Guilty By Association

Chapter 22 - Associating With a Cop

Chapter 22 – Associating With a Cop

 

Kelsey was sitting in her living room, thinking about the events that had transpired in the past twelve hours and sighed.

How had she agreed to what Alex said?

No, she wasn’t leaving LA. She didn’t care what the consequences were, but she was adamant about this. She refused to let someone as egotistical and heartless as Caleb Rocha interfere with her life. What was the worst he could do? Kill her?

If she agreed with Alex and went into Witness Security, then Caleb Rocha would win. She would have her whole life taken away from her. Wasn’t that equivalent to killing her? No one wanted to understand what her job meant to her.

It was her life.

She knew for a fact that if she asked Alex to abandon his job because his life was in danger, he wouldn’t do it. Why was she any different? She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t going to be a weak damsel in distress. She wasn’t going to hide. She was going to be strong and stubborn and as soon as Alex arrived to take her away, she was going to tell him she wasn’t going.

He’d caught her by surprise this morning, but now things were different. She’d had plenty of time to think it over and she knew she wasn’t going to change her mind. Her mind was made. She was definitely not hiding.

“What am I going to do, Professor?” Kelsey gazed at her only true companion hopelessly. Grizzly, as she’d renamed him, was lounging on her couch without as much as a meow. She sighed again. “I can't believe I’m talking to a cat.”

Grizzly meowed, getting up on all fours. Kelsey watched him, silently wondering if her cat was trying to give her a sign. Instead, Grizzly just lazily walked over to Kelsey’s front door and glanced back at her, waiting for her to open it.

Following his lead, she glanced out the window and saw a familiar car on her driveway. Kelsey made her way over to the door and peered through the peephole just as the doorbell rang. She undid her lock and slowly pulled the door open, not giving her cat the chance to jump.

Verona slipped through the door with a small smile on her face. “Hey Kelsey.”

“Hey.” Kelsey responded, surprised by her cousin’s unexpected visit. Verona never visited her that much before, but for the past few days, it seemed that her visits were becoming more and more consistent. “What are you doing here?”

“Want me to leave?” Verona raised an eyebrow.

“Of course not.” Kelsey instantly responded. “It’s just…I didn’t know you were coming today. That’s all.”

“Oh, yeah.” She agreed. “I came by to see Dylan this morning and decided to stop by here, too.”

“Dylan?” Kelsey grinned. “I take it your date went well?”

“Well?” Her cousin scoffed and rolled her eyes, dramatically. “If by well you mean horribly awful, then yes, it went well.”

“Why? What happened?”

“You’re just now asking? My date was a week ago. You should have asked me when I came by on Saturday morning.” Then she sighed. “Oh well. I didn’t want to talk about it, then. Do you know what he did? Do you know what Dylan Granger’s idea of a perfect date is?”

“What?” Kelsey asked, a little warily.

“He took me to the Santa Monica Boardwalk.” Verona said, with a sigh. “The water on the beach was freezing cold and he couldn’t even go on any of the rides because of his arm. All he did was won me a stuffed penguin from that one stand where you have to shoot the bull’s eye.”