Begging for a Second Chance (Sienna Sloan and Jarred Sterling) novel Chapter 148

The phone rang endlessly before it was finally answered.

But the voice that came through wasn't Jarred's unmistakable baritone. It was Declan's, sounding painfully cautious and polite.

"Madam."

Sienna's fingers tightened slightly around her phone.

"Declan, is Jarred there?"

"The boss isn't here right now," Declan replied. The background noise was suspiciously quiet, offering no clues to his location. "He stepped out first thing this morning and left his phone at the office. Do you need anything? I can pass along a message."

Sienna fell silent for a moment.

He left his phone at the office?

With Jarred's line of work, his phone was practically glued to his hand twenty-four hours a day. Forgetting it was out of the question.

More importantly, he was a massive control freak. His phone was his command center; he would never willingly let it out of his sight.

Unless... he left it on purpose.

"Madam?" Declan's voice echoed through the speaker. "Are you still there?"

"I'm here," Sienna snapped back to reality. "Please tell him I've been discharged. I'll be waiting for him at City Hall tomorrow morning at eight."

Declan hesitated slightly. "Understood. I'll pass your exact words along to the boss."

"Thank you."

Sienna hung up.

She set the phone on the nightstand and stared blankly at the screen.

For some reason, an unsettling feeling washed over her.

Seven years was a long time. Even a cold stone would have warmed up by now, let alone a living, breathing person.

She had grown so accustomed to Jarred's presence, used to finding traces of him in the corners of her life, used to measuring her own emotions against his moods.

Now that she was cutting the cord, the wound wasn't going to heal overnight. It was bound to sting for a while.

It'll only hurt for a little bit, she reminded herself.

Sienna tossed and turned all night.

Again and again, thirteen calls in total, all met with dead air.

A flare of anger ignited in her chest.

Jarred was playing her!

She should have known he gave in too easily. This was just another one of his sick mind games!

Sienna immediately called the precinct. The line was picked up by one of Jarred's squadmates.

"Dr. Sloan? The Captain isn't in today. Director Holden said he requested a leave of absence first thing this morning."

"A leave of absence?" Sienna's stomach dropped. "Why?"

"Uh... I'm not really sure. The higher-ups didn't say."

Hanging up, Sienna let out a cold scoff.

She had checked Jarred's schedule; he had no major operations lined up.

Besides, Jarred was the kind of maniac who showed up to work even with a gunshot wound. Since when did he just inexplicably take a day off?