#youlikeit - BLACKBIRD book 1

7. trap

Gillian saw they were about to start talking at the same time and anticipated them. "Fine, lads, right now we have to wait for the Lab results, the files on the other missing girls, and Kurt has to look for overlaps between them and Jane Does at morgues throughout the state."

"Why me?"

"'Cause you don't answer my calls after eight. So the rest of you go home, have lunch and come back with a go-bag, because we're statewide this time. We may hit the road, and we're not coming back until we catch this bastard."

"I'm going too?" asked Tanya surprised.

"No, T, I need you here, babysitting Connor and kicking Kurt's ass."

"Then I can have lunch here and help him out, or he'll finish next month."

"Ouch."

"Had it coming," said Hank.

"Look for that signature of the cigarette burn on dead girls. Ron, it's okay if you wanna stay in town. I don't wanna drag you away from home."

"What? And miss the chance of a couple of nights without changing diapers and warming up bottles? You nuts?"

Fred shook his head. "You just destroyed the winner image I had of you, man."

"And then you ask me why I'm still single," said Russell.

"Go, lads, it's now or never. I want you back here at four." Gillian grabbed her bag and wrapped her arm around Russell's. "Shall we?"

Russell nodded and she turned to Brock with the hint of a smile, strictly polite—not like you, see? I can be civil. "Wanna join Russell and me for lunch, Agent Brockner?"

Brock hesitated, taken aback by her invitation. He wanted to discuss the case with Russell and he knew Gillian would rather add to the conversation, but he felt he would deprive them of a moment together.

Russell patted his back, smiling. "C'mon, man, promise we'll behave."

Brock scowled, but they didn't give him a chance to explain himself. Gillian left the office and Russell pushed Brock after her softly.

"Three-way for lunch?" Brock heard one of the punks asking, as the others laughed.

Russell closed the door, chuckling under his breath at the way Brock's shoulders stiffened. Gillian and Brock walked into an elevator and saw Russell smirk at them from the corridor.

"Boloco on School Street?" he asked.

"Where—?"

"Cook. Meet you guys there."

The door closed before they could argue or try to step out and Russell took the stairs to the fourth floor, chuckling at their dismay. He could sense there was something stuck between Brock and Gillian, so he'd left them alone to deal with it. Over the past three months, he'd noticed that whenever he mentioned her, Brock seemed about to say something, but never actually did. And he was surprised at how cold she'd been to Brock back at her office. Gillian would never keep her distance like that with a person she'd always respected and even admired.

In the elevator, Gillian and Brock stood side by side.

He was waiting to be out of the station, to finally say what he hadn't said three months earlier.

She cursed Russell and his family up to five generations on the women's side, hating Brock's blank silence. And loathing herself to death for her burning ears and the slight chill that ran down her spine when she smelled his cologne.