The Case: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (The Catalyst Series Book 3)

  The Case

  Samantha M Thomas

  Copyright © 2023 by Samantha M Thomas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact [include publisher/author contact info].

  The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

  Book Cover by www.getcovers.com

  Edited by Victoria Ellis at Cruel Ink Editing and Designs.

  First edition 2023

  Contents

  . Chapter

  Content Warning

  1. Chapter 1

  2. Chapter 2

  3. Chapter 3

  4. Chapter 4

  5. Chapter 5

  6. Chapter 6

  7. Chapter 7

  8. Chapter 8

  9. Chapter 9

  10. Chapter 10

  11. Chapter 11

  12. Chapter 12

  13. Chapter 13

  14. Chapter 14

  15. Chapter 15

  16. Chapter 16

  17. Chapter 17

  18. Chapter 18

  19. Chapter 19

  20. Chapter 20

  21. Chapter 21

  22. Chapter 22

  23. Chapter 23

  24. Chapter 24

  25. Chapter 25

  26. Chapter 26

  27. Chapter 27

  28. Chapter 28

  29. Chapter 29

  30. Chapter 30

  31. Chapter 31

  32. Epilogue

  33. Acknowledgements

  Also By

  Sometimes it takes a while to really find yourself. Sometimes you know exactly what you want to do with your life. And sometimes, those two people collide and create a fucking magical life. Don’t be afraid to chase unicorns.

  Content Warning

  This book had mentions of child neglect and child abuse, not shown directly on page. Also has brief mention of drug abuse.

  Chapter 1

  Larkin

  Fuck this day.

  I thump my head onto my desk, hoping it restarts this shit storm of a day. It doesn’t, of course, but I need to find a way to get five minutes to myself right now. The walls in my office feel like they’re shrinking in on me, and the throbbing behind my eyes is creeping into migraine territory.

  How am I supposed to work with he who must not be named when I literally can’t be in the same room with him for more than five minutes? How does our director think this is a good idea?

  When I came in today, I expected the usual. I’d get updates on the cases currently on my caseload and then check for any new ones that were assigned to me overnight. Being a social worker whose focus is on children is not for the faint of heart. My caseload is changing every single day, and most of the time our agency takes over when Child Protective Services needs an assist, or if the case needs more resources—we tend to have the especially difficult cases. I feel like my hands are tied, and it’s so difficult to make an actual difference in these kids’ lives. What makes this challenge ten times harder is the dick head himself… Theo.

  We’re what I would consider rivals. We hold the same job title, the same education, and the same letters after our names. The difference is Theo is a strait-laced, by the book asshole who makes it his life’s mission to block every good thing I do for our clients—and he claims it’s because I’m not “following the rules.”

  Listen, I know there are a ton of rules to follow when it comes to our job. For the most part, I do try to stick to those. However, when I have the power to help a kid who is being neglected or abused, you better believe I’m doing it—and I don’t care what rules I break to help them. I don’t break the rules in a detrimental way. I’m never at risk of losing my license, but I firmly believe that taking risks saves lives, and I won’t apologize for that…especially to the good little choir boy.

  Today I walked into work and had a memo that my boss, Scott, needed to see me when I got in. It’s not unusual to get briefed on particularly difficult or sensitive cases so I didn’t think anything of it. What I was not expecting was the saint himself sitting in one of the chairs in front of Scott’s desk.

  I felt his stare on the side of my face as I sat down before we both learned our normal working environment was about to get overhauled. I tuned out when I heard the words, “Jointly work on this case.” Working with Theo is literally my worst nightmare—and it’s coming true. As soon as we’re dismissed, I speed walk to my office in an attempt to get my head on straight.

  Now, it’s time to face the music and figure out what kind of a case needs two social workers involved. No matter how much I believe that working with Theo is a bad idea, I have to keep the end goal firmly in the forefront of my head. Helping this family, this child, is the only thing that matters.

  I open up the file Scott gave me. So far it seems pretty straight forward: single parent home, multiple reports by neighbors and teachers, and a poor attendance record. It looks like the current social worker on the case has used every resource at their disposal with CPS without pulling the child from the home. Huh, that’s a little bit of a red flag. Usually, if there’s abuse or neglect happening and you have plenty of evidence, the immediate response is to take temporary custody of the child.

  Deciding to withhold my judgement, I continue reading the report.

  Gavin, age eight, multiple truancies at school along with reports of suspicious bruising. Comes to school in dirty clothes and appears to have lost weight over the last year according to the school counselor.

  Looks like the social worker has been on this case for the last four years, and they’ve completed multiple interviews and in-home visits, but they’ve never found anything egregious enough to pull Gavin out of the home.

  The throbbing behind my eyes is turning into a full blown migraine while reading this report. There could be many reasons the social worker has taken the approach they have but considering the school alone has been reporting for the past two years, I’m not sure it was the correct one.

  I have a gut feeling that there is a lot more to this case that isn’t in the report, and on really tough cases, my gut is rarely wrong.

  “Knock, knock.” His deep voice pulls me out of analysis. How can a man as annoying as him have such a hot voice? It’s insulting to hot men everywhere.

  I look up to see him already walking in. He wastes no time plopping down in a chair and kicking back.

  “By all means, make yourself at home.” I gesture to the chair his ass is already sitting in.

  He smirks at my frustration, and my pulse spikes in irritation.

  “Have you had a chance to look at the basics on the case?” he asks, switching to professional mode. He may be on my shit list, but he knows what’s at stake in this job.

  “I was just looking at it. What’s your initial reaction when reading it?” I ask, curious if he’s getting the same feel as I am.

  “I think there’s more going on. I’m not sure what yet, but this feels bigger than just a case of neglect or abuse.” His brows are furrowed in concentration as I nod.

  “Agreed. The report feels too clean cut for there to have been no action thus far. How do you want to attack this since we both have to work on it?” I ask, barely keeping the frustration of having to work with my nemesis to myself.

  He meets my eyes and hesitates. I swear to God if he attempts to take point on this I will actually scream.

  “I think maybe we should try and split up initially. One of us takes the school, one of us takes the mother.”

  Not what I was expecting, but I’m glad he’s not trying to make this harder than it needs to be.

  I nod. “That works. Do you have a preference on which one you want to take?”

  “I can take the school. I’ll probably get more out of them since I have a more professional approach.”

  “Excuse me? Did you actually just say that?” Who the fuck does he think he is?

  “Come on, Larkin, we were doing so good.” He crosses his legs, looking comfortable and unfazed.

  “How did you think I was going to take it? You’re sitting here, in my office, saying I’m unprofessional. What the actual fuck, Theo?” I stare at him in disbelief.

  “I was just suggesting that my strength would be working with the school and yours would be talking to the mother.” He sighs, probably irritated that I blew up, or maybe just annoyed that we’re already fighting. Who knows.

  “Whatever you want, oh golden one.” The corner of my mouth lifts in a poorly concealed smirk.

  “You are a pain in the ass. I’m going to do some more research and then head over to the school tomorrow. I’ll keep you updated.” He doesn’t even wait for my response, just gets up and walks out the door, shutting it behind him.

  Pompous, self-righteous prick.

  I stare at my closed door until the ding of a text message pulls my focus.

  Bea: Hey, just confirming you’re still going to teach that class at Phoenix
House tonight at seven.

  Lovely, totally forgot about teaching tonight.

  Me: Wouldn’t miss it.

  My best friend, Bea, and her husband own Phoenix House, which is a mental health facility with access to group classes, therapists, and all sorts of other resources for mental health needs. It helps people before they get to a point of crisis. My other best friend, Pen, runs Ara, a women’s shelter that’s affiliated with Phoenix House. I’ve been teaching various classes between the two organizations on topics like generational trauma, coping mechanisms, and prepping for job success. It’s a lot of added work, but I’ll do anything it takes to help people with mental health issues thrive in their everyday life, especially when it comes to my best friends’ organizations.

  With the class on my schedule tonight, it leaves me with about four hours to start preparing to talk to the mother in question. I decide to start digging in now to get as much accomplished as possible and hopefully start making sense out of this new case.

  On the drive over to Phoenix House, my head is in overdrive trying to figure out my plan of attack tomorrow.

  So far, I’ve learned Gavin’s mother had him at seventeen and is working three jobs to pay the bills. He rides the bus to school, and by all accounts, rarely sees his mother. It’s sadly not an uncommon thing to see in this job but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard to witness day in and day out. I’ve figured out his mother, Sarah, works at a breakfast restaurant in the mornings. My goal is to go there tomorrow morning. I need to get a feel for her schedule in order to know how much time she’s spending at home. I just don’t want to make myself out to be her enemy—and that’s exactly what will happen once she realizes I’m digging around for info on her. Theo wasn’t wrong when he said my strength was more on the personal aspect, as much as I don’t want to admit it. I don’t want to alienate the mother; I want to work with her. My goal is always to do what’s best for the kids, but I also don’t want to separate a child from their family unless it’s absolutely needed. If I’m able to get her to open up a little bit, I may be able to figure out what’s really going on at home, even when she isn’t there.

  Before I know it, I’m pulling into the parking lot of Phoenix House. I have to get myself out of my social worker mindset and switch it to teacher mode.

  I don’t ever regret going into this profession, but there are days that get to me and make me question how long I can realistically stay in. I never thought I would be someone that would have to contend with burnout, but the thought pops into my head more often than not these days.

  Pressing my head against my steering wheel, I count to ten, hoping it re-centers my focus onto this class.

  Finally feeling in the right head space, I get out of my car and head inside.

  “Hey girl, how’s your day been?” Bea greets me with a hug. Not going to lie, her mama bear hugs sooth the part of me in complete turmoil over this new case.

  “It’s been long as hell.” I sigh.

  “Do you want to talk about it after your class?”

  “Actually, yeah.” Maybe talking out the joint case with Bea will help me figure out how to work with Theo, not against him. I may not like him, but I know we need to work together, and I won’t jeopardize what’s best for Gavin just because I despise Theo.

  “Sounds good. Just come find me in my office.” She walks toward the hallway that houses the offices as I head to the classroom I’m teaching in today.

  There are already two people here, but they’re what we consider regulars and know the drill.

  I sit down on the chair in the front of the classroom and start pulling all of my material out. I have a couple handouts for this particular class, which mainly focuses on coping mechanisms in a general scope. It’s a fun class to teach because everyone is there with different issues but being able to help each one figure out a coping mechanism that actually helps them deal better in high stress situations is so rewarding.

  As people start filing in, my thoughts turn back to Gavin’s case. I have to learn how to work with Theo peacefully. If we’re at each other’s throats the whole time, the only one who suffers is Gavin. I just hope Theo sees it the same way.

  I make a mental note to call my sister when I get out of here. Maybe she’ll have some magical insight for me.

  Chapter 2

  Theo

  Larkin Mathews.

  The woman I couldn’t stop watching when we both started at the company three years ago—she’s now also known as the bane of my existence.

  I’m not sure when we got off the rails exactly, but she’s turned into the colleague I avoid whenever possible. When I can’t avoid her, I push every single button I can just to piss her off. She’s unspeakably gorgeous with her long, red wavy hair and curvy body, but it doesn’t make up for the hatred she spews at me every time we talk. Lord knows for the first few months I tried to get her to see me in a different light, but the woman is stubborn to a fault.

  Her unorthodox approach to our job also makes my skin crawl, and the way she disregards the rules to get what she wants raises my blood pressure to unhealthy levels. We’re like fire and ice—oil and water—we repel each other whenever we come within six feet of each other. And I have to say, I fucking hate it. As much as I want to have the same level of hate she has for me, I just can’t. I’ve found her intriguing from day one, but she’s shut down any chance I had to get to know her more. Now, she just annoys the fuck out of me on a regular basis.

  Professionally, she stands for everything I’m against. She isn’t a rule follower, and in this job, rules save children. Personally, she turns me into a rage-filled asshole every time we’re close. I don’t know how she does it, but this isn’t who I am on a normal basis.

  Only with Larkin.

  When Scott called me into his office yesterday morning to go over a new case, I had no idea working with Larkin would be the end result. I’m honestly not sure why they need two social workers on this case, it’s highly unusual and I have a feeling it’s going to be the most challenging case of my career. Having to work closely with someone who barely tolerates me sounds like a fresh level of hell I want nothing to do with. It doesn’t help that she’s gorgeous to the level of distraction.

  My goal is to talk with Gavin’s school counselor and teacher this morning. I’m not expecting to get more information than what’s in his file just yet, but I do want to build a relationship with Gavin’s teacher as well as the school counselor. That way they either call me when something happens, or they feel more comfortable opening up about their suspicions. It’s a delicate balance and can be stressful as hell to get it right, but I thrive in this type of environment.

  I go over all of the files and notes that the counselor has on Gavin, and I speak with his teacher to go over all the reports she’s made this year. Overall, it was productive but not informative. I’m on my way back to the office now, so I shoot a text off to Larkin to see if she can meet me there to go over what we’ve both found on our separate missions this morning.

  Larkin: I’m already here so just come to my office when you get here.

  Me: Will do, have you eaten yet? I can pick up some food on my way in.

  I’m not sure why I even offer. Extending an olive branch to Larkin has always backfired on me.

  Larkin: I brought my lunch today. Thanks for the offer, though.

  At least she was nice about it this time. I run to my favorite sandwich place and get a Philly cheesesteak. I swear I get one at least once a week, they’re just that good. Making it back to the office in record time, I walk into Larkin’s office ten minutes later.

  “Do you mind if I eat in here while we go over things?” I ask as I sit down in one of her guest chairs.

  She looks up from her computer, stunned.

  “If I say yes, will that actually stop you?” she asks.

  “It would, actually.” Contrary to what she’s so dead set to believe, I’m not a compete asshole.

  Sighing, she rotates her chair to face me. “Go ahead. I’d rather just go over this now so we can figure out the next steps.”