Tough Justice Series Box Set: Parts 1-8. Carla Cassidy

for a moment.

      “I need to get back to work,” Lara said, dropping her friend’s hand. “Take care of yourself, Lola.”

      The younger woman bumped her shoulder against Lara’s. “You too, Miss FBI. Don’t be a stranger.”

      The tapping of her heels against the concrete moved away, but Lara stayed still for a while longer. She wouldn’t go into the house today. She couldn’t find the strength or resolve to make her feet carry her up the sidewalk and through the door her family had once used daily.

      No, Lara wouldn’t be tackling that portion of her past right now.

      She turned on her heel and headed back to her car. An overwhelming sense of loss in her wake.

      * * *

      Lara went back to the office with little enthusiasm. There were no new leads. The other shoe would drop, she was sure, but at the moment it seemed firmly laced up and on. She fell into her desk chair with a sigh that matched its creak.

      Her day had, in a nutshell, been draining, to say the very least.

      The past had not only shown its face, it had bothered to force her hand in its own and had taken her for a stroll.

      “You saw Moretti.” Nick popped his head up over the cubicle wall to her left. If the day hadn’t already taken its toll on her emotions, seeing her partner she’d made out with in a public bar and then ran from would have rubbed her the wrong way. As it was, she merely met his gaze with one she knew embodied her tired frustration. “It didn’t go well.”

      She made a finger gun and shot. “Bingo. And before you ask, no, I don’t want to recount our conversation or tell you what I felt after seeing him. Just know it was a bust, and I don’t want to talk about it past that.”

      Nick held up his hands, ready to defend himself, when Lara’s phone vibrated. She sighed, ready for whatever shit storm she was sure it would bring.

      Drink tonight at Hot Spot, Eve?

      Lara froze.

      “What’s wrong?” Nick asked.

      She handed him the phone, already standing with the intent to go straight to Cass to see if anyone currently working at the Hot Spot was named Eve. Though, she doubted it would be that simple. “The other shoe.”