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“Addison, you’re like the daughter I never had,” he murmurs. “And I think Ted and I both agree that you need a new career choice.” He chuckles.
“You, too?” I say, playfully hitting his arm. “It’s not like I’m going to be in the middle of bad stuff. I’ll be working in forensics. I’ll be going in after the bad stuff happens.”
“You’ll still be part of that world,” he quickly replies. I sigh, knowing arguing is a moot point. “Anyway, I was so relieved to see it was only a graze. My only job now is to find out how the hell he got through security with a gun… because when I find out how, there is going to be hell to pay,” he warns. A shiver runs down my spine, fearing for the person who messed up. Or helped the asshole.
Two hours later I’m being discharged. The nurse just left, giving me my discharge papers and getting a wheelchair to bring me out. As I’m packing all my stuff up, the door opens. Frankie is being wheeled in by a cute nurse.
“Thanks, baby cakes. You can come back and get me in a few minutes.” He flashes a huge smile and winks. She walks out. I just shake my head, using a hand to cover my mouth and stifle my laugh.
“Frankie,” I say with a huge smile, “I’m so glad to see you’re okay.”
“Add Cat, what the fuck do you think you were doing?” His smile fades and his face turns hard. “You could have easily been killed by that strung-out prick.” I can see the muscles in his arm flex as he balls his hands into fists. He’s kind of scary when he’s mad.
“How about a ‘Thanks for saving my life, Addison.’ Or are you too worried about your street cred?” I air-quote his words he used yesterday with sarcasm dripping from my voice. I’m a little pissed with his ungrateful attitude.
“Woman! You know I don’t give a rat’s ass about my street cred. I was fucking worried about you!” he barks as he wheels his wheelchair close to where I sit on the bed. “I saw the whole thing and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.” He grabs my hands. “I owe you my life. You ever need anything, call me.” He kisses my knuckles before releasing my hands. He turns his chair around, wheeling himself toward the door. “Anything, Add Cat,” he says one last time, looking over his shoulder. The nurse magically appears to wheel him out.
I fall back into the bed, blowing out a long breath. One more lecture to go, and I don’t look forward to it. At all.
Syd’s waiting in her car as I’m wheeled outside. I thank the nurse as I push myself out of the wheelchair and into the car. We don’t even make it out of the parking lot before Sydney starts.
“If you ever pull some shit like that again, I’ll kill you myself.”
Chapter Three
IT’S BEEN TWO months since the shooting. I officially graduated college and quit my job at the end of last month. It was bittersweet leaving. I loved working there. I’ll even miss Jack. It was a little awkward after the shooting. I had to convince Jack that I wasn’t going to sue. They did take care of my medical expenses since it officially happened during work hours. Then, of course, news spread like wildfire about what I had done, so people were calling me a hero. I tried to downplay it as much as possible. I hated the attention. Howard and I never talked about it. We’ve gone to dinner a couple times, and that was one topic we both silently agreed to never discuss.
Sydney has forgiven me. Finally. I just have to keep reminding her that if I had never been shot, she wouldn’t have met Dr. Parker. Of course she hates when I say that. She doesn’t want to think that was the only reason she met Jeff. I finally got some of the story out of her. She and Dean had been having problems—mainly, he didn’t like being number two in her life. When he was offered a job in another state after graduation, he decided to take it. They broke up right before she heard about me getting shot. It was amicable. She told me she liked Dean but there were never any fireworks. So she wasn’t too sad about it. Then she met Jeff Parker. The version I heard was she was being pushy, trying to get information about me, and he was being an asshole doctor. One thing led to another and now they’re dating. And really, nothing’s changed. One minute they’re fighting, the next minute they’re having make-up sex. Sounds a little screwed up to me, but whatever, I don’t have to deal with him.
With one more month before I start my new life in New York City, I’m taking a quick trip to Chicago. As I’m packing, Syd comes in and lies on my bed.
“I like your hair,” she says.
I glance in the mirror at my new, brunette color. It always catches me off guard when I look at myself. I look like a carbon copy of my mom with my dark hair.
“Are you sure I can’t go with you?” she whines as she sticks her bottom lip out.
Even though there are so many positive things in my life right now, there’s always a part of me that wonders who killed my mom. I’ve planned this trip since I was eighteen years old, but I promised Sydney that I’d wait till after I graduated college to go. I feel I can’t fully move on with my life and let go of the past until I see for myself who Travis Stein is.
“You know I have to do this alone, Syd,” I say as I put my clothes in my bag.
“You don’t have to,” she says stubbornly.
“Sydney.” I stall for a moment. “I just want to see who he is. I need to close this chapter in my life, and I need to do it alone. I’ll call you everyday, tell you everything.” I sit on the bed next to her.
“Fine.” She rolls her eyes. “But if you get into trouble again, Addie, I swear I will never forgive you,” she threatens as she sits up and pulls me into a hug.
“I promise. I’m not going looking for trouble.” I try to reassure her.
She laughs out loud. “Addie, that’s not the problem.” We pull apart, and she playfully hits my arm. “Trouble has no problem finding you.”
“I’m only going to be gone for a few days. You won’t even miss me.” Hopping off the bed, I zip up my bag and glance around the room making sure I got everything. “Anyway, now you’ll have the whole apartment to have your make-up sex,” I say waggling my eyebrows.
“Addie, there aren’t a lot of places left that we haven’t already had sex in this apartment.” My eyes go wide. What the hell! If she had sex on the kitchen table, where I eat, I’m going to kill her.
“I don’t even want to know.” I snicker, shaking my head as I walk out of my room. I immediately see the kitchen table and whip around. Sydney sees where I was looking and dies laughing. Oh. My. God. I’m going to kill her. “Gross!”
“What?! He was hungry.” She shrugs.
