”
He blushed. “Sorry, sweetheart.”
Focusing back on Robert, I asked, “What did she say?”
He narrowed his eyes as he brought the memory back up. “She said something about how I’d regret walking away and…um…something about getting what was due to me.”
I sighed in frustration. “Robert, how could you not think something like that was important to tell the police or us?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I figured at the time that she was just pissed. I didn’t think anything of it after that.”
Rochelle gasped and asked me, “You think she has something to do with this, don’t you?”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure, but I am going to see if there is some sort of connection.”
Slowly shaking her head, Rochelle turned to Robert. “I knew she was crazy. I told you she was crazy!”
Robert looked back at me. “How in the hell did you piece that together?”
With a slow smile, I shrugged. “Just doing my job.”
—
After finishing lunch, we all walked out together. Rochelle had quickly forgiven Robert for not telling her everything about Bryn.
“Don’t worry about anything, Robert. We’re going to do our best to prove you didn’t do this.”
His face was covered in worry. “I hope so, Ms. Adams. I really hope so.”
The cab door shut, and I watched as it drove off.
“Why don’t you come on down to the station for a few minutes,” my father said.
My eyes widened in surprise. “What?”
He motioned with his thumb toward the station. “The station. You know, come see my office, meet some of my men. They’re a great group of guys.”
“Well, I um, should probably, you know. Head on back. I’ve got to let Russell know what I found out. So…yeah.”
He lifted a brow. “You don’t have ten extra minutes? Is there something wrong, Rory? You seem like you’re hiding something.”
Oh God.
“Me? Oh gosh no. If it means that much to you, sure I’ll come down.”
He grinned. “That’s my girl. You used to love coming to see me at the station.”
When he took my arm and started walking, I silently said a prayer. I’d checked my phone twice during lunch and had yet to hear from Finn.
“Well, it’s more fun when you’re ten, Dad.”
He laughed as we rounded the corner. The second Flash saw me, he started barking and ran right to me. “Hey there, Flash,” I said as I tried to keep him from knocking me over.
Grabbing his leash, my father told Flash to sit. “Finn isn’t doing such a good job training this dog.”
My heart rate tripled as I quickly glanced around. “Oh, Finn’s training him?”
“Yes. And speaking of. How do you know him?”
“Know him?”
If there was one thing my father knew about me, it was how bad of a liar I was. “Finn. How do you know Ward?”
“Oh, I met him at the union meeting and then Russell and I ran into him at a pizza place once. I remembered him from the meeting.”
Staring into my eyes like they were some kind of lie detector, my father slowly nodded. “Union meeting, huh?”
I tried to brush it off as nothing. “Yep.”
“So where is your office, Dad? I’m dying to see it.”
Another firefighter walked up and took Flash. He smiled at me, and my father grunted and the guy backed off fast. “Upstairs, down the hall to the left.”
I quickly started up the steps. My eyes darted around quickly as I tried like hell not to look like I was searching for someone. Then I heard his laugh, and I stopped.
“What’s wrong?” my father asked.
“Nothing. I thought you were farther behind me, but you’re not! Hah!”
He jerked his head with a motion for me to keep moving. My body started to tingle more with each step I took.
He was close by. I could feel it in the air.
I turned to go down the hall, holding my breath. Glancing to my left as I walked, I saw four guys standing around a pool table laughing. Finn’s eyes instantly caught mine, and his smile grew bigger when he saw it was me. I tried to look away, but couldn’t. Then he saw my father, and h
is expression dropped. I instantly missed those beautiful emerald eyes of his when he returned his attention to the guys.
We were trying to act like normal when we both knew damn well nothing about this was normal. The way he looked at me with that smile made my knees weak and my stomach flutter.
I continued to walk toward the door marked with my father’s name. Once inside, I let out the breath I had been holding.
“Take a seat, sweetheart.”
I sat, glanced around his office, and smiled. “It’s like I’m sitting in your other office. It looks the same, Dad.”
He chuckled and leaned against the windowsill. “I like consistency; you should know that by now.”
With a grin, I nodded. “You happy here, Dad?”
“I am. What about you? You happy with what you’re doing?”
Shrugging, I replied, “I think so.”
His brows lifted. “You think so?”
My stomach twisted in knots.
“I am…happy. I enjoy my job and what I do. It’s just—” Glancing down at the hands folded in my lap, I let out a gruff laugh. How could I tell me father I was tired of being a slave to my job—tired of fighting to find my place in a world I really never wanted to be a part of? “It’s nothing. Everything is great with me.”
He moved to the chair next to me and took my hand in his. “Rory, you’re saying one thing, but your eyes are speaking a different truth.”
Lifting my gaze to meet his, I forced a weak grin. “Sometimes I feel like I have to work a little bit more than other people to prove I deserve my job.”
“Because of your mother?”
“Yes. Everyone thinks I have it easy, even though I’ve taken on more cases since I started there than probably anyone else. Then you have Russell. The lead counsel on Robert’s case. He thinks I don’t know what I’m doing. It drives me insane.”
“I know it’s frustrating, honey. I’ve seen your mother go through the same thing. Hang in there—it gets better. You were born to be a lawyer.”
There was a brief moment when I wanted to tell him all the things I had heard people say about me, but I dropped it. I wanted to tell him I wasn’t so sure I was born to be a lawyer…that it was more like my parents had guided me there. “When you and Mom decided to start a family, how did Mom do it with the hours she works?”