Daddy Issues (Bright and Fletcher) by Jonathan Watkins

Author:Jonathan Watkins [Watkins, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

-10-

Schultz put his department-issued sedan in gear and pulled out into the downtown noon-hour rush. His face was still a map of frustrations.

“What it is, is a wasted hour,” he continued, picking up the fuming complaint he’d begun as soon as he and Issabella had reunited at the courthouse entrance. “Hours are precious. And she should know that, damn it. Hell, every minute is precious in this sort of thing…”

He trailed off and regarded the stop-and-go traffic in front of him with open hostility. Beside him in the passenger seat, Issabella felt a twinge of sympathy for the FBI Agent. In the initial hours after Darren had disappeared, she had overheard more than one heated phone call between Schultz and his superiors in the field office. He had cajoled and wrestled them until they’d agreed to appoint him as the lead agent on the case. From what she could guess from only hearing his side of those conversations, Agent Schultz had pulled in all his favors to ensure he was the point of the spear aimed at finding Darren.

“Isaac.”

“It was a waste of time.”

“Isaac.”

“I’m sorry. Christ. Look, we’ll get you back and—“

“Thank you. Thank you for what you’re doing.”

They were stopped at a light, and Schultz spared her a pained look. For the first time since they’d met a year before, the man looked every bit his age. Lines of exhaustion hung beneath his eyes. Issabella doubted Schultz had slept a wink since hearing the voice of Darren’s kidnapper on her cell phone.

“It’s my job,” he said.

“It’s more than that. I want you to know that I know that. And that it means something to me. It means a lot.”

The exhaustion seemed to lift just slightly, and Schultz offered her a faint smile. For a moment, she was certain he was going to say something personal. She was not a particularly unobservant person. She knew that Special Agent Isaac Schultz was interested in her—had been ever since they had first met on the porch of her childhood home a year ago. He’d been honorable, though, since it was clear that she had chosen to partner with Darren both professionally and personally. He had not pursued her.

Now, sitting in the rows of traffic, he seemed primed to broach the issue. It was in his eyes and in the way he hesitated with putting words to how he felt. She recognized it and was amazed that she didn’t know if she wanted him to find the words he was searching for or not. There was a part of her that was flattered, to be sure. He was, by any rational woman’s standards, an ideal man—forthright, honest and strong. He was a man whose moral compass only pointed in one direction.

But a larger part of her felt miserable and unworthy just for entertaining the prospect of letting Schultz express his feelings to her. She didn’t share those feelings, and Darren was missing. Darren was suffering. And the only reason in the world that was true was because he’d put himself in front of her and tried to keep her safe from harm.

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