I’d only been adding a little artwork to the face of one of the fine establishments on Fifth. This guy was visibly eye-fucking a strange woman at night under the guise of law and order.

I shook my head, ready to speak up to him, when she put her other palm on my chest, siding a little closer and putting her body between him and me. She tipped her head to one side, and her silky curls fell over her shoulder when she whispered, “Honey…”

The desperate saccharine tone in her words caught my attention, and I finally dragged my gaze to meet hers.

And that’s when I knew exactly who she was.

She was the fucking bane of my existence. My fucking nightmare and my most lucid dream.

“Can we go home now? It’s getting chilly out here.”

I almost shook with her lie-riddled words as memories doused my ability to manage my emotions.

“Please?” Her words clung to mine, begging.

My teeth ached with the pain from grinding them, hindering my ability to speak. I forced a jerky nod but what I wanted was to tear into her.

“Well…” The officer was still lingering, this time his gaze not on me but on her ass.

I grunted at him, and he smirked. The fucker thought he had the upper hand, but one perfectly placed blow to his nose, and he’d be good as dead.

His glance traveled up her form before he stopped on my face. “Have a good night, then, kids.”

As soon as he turned and walked away, I tore the officer’s card from her hand and threw it in the garbage behind me. “I wouldn’t let you call him, even if I did give a shit about you.”

Her face fell, and her hand dropped from mine. “Wait. I just saved your ass. Call me crazy, but I thought you’d be a little more grateful, Elis.”

“Stop using my name.” I started walking, but unfortunately, she kept up.

“I know it’s been a while, but unless you changed your name—”

“I didn’t. I can’t stand the way it sounds on your lips.”

That stopped her in her tracks. “Maybe I should run back to Officer Feinman and tell him where he can find those cans of spray paint you tossed right before I walked up.”

I froze, chest heaving with the adrenaline still coursing through my system. “Wouldn’t shock me. Once a stuck-up bitch, always a stuck-up bitch.”

“I’m loyal to a fault, not something you would know anything about.”