But I'd Have Had to Miss The Dance (Sylverasey Collection)

IVh ~ Our Roots Remain As One

I really should have learned my lesson by now: never promise the next chapter will be the last one when there's still so much meat on the bone to chew off. OK, maybe not the best analogy, but you get my point. 17.5K words, and none of it is the finale. Oh, well. More for you guys, right?

All hell breaks loose in Manhattan when a prosecuting attorney and a paramedic lieutenant are found stabbed and near death, and two cities come together to get justice for their own. It's a waiting game on two counts: to find the man responsible and for two vital members of their families to wake up.

***

Jalen sighed in annoyance and finally dropped his pen to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I didn't know words could blur so much."

"Yeah, I think we can call it a night," Frank agreed, snapping shut the folder he had been looking through and dropping it into one of his drawers. "We would be here until tomorrow morning if we went through all these reports."

"I'd be seeing triple if we did that," Jalen snorted as he shut his laptop. "You up for a drink before I head home?"

"Thanks for the offer, but I have plans," Frank shook his head as he checked his watch. "Lily is stealing Nolan for help on one of her essays. He's meeting me here."

Jalen raised a dubious eyebrow. "Oh, it's just your daughter who's stealing him?"

Frank gave him a dirty look. "Don't you dare start unless you want me to hit back."

Jalen snorted. "Man, after Sam and I had drinks the first night when I was suspended and she took me to her place so I didn't go home alone, I asked her out the next morning. We are both head over heels for our prosecutors, and there isn't a single person in this precinct who doesn't know it."

Frank sighed heavily and pulled on his overcoat. "Are we really that obvious?"

"You definitely are," Jalen nodded. "How did anyone in Chicago think it's Sylvie you're in love with?"

"Because they never saw me with Nolan," Frank deadpanned. "And we both have similar trains of thought at times. I'm more inclined towards the first idea, though."

Jalen snickered. "That'll do it."

"It is interesting to think about what might've happened if I somehow met Sylvie before Nolan, though," Frank grinned cheekily, laughing at the incredulous look Jalen gave him and answering his ringing phone. "He – "

A loud thud on the other end made Frank instinctively recoil, and Jalen frowned in concern at his partner's wince. "What is it?" he asked.

Frank, however, balked when he saw the Caller ID, and he hastily put his phone back to his ear. "Sylvie?" he asked, and Violet's head poked up over her monitors in concern. "Syl – "

A sound akin to electronics smashing made Frank yelp in surprise and yank his phone away again. "Frank?" Kate stepped out of her office, her brow furrowed. "Did you say Sylvie's name?"

Frank tapped the icon on his phone to put his phone on speaker, and the eerie tone that emitted made all four police members look at each other in horror. "Did you hear her at all?" Jalen asked.

Frank swallowed hard. "No."

Kate spun around. "Violet – "

"Checking where she called from," Violet cracked her knuckles and started typing on her keyboard.

Frank quickly hung up his phone as Jalen lunged to grab his service weapon. When he redialed, the dial tone rang out again, and Frank shook his head in worry. "Call or radio us and let us know!" he barked, grabbing his own service weapon and racing for the door.