Only Love by Victoria H. Smith, Raven St. Pierre Page A

“Daycare?”
    “Mmmhmm. My moms meant to tell you about it the other night. They run it. Anyway, it’s free so—”
    “Free?” She blinked.
    Not necessarily, but the service would be for her. I nodded. “Yeah. It’s got a grant backing it. Pretty new deal. Moms are trying to get the word out about it. I don’t know if you’re looking for a new one or anything, but they thought you should know about it. It would help them out as they need the community’s involvement to keep the funding.”
    Her eyes studied mine during my spiel and I wondered if she could hear it in my voice, the lie I was giving her. Rissa plucked the card from her fingertips playing with it, and I took the opportunity to go.
    “Um, thanks.” Aubrey said behind me, and my heart did this thumping thing. It happened a lot when she spoke to me. “I’ll check it out sometime. See if I can help your moms out by using the service.”
    I’d call my moms after I dropped off Gabby, letting them know if Aubrey chose to use the daycare it would be paid no matter how long she used it.
     

     
    My concern for Aubrey didn’t lessen on the drive to work, but it did shift a little to my passenger. I couldn’t help noticing Gabby seemed different than the last time I took her to school. She didn’t really talk to me, and I could only gather that was because of the situation I caught her in last night. Something she definitely didn’t talk about on our drive. I dropped her off at school, parking down the block like before. She grabbed her bag from the back, and I finally gave in to asking her about last night, about why she was out so late and coming from that particular apartment.
    She shrugged casually. “I was up late working on a project for school and had to borrow sugar for it. Those neighbors are always up late. We’ve both lived in the building for a while. I figured they wouldn’t mind.”
    I could only stare at her. She was really going with this explanation? “Sugar?”
    “Yes.”
    I eyed her. “For what project, Gabby?”
    She didn’t miss a beat. “We have to make a replication of a cell in science. I wanted to be original and chose to bake a cake.”
    A cake. A cake she worked on at three in the morning and borrowed sugar from a sketchy apartment to get? I rested my arm on the steering wheel, pointing at her with my other hand. “Where is it today? The cake?”
    She stared down at her closed hands like she just realized its absence, pursing her lips. Her gaze then shifted to me. “Can I ask you something, Adam?”
    I lowered my arm from the wheel, giving her my full attention. “Of course.”
    “Am I under arrest?” she asked, and the question came out of such left field I was rendered speechless at first.
    Clearing my throat, I said, “No.”
    Her fingers played with one of the straps on her bag, twisting and turning a loose string. “Then why does it feel like I’m on trial?”
    This felt like a battle I wasn’t going to win today. I’d been losing a lot lately. I let her go and headed into the precinct. I got a text from Caroline on the way.
    IA is here. They’re in talking to Don. Be ready next.
    A lot of things had me on edge today, but this was definitely a new level.
    I got dressed in full uniform when I arrived at work, then made my way to one of our interrogation rooms at the precinct. I assumed if they were questioning Don it would be done in the biggest as that’s where IA took one of our own if a questioning needed to be done and I had been right. I passed Don on his way out. His eyes flashed at seeing me, and I mentioned under my breath Caroline texted me about today. A man in a suit flanked him. I hadn’t seen him before but he had the uppity look of an official. This guy must have been the one talking to Don today. He saw me as well and gazed down at a clipboard he had. He looked up. “Officer Holloway?”
    I nodded in response.
    “Do you have a moment? For a few questions?” he continued.
    I already