Carolyn POV
We beat the guys back to the hotel, so Alex and I sat down at the bar. We each ordered a dangerously potent drink, and we were quiet until the bartender placed them in front of us.
"He's hiding something. Something big," I said as I picked up my glass.
"I don't think he's running it," Alex replied after taking a hefty swig of vodka. "He wants to be the DA. He's worried about covering his ass. He's not a criminal, but I think he's gotten so caught up in grabbing for that brass ring that he's doing whatever it takes to make sure it happens."
She paused a moment and took another swallow, but then she continued.
"The Carver that I used to know would've never cut corners when it came to the law. In fact, he followed it annoyingly so. Him going to meet with Cabbage today, without the defense attorney present? That's a cardinal sin."
"I really wanted to hit him today," I remarked, changing the dynamic of our conversation. We could talk like investigators when the guys showed up.
Right now, I wanted to talk like friends.
"I know," she said with a smile. "I almost didn't stop you."
And the more I thought about the things he'd said about Mike, the madder I got. I didn't care that he'd looked at me like I was insignificant. It didn't bother me. But for him to suggest that Mike was somehow sub par in the intelligence department…
"We need to get him," I said vehemently. "I've had about all I can take of his attitude. We really need to cut his legs out from under him."
"Uh huh," she answered, and then she signaled for another drink.
"How can you sit there so calmly when you know what he's done? What he thinks of you, but even more, what he thinks of Bobby?" I asked, barely able to keep my voice down.
"And what he thinks about Mike and you," she added evenly.
"What?"
"I am angry. In fact, I'm so pissed off that I'm not sure what to do with myself right now. But I'm actually sitting here thinking that we're having a role reversal. Because usually you're the calm one."
"A lot of times, yes," I admitted.
And I was getting somewhat flustered because I knew that she was steering the conversation in a specific direction, but yet I was a half a step behind her.
"Not a lot of times," she argued. "All the time. Except for yesterday and today."
"I think I've had pretty damn good reason to be upset these past two days," I fired back indignantly.
"Ah, so you're…still out of the box," she said with a knowing grin.
"I'm…hell yes I'm out of the box," I replied. "I'm furious about the way Carver has handled this case, and about what has happened while we've been here, and I've been terrified for Bobby and for you…"
I stopped myself, but it was too late. I said it, and she heard it.
And just because I'd admitted it to myself and to Mike, that didn't mean that I planned on admitting it to them. Not any time soon, anyway.
"You said we'd talk later," she said softly. "This is later."
I'd wanted to talk like friends, but this was digging into more than I'd expected, and I started to have a minor anxiety attack.
"Relax," she told me, clearly sensing my unease. "You don't have to tell me everything. I don't need to know when you lost your virginity or whether or not you've ever smoked pot. I just thought we could talk."
Huh. Sharing those things would be easy for me. I didn't have any trouble talking about things like that. Those types of things were superficial details.
Everyone had those experiences. Everyone could relate to the minor rebellions that were a natural part of life.
It's the nitty-gritty of what makes me who I am that's hard.
But I trust Alex. Of course I do. That was part of my problem, right?
"I was sixteen," I said, deciding to ease into things with the clichéd topic. "I didn't love the guy. I didn't really care about him one way or the other. I was just ready to move past all the hype and get it over with."
She laughed at that, and I had to laugh with her.
"Move past the hype? Why does that not surprise me?" she asked.
"Well, you know, everyone was talking about it, and I don't know. I just didn't get what the big deal was."
"I know," she agreed, still chuckling. "I was seventeen. And it was the longest nine seconds of my life."
I hadn't expected her to make a joke, so I nearly spit tequila across the table.
I don't know why her sense of humor always catches me by surprise. Maybe it's because always she looks so serious, I don't know, but she can throw out one-liners with the best of them.
"Seventeen, huh?" I asked her. "So it wasn't Joe."
I knew some things about Joe. Not a lot, but enough to know that they'd met when she was in college. And that he'd been a jerk near the end of their marriage.
"No, it was this asshole that I dated for awhile. He kept putting on the full-court press until I finally gave in, and then he broke up with me."
"That sounds about right," I agreed.
"I get the big deal now, though," she said, suddenly serious. "About sex, I mean. Making love. I never imagined that being with someone can…feel like it does. I guess that probably sounds cheesy, huh?"
"No," I said quickly. I knew exactly what she meant. "No it doesn't."
We were both quiet for a minute. Several minutes, actually. A waitress came and we ordered another round.
"My family was in a car wreck fifteen years ago," I blurted out after our drinks were served. "I was supposed to have been with them, and I wasn't. They all died, and I didn't."
She didn't outwardly react to my declaration other than to maintain eye contact. I was grateful that she didn't start throwing platitudes at me, but instead was just going to listen.
So I talked. I told her the whole story, including the part I'd just confessed to Mike yesterday about why I'd been holding back with her and Bobby.
Surprisingly, it wasn't nearly as hard to talk about as I thought it would be.
So I also threw in the part about the fight that Mike and I had over it. I hoped it would lighten the mood a little, and it did.
"You said that to him?" she asked me. "I don't think I've ever said that to Bobby."
"You should," I encouraged. "It's quite liberating."
She laughed at that, as I'd hoped that she would. But she settled down quickly and took another sip of her drink.
"Seriously, it means a lot to me that you would tell me."
"I just didn't want you to think…I don't know. I wanted you to understand why maybe I'm not the best at showing…I mean…I…"
"Carolyn," she interrupted. "It's fine. You don't have to say anything. I've always been a firm believer that actions speak louder than words."
And for some reason, I got choked up. Me. That was twice in two days. Hell, a lot more than that in two days.
With everything that had happened, I was a damn Kleenex commercial waiting to happen.
I desperately tried to think of something that would ease that burning tightness in my chest, but I didn't need to. Alex did it for me.
She leaned across the table and gave me a mischievous look.
"So, let me tell you about the bet I made with Bobby a couple of weeks ago."
Bobby POV
We walked into the hotel restaurant and at first I didn't see them, even though I knew they were here somewhere.
Carolyn had sent Mike a text more than thirty minutes ago to say that they were here. They were a little early, and we were a little late, but that was fine.
We'd made headway in leaps and bounds, so now it was time to sort out what we needed to do.
But first, I just wanted to relax next to Alex.
I finally spotted them sitting in a booth near the back, and their heads were close together across the table. Alex was talking animatedly and Carolyn was laughing.
I chucked Mike with my elbow and pointed them out and then we headed in their direction.
Ross had made a stop by the front desk to pick up his room key. He'd called earlier on his drive up to Waukegan to make arrangements for the extra room.
"Don't stop on our account," Logan said as we approached the table. Alex stopped talking immediately.
"Girl talk. You'd be bored," she said with a smile as she slid over to make room for me. She'd chosen to sit on the side of the table that allowed me to keep my injured arm to the outside so that I didn't have to worry about bumping into her.
"How'd it go with Carver?" I asked.
"Nothing earth-shattering. You guys go first," Alex said, but not before she kissed me. And not a simple hello kiss, either.
It was one that promised…something. I was instantly intrigued, and yet my body was arguing that it had been put through the wringer lately.
Sleep was going to be a necessity, as was very little physical activity. Although maybe…
"Bobby," she interrupted quietly.
"Oh, yeah, sorry," I said hurriedly.
So Logan and I tag-teamed the recount of what had happened with Cabbage. Ross came back when we were only a short way into the story, so he jumped in as well, adding some amusing footnotes. Apparently he had enjoyed our interrogation technique.
"He gave him five seconds to give up a name, and it only took four before Cabbage was giving it up," Ross told them.
"You and your deadlines," Alex said with a smirk, and I knew she was thinking about how she'd lost the double portion of our bet.
But then she cast a knowing glance toward Carolyn.
What was that about?
"So who is it?" Carolyn asked, biting back a smile.
"You're never going to believe this," Logan said. "The sitting DA."
"Carver's opponent? Are you kidding me?" Alex asked loudly. Carolyn was equally upset.
"So we take this guy down, and we've done Carver's dirty work for him. He'll be a shoo-in at the election. This is crap. What are we going to do?"
"We take them both down," I said simply. "Carver offered Cabbage a deal in order to keep his brother's name out of it."
"Who knows that besides Cabbage?" Alex asked.
"No one."
"So it's the word of an ADA against a felon. He's smarter than I like to give him credit for," Carolyn said.
And then Alex and Carolyn told what they had learned at Carver's office, which wasn't much.
I had a feeling that they were leaving out a few minor details.
I didn't think Alex would hold back if it was more talk of annulment, so I had to guess that Carver had been derogatory of Mike.
I hated guys like Carver. And as much as I hated him for me, I hated him even more for Mike.
I was going to make sure that Logan got a chance to bring the hammer down on Carver.
I didn't have to be directly involved to reap the benefits. The idea that he would never be the DA in this city or any other was enough for me.
We stopped talking shop, and instead ordered some dinner and took a moment to just breathe. It had been a whirlwind forty-eight hours, and I could feel my body getting closer and closer to shutting down. I had a feeling that once I put some food into it, I would just about be done.
Alex was tired, too. She couldn't hold my hand because I only had one available, but she kept her hand firmly on my thigh, and she kept her leg pressed tightly against mine.
I couldn't wait to get into the bed and just hold her with no fear of a nurse walking in on us. It had only been since Saturday night, but it felt like forever.
"Is there room here for one more?"
"Liz! What are you doing here?" Ross asked in surprise. I guess she hadn't told even him that she was coming. He immediately got up from his chair at the end of the table and gave her a hug.
"I was…already at the airport when you called. I didn't think it would hurt to come out here and see things for myself," she admitted.
Ross stepped away to grab another chair, and Liz looked around the table. I knew that we all looked like hell.
Well, at least me and Mike anyway.
Alex always looked beautiful to me, so I wasn't a very good judge. And Carolyn…she always looked good, too.
"I can't believe you flew all the way out here," Ross said as he held out the chair for her. She sat down and the waitress appeared behind her, so she ordered a drink.
"I was…concerned," she told us. "I don't know what kind of doctors they have here in Chicago."
"A little territorial, are we?" Mike asked her with a grin. "You know you can give me a check-up any time you want."
Liz's sharp-tongued reply was interrupted by Ross pulling out his phone. It must have been vibrating in his pocket.
He looked at it and then his face darkened.
"You have got to be kidding me," he said.
"What is it?" I asked him.
"A text from Tom. Cabbage is dead."
TBC...
