Chasing Morgan Read Online Free Page B

need of someone to comfort him, she’d call out of the blue. It could be late at night, or in the middle of the day, but she’d know he needed a shoulder to lean on and a friend’s ear to bend. She’d listen, and then remind him he wasn’t alone. Every time they spoke she reminded him of that simple fact. She might not be with him physically, but she lurked in the shadows of his mind.
    It was a comfort and a curse.
    Loneliness grew in his soul like a vine, wrapping itself around everything in his life. Watching his friends and their happy family lives took its toll. He wanted so much to have the kind of life Sam, Jack, and Cameron enjoyed with their wives and children.
    Instead, he sat in his beige walled cubicle typing out the latest reports for the case that Morgan had helped them solve. The walls were closing in on him. He stared across the aisle at Sam’s back as he wrote out other reports. The constant clicking of his partner’s fingers on the keyboard drilled into his head and made the splitting headache that had taken hold hours ago pound with every tap of the keys.
    He took in his life, sitting in his cramped cubicle next to his partner, eating his partner’s wife’s outstanding food, drinking stale coffee, and wondered why he couldn’t make a relationship with a woman work.
    Doo, do, do, dooo —
    “You really need to change the ring tone on your phone, man.” Sam smiled.
    Tyler frowned at the thing.
    “I’m just happy I finally figured out how to get the thing to stop beeping every time I have a message. Why can’t they make a cell phone that’s simple? Punch in the number you want to call and it goes through. What do I care if it can access the Internet or play music? I have a computer and a radio to do those things. It just makes the damn things more expensive and more difficult to use.”
    Doo, do, do, dooo —
    “Answer the damn phone and make it stop that ridiculous ring.”
    “Reed.”
    Happy to hear the voice on the line, he tipped his head back and silently swore at himself for forgetting to call her.
    “I’m working. I can’t come over now.”
    Tyler rolled his shoulders and rubbed two fingers at his temple. He’d been working nonstop for more than two weeks. He hadn’t seen or taken Maria out on a date. He’d missed more than one of her calls. More nights than he could count, he got home too late to return her call.
    “I’m sorry I haven’t seen you in the last couple of weeks. We made the arrest last night. I just have some paperwork to finish and there’s a press conference in…” Tyler glanced at his watch. Not much time left before his meeting with his boss, Agent Davies, about the press conference. “I’ve got twenty minutes to finish the reports and see my boss before he makes a statement to the press. Once that’s done, I can go home.”
    He sighed and ran his fingers through his already disheveled hair. Exhausted, he hadn’t slept more than three or four hours a night for the past four days. He needed a decent meal and twelve straight hours of sleep. Either he saw Maria, or got some sleep. If he wanted to make a relationship work, he needed to work to make it a relationship.
    “How about I pick you up in about two hours and I’ll take you out to dinner at Decadence at the Merrick Building. We’ll have a nice dinner and spend some time together.”
    She let loose a happy squeal, telling him he’d made her happy enough to forgive him—this time.
    “I’ll call you when I head out.”
    Sam had this same conversation several times with women he’d dated. That is, until he’d met and married Elizabeth. One in a million, she understood his work and the long hours he put in. She never failed to surprise him. When he walked through the door, she’d kiss him like it might be the last time, and they’d share their time together like a precious gift. He’d almost lost her more than once, and they both knew his job was dangerous. The time they shared together was