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I watched as Raegan slowly sat down at the table and then rubbed her hand over the bandage above her eye I was pretty sure I spotted her pressing down roughly and when she winced, she took a fewon and whether or not I should be bracingyou’re placing some kind of blame on me?" she asked

"Well, you were hired to take care ofher again Take care not take There’s a difference"

"Lane! Cut that shit out," Charlie scolded

She physically recoiled fro that to anyone, I just couldn’t help it This wasabout and I’d missed years of her life, thanks in part to the woman seated in front of me

"Mr Parker, you think" She paused and popped her knuckles fretfully "You’re telling me that you never stopped for one moment to think that maybe, just ht I had so to do with this" She waved her hands erratically, indicating the kids, the police station the entire situation "Are you out of your mind!?"

"I didn’t think you were involved at first And I never would have accused you until I found video footage of you talking to Mrs Ca to her on a park bench the day before the kidnapping," I ground out

She visibly flinched when I said Mrs Flores’ naht herself and said, "Mr Parker, where is Ash? She’s much easier to talk to Why isn’t she here?" She looked at Kate in my arms when she spoke of her mother

Charlie shifted nervously on his feet and turned his back toward us to "read" paperwork Coward I would have loved to avoid this awful conversation at all costs, but I had to tell her at some point

"Ash passed away last year"

Shelike that She had to have That was the only way I could explain the alh her chest Her htme doith her, but I quickly locked down my defenses and kept the emotions at bay

"How?" she squeaked

"Car accident She and her boyfriend were intoxicated They were both ejected fro the police report For a ain

Her eyes cleared for an instant and she glared at me, probably because of ot divorced, Raegan We could barely look at one another after" I glanced down at the beauty insadness that Ash couldn’t see her right now She would have groaned about Kate getting her nose, but I had always thought her nose was adorable She would have loved that Kate still hadKate e’d alondered what her personality would be like

"So, no, Ash won’t be joining us It’s just Kate and me now I’m not a cop anymore either, so I think my new job will allowand I quickly zipped ht hter’s face, but my shoulder pulled painfully For the first time since Kate had kissed it, I remembered the wound The pain had been nonexistent, or more likely I had been too wrapped up in her to notice

Speaking of pain, I wanted to get back to what caused all of this in the first place, but based on Raegan’s reaction, my theory now seemed less and less solid There was only one way to find out "Were you and Mrs Flores friends? Did you have this planned out for awhile?"

"You knohat, Mr Parker? I’lad you’re not a cop anymore because you sure as hell are a terrible one!" she seethed back

"Terrible? I’e! We would have never knohere to even begin searching for you guys I think that’s the sign of a pretty dais not! I’ll bet that footage didn’t even have sound!" When my eyes shifted away froht, aren’t I?"

"There wasn’t any audio, but I knohat I saw"

"You saw NOTHING!" she yelled

"I saw enough to lead me to Flores"

"Lead you to hi level, and I was impressed that both kids were still sound asleep "If you knehere he here the hell were you? WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU? Where were you when I had to beg for Kate’s life because they wanted to toss her?" I flinched at her words "Yeah, toss her like she was trash, because they didn’t want a girl Where were you when I had to rock two crying babies all by et slashes because I wouldn’t let the men take Kate wherever the hell they wanted to take her?"

"Stop!" I shouted and then sank back, beratingmy voice, especially with Kate in ht now," I said, forcing a calm I didn’t feel into my voice

"I wasn’t ready to live it either," responded quietly "You," she pointed at me, then over to Charlie and out the door, presumably at the other officers She rose out of her chair and continued, "Did nothing I took care of theot us out of there Don’t talk tomy fault"

Charlie and I stared open-mouthed at the five-foot-five, painfully beautiful woman who stood across the table fro Charlie was just as du to fly out of that saucy little o to that hotel now, Officer Charlie," she stated while slowly sitting back down again with her hands splayed across the wood table

Charlie looked at her, but he couldn’t quite seem to snap out of his stupor Finally, he cleared his throat and tried to reseet here first"

"NO," she began just as Chiefas if he’d been woken frolad you could make it," Charlie stated professionally