Page 16 of No Cap

“I’m sorry, honey, but no. She’s not okay.”

She’s not okay.

She’s not okay.

She’s not okay.

“Is she…” I hesitated.

I couldn’t finish the sentence. Couldn’t say it.

“Sorry, honey. It’s not good,” Officer Carter murmured, using that endearment again that had a way of warming my heart while simultaneously breaking it.

I sank to my knees in the middle of my bedroom.

Nothing could take the heartache that passed through me at the news of my best friend being gone.

“What happened?” I asked.

Instead of answering, though, he said, “Can you come over to Keda’s place?”

Which led me to now, standing in front of the man who’d called me earlier, giving me the warm fuzzies while also scaring the shit out of me.

“What happened?” I asked again.

He stared at me for a long time, then jerked his head at his brother. “Can you go find out where… never mind. There he is.”

‘He’ obviously meant the man with the police cruiser.

The man driving pulled the cruiser right up to the curb, then got out, handing the officer in front of me the keys.

I studied the man who got the keys from the other officer.

He was obviously this man’s superior in some way.

Officer Quincy Carter was tall, well built, and intense.

I couldn’t see much of his face due to the darkness surrounding us, but it didn’t take a genius to match him up to the man who’d come into the ER wanting me to move my car in the middle of an emergency.

I also knew his name from the ticket that’d been tacked to my windshield earlier.

Even slightly wet from the misting rain, it’d been blatant and bold enough for me to see.

“Come over here, please,” the officer urged, leaving his brother and the inferior officer behind.

I followed behind, nervous.

Which obviously was when I started blurting out my words.

“You’re the one who issued me that parking violation earlier,” I muttered darkly.

“I am?” he asked in surprise.

“You are,” I confirmed.

“How do you know it was me?” Officer Quincy Carter asked.

I gave him a narrow-eyed look. “I know it’s you because how many Q. Carters can there be on the Dallas Police Department?”