Unseen (Will Trent / Atlanta Series)

grinned, obviously familiar with the story. “That blonde chick’s the one who arrested him. Agent Mitchell. I bet she kept her foot up his ass the whole time.”
    Lena didn’t doubt it. “If Lonnie was half the man he claimed to be, he’d find a way to kill himself, save the courts the trouble.”
    “Give me a damn shiv, I’ll do it myself.”
    “Get in line.” Lena blew out a long breath “I can’t waste anymore of my time on that bastard. How’re the boys doing?”
    Denise’s face lit up with something that could only bedescribed as pure joy. “They’re good, Lee. I put Aaron in his mama’s arms myself. He’s surrounded by family. He’s back with his brother. It’s gonna be tough, but they’ve all got each other.”
    Again, Lena got the strange sensation of looking at herself. All those balls juggled in the air were worth it when you managed to keep them going. Watching them fly brought a bigger rush than any drug on the street. Of course, the high never lasted. No one could keep juggling that many balls for long. The first time one of them dropped, you wanted to die. The second time, you felt bad. The third and fourth times, you just found another ball to throw up into the air and moved on.
    Lena had dropped so many balls in her lifetime that she’d lost count.
    She told Denise, “I forgive you.”
    Denise looked surprised, then wary. “Why?”
    “I have no idea,” Lena confessed. She was living proof that second chances worked, but she’d never been able to extend that courtesy to anyone else. Losing Jeffrey Tolliver had taught her a lot of things, but the possibility of losing Jared had floored her.
    Denise asked, “You wanna think about it?”
    “No.” Lena offered the naked, unadorned truth. “DeShawn and Eric are dead. Lonnie turned out to be Satan. Paul’s put in an application for the Atlanta PD. Jared almost died.” Lena felt a lump in her throat. She left her little bean off the list, but the memory was still raw. “I guess I can’t afford to lose anybody else.”
    Denise was still skeptical. “It’s probably my fault you and Jared almost got killed. I could’ve gotten you fired. It’s only through the grace of God that those assholes in IA believe your story.”
    “You think they believe me?” Lena laughed. “The only reason I’m not on the street or in a jail cell is they can’t prove anything.” She walked to the sink and turned on the faucet. The water was ice cold. Lena bent down and drank from the tap.
    Denise said, “I’ve been a bad friend to you. I know that.” Hervoice went low. “And I know you’ve been going through some things. Before all this, I mean.”
    Lena turned off the faucet. Denise wasn’t the only one with trust issues. It had never occurred to Lena to talk to anybody about losing the baby—not to Jared, not to Denise, not even to herself. Truthfully, it felt like too much of a failure, something she should be ashamed of.
    And even if it didn’t feel that way, Lena wasn’t about to pour out her heart in the women’s toilet at the police station.
    She told Denise, “It’s all right. It’s something I had to go through on my own.”
    “I get that.” Denise wasn’t one to sit around gazing at her navel, either. “I’m here if you want to talk, though.”
    Lena looked down at her hand. It was resting on the sink instead of pressed to her empty belly. She wondered if that’s how it happened—incrementally. The nurse from Dr. Benedict’s office had been right about one thing: it didn’t go away, but it got different.
    Lena let out another long breath. She looked at the mirror over the sink, thinking she’d aged about twenty years since this all started. “Jared’s been bugging the shit out of me. I could use an excuse to get out of the house.”
    Denise caught Lena’s gaze in the mirror. “Me, too.”
    Lena waited.
    Denise cleared her throat. She struggled to speak. “Her name’s Lila. We’ve been dating for a while.”
    Lena didn’t push it. “How long is IA gonna keep you here?”
    “Long as it takes.”
    “Call me when you’re finished. We’ll go to Barney’s.”
    Denise looked away. The beaten-down expression was back. Barney’s was a cop bar. She obviously didn’t want to be seen by the men she used to command.
    “You know what?” Lena grabbed a handful of paper towels.“As far as I can tell, you were the only cop on this entire force who saw something was wrong with Lonnie. You saved that