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Her face broke and she started to shake, her tears coming faster until they fell from her jaw and splashed onto her gown. When she spoke, her words were nothing but a whisper. “Forget me, Lee. Just let me go.”
“I will always care for you, Kelly. I'll never stop.”
“Then you’re a fool.”
I was. I was sitting here pleading with her to let me love her when I knew damn well I could never have her. I’d promised myself, this was the end. That I would let her go, just like she asked.
“You’re right.” I released her hand and stood from my chair. “I’m a fool for falling in love with someone who could never love me back. But I’ll never regret you.”
I was at the door before Kelly called out, “Lee?”
Though my brain told me to keep going, my heart wouldn’t let me. I paused and looked back.
“Mom and Dad are sending me to rehab. For the drugs. And therapy. It’s in-patient treatment.”
Nodding, I told her, “I know.”
“Will you come visit?”
A lump formed in my throat, trying to keep me from responding. I did it anyway, knowing that I couldn’t. “I'll see what I can do.”
Her face fell even further. She nodded, then picked at her blanket. I took a step toward the door, but she stopped me once more.
“Will you stay with me? Until my parents get back?”
I was struck by the desire to race to her side, to hold her, kiss her, love her…
But I couldn’t.
I left my mangled heart at her feet, then shook my head.
There was no need to speak, not as her parents’ voices sounded in the hall. I stepped from the room, pausing only to tell them goodbye.
We’d all agreed, it was better this way.
Kelly needed to heal. She needed to find the strength she used to have so she could stand on her own two feet.
She couldn’t do that if she was dependent on me.
I left my heart with Kelly O’Connor and walked out of her life for good.
15
LEE
One Year Later
“Our top story here on First News at Six is, once again, Bridgewater Security. The Chicago-based private security company has been connected to a warehouse explosion in Kansas City. Though it is unclear exactly why the team was there, an anonymous source within the Chicago PD has indicated they were following up on a missing persons case connected to the human trafficking ring the company helped take down just last week at—”
The news wasn’t bad. It wasn’t unexpected, all things considered. The problem? My office was splashed across the television screen once again. News crews had been camped out in front of the building, harassing any and every person who so much as stepped foot on the snow-covered sidewalk, since the story broke this afternoon.
What they didn’t know was that the story was over. The ring was taken down. The kid was saved and returned to his grandmother’s custody. My injured employee was in the hospital, recovering from the surgery that removed the bullet he took to his thigh.
And the entire damn mafia crew that’d come to help us out had disappeared into the wind, like they’d never been here at all.
I muted the television, then tossed the remote onto the conference table beside me. Though I didn’t turn. Couldn’t bring myself to face her just yet.
“Are we going to talk about this?”
