The Cardigans (Criminal Intentions, Season One #1)

by Cole McCade

Say what you would about suburban upper middle class elite, but Mrs. Park was clearly a woman who’d go down before she’d betray her husband. Ride or die came in flavors of taupe.

Yet he didn’t know how to feel about the fact that for once, he hadn’t done it alone. He might not have been able to do it alone, without the push and pull of his mind against Khalaji’s.

She stared at him as if he should understand. As if she needed him to understand, as if she saw something inside him that knew exactly what could drive someone to do the things she’d done. As if he could understand desperation without end, and the darkness that pure and aching longing could breed.

“After closing a case…it takes me back to Afghanistan. Most people use shell-shock to describe something instant. An explosive shock in the moment. But that’s not what it is. It’s the combination of dull weariness and constant keyed-up tension that comes with living twenty-four seven in the middle of active warfare. And when you step out of it…” He shook his head. “You don’t fit in the world anymore. You don’t know how to fit in the world.” He slid his hands into the pockets of the slacks, shrugging. “I always need a day after cases like this. Just to remind myself where my edges are.”