Police Protector

“I’ll be right back,” she said over her shoulder as she headed to her bedroom. Pushing the door shut behind her, she changed quickly into a pair of loose sweatpants and a T-shirt, cringing every time she moved her leg. The painkillers were starting to wear off.

She paused a minute in front of the mirror, combing her hands through her messy hair. There wasn’t much she could do about the deep circles under her eyes, not without makeup, and she wasn’t going to dress up for Cole. Not when he’d shown up uninvited, determined to look after her whether she wanted his help or not. And not when the sound of his car on the quiet street had woken her from an almost sleep.

When she returned to her living room, she found Luke settled on her couch, his legs stretched out in front of him and his hands tucked behind his head. Somehow he managed to look relaxed and totally alert at the same time. She nodded at him and continued looking around, until Luke pointed silently into her kitchen.

That was where she found Cole, checking the locks on her windows.

Shaye let out a heavy sigh. “I always leave those unlocked.”

He spun toward her. “What?”

“The front door, too. I just let anyone in who asks.”

He frowned, giving her the kind of stare she’d seen him use on hostile suspects. “That’s not funny.”

She planted her hands on her hips, subtly resting more of her weight on her left foot as her whole right leg started to throb. Apparently when the painkillers wore off, it wasn’t a gradual thing. “I told the chief I was fine. You told me I had nothing to worry about, that this was an unlucky fluke. So why are you here? Were you lying to me?”

He leaned back slightly, and she could tell she’d caught him off guard. Good. She was tired of being scared all the time, tired of waiting for someone else to solve her problems. Tired of being in the dark about what was happening with cases that concerned her.

“No,” he said slowly, looking her over as if he wondered what had happened to the nervous computer nerd he was used to.

She’s gone, Shaye wanted to say, and she’s not coming back. Except that wasn’t the truth.

The truth was she was scared. But she needed to take charge of her life instead of letting things happen to her.

“Maybe you should sit down,” Cole finally said.

Frustration built up in her chest, and she was humiliated to feel tears prick the backs of her eyes. But she’d been shot today, so maybe she had an excuse. Her hip felt like it was on fire.

“I’m fine,” she lied. “And I really don’t need a couple of babysitters.”

“If I’m a babysitter, my rate is ten dollars an hour,” Luke called from the other room.

A smile quirked her lips, and she tried to hide it as Cole rolled his eyes.

“I wasn’t lying to you,” Cole said, taking a step closer, his hand hovering near her elbow, as though he expected to need to catch her if she suddenly fell. “There’s no reason to suspect this guy was specifically targeting you. Because if that were the case, how would he even know where you were at that exact time? It makes more sense that he’d come here, beat the pathetic lock on your front door and do it in the middle of the night when you were sleeping.”

She must have gone pale, because he was quick to continue. “That’s not what happened. You were at the wrong place at the wrong time—that’s it.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because.” His frown deepened, but instead of looking annoyed, he looked flustered.

She didn’t think she’d ever seen him flustered. She tilted her head, curious. “Why?” she insisted. “If this was a total fluke and no one was targeting me, then what were you doing sitting on my street in the dark, watching my house?”

They were keeping something from her. She stared up into his light blue eyes, trying to find answers there. “It’s gang related, isn’t it? You think this guy wants revenge for last year?”

“Probably not.”

“Then what?” she snapped, leaning even more on her uninjured leg. She wanted to sit, but he already had a height advantage. Plus, he was properly dressed in dark jeans and a button-down while she was dressed like a slob. And she needed answers. Needed the truth about what danger she was really facing. “What is it?”

“I can’t take the chance,” he barked right back at her.

She swayed, and it had nothing to do with her injury. “It is connected to the shooting from last year?” She had an instant flashback to being in that parking lot, bullets flying over her head as she hugged the pavement. To the panic, the absolute certainty she was going to die, and all the things she hadn’t accomplished yet in her life.

“It’s not connected to anything. Everyone thinks I’m crazy. But it’s you, so...”

Her lips parted and she tried to find words, but there were none. Because all of a sudden, she saw what was underneath the anger and worry and frustration in his gaze. He was attracted to her. And not just in a he’d-seen-her-in-her-nightgown kind of way, but genuine interest.

The realization slammed through her, shocking and empowering. The pain in her leg faded into the background as she took a small step forward, then leaned in.

For several long seconds, he stood immobile. Then something shifted in his eyes, and all she could see was desire.

Shaye’s heart took off at a gallop as his hands came up slowly and feathered across her cheeks. His thumbs stroked her face, and then his fingers plunged into her hair and his mouth crashed down on hers.

I’m kissing Cole Walker. The stupefied thought blared in her head as he nipped at her lips with his mouth and tongue and teeth until a sigh broke free and her lips parted. Then his tongue was in her mouth, slick against hers, sending shivers up and down her entire body.

She leaned into him, and thankfully he dropped his hands from her hair to her waist, keeping her from falling. His big hands seemed to make a hot imprint through her T-shirt and for a second, she wished she’d worn something sexier. Then she couldn’t think at all as he changed the angle of their kiss, and every nerve in her body came alive.

The scruff on his chin abraded her face, but it didn’t stop her from pressing even harder, wanting more, wanting it now. Looping her hands around his neck, she pulled herself up on her tiptoes to eliminate any last space between them, and then yelped as pain shot down her leg.

Cole lifted his head, the fire that had been in his gaze doused with worry. “Did I hurt you?”

“No.”

He held her at arm’s length, still breathing hard. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”

Why not? she wanted to ask, but before she could get the words out, he’d reached past her and dragged a chair forward, pushing her into it.

“Did your wound open up?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” He reached for the band of her sweatpants, and she scooted sideways.

“Yes, I’m sure. I’m fine. Why—”

He stood up, backing away from her. “We came here to make sure you were safe. That was...that wasn’t part of the plan.”

Heat raced up her cheeks, this time from embarrassment. He kissed her like that and then told her it wasn’t part of some plan? If it weren’t for his use of the word we, reminding her that Luke was in the other room and had surely heard exactly what they were doing, she would have kissed him again.

Instead she nodded silently and got to her feet, holding up her hand when he tried to help her.

“We’re friends,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to mess that up.”

Shaye gave him a halfhearted smile, hoping the fact that she wanted to cry didn’t show on her face. Because she could tell he was lying.

“Shaye—”

“Good night, Cole.”

* * *

HE WAS AN IDIOT.

It was something Luke had been all too quick to tell him when he’d joined his partner in the living room after Shaye had headed to bed. As if he didn’t already know.

He’d had Shaye Mallory in his arms, and he’d pushed her away. That was about as stupid as a person could get.

Except while everything about that kiss had felt right, he’d known it was all wrong, for a laundry list of reasons. He was here to protect her. She was injured. They were friends. But most of all, she wasn’t the kind of woman you messed around with.

And there could never be anything long-term between them because they came from different worlds. She was smart and educated, with the kind of earning potential he’d never have. She might have picked law enforcement for now, but Cole knew that if they weren’t already, private-sector companies would be seeking her out soon, with huge salaries and perks. And she deserved that sort of life, one far from the bullets and crooks he dealt with on a daily basis. She deserved a man who was just as smart and educated as she was, someone who could give her things Cole never could. And he wouldn’t pretend otherwise.

He cared about her too much to lead her on.

But was that exactly what he’d been doing for the past year? He’d known she had a crush on him when they met, and instead of staying away, he’d sought her out. He’d hover by the door each day before work, waiting for her arrive to start his day off right by chatting with her. He’d let her wait for him each day after work, let her beautiful smile and soft voice soothe away some of the crap of his shift.

He needed to take a step back, try to treat her like any other civilian who might need police protection. But no matter how many times he told himself that, he couldn’t get that kiss out of his head. Hours later he could still taste the mint of her toothpaste, still feel the imprint of her lips on his. For someone who was normally shy and reserved, she’d been a firecracker in his arms. And he wanted more.

Luke had claimed the couch after Shaye had disappeared, leaving Cole with the big recliner in the corner. He’d slept in far worse, but as the sun seeped through the curtains, he realized he hadn’t slept at all.

“Get over it, or do something about it.”

Luke’s voice startled him, and Cole glanced over, seeing his partner had one eye open. Luke’s ability to sense movement even with his eyes closed was an asset in stakeouts, and the way he seemed to read people’s minds was great for interrogations. But right now it was pissing Cole off.

“What am I supposed to do?”

When Luke raised an eyebrow, Cole snapped, “Don’t be crude. This is Shaye we’re talking about. I can’t...”

“What?” Luke prompted. “Sleep with her? Date her? Tell her you’ve been obsessed with her since the day she walked through those station doors? Why not?”

Cole shot a glance down the hallway that led to Shaye’s bedroom. Her door was closed, and he hoped she was still out cold. “We’re friends. Let it go.”

Luke shrugged. “I will if you will.”

Grumbling under his breath, Cole gave up on sleep and trudged into Shaye’s cheery red-and-blue kitchen. He dug around until he found the coffee, then started up a large pot. Before he’d made it back into the living room with his first cup, he heard Shaye come into the room and prayed she hadn’t overheard his conversation.

But one look at her face, her chin up high, her cheeks tinged with red, her gaze daring him to bring up any of it, and he knew she had. A thousand curse words lodged in his throat, and he held them in, instead handing her the cup of coffee as a peace offering.

She cradled it between her palms and drank half the cup before she lowered it again, but he wasn’t surprised. He’d heard her tossing and turning last night, probably the result of the painkillers not keeping up with the sting of her bullet wound. Or maybe the events of the night playing over and over again, all the possible outcomes racing through her mind the way they had in his. They were lucky she was alive.

“I’m going to get myself a cup of coffee—”

“And me,” Luke interrupted, popping to his feet as though he’d slept ten hours.

“And then we’re going to go through yesterday’s timeline, make sure we’re covering all of our bases,” Cole finished.

Shaye nodded, but her hands shook around the coffee cup. “If this is going to turn into an interrogation, I need some breakfast first.” She started to limp toward the kitchen, and Cole put a hand on her arm to stop her. She pulled it away fast, like his touch burned her.

Trying to pretend he hadn’t noticed, Cole said, “I’ll make breakfast. Just relax a little.”

“There’s nothing to make,” she replied, pushing past him. “It’s cereal and coffee. All my groceries are in Roy’s parking lot. Unless you want frozen burritos for breakfast, that’s what I’ve got.”

He followed her into the kitchen more slowly, while Luke disappeared in the other direction, toward the bathroom.

She slowly set a few boxes of cereal on the counter, keeping her back turned to him, like she was waiting until her embarrassment fled. But when she finally turned, her cheeks were still flushed.

Shaye had never been good at hiding her emotions. After dealing with criminals day in and day out, he found it one of her most charming attributes, but he knew she hated it.

“About last night—”

“Don’t.” Her cheeks went from rose pink to fire-engine red.

“Shaye—”

“Just let it go.”

Luke rejoined them at that moment, so Cole did. Instead of apologizing yet again—which probably wouldn’t get him anywhere—he focused on her safety, and not the fact that he might have ruined their friendship. A ball of dread settled in his stomach, but he kept his mind on what he could do something about: eliminating the nagging feeling that this had been a hit.

“Let’s go through your day yesterday, from the moment you woke up.” Cole set down his spoon in cereal he’d barely touched. “Did you drive straight to work?”

“Yes.”

“Your car was in the garage overnight, right? Did you step outside to get a paper, anything like that?”

“Yes, my car was in the garage, and, no, when I got in it to head to the lab it was the first time I’d left my house. And let me save you some time, because I’ve heard you talk to witnesses before. I didn’t see anyone following me. Not yesterday, not in the past few weeks, not ever. And as far as I know, there’s no one who has a reason to come after me, not with the Jannis Crew shut down.”

“What about at work?” Luke asked. “Anything unusual there?”

Shaye frowned. “Like what?”

“Like anything. Coworkers acting strange around you, someone who’s shown an interest in you even though you’ve turned him down or made it clear you’re not interested?”

Shaye shook her head slowly. “No. There’s been a little turnover since I left a year ago, but most of my colleagues are the same. And the ones who are new all seem fine. It’s business as usual at the lab.”

Cole stared at her, wondering what that meant. He’d visited her in the lab a few times, and his presence had always surprised her. Not just because it was him and he didn’t tend to come over to the lab, but because she’d been so focused on whatever digital device she’d been analyzing that she hadn’t even noticed he was there until he’d told her.

Was she that oblivious all the time? Would she even realize if someone had been stalking her, waiting for the right moment to get her alone?

He wished he knew. But the truth was even though they talked in the course of their jobs, and they had an unofficial agreement to meet up before and after work each day, he’d rarely seen her outside investigations. Even last month, when he’d asked for her help, it had been an off-the-books case. The realization momentarily surprised him, because she’d become such an important part of his life. And yet she was almost totally separate from it.

He wasn’t sure if that said something about the strength of their friendship or just about his willingness to let people get close to him. Except he had plenty of friends, and to this day, he still tried to help kids coming out of the foster system because he knew how hard that transition was. So why? He wasn’t sure, but he had a feeling if he probed that too deeply, he wouldn’t like the answer.

“What about your job?” Cole asked when he realized the silence had dragged on a little too long. “What devices do you have right now?”

“I’m looking at computers from that corporate espionage case. And the girl who’s being stalked, to see if her computer was hacked. I’ve only been back for a week.” She shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got right now.”

Neither were likely connections to today’s shootings, but he gave Luke a meaningful look, and his partner nodded. They’d check both out. The corporate espionage involved two local competing businesses, and both sides had been repeatedly fined for violating various laws, but he doubted they’d resort to violence. And the stalker was young; that kind of behavior always made him look twice, because it was often a gateway crime, but usually the ultimate target was the person being stalked, not someone connected to the investigation. Still, he planned to check every possibility.

“How about cases from last year?” Cole asked. “Anything you dealt with that’s still in the courts?”

“Yeah, probably. I know there are a few that haven’t gone to trial yet, but they’re cases I worked peripherally. Nothing where I’m a witness. At least not yet. I guess I could still get subpoenaed.”

Luke shook his head. “Probably not those. But let’s make a list of all these cases—especially where you took the stand or your name would appear in the court documents—where someone went to jail.”

Shaye glanced from him back to Cole. “Isn’t this a waste of time? Shouldn’t you be focused on witness statements or trying to track down this guy some other way?”

“We will,” Cole assured her. “But no reason not to attack it from both directions.”

She scooted her half-eaten bowl of cereal away from her and leaned on the counter. “But I’m not a direction at all, right? I’m just unlucky enough to have been shot at twice?”

Her words hung in the air. Cole wanted to nod, like he’d done last night, and tell her this had nothing to do with her. But the more he thought about it, the more he worried that Shaye was at the center of something dangerous. And he had no idea what it was.

Chapter Five

“Let’s go.” Shaye unlocked the door to the lab and held the door for Cole and Luke, trying to calm her nerves. There had been hardly any cars outside the lab, but they didn’t work weekends unless a big case required a rush analysis. But across the parking lot, cops’ vehicles were lined up in what should have been a reminder of her safety.

She’d come so close this past week to feeling normal again. But maybe it wasn’t ever going to happen now. Maybe her parents and her four brothers and sisters were right. She wasn’t cut out for a job where bullets were involved.

Luke was gazing around curiously, but Cole stared back at her, like he could read her mind, and she ducked her head. If she wasn’t cut out for a lab job, she definitely wasn’t cut out for dating a detective. Not that a detective had asked her out. Just given her the best kiss of her life.

Pulling the door until it clicked shut behind her, she led the way through the sterile hallways. Past locked doors with the labels Biology/DNA, Firearms/Toolmarks, Latent Prints and Toxicology. Down to the end, where a shiny new label marked “Digital Forensics,” the most recent addition to the Jannis County Forensics Laboratory. Her territory.

Before she’d started—and last year when she’d taken the other job—digital devices had been sent off to the state lab. But it was one of the fastest-growing areas of forensics in Jannis, and Shaye was still surprised the job had been open a year later for her.

She used her key card to get into the room as Luke remarked, “Good security.”

“Yeah, well, we take chain of command pretty seriously. And that includes making sure no one can access anything they shouldn’t while it’s in our possession. Everything gets logged. Even what I’m going to pull up for you will have a digital log that I accessed it, at what time and for how long.” She’d helped set up some of those extra precautions last year as one of her first assignments on the job.

She glanced around her tiny space, jammed full of equipment—mostly computers. Her office was in the back with no windows, which often made her feel penned in, but today she appreciated it. And she was happy to have something to do besides sit around her house while Cole and Luke drove her crazy. They’d installed new locks on all her doors, exercised in her living room and called the station repeatedly for updates and to assign leads. And that had all been before 10:00 a.m. So when they’d wanted to go through suspects, she’d suggested they come here.

“Let’s get started,” Cole said, dragging her empty whiteboard to the center of the room.

He was wearing the same jeans and button-down from yesterday, just a little more rumpled. The short beard he always had was a tiny bit longer, too, and she fixated on it, remembering it scraping against her chin. She could almost feel his arms going around her again, the breadth of his chest pressed against her, big enough to make her feel surrounded by him. She shook off the memories, hoping her thoughts weren’t broadcast across her face. But Cole was focused, his detective face on.

He jotted the words Possible Suspects, Unlikely and Ruled Out, then carefully underlined each one. “Any case you testified in or were involved in, now or last year. Pull them up, and let’s get to work.”

He sounded determined, almost enthusiastic, and she supposed that was the kind of attitude you needed to be a detective, to slog through hours and hours of clues until you found the right answer.

She understood it because she could do the same with a digital device, dig and dig until it revealed all of its secrets. But hers was a totally different kind of quest, one fueled by years of shyness and feeling overlooked in her big, noisy family. Being the middle child in a family of seven meant you either had to demand attention or be content without it.

She loved her family. She missed her family, living so far away, when the rest of them had stayed in Michigan. But she’d needed to break out, make something of herself as Shaye, not just one of the Mallory siblings.

She settled into her well-worn chair. Time to see if the skill that had moved her past her sheltered, invisible life was threatening to destroy it, too.

“Let’s start with the most obvious first,” Luke suggested, snagging the only other chair in the room while Cole stood in the center of the small space, marker raised and ready.

“The Jannis Crew.” Just saying the name made her feel a little ill. Shaye nodded and opened a file. Because she’d been in the line of fire, her boss had sent the digital devices they’d recovered after the shooting—computers, phones and tablets—to the state lab, so there’d be no conflict of interest. But she’d been on the stand, because she’d found the original trail to the leadership. And she was the only living witness able to identify the shooter.

The three officers who might have seen him had died on the scene. Cole and Luke had run out the station doors as the car was driving past. Forensics later discovered that their bullets had killed the two men in the backseat, but not the shooter. So Shaye had gotten on the stand, ignored her thundering heart and pointed directly at him, sending him to prison for the rest of his life.

“Well, we know it’s not Ed Bukowski,” Cole said, writing his name under “Ruled Out.” “He was killed in prison last week.”

Shaye jerked, spinning her chair to face him as an instant picture of the driver, one tattoo-covered hand draped over the wheel and the other aiming a gold-plated pistol out the window, formed in her head. “He was?”

“Crazy Ed found someone who wasn’t impressed with his crazy,” Luke said, using his gang name. “But put relatives on the Suspect list. The timing could fit. Maybe someone wants revenge for Ed’s death. They can’t go after the drug lord who shanked him, so they’re going after the woman who fingered him, put him behind bars in the first place.”