Julianna

Espinoza and I hadn't been making any headway on the Eddie Sanchez case. We had a body but there was no workable evidence. There were no witnesses to the actual shooting and no weapon.

We got our hands on security footage from a pawn shop across the street from the Sanchez apartment. We saw Eddie take off in his car at around seven thirty, just like Rosa said. Rosa never followed him out. She was scratched off the list of suspects.

That left only Roman Tyrell and the unreliable witness who saw somebody like Roman at a gas station several miles away from his actual murder site. It was thin evidence, at best.

My cop instinct kept wanting to blurt out Roman's confession. It kept bubbling up onto my tongue at the most inappropriate moments. I knew Roman had killed Eddie. I knew it had been him at that gas station. I knew he somehow manufactured that insurance policy so that Eddie's family would be taken care of after he died.

It didn't stop me from missing him. It didn't stop me from loving him.

It was past ten thirty. We'd both just clocked off work. Espo was driving me home. For the first time in a few weeks, we didn't just drive in silence.

"I'm telling you, it's a tragedy," Espo said from the driver's seat.

I leaned back in the passenger seat as Verona's downtown flashed by, flexing my toes in my black leather work boots. "Why can't Lacey and Jasmine from toxicology be lunch buddies?"

"Jasmine will put Lacey off me forever. You know how girls like to talk."

"Oh, right. Didn't you date Jasmine for like, three minutes, a few months ago?"

Espo let out a low hum. "Best three minutes ever."

I made a face. "Ew. I don't need to know."

Espo rounded the street onto my block. "Dammit, I knew it would come back to bite me on the ass."

"You don't get any sympathy from me, man whore."

"But you can do damage control. She'll listen to you. I know Lacey will say yes to a date with me if you put in a good word."

"Which I won't do because I actually like her."

"Oh, ha ha, wise guy."

I let out an easy laugh. Espo and my relationship had been strained when Roman was in my life; Espo knew I was hiding something. Partners had to trust each other with their lives. Hiding things eroded that trust, putting our lives at risk.

Bantering like this almost had me convinced that we were back to normal. Almost.

He pulled up near my building. There was an awkward pause.

"So, er," I asked as casually as I could, "you want to come up for dinner?" Truth was, I missed Espo. I missed our easy friendship. Everything was so confusing, so conflicting, so damn hard in my life. I was tired of hard. I missed easy. "Chinese food courtesy of my personal chef, Ming's?" I may or may not have deliberately mentioned the name of Espo's favorite Chinese takeout.

Espo pressed his hands to his heart. "Ah, Ming. The one girl who never lets me down."

I ignored his hidden jab, even as it snapped against me like a rubber band. "So, Ming's, then?"

"Sure, that sounds great." Espo's phone began to beep. He let out a groan. "If this is a dead body, I will kill someone."

"If that's a dead body, I'm pretty sure someone beat you to it."

He pulled out his phone and stared at it, chewing his lip. "Damn, I…"

I rolled my eyes. "Let me guess, it's a woman and she wants you to come over. Is it Lacey?"

A guilty look crept over his face. Not Lacey.

I waved at him. "Go, Espo. I can eat Ming's all by myself. At least one of us should be getting laid."

Espo gave me a sad look. "Sorry it didn't work out with the rose guy."

I shrugged, even though it hurt. "It happens. Plenty of fish in the sea and all that, right?" I lied.

It took twenty-five years for me to find someone like Roman. It might take another twenty-five to forget him.

No, that was a lie. I'd never forget him.