Drained Read Online Free PDF Page B

Aside from being made fun of for looking the part.”
    “We talked on the phone like four times,” I said.
    She ran her hand along the side of my head, staring at me with her dark eyes. “I don’t care. Tell me again,” she said.
    “You first.”
    “Same old same. Make sure everyone is doing their job. Find traffickers, take down traffickers. Okay, now you.”
    “It was fine. I met the team and got acclimated. Learned some things.” I paused. “They gave me my first assignment.”
    She furrowed her eyebrows. “They put you on something already? You didn’t mention that part.”
    “Yeah, I was waiting to tell you until I was home. I’m going to need to pack tonight. I leave in the morning for Chicago.”
    Karen snapped her head back. “You’re shitting me, right? They are sending you out on something after being there a day. For how long?”
    I shrugged. “They didn’t mention that part.”
    “Hank. Look at this place. We’re not even settled in, and you have to leave?”
    “It’s the job, I guess,” I said.
    She let out a hard breath and dropped her hands from my neck. She walked toward the stairs to head up to the bedroom and spoke over her shoulder. “Okay, well, we’re definitely going out, then. I’ll help you pack when we get home.”
    I followed her. “Sure,” I said. “Sorry that I have to leave.”
    “No. I know. It just seems a little rushed to me.” Karen reached the top of the stairs and turned left into the master bedroom. She headed to the closet door and pulled it open before unbuttoning her blazer and grabbing a hangar.
    I stood in the bedroom doorway and leaned against the sill. “Trial by fire, or so that’s what Ball said. May as well see how I do right out of the gates.”
    Karen hung her jacket and began looking through her dresses for what I assumed was something to wear out on the town.
    “Little black one,” I said.
    “You think?” she asked, looking over at me.
    I nodded.
    She pulled the little black one from the hangar and held it up before her. “So are they sending you with someone or the whole team or what?”
    “Me and another agent.”
    She brushed over the front of the dress with the back of her hand. “What’s he like? Do you think you’ll work well together?”
    “Um.” I scratched the back of my head. Karen could be a little emotional on certain topics as of late. I figured being sent out of town with another woman could be one of those topics. We were trying to have a child, and she was taking some things to help us with that, one problem being the emotional side effects of the fertility aids the doctor prescribed. I gave her the truth and braced myself. “It’s actually a she.”
    Her head snapped around, and her eyes locked on me. “A she?”
    “Yeah.”
    Karen looked away. “What’s her name?”
    “Agent Harper.” I hoped a title and surname would end the conversation—it didn’t.
    “What’s she like?” Karen asked.
    “Seemed professional.”
    “Oh,” Karen said. “Married?”
    “Don’t know.”
    She looked over at me and cocked her head to one side. That was a common pose when she wasn’t buying what I was selling.
    “You didn’t look for a ring?” she asked.
    “I don’t know. Looking for rings on women’s fingers isn’t really something I do.”
    She was quiet for a moment. “Well, what does she look like?”
    I let out a breath. She wasn’t going to quit with her interrogation.
    “Is that going to matter for catching a potential serial killer?” I asked.
    “I’m just asking.”
    “I don’t know, Karen. Why does it matter?”
    “So she’s good looking.” Karen hung the dress back on the rack.
    I rolled my eyes and cracked my neck from side to side. I pulled myself from the doorway and walked over to her. She gave me her back and acted as though she was looking for another dress. I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her on the side of the neck. “Do you really think there’s a reason for you to be