Desperate Choices by Kathy Ivan Page A

his heart. The relationship between them had been pretty rocky, true, but there had been some good times, too.
    He almost hadn’t asked her out at first, not wanting to come between Theresa and his brother. Then he finally convinced himself they might have a chance.
    When they first started dating, it had been so sweet. She had opened up like a blooming flower, glowing and coming alive before his eyes. Then he ruined it with harsh words and even harsher accusations. He cringed at the taunts he’d thrown at her.
    He deliberately sabotaged any chance at a relationship because he’d been afraid. What he felt for her scared him, made him want things he had no business wanting. Max had nothing to offer a decent woman like Theresa, so he’d done what he felt was best and pushed her away.
    Regret filled him now at the loss of what could have been. Upstairs, in his office, he was greeted by the same scene he saw day after day. Old, care-worn furniture, good quality pieces but showing their age. Filing cabinets buried under mounds of paper waiting to be put in their proper place.
    He bent and picked up the mail scattered on the floor, leafing through it as he sat in his leather chair, propping his feet up on the edge of the desk. Separating the envelopes, he catalogued each one: bill, bill, advertisement, junk, junk. At the next one, he froze.
    The upper left corner showed the embossed address of the Shreveport District Attorney’s office. Tossing the rest of the mail down on the desktop, he opened the center drawer and grabbed his letter opener. His fingers trembled slightly as he slid the sharp blade along the envelope’s top edge then pulled out the folded sheets.
    He braced himself, expecting the worst. As he skimmed the letter, his shoulders slumped. Relief flooded through him. He’d been completely exonerated on all counts. The guilty party had been caught, clearing him and his former partner of all suspicion. The Shreveport Police Department even offered him his job back, reinstated at full pay and benefits, if he wanted to return to the force. Fat chance.
    Joe and he had worked a huge drug bust. A large portion of the drugs and weapons somehow disappeared from the evidence room. When the stuff was found on the streets again, they were accused of stealing it to sell for profit. They were both suspended, and theinvestigation had dragged on forever. With the insurmountable evidence growing, he and Joe had been encouraged to resign.
    Joe was the first to quit. He had a family to protect. Eventually, Max did the same, and moved back home to New Orleans.
    Two long years and he finally had a resolution. Max knew he should feel angry, but he didn’t. He’d been disillusioned by the whole fiasco. He loved being a cop, loved everything about it. Because of one stupid man’s greed, two lives had been irrevocably changed.
    The knowledge it was finally over, even after two long years, should mean something, yet he still felt empty. It’s probably the case, Tommy being missing. He’d find time to feel good when Tommy was home safe and sound.
    “Man, who are you kidding?” He strode over to the window and leaned against the sill. He wasn’t thinking about Tommy right now, he was thinking about Theresa. Again. More and more she filled his thoughts, a daily distraction Max couldn’t afford.
    His mind returned to the research he’d done on psychics. Theresa admitted she hadn’t had her abilities all her life and it made him wonder what kind of trauma she must have gone through to bring her latent talents forward.
    Worst-case scenarios raced through his mind, each more horrible than the last. He knew from past experience just how intolerably cruel man could be to his fellow man. Anyone working in law enforcement encountered it on a daily basis. The thought she had undergone something so bad she couldn’t even speak about it made him sick.
    It ate at him, the not knowing. The knowledge that she was pushing him away, just as he