Page 43 of True North

Simmons’s own grew redder by the second. “I’m going by the book⁠—”

Iris cut him off. “When the fuck was this book written? 1950?”

As much as I agreed with her, it hadn’t escaped my attention that the louder the voices got, the more the woman on the couch shrank into herself. She didn’t need this, and though Iris was standing right there, and every piece of me wanted to reach out and pull her against me, the victim took my top priority.

“Get out of here. I’ll handle it from here on out.”

Simmons’s entire body jerked backward in offense. “Excuse me? This isn’t your goddamn scene!”

“It is now. As the senior officer, I’m taking control.” I took a step closer, lowering my voice so only he could hear. “You clearly don’t have the first fucking clue how to do this job. You’re a disgrace to the badge, and I can’t wait for the day to come that I get to rip that fucking thing off your chest. Now, you’ve already made me say it once. This is the last time I’ll repeat myself. Get out of my goddamn scene or I’ll remove you myself.”

He gnashed his teeth, the vein in his forehead throbbing so hard it was a wonder it didn’t burst. “You’re gonna regret this.”

With that, he whipped around and stomped out of the house.

I felt like I’d run a full marathon by the time I pulled into Iris’s driveway several hours later. These kinds of calls were always the hardest for me. It took me back to all the times I’d seen the bruises Cora tried her hardest to hide. How he’d tried to smile through the pain and act like she was okay.

But what happened today wasn’t about me, and I had to keep my personal feelings out of it for the sake of Iris’s co-worker, Angela. The woman had been brutalized, and it was my job to get her the justice she deserved, no matter how hard the other assholes in my department fought against me.

After taking her statement, she’d given the okay to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital so we could catalogue her injuries. Iris had stood by her the entire time, holding her hand in the exam room while, once again, I waited out in the hall as that all-too-familiar helplessness pressed down on my chest.

My girl had come out long enough to tell me she was staying with her friend and planned to give her a ride home when all was said and done. With nothing else to do at the hospital, I headed out in search of Matthew Wilkes.

The piece of shit had the nerve to look surprised to find me on the doorstep of his hotel room, where he was staying while he used house hunting as a ruse to violate women. As I’d cuffed him and placed him under arrest, it had taken everything in my power to keep from breaking the fucker’s nose when he kept asking what he’d done wrong.

It was men like him who made it impossible to defend our gender, and I’d given up trying a long time ago.

Throwing my car into park, I let out a heavy sigh, my shoulders heavy as I looked through the windshield at Iris’s house. The windows were lit up from the inside, the colorful curtains casting different shades of light outward into the night.

I was quickly discovering that was Iris. A burst of happy color in the darkness. A light that I felt guiding me out of the shadows I’d lived in for so long. Shadows that were so ingrained in me I wasn’t sure I was ready to leave them behind. Not when they’d made me who I had eventually become.

A small voice in the back of my head had been telling me to go home. Crack open a beer and sit with the pressure of the day. That was what I would have done in the past, using it to strengthen my purpose. But being with Iris was changing me.

That was why I was here.

I’d seen something in my little flower today that I couldn’t get out of my head. For one brief moment, I’d gotten a glimpse of her own shadows, and I couldn’t ignore the need I felt to get to her and make sure she was all right.

My legs felt like they were encased in cement as I climbed the front steps and rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, the door opened, but it wasn’t Iris on the other side.

“Hi,” her mother, Cheryl, greeted. The smile on her face awash with sympathy. My girl told her mom about what had happened. “Heard you guys had a rough day. Come on in.” She stepped aside to allow me entrance, and if I thought the home was bright and welcoming from the outside, it was nothing compared to what it felt like inside.

The only way I could describe it was to say it felt like stepping right into a warm hug.

“How are you, North?” Cheryl asked, kindness in her tone as she placed a hand on my arm.

“I’m—” It was on the tip of my tongue to finish with okay. Because that was how I always answered. I was okay. Okay, okay, okay. But I couldn’t bring myself to speak the lie out loud this time. “I need to see Iris. Is she here?”

The expression Cheryl wore told me she understood. I didn’t need to say more, which was a relief. “Iris is in her workshop out back.” I took a step in that direction, but was stayed by her small, delicate hand on my chest. Given her size and how frail she seemed from her cancer treatment, there was a surprising amount of pressure behind her touch. “Today was hard for you, but my girl is out there right now, lost in the past. Do me a favor and bring her back to the here and now, would you?”

All I could do was nod, the enormous weight of responsibility resting on top of me. I wasn’t sure I was the right man for the task she’d given me, but I would do my absolute best.

I moved through the house, taking nothing in as I hurried to get to the only person I wanted to see. I pushed through the sunroom’s back door and headed straight for the building at the back of the property. It looked like it might have been a barn at one time but had been converted into whatever Iris used it for now.

I rapped my knuckles against the wood door but didn’t get an answer. When I pushed it open a second later, I was surprised to see the large, open space filled with different pieces of old furniture. Some of it looked like it needed to be thrown in the dumpster, while the rest appeared to be in different stages of repair.

The sound of sandpaper against wood drew my focus to the middle of the room, and I took my first full breath in hours the instant my gaze landed on her.

She couldn’t hear me, thanks to the earbuds in her ears, so I gave myself a second to fully take her in, needing that time to wrap my head around her impossible beauty.