Conviction: Book 3 of the Detective Ryan Series Read Online Free Page B

begin my fight. I didn’t want to be the moping, sad woman that barely left the room for anything more than to eat, use the bathroom or take a shower.
    The thought to call Dr. Barron was still fresh on my mind. I wanted to book the appointment as soon as I could. When I reached for my phone, I noticed the fifteen missed calls from Rodney. Curious about what was so urgent he called that many times, I decided to listen to the voicemails.
    The first two were hang-ups. Then I heard his voice. “Ali, we need to talk. I need you to listen to me.”
    The next message was another plea attempt for me to listen to him, and then things got weird. I didn’t hear Rodney’s voice. There was silence at first, but then a stronger male voice came on.
    “Fuck you, bitch,” the voice said. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place a name or face to it.
    There were several voicemails from three different voices. Each one was a brief message calling me disgusting names and saying how I turned my back on my badge and the force.
    Rodney’s voice was the only one on the final voicemail. “Ali, I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.” He sounded completely drunk, like he wouldn’t remember anything in the morning. “We’ve been partners since you came to the station. We knew every bit of each other’s’ lives. I’ve had your back every step of the way, and done all that I could to protect you and your sister. All I asked was for you to listen to me, and you couldn’t even do that.” His voice got angrier as he continued. “Hell Ali, I would’ve taken a bullet for you and Amanda, but you can’t even give me a minute of your time. Fucking can’t even give me the benefit of the doubt.” He lowered his voice. “Maybe the guys were right. Maybe he meant more to you than us.”
    When the last message ended, I collapsed on the bed. Rodney’s words cut me deep. I loved Matthew, but I always had the backs of every officer in the station including his. Knowing they thought I betrayed them hurt, but it infuriated me even more. If they thought for one moment I would take the insults laying down, they were in for a rude awakening.
    The station was quiet when I entered. It was weird being back, even though the last time I was there was a week ago. The anger that was bottled up from the voicemails, bubbled to the top and was bursting at the seams to be released. The door slammed shut behind me, causing every officer to turn towards the noise.
    Instead of apologizing, I glared back at each one of them until I picked out which voice I remembered. Seeing Officers Davis and Lombardo huddled together with smirks on their face confirmed they were two of the men on the voicemails. I was just about to rip them a new one when I heard the painstakingly familiar voice of my lieutenant.
    “Detective Ryan, what are you doing here?”
    “I’m here to sort out a few things.”
    I knew he didn’t like the sound of my voice, especially when he stared at me and folded his arms across his chest. “My office, now,” he commanded. Sulking like a scorned child, I marched into his office. He closed the door behind us and took a seat at his desk. “Now, you mind telling me what this is really about?”
    “I woke up this morning to fifteen missed calls and voicemails from Rodney, and three other men. Two of them I believe are Davis and Lombardo.”
    “That’s a strong accusation to throw at them.”
    I queued up the voicemails and shoved my phone at the lieutenant. He listened to every single message. His face went from amused to annoyed to angry to downright pissed off.
    “Can I go now?” I asked.
    “No, I will handle those two, and will find out who the third person is. They will be reprimanded immediately.”
    “Reprimanded? Seriously? You’ll yell at them. They’ll apologize and swear they won’t do it again. And the moment you turn your back, they’ll laugh their asses off mocking you, and do whatever they want.”
    “So what do you