Before That Night: Unfinished Love Series: Caine & Addison, Book 1 Read Online Free Page B

knew for sure was that she loved and cared for her two younger siblings with all the ferocity of a mama lion who would do just about anything for her cubs.
    Hence the festive egg décor that looked totally out of place on the iconic black, red, and white checkerboard interior of the diner, with its classic steel and glass block trim.
    Rumor had it that Joe, the owner of Joe’s Diner, purposely decorated his place with all the quintessential old diner touches to ruffle feathers with the nearby upscale residential area community board, who’d apparently looked down on him and his diner when he first bought the quaint coffee shop that once sat there years ago. Like its owner, the resulting diner thus had a lot of hard, borderline ornery edges, to accompany the bold, blunt, and refreshingly basic menu.
    It was like a second home for Caine. And most of Creek Hills’ finest, for that matter. There weren’t many guys on the force who didn’t frequent the diner at least once a day like he did. Though granted, Caine had an additional reason for having nearly all his dinners there.
    And presently, that reason was stepping out from the counter and heading his way.
    Seeing Addison’s warm, but visibly wiped out smile, he immediately scolded, “You’re working too hard again, sweets.”
    “Right back at you,” she tossed back, without missing a beat. “Kylie said you’ve been at her school doing police presentations all week long.”
    Caine shrugged. “The principal asked. It fit in with the hours I had off. No big deal.”
    She gave him a stern look. “You work all night long and then volunteer for everything under the sun during the days. Seriously, do you ever sleep?”
    Not if I can help it.
    Even after eight years on the force, Caine still sucked at not letting his job affect his sleep. As a result, his non-working hours usually consisted of him beating out some of his demons with whoever was up for some time in the ring until he eventually exhausted himself enough to drag his ass home and pass out.
    Lately though, he’d also been volunteering for as many school and community events as possible. Not just to keep from staring at the ceiling above his bed for hours on end, but also to try and let some goodness and light back in his life.
    It was a long time coming.
    The last case before he’d put in for his transfer over to the Creek Hills precinct had eaten away at his soul like acid for months, until nearly robbing him of his faith in not just his badge, but humanity as a whole when they finally caught the dirty cop whose actions inevitably resulted in the loss of a lot of innocent lives just weeks before Christmas.
    The officer in question had been a friend. It didn’t matter his reasons, or that he’d never meant for to get in as deep as he had. A dirty cop was a dirty cop.
    In the same way that a friend was a friend.
    Meaning it was just that simple.
    Even when it wasn’t.
    Going to Rick’s half-empty plain-clothes funeral…consoling Rick’s wife and kids as they tried to make sense of everything from the things Internal Affairs had discovered to his decision to blow his own brains out right in front half the force…wondering nonstop ever since if there was something they could’ve done to help Rick before it’d gotten that far. All of it had taken a toll on Caine over the past months.
    Apparently, ‘grouchy sonofabitch’ was one of the nicer descriptions of him lately.
    Funny thing was that unlike most folks who’d given him a wide berth when he’d first moved to Creek Hills, Addison had seemed to like his grouchiness. Then again, she was also the only person he’d met so far that seemed to think her own boss Joe—who was grumpy enough to make Caine look like the happy dwarf in comparison—was some sort of loveable, jolly saint.
    Granted, around Addison, they both did seem to become better versions of themselves on their best behavior, but still. She just saw them through a different lens than the