One Night With You: A Fatal Series Prequel Novella (The Fatal Series) Read Free

doesn’t he treat you and Tracy that way? It’s bizarre.”
    “Come on, Sam. You know you’ve always been special to him.”
    “You guys are, too.”
    “We know that, but we always belonged to Mom. You were his.”
    Sam couldn’t deny that either. She and her dad had shared a special bond all her life, and she’d gone out of her way to make him proud. She’d never forget the tears in his eyes the day she took the oath as a member of the Metropolitan Police Department. “Still, that doesn’t give him the right to micromanage my life.”
    “Try telling him that.”
    “I have told him that. A thousand times. He just smiles and goes about minding my business for me, so please, for the love of God, do not mention to him that you and Tracy think Peter is creepy. A, it’s not true. And B, I don’t need the aggravation.”
    “We won’t say anything to him, but you need to keep an eye on Peter. Something about that guy rubs me the wrong way.”
    “Good thing then that you don’t have to live with him.”
    “I still don’t get why you didn’t want the extra bedroom at my place. It would’ve been just like old times.”
    “Right, with you minding my business in addition to Dad. That’s just what I didn’t need.”
    “That’s so not true! I wouldn’t have bothered you.”
    Sam let her withering look speak for itself. Angela and Tracy had been mothering Sam since the day she was born.  
    “I wouldn’t have! You should move in with me. I don’t like you living with that guy.”
    “That guy has been nothing but nice to me, and I’m not moving out of there. I signed a lease for a year, and I’m staying put.”
    “Suit yourself, but don’t tell me I didn’t try to warn you when it turns out he is, in fact, a creep.”
    “I won’t.” Sam watched her city go by in a blur as Angela darted in and out of unusually light DC traffic like a seasoned stock car driver. Having a cop riding shotgun definitely gave her permission to drive like a lunatic, knowing the ticket wouldn’t stick if they were pulled over. “So when did you hear from Spencer?”
    “It was the funniest thing! I was at work today, and he came in for a meeting with one of the partners. I’d forgotten how hot he is and how much fun we had during my break from Johnny the asshole. I definitely let a good one get away when I went back to Johnny, so when he asked if I wanted to get together, I said I’d love to. He’s got this party tonight with his college friends, so he asked me to meet him there.”
    “And thus my plans for the evening were changed, too.”
    “Oh, stop your whining. You had nothing better to do.”
    “Right, just a bath and eight hours horizontal.”
    “ Boring .”
    “Sounds like heaven to me. I’ve been working like a demon lately. I’m freaking exhausted all the time.”
    “You don’t have to pay off all your loans at once, you know.”
    “I want them off my mind.”
    “If you kill yourself doing it, what good will it do?”
    “I’m not killing myself, but I was looking forward to a night at home.”
    “I already get that I owe you for the rest of my life for coming tonight, but how much do you want to bet that tomorrow you’ll be thanking me because you had such an awesome time and met so many incredible people?”
    “I’ll take that bet. Twenty bucks?”
    Angela held out her hand. “Make it fifty.”
    Sam shook her sister’s hand. “You’re on. Be prepared to pay up this time.”
    “Yeah, yeah. Why break with tradition?”

    The party was as awful as Sam had expected it to be, full of simpering women and men on the make, getting loaded and looking to hook up with any random vagina. It reminded her of the two fraternity parties she’d been talked into attending in college, both of them hideous experiences she tried not to think about—ever.
    Now, as a badge-carrying police officer, it was nearly impossible to attend events like this and not view them through a law enforcement lens. It wasn’t