Tara Sivec: Shame on Him

Just then, Snowball races into the room and right up to Dallas. I cringe, waiting for her to bare her teeth and hiss at him, but she just sniffs his jeans and then sits back on her hind legs.

He reaches down and scratches her behind her ears. She purrs and rubs her face against his hand.

“Are you kidding me? I rescued you from a life of loneliness and all you’ve done is hiss at me since I brought you home. You are such a hussy,” I tell her in annoyance. Of course she turns and hisses at me before going right back and rubbing herself all over Dallas.

I kind of don’t blame her. If I weren’t in so much pain right now, I’d be doing the same thing.

Dallas laughs and reaches down, scooping her up into his arms and holding her at arm’s length in front of him.

“Why does this cat look familiar?” he asks.

I wipe the irritated look off of my face and stare down at the towel in my lap, pretending I’m fascinated with the flower design.

“Oh, my God. Did you take this cat from Covington’s house? Oh Jesus, that’s where you guys got the e-mails too, isn’t it?” he asks.

“Hey, you were being a total jerk at the time. I had to do something to get the upper hand. And besides, it was Kennedy’s idea,” I tell him lamely.

He shakes his head with a hint of a smile. “It’s good to know I was completely wrong about you at first. You do have balls. And by the way, so does your cat.”

He turns Snowball around and she hisses at me. I mean, he hisses at me.

“That could be why he hates you. You’ve been calling ‘him’ a ‘her.’ I’d be pissed at that too,” he says with a laugh.

He sets Snowball down and we watch as he runs off to another room.

“So, let me guess? Stephanie or Miles?” he asks, running his fingers gently over the bruise on my cheek.

I sigh. “Even though they’re both suspect at this point because I called around about each of them today, it had to be Miles. He was wearing a mask, but there’s no way that was Stephanie. She doesn’t strike me as the type of person who would—or even could—attack someone. Plus, I didn’t feel her huge boobs against me when I was pinned to the ground.”

Dallas chuckles. “Stephanie has huge boobs?”

I scoff and smack him in the arm. “Oh, please, like you didn’t notice.”

He pushes himself up off the ground and grabs my hands, pulling me up from the couch and into his arms. “Baby, I haven’t looked at anyone’s boobs since the first time you insulted me.”

After what he just said to me a little bit ago, I actually believe him. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I press the unbruised side of my face against his chest.

“Come on, let’s get you to bed. We’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

As he leads me down the hall to my room, it hits me that I might just be falling in love with Dallas Osborne.

Dallas didn’t want to leave me alone this morning, but he said he had a meeting about another case he had to handle quickly and I promised him that I would call him immediately if I saw anyone suspicious.

I know he trusts that I can take care of myself, but it’s kind of nice to have someone worry about me. After a quick phone call to my mom, I find out she didn’t go through with the tattoo. At least that’s something I don’t have to worry about right now.

I didn’t want to bother Kennedy with what happened because I knew she was away with Griffin and quite possibly getting proposed to. As I get in my car to head to the police station to finish the report, I check the clock and figure she’s probably home by now.

“Why the hell didn’t you call me last night?” she answers.

“Well, hello to you too,” I reply with a laugh.

“This is serious, Lorelei. Someone came into your home. Whose ass do I need to kick?” she asks.

“You’ll be happy to know that I did just fine kicking some ass on my own,” I tell her.

“Did you use the eye gouge and the head butt?” she asks excitedly.

I laugh at her exuberance. “No. I used my elbow to his eye and my foot to his face.”

Kennedy sighs. “I think I’m going to cry.”

“Enough about me; how did it go with Griffin? Did he pop the question?” I ask.

All joking aside, when she speaks next, I really do think I hear tears in her voice. “He did. It was so romantic. It was first and ten and Notre Dame had the ball. He passed me a can of cheddar cheese Pringles and the ring was at the bottom.”

Only Kennedy would think that was romantic.

I congratulate her and tell her to make up a story that includes flowers and a string quartet to tell Paige, otherwise she’ll be the one crying.

Pulling into the police station, I can’t keep the smile off of my face as I make my way through the doors. Regardless of how the evening started off last night, it ended pretty well. We’re getting close to finishing this investigation.

I wave to a few of the officers as I make my way to the front desk to ask for Ted. I have to come in here a lot to file reports for Fool Me Once and also to speak to officers for my court cases, so I know pretty much everyone in here by now.

“Hey, Lorelei. Ted said you’d be stopping by to finish that report.”

I smile at one of the younger officers as I step up to the front desk. “Is he here?”

He nods and points down the hall behind him. “Yep, he’s in his office. You can go on in.”

I tell him thanks and head off down the hall. As I get closer, I can hear Ted’s voice talking to someone. I slow down and listen for a second. If he’s in with someone else, I’ll just go back out to the lobby and wait until he’s finished. I start to turn around and head back down the hall when another voice makes me pause.

“I swear—I’m making sure nothing gets screwed up,” Dallas says.

My heartbeat speeds up. I know I should just continue back to the lobby, but something keeps me rooted in place.

“I don’t like this at all, Dallas. I’ve got people up my ass wanting this case solved,” Ted replies.

“Believe me, I don’t like it any more than you do. Obviously she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. Look what happened last night,” Dallas tells him.

What’s that supposed to mean? Someone attacked me and I fought back.

“She wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near this case,” Ted complains.

“I know, and she’s not. Not really. I just let her believe that. Why do you think I’ve been spending so much time with her? I don’t want this screwed up any more than you do,” Dallas answers.

I gasp and my hand flies up to cover my mouth.

“I trust that you know what you’re doing and that you’ll solve this case. Just get it done. The faster you find out who killed Richard Covington, the sooner you’ll be able to stop babysitting my sister’s friend.”

Both men laugh and I squeeze my eyes closed to keep the tears at bay. They move on to other topics like sports and the weather. I turn and run back the way I came.

The officer at the front desk calls to me as I race past. Swiping angrily at the tears, I compose myself before I turn to face him.

“Hey, we just got a report in from the ME’s office on the Covington investigation. I know I’m not supposed to show this to civilians, but I heard you were working with Osborne on this thing. You want to look at it before I hand it over to him?” he asks.

Sucking up my wounded pride, I walk back to the desk and grab the report from his hand. Scanning through the pages, my eyes zero in on the section showing the traces of particulates that were found on Richard’s clothes. My jaw drops when I see one unusual item in particular. I thank the officer and quickly hand the file back to him, exiting the police station before Dallas and Ted realize I’ve been there.