Detectives

61

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Her job saved her from dwelling on Liam, and fortunately at night, once she turned on her new laptop, she could still escape into her work, and the world swirling around her ceased to exist.

She was back to two agents driving her to and from work, but now she knew most of them and enjoyed their company. Her assignments had become intense, many involving missing funds, and she had to stay late nearly every night.

Jordan had seen the photo of Allison's crunched car-Noah got it from Alec, who had gotten it from Liam. She called to commiserate.

Allison's greeting wasn't the usual. "Men still suck."

"Uh-oh. Should I come over?"

"No. I was just making a statement of fact. What's going on?"

"Your car. Tell me what happened."

"You already know what happened. I told you about it."

"Yes, but I just now saw the photo. I can't believe you walked away from that crash. My God, you hit a tree stump and then flipped and flipped. . . ."

Allison laughed. "I know. I was there."

They spent a half hour discussing the horrible crash. Then Allison said, "I've got to get going. I'll talk to you soon."

"Wait. Did you want to embellish on your opening remark?" Jordan asked, trying to be diplomatic.

"No, not now."

Allison worked another hour and then went to bed. She was thankful Jordan hadn't asked any questions about Liam. Maybe she already knew that the nonrelationship was over. Regardless, Allison wasn't ready to talk about him. Her emotions were still too raw.

Just as she was drifting off to sleep, her phone rang. Her uncle Russell was on the line and was so drunk his words were slurred. He wanted her to know what an ungrateful bitch she was. All of his misery was her fault. She agreed just to get him to stop, but that didn't work. She could hear her aunt Jane screeching like a colony of bats in the background. The sound was ear-piercing. Allison ended the call in the middle of one of his colorful threats.

"Bitch" seemed to be the word of the day, for, not five minutes later, Brett Keaton called to scream that very word at her over and over again. He told her he knew she had taken his work and made it her own. Great, now he believed his own lies. "You should be afraid," he threatened. "Bad things can happen."

She sighed. She was so sick of it all. "Bring it on," she said, and then she ended the call.

All she needed now was for Brett's partner, Fred Stiles, to call and threaten her. Then she'd have the devil's trifecta.

Disheartened and feeling all alone, she muted her phone, turned the lights off, and crashed.

On Friday, Phillips called Allison into his office. She assumed he was going to give her another one of his enthusiastic pep talks as to why she should continue to work for him. She knew how much he enjoyed their talks, and for that reason she decided not to tell him she wanted to stay on at the FBI. In fact, she planned to wait until the last possible minute before giving him a reason to gloat.

Phillips was waiting for her in the doorway, and there, standing next to him, was Curtis Bale. Before she walked into the office, she braced herself for another yelling fit about how she'd ruined his life. Phillips pointed to her chair. She didn't want to sit, but she thought she probably should. Phillips was giving her the nod, whatever that was supposed to mean.