Forget Me Not (Remember Me Series) Read Free Page B

about her existence at all… That it really was just an unfortunate series of events.
    An unfortunate series of events. What the hell did that mean anyway?
    “Crantree, quit your dawdling and get your ass in here.” Arnolds voice boomed out through the office.
    I spotted him, standing at the door to the conference room and I immediately headed in his direction. He was well respected throughout the precinct, he’d served his time and proven himself to be one tough son-of-a-bitch. He’d been here longer than anyone else and I knew my sudden rise through the ranks hadn’t sat too well with him. He was a firm believer in rewarding those who were here longest. Solving a few high profile cases didn’t rank high in his estimation. And neither did I.
    “Sorry, I’m late…” 
    He didn’t give me a chance to finish my sentence. I watched as he wrinkled his nose. He peered at me, his eyes narrowing as he took in my blood-shot eyes, and unshaven face.
    “Are you drunk?”
    “What sort of a question is that?” I asked, anger beginning to spread through my body. If I’d been honest with myself I’d have realised that I was looking for a fight. That I was looking for a way to expel some of the nervous energy caused by my guilt. But squaring up to Arnolds was not the way to go.
    “It’s a direct question, Crantree. You expect me to allow you access to evidence when you’re drunk? You couldn’t even be bothered to have a shave this morning. And what is that?”
    He pointed to my side and I glance down, the blue shirt I wore had a spreading red stain on it. It was small but it was noticeable, and Arnolds had noticed it. I’d bandaged up the cut from the glass, after the shower, clearly I hadn’t done a good enough job.
    “It’s nothing. Look, I’m sorry I was late but I really need to know what they found out. I need to know what is being done to find her.”
    “I’m afraid, Aidan, I can’t share that with you. Not when you’re like this. What happened to you man? You used to be a good cop and now look at you? You’re a mess…”
    “Matthew, please. Please, just tell me.” I lowered my voice. “I’m begging you.”
    “Aidan, get a grip on yourself. You know how this works, I was doing you a favour in the first place. But I won’t get dragged down with you. Your behaviour has been less than desirable.”
    “I love her and I’m the reason she’s gone. I need to set things straight, I need to find her…”
    He cut me off, lifting his free hand as though to silence me, I could tell from the expression he wore that he had no intention of giving me anything. He had probably just dragged me down here so he could humiliate me some more. So he could show everyone what a mess I was, how I didn’t deserve to be a cop.
    “Go home, Aidan, and don’t think about coming back until you get over all of this nonsense. You’re a cop for God’s sake, you can’t behave like this. Especially after what happened to Hunter…”
    It was the last straw. Rage boiled in my veins and I reacted. Drawing my arm back I let it go, my fist connecting with his jaw as it made a satisfying crunch. He staggered back away from  me, stunned for a second but I followed him. Tackling him to the floor we rolled together. He regained the upper hand momentarily as his fists caught me in the ribcage, knocking the air from my lungs.
    Gasping I retaliated, one quick upper cut to the face followed by two rapid body blows. Strong arms wrapped around my body, hauling me up from the floor and back onto my feet. I fought against them, struggling to get free. Rage continued to flood my body. I wanted to kill him, to stop him from talking about Bella as though she didn’t matter at all… She mattered to me and that should have been good enough for all of them… And yet, it didn’t seem to be.
    “What the hell is going on out here?” The chiefs voice cut in over the other cop’s noise, silencing the room.
    I stilled my struggling, my body