(BOOK 2, SEQUEL TO RISKS OF LOVING YOU) Pains Of Loving You.

(November 17th)   Ben    I sit in the waiting room at St. Joseph's Emergency Room. My left leg taps animpatient rhythm on the floor. I scan the room for the seventh time, mentally takingnotes on each person in sight. I check the hallway leading to the exit. No one. Icheck the hallway behind the front desk. No one. But someone could beapproaching, just out of view. I casually stand and walk toward the entrance to theER, scanning for signs of anyone I might have come into contact with during my twoyears working undercover. I look for signs that anyone besides me is carrying. Sharpangles where there shouldn't be any, strange bulges in pockets or at thewaistband.I turn and stroll up to the desk. The nurse looks up, but when she sees it's only me,she goes back to her work. I look through the small office back to the hallw

November 21st   Ben  I roll my head around my shoulders, several hours of hunching over case files takingits toll on my neck. I hear a satisfying pop as my vertebrae realign.Jones's eyes flick up to me. Her annoyance isn't visibly present on her face, but Iknow it's simmering under the surface. I crack my knuckles and her eyes narrow.She glares at me for a few seconds before bringing her expression back to neutralas her attention returns to the report in her hands.I've never been out on duty with Jones before - hardly knew her, really - but by now,we've become acquainted with each other's quirks and pet peeves. Jones and Ihave been pouring over the case files for the Clarence family murders since the nightwe brought Anastasia here. Or Tayja, as it seems she was called. I don't understandthe need for an exotically spelled nickname.The more

(Ben POV)   Somehow, the more time I spend with this girl, the more of a mystery she becomes.A week ago, she was a silent, timid, unresponsive girl. She didn't talk, she didn't cry, she didn't interact with anyone at all. Then yesterday a switch flipped and suddenly she was talking, yelling, glaring, displaying emotions, arguing, and describing in excruciating detail the most horrible moments of her life. I half-expected to wake up this morning to discover it had all been a dream I'd created to finally get this case moving along.And the few details I was able to pull out of her about the time she spent in Alaska -I'm still not sure whether to believe her about that. Hitchhiking across the Alaskan wilderness in a blizzard with a trucker she didn't know? The girl I dragged from that mildewy prison cell couldn't have done all that. But the woman who demanded a gun yesterday afternoon could have. That woman was brave, fier