Hold My Heart Read Free Page B

discover that something before another body shows up, another innocent girl dies, and the killer disappears for another ten years. No pressure, right?
    No wonder I can’t sleep.
    Agent in Charge Teague is still sitting there, silently brooding. After a few seconds of pondering Tommy’s magic super male bullshit, Teague nods his head as if he’s satisfied—at least for now.
    “Good. I don’t need to remind you both that this is a huge case. I don’t want the DC Bureau thinking we can’t handle things in our own backyard. No hiccups. Keep me posted on what’s going on. I’ll deal with Upstairs.”
    Teague gets up and so do we, like soldiers when a superior officer exits. Some habits die hard. Teague walks right out the door, heading toward the elevators. Just like that, we’re dismissed.
    Once at our desks, Tommy and I get back to work.
    We’re charting our progress and action plan in a nice, neat document, complete with a colorful PowerPoint chart. One of the downsides of the job, it’s tedious work, but necessary. Shortly after our morning briefing, Teague requested a presentation of all the data so he can brief Bureau Management.
    Tommy has never been one for admin work. He hates it. Then again, he really didn’t have to deal with it much in the Army; I did. The perks of being an officer versus enlisted. Better pay, lots of red tape. He keeps getting up and pacing beside our desks, throwing this little stress ball up in the air and catching it. He’s lost the tie, and the first few buttons of his shirt are undone. Meanwhile, I’m doing the paperwork. It is our little dance, which is why we’ve always worked so well together. I make sure our T’s are crossed and our I’s are dotted, and he makes sure to keep upper management off our asses.
    We’ve shared office space with two fellow agents for the last four years. Tommy sits across from me, while Brad Nelson and Charlie Ryan sit beside us, facing each other. The pacing seems to be getting to Nelson, because he finally says something.
    “Colton, you mind? You’re making me jumpy.” He and Ryan are helping us out with this case on an as needed basis.
    Ryan just shakes his head and smirks, showing off his one-sided dimple. He’s the oldest of our group. Like Colton, Ryan is prior enlisted and got his degree while in the service. A Jarhead Marine through and through. Real badass. He’s an older version of Tommy, with a lot more tats and a lot more attitude.
    “Sorry,” Tommy mumbles, yet keeps pacing back and forth between the desks.
    “By the way, Harper, Chris wants you to call her back.”
    I completely forgot. Christina is Nelson’s new bride and one of my old friends from college.
    I look up from my computer screen and over at Nelson. “Shit, tell her I’m sorry, I don’t have her new number.”
    He seems annoyed. “Really?” he huffs as he reaches for a sticky note and scribbles her number down. He crosses in front of Tommy, making him swerve around in his pacing.
    Nelson hands me the note. “Here, make sure to call her,” he scolds.
    “I will,” I promise, but Nelson gives me a skeptical look.
    I better because I know she’ll just keep calling. I knew Christina Reyes back in the day at Northwestern University. She was one of those people that stuck around no matter how much I pushed away. She was always bossy and pushy, which made her a good friend back when I was a scared seventeen-year-old trying to navigate in a very adult world. She was the only person to bother with me at the dorm. I always had my nose buried in books. She was persistent to the point that I opened my heart a crack and she wiggled her way inside, burrowed, and never left.
    Turns out she’d been working as a nurse at Northwestern Memorial hospital since graduation. We lost contact for a while, but by the time I came back to Chicago, we were emailing each other every so often. Once I got to Chicago, I avoided her as much as I could, until we ran into each other at