Free Second Chance Hero by Liz Lee

be thanking me. She was going to walk home. Can you imagine?”
    Oh God.  
    He opened his mouth to apologize, to call himself an ass, but she didn’t let him. “Her boyfriend left her at the dance because she wouldn’t have sex with him.”
    “I’m…”
    She wasn’t done. “So I picked her up. Took her home. Told her to never even think about walking home again and she laughed at me, David. Laughed at me. Told me I needed to lighten up. How can your family not know the truth? We’ve got to tell them, David. We’ve got to tell everyone. This is insane. She was going to walk home. And then I come home expecting to finally, finally get my glass of wine, the wine I’ve been thinking about all while your sister wants to talk about sex and virginity and birth control and how freaking safe the streets of this city are, and instead I get you being all psycho crazy worried because you didn’t check the stupid answering machine or your stupid voice mail because your phone was off.”
    Oh Jesus. He didn’t want to think about his sister and sex. “I’m sorry.” He got the words out before she started again. “I had the phone off because I was on the job, and we can’t tell anyone more than what’s already out there.”
    “I told Anna to be safe. I told her to look at how many girls are missing. I told her the Hernandez family was gone. And you know what she said? She said they were probably mixed up with drug dealers. Degas is going to win again if we don’t do something, David.”
    She was right. “We’re doing all we can right now.”
    “It’s not enough.” She sat on the couch and buried her head in her hands and he wished he could tell her Degas wouldn’t win.  
    But he’d been on the case for five years. He knew the truth and the truth was ugly.
    Sometimes the guys in white hats didn’t win. Sometimes they died.
    He grabbed her glass of wine, put it on the nicked coffee table next to the Sports Illustrated and TV Guide.
    She wasn’t crying, but she looked defeated. He’d done that to her.
    “I really am sorry, Lil. I was just afraid.”
    And God wasn’t that the truth? He’d been so afraid.  
    “I know. You thought I was dead.” She smiled up at him, and he thought maybe she forgave him, just a little anyway.  
    He handed her the wine and she sipped it before leveling him with her blue eyes filled with honest appreciation. “At least I know you care.”
    She was teasing him. Good. “I care. You know I care.”
    She closed her eyes again, inhaled deeply and he tried not to look at her chest as it rose and fell. Impossible.
    “I’m not going to sleep with you David.” She’d caught him staring. Damn.
    He looked away, not quite ashamed. “Of course not. That’s not… It’s just…” He quit talking and nearly tackled the phone when it rang.
    A reprieve was what he thought. Until Ryan delivered the news.
    “They’ve found Solidad Hernandez. She’s dead too.”

Chapter Five
    He cared. Lil watched him grab the phone and nearly laughed. How pathetic was it that she caught him staring at her chest and it turned her on. How ridiculous that his bit of fear made her feel warm in all the right places.
    Crazy, crazy Lil.  
    She watched his face fall and knew she didn’t want to know what the call was.
    No. No. No.
    “Lil.”  
    She must’ve said the words. She shook her head. “No.”
    David looked defeated as he spoke. “They’ve found Solidad Hernandez. She’s dead, Lil. I’m so sorry.”
    He tried to grab her hand, but she pulled away. Nearly jumped from the couch, crossed the room and slammed the bedroom door. She needed to be alone. She needed….
    “Come on Lil. Let me in.”
    Her legs quit working. They just quit. She didn’t know why or how or even what she felt as she sank to the floor on the other side of the door and willed him away. She couldn’t take him now. She just couldn’t.
    “Go away David. I need some time alone. That’s all.”
    Her breath was coming