Sworn to Be His(The Archer Family Book 3)(3)

"Good as that sounds, I'll have to pass." He crossed the room quickly  and grabbed his lunch out of the fridge before settling at one of the  round wooden tables in front of the half-stocked vending machines.

Jade was slower, carefully reading the instructions on the back of the  box and following them to the letter despite the fact that she brought  nearly the same thing every day.

"So, how did your interview go?" He asked between bites, and when she  clicked the microwave door shut, she shot him a skeptical glance.

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Beat you to it." He swigged his iced tea and Jade leaned back against  the soda machine. "I got a young woman. She was...less than helpful."

"Not so unusual."

"No, but once people feel like they're safe and can help, they tend to, you know, help."

"So what was it? Bad information?" He furrowed his brow, willing her not to answer with what he already knew she'd say.

"She was tight lipped, but she seemed like she actually did want to  help. It was almost like..." Jade glanced at the microwave, then tapped  her fingers against the ugly green countertop. "It was like someone  threatened her."         

     



 

And there it was. His own suspicions put on the table in front of him.

"Mine too." He rubbed his chin then said, "So, we've got a couple  options. Maybe these ladies coincidentally acted odd on the same day in  regard to the same crime."

"Which is about as likely as you getting and keeping a girlfriend." Jade cocked an eyebrow.

"What would I need a girlfriend for?" he shot back, then shook his head.  "Beside the point. Anyway, so either they were living in bizarro world  today or Scaglietti's guys tracked them down and told them not to talk."

"So what do we do? We can't risk their lives."

"No, we can't." Derrick took another bite of his sandwich and willed his  mind to work harder. "If they knew these two were coming in, it's  likely that they got everyone who witnessed it."

"How is that even possible? They'd have to have access to the security cameras and some serious face recognition software."

"Which they don't have because they short circuited the electric,  including the security cameras before they set foot in the restaurant  itself." Derrick sighed.

The microwave beeped and Jade slid into the seat opposite him. "It doesn't make sense."

"No. It doesn't. But if we think about this, we can probably figure it  out. Okay, how else would they know who all the witnesses were."

"They could have threatened them at the time of the crime."

"The average person would know they couldn't keep their word like that.  No, these ladies seemed like there was a very serious threat of follow  through." Derrick sipped his iced tea again, but when he looked at Jade  he found that her blue eyes had glassed over, her jaw slack.

He followed her gaze to find Zac Flynn entering the room.

"Hey guys." He smiled. "Hell of a case you've got going for this  Scaglietti guy. They weren't kidding when they said it would take me all  week. How long you been working on it?"

"Better part of two years," Derrick answered since Jade seemed so clearly incapable of doing so.

"Damn, that's a lot of work." Flynn shook his head, then crossed the room, opened the fridge, and grabbed a yogurt.

Strawberry.

It would be strawberry.

"Word around the unit is that you were some big shot in the Army," Flynn said.

"I did my part," Derrick said. "You Navy?"

Flynn nodded.

Called it.

"I hope we can try to work past our differences," Flynn offered a  friendly smile and Derrick answered in kind, though the effort hurt his  muscles.

Jade, meanwhile, seemed unable to determine whether she should stare  down at her meal or follow along with the conversation-a condition only  made evident by the way her gaze darted back and forth like she was  watching a particularly sporting tennis match.

Flynn apparently didn't notice this, and asked her, "You guys get anything good from your witnesses?"

"Nah. Not yet. We might, though. With, you know, time. Effort." She  stabbed her piece of sesame chicken and bit her bottom lip. Derrick's  stomach twisted just watching her.

"She's being modest," he stepped in. "We haven't gotten to go over everything just yet."

"I'm sure," Flynn offered another of those too-casual smiles and nodded. "Well, I'll leave you guys to it."

Derrick nodded and then the other man turned on his heel and headed for  the door. With every passing step, he watched as Jade's face turned from  green to grey and finally to a deep, glowing red.

When the door had closed at last, she buried her face in her hands and Derrick asked, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I...Look, it's better if we don't talk about it."

Derrick wasn't about to let her off the hook so easy though. "You're a 28-year-old woman. You don't know how to talk to men?"

"I know how to talk to men. You've seen me talk to men."

"I thought I had, but I don't know what the hell that sorry display was."

"Me neither." She groaned. "Can't we just talk about the case?"

"I would, but this feels like that's suddenly way less interesting than  it used to be." He grinned, though a part of him wasn't sure if he  wanted to know what was going on or if he was just doing his best to  ignore the growing ache in his stomach.

"Oh shut up." She curled her lip.

"Jade and Za-ac sitting in a tree-"

She tried to hush him and threw a napkin in his face, but he caught it before it hit him.

"K-i-s-s-i-n-g," He singsonged.

She rolled her eyes. "What's it going to take to get you to shut up about this?"

"Details." He spread his hands out in front of him. "Pretty simple. What  makes the ball-busting detective I know and tolerate turn into a  stumbling, fumbling-no offense-but total buffoon?"         

     



 

"Little harsh." She glared.

He shrugged. "You gonna tell me or not?"







Jade wanted to dig herself a hole right there in the middle of the break  room and bury herself in it. At least there she'd be free of this  feeling like everyone could see her heart pounding out of her chest, her  thoughts written out on her forehead.

"So, I know him. Sort of."

"I gathered as much." He nodded.

"We went to high school together."

"Did he get in your pants?" Derrick asked.

Heat rushed to her cheeks. "What? No. I wish."

"Ew." He grimaced.

"You're the one who asked. No, he was never with me. I barely ever got up the guts to talk to him."

"That is clear to all of us."

Jade frowned. "Do you want to hear this or not?"

"Fine, fine. You're right. Continue."

"The only time I got to talk to him was in debate club. He used to be  able to argue like nobody you've ever seen. I'm telling you." She sighed  and when Derrick raised his eyebrows, she tried to pull herself  together again.

"Anyway," she went on, "everyone wanted to date him. He was sort of a big deal, but he had this...reputation."

"You like bad boys? Is that why you're a cop? Do you have some fantasy of pulling someone over and-"

"No, nothing like that. Now interrupt me again and I'll punish you."

Derrick closed his mouth and folded his hands on the table in front of him.

"He had a reputation for only dating girls he couldn't have. He had,  like, this thing about him. I think he liked the pressure of it, dating  other guys' girls. Anyway, I think that's why half the girls in the  school wanted to date him. For the suspense of it."

"He only dated other men's women? Isn't that sort of...what a scumbag does?"

Jade shook her head. "It wasn't like that. You know how high school is. Besides, I'm sure he doesn't do that anymore."

"Okay, so if you're interested in this guy, why don't you just ask him out?" Derrick asked.

She paused. There was no easy way to explain it without sounding like an  idiot or worse, a pathetic idiot. But then, this was Derrick and if  anybody was going to understand, he would.

"Have you ever been around someone in your life where you just know they don't really see you that way?" She asked.

He considered her for a minute, then said, "I'm trying to be supportive, but to be honest I have to say no."

She shook her head. Not that she was surprised. She's seen the way women  looked at Derrick-no, not looked. Ogled. Like he was a juicy, rippled  piece of meat and they hadn't eaten in months. Of course, the women he  tended to date also looked like they were used to not eating.

"Well, when you look like a normal person with more than 3 percent body  fat, sometimes people put you in what's called the 'friend zone.'"

"No such thing as the friend zone. It's in your head." He tapped his  temple with one finger, knowingly. Like he was some kind of Jedi master  of hooking up. Which, thinking again of the line of girls she'd seen him  with, might also have been the case.