Love in the Shadows

Chapter Twenty-One

(Lucy's POV)

"Shit. Fuck." Sam gave me an amused side eye as he turned on his truck.

We both stayed silent until the doors were both closed.

I can't believe I just went head to head with his father.

"Can you actually take over this investigation?" I gave an embarrassed chuckle at his question.

"It's not unheard of and it has happened before, but at this moment... no."

Fuck. I need to call Serena A.S.A.P.

"I've been cleared by Internal Affairs but I still need to be cleared by psych." The nice thing was that with him being a cop, he immediately understood what I was saying.

I ran a hand through my hair, which immediately got caught in my curls and added to my agitation. Serena was going to be pissed when I told her that I'd aggressively inserted myself into this investigation without her go ahead.

I'm not even fully authorised to be back in the field yet.

"Your dad got to me and I might have embellished our involvement at this point a tad. Now I just need to make sure that if I actually have to take over, I have the power to do that." I wasn't normally so reckless but Chief Taylor's bluster had pulverised my self control.

It was as if Sam could read my mind. "How I dealt with a lifetime of his idiocy is beyond me. How can I help out right now?"

I realised we were stopped and his body was fully turned towards me.

Holy shit when had we gotten back to his mom's place?

Both his mom and aunt appeared to be gone, with the driveway empty of both cars. I breathed a sigh of relief, it gave us space to work.

"I'm gonna call Serena, would you get in touch with Lee and communicate Allie's observations about Travis and Tanya's relationship?" He pulled out a little pad of paper and I could see him making a little list, with bullet points.

Why so sexy, Sam? Also... when did organisation become a turn on?

He picked up what I was throwing down immediately. "You got abusive vibes?"

I shrugged and thought about how to explain myself. "My instincts refuse to ignore the fact that it sounds like he wasn't the best boyfriend... even before they broke up and usually the primary police focus would be on him."

Sam nodded. "That's how I saw it too. If he wasn't, he was heading that way."

"Explain the conversation that we had with Allie. Lee will be able to put it together. But, if Travis is as much of an asshole as it seems, he was never going to be satisfied with just the porn-ie revenge."

I ran my palm over my face. I hated that the ex-boyfriend was just getting a good look now. This should have been done immediately and every single minute wasted meant there was less of a chance that we were going to find her alive.

"Serena's going to want a face to face chat, so I might be in a session for a while. If you finish organising Lee and Travis, do you want to call Steven's Brie? See if you can set up a meeting with her?"

Sam rubbed at the back of his neck. "What if I get her address and we surprise her. Seems to me if there's anything going on, it would help get a more honest reaction."

We had made our way up to the porch and I paused at the top for a second. The fact that he had thought of that, and I hadn't was another sign of how rattled I was, "Yes." That's better!" We stood there for a moment, my eyes ensnared by the deep green of his.

We make a really good team.

As if he could read my thoughts, he put an arm around my shoulder and squeezed. "You go get the approval you need to be a ball buster tomorrow and I'll get things in motion for today."

I snorted and tore my gaze away as he grinned. He didn't seem the least bit bothered by the fact that I could be a ball buster and gave me one more squeeze. "I'll make sure Lee knows that Travis needs priority and see how soon he can get to him."

His voice got thick with emotion. "Lucy, thank you. I don't know what I would be doing if I was here without your support."

I gave him a little smile and then on impulse, went on my tip toes and kissed his cheek. "I wouldn't ever want you to do this alone Sam."

Then with my cheeks on fire, I made a dash to his bedroom... our bedroom.

This morning Serena's office had informed me that she was free after lunch. Good news was she was gonna be available. Bad news was that I knew my recklessness was going to count against me because my reaction to the Chief showed I was not at my best.

Placating dumbasses was one of my strengths and the fact that I had sprayed gasoline all over Sam's dick weed of a father showed that I wasn't quite myself.

I just had to hope that she would give me a chance to be here.

I was about to close the door when Sam called out, "If I make coffee will you have some?"

I ignored the pitter patter of my heart at the domesticity of it all and yelled out, "Yes please!"

The door closed and I rested my full weight against it, taking a deep breath. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was bothering me here. That was the funny thing about gut feelings, you never knew where they were coming from but I did know there was something going on in this town. I knew that I was needed here.

I walked across the room, sitting on the bed, opening up my computer and hitting the button to talk to the only person who was going to be able to keep me here.

I took another look at the closed door. Relieved to have some distance for this conversation with Serena. I wasn't ready for Sam to get an earful of all my dirty laundry.

Had he said he liked me? Yes. But, it seemed relatively early for him to realise that I had a wide range of emotional minefields that needed to be navigated on the regular.

I listened to the familiar connecting sound as I waited for her to answer. After meeting Sam's father, I considered the possibility that he had his own childhood trauma.

How had the kind, caring, wonderful man that I knew come from that?

It made me admire him all the more. Then Serena's beautiful face popped up on my screen and I forced myself to stop all romanticising and get to work.