Really? This is the moment I choose to tell him I love him for the first time? Right after calling him a controlling asshole? In a police station? In front of everyone?
His gaze softens a little, but not a lot. I really think he isn’t going to let me do this. Maybe it’s not the best plan after all? But when Kellan’s hopeful green eyes snag my attention, I know I’m doing this. That’s it. I’m doing this. I’d stomp my foot if I thought it would make an impression instead of just looking ridiculous.
“Let her go, Gil,” O says. “Odds are the police won’t even go for it, so let her go pitch her idea and then we’ll see where we end up.”
“Thank you,” I say in a way too high pitched voice. So not what I was going for right now, but who cares. I make my way to the police officer manning the front desk immediately, so I don’t chicken out, and I feel a number of eyes on my back, watching my every move.
“Hello,” I say to the guy Kellan’s been bickering with all evening.
“Hello, did they decide to send the girl in to see if that’ll work?” His eyes never leave the screen of his laptop. “It’s not going to work, I won’t tell you anything.”
“You know it’s this kind of bullshit that makes regular people think cops are assholes right?” I snap. That gets his attention. He looks up with flared nostrils. “I’d like to talk to officer Vargas, I’ve spoken to him before and I have a proposal.”
The officer sighs, then checks something on his computer before picking up the phone and starts calling. “Yea, Michael here. I’ve got a lady here who says she has a proposal for you.” His eyes find mine again. “Name?”
“Morgan Pike,” I say in an icy tone, and I wait as Michael repeats my name to officer Vargas. Then he stays quiet for a while, before he nods and hangs up. “He’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” I say in my sweetest tone. Meanwhile, my heart is starting to race and I feel a bit of sweat on my back.
I’m really doing this, aren’t I? Maybe the officer won’t go for it. Then I think of Meggy and what she’s possibly going through right now and my determination returns. I sit back down in the chairs we sat in before, and I’m nervously bouncing with both my knees while I wait for the officer to get here.
“Miss Pike,” he greets me, when he suddenly stands in front of me. I think I was busy trying to distract myself and didn’t see him coming.
“Hi, hello, I, uh, have a proposal for you.” I say it in such a way it sounds like I’m making him an indecent proposal, and I feel my cheeks heat. Jesus, why do I have to be so weird sometimes? Words are my things, why am I having trouble forming them?
The officer takes a seat in one of the chairs across from me and patiently waits for me to go on as his brown eyes never leave me. “I thought that maybe, if those guys you arrested don’t know where they’re keeping Meggy… Well, maybe they could fake kidnap me and you do something with a tracing thing and it lets you lead you to them.”
He stays silent. I start playing with the hem of my shirt, the look he’s giving me almost too much. Then he sighs.
“That might work.”
Gil stands up from his seat in the blink of an eye. “Hell no.”
“Sit your ass down,” I snap at him. He glares at me, and I glare right back. I’m not backing down on this. No matter how much I want to shit my pants right now.
He doesn’t sit his ass back down, but he doesn’t speak up again, so I count that as a win.
“The men we brought in today said they had orders to bring in a specific girl, and then they brought in the wrong one. They were supposed to take you,” officer Vargas says apprehensively.
Hearing that should make me anxious, but instead it’s just making me more sure.
“We usually don’t like using civilians to help with operations. But in this case you might be our only in. We don’t know if Meggy is still with these people, or if she’s gone already. I can’t tell you all of the specifics, but in the very worst case we’ll get some new leads to bring in who we need to bring in.” He looks all the guys over, and I wonder what he’s trying to find when he’s looking at them. “Let me talk to my colleagues and see what I can do. I’ll get back to you.” He lets out a massive sigh before he turns around and walks away.
That leaves me and the boys in silence.
“Soooooooo,” Jonah says with a huge smirk when he finally breaks the silence, “you love Gil, do you?”
Dean starts making annoying kissing sounds as I feel my cheeks heating up, and soon all the others are cracking up and joining in. Except for Gil, he’s side smirking at me. He walks over, pulls me out of my chair and presses me against him. I have to look up to connect to his eyes, and for this little moment in time, everything seems to stop. No matter how bizarre the situation is we’re in, we have this tiny moment in our own little bubble.
“Love you too,” he says, before giving me a kiss on the nose.
It might be the sweetest kiss I’ve ever gotten.