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“I can see where Everly might go after Bri or Bri’s girl, or you or your family. But Rica and I weren’t here then. He doesn’t know us.”

“Doesn’t Caroline Clark spend time with Rica? At the gallery?”

“Sure. Caroline’s a local artist and Rica knows her. She thinks Caroline is really talented and they’ve gotten to be friends. I think Caroline even helps out sometimes—” Carter grimaced. “Well, hell.

We already know the guy is a stalker. If he’s been watching Caroline, then he probably knows Rica. You think he’d go after Caroline’s friends before her—if it is him?”

“Maybe. If Everly spent the last few years thinking about payback, maybe he doesn’t want it to be over so soon. Maybe he wants to circle around his real target for a while. A guy like that is going to need some way to blow off steam while he waits. So he’ll play with secondary targets first. If he hurts someone his primary target cares for—a friend or a lover—then he’ll also be removing a potential competitor.”

“I don’t mind telling you, I don’t like this one bit,” Carter said. “I don’t even want Rica to go to work, but I don’t want her home alone either. As if I could get her to stay home.”

“No one is going to get close to our families.” Reese stood. “How about you and I go pay this guy’s family a visit.”

“You think we’ll get lucky?” Carter wished it could be so easy, but her experience said otherwise.

“If he’s not there, we’ll sit on the place until he shows,” Reese said flatly. “They always come home. Sooner or later, they always come home.”

v

Allie kept silent as Ash evaluated the first two claims, watching her climb over piles of rubble to take photographs of the damaged buildings, measure sections of missing roofs, and sort through the detritus of the

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hurricane. The third building on their list was a fire-ravaged classic Cape Cod structure with its Wedgwood blue shutters hanging askew, most of the rear portion collapsed, and a yellow warning sign from the fire marshal on the door. A blackened oval plaque next to the front porch denoted it as one of the historic structures that had been floated over from Long Point on rafts. Allie’s curiosity finally overcame her still-smoldering anger and she asked, “What are you looking for exactly?”

Ash stopped halfway up the walkway to the entry, surprised that Allie had actually said something that wasn’t a biting criticism. The sun had long ago burned off the early morning fog, and she was sweating in the bright afternoon sun. Her shirt clung to the center of her back and chest, and she imagined she could smell the alcohol steaming out of her system. Maybe it wasn’t her imagination. She swiped an arm across her forehead. Being with Allie for the last two hours had been a study in masochistic gratification. She hadn’t been this close to Allie, for this long, in almost a year, and she took every opportunity to steal glances at her when Allie wasn’t looking. Allie was beautiful in anything she wore, but her full breasts and curvaceous backside looked great in a tailored uniform. Ash got more excited just looking at her than she had with most of the women she’d actually been in bed with. She felt as if she were awakening after a long hibernation, living and breathing again, all of her senses vibrating. She couldn’t stop herself, didn’t want to stop herself, from indulging in the illicit pleasure. But the exhilaration came at the price of knowing someone else would be the recipient of Allie’s smile, someone else would be holding her, someone else would be running her hands over that body. Probably in a few hours. The pictures playing in her head of Allie and the blonde together were methodically cutting her to pieces.

“What time is it?” Ash asked.

“What?” Allie checked her watch. “Almost three. Why?”

“No reason.” Ash wanted a drink at three o’clock in the afternoon.

She didn’t want it because she craved the alcohol. She wanted it because she craved the sweet oblivion. Being around Allie reminded her of exactly what she’d been running from. Maybe it was time to stop running and let the pain kill or cure her. She shivered and fought down a swell of nausea. “What did you ask me just now?”

Allie studied her, trying not to care that Ash looked like she was on the verge of collapsing. Rivulets of sweat streaked her temples and

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her crimson hair clung to the back of her neck in wet strands. Even though Ash looked like a refugee from a rehab center, the way her shirt clung to the muscular curves of her chest and the etched surface of her abdomen gave Allie a charge. Jesus, talk about being a hopeless case.

“What are you looking for in these places?” Allie repeated.

“Oh,” Ash said, happy to divert her attention from Allie. When she worked, her pain and self-loathing were bearable. Sometimes, she even forgot about the emptiness of her life for a few hours. “I usually investigate commercial claims because the incidence of fraud is highest in those. After a huge natural disaster like this hurricane, there are far too many claims for the regular adjusters to assess. So the investigators, like me, get pulled in to do a lot of the routine cases.” She shrugged.

“It’s most cost-effective to have me focus on resort areas like this, where every building has a commercial function. More chance of fraudulent claims or criminal mischief.”

“So tell me about the red flags.” Allie enjoyed puzzles. That was one of the things that drew her to law enforcement. She liked crime solving, and this was an opportunity to learn from an expert. Ash wasn’t a cop, but she was an experienced investigator. Experienced enough that Reese had worked hand in hand with her the year before.

“Okay,” Ash said, cutting across the small front yard, its once immaculate lawn littered with downed limbs and debris, to the side of the building where most of the fire damage had occurred. “A fire claim is always suspicious because it’s one of the best ways to totally destroy a building. Plus the claims are usually high. Fires are also common during natural disasters because of the disruption of gas lines, the abundance of flammable material, you know what I mean…”

Ash stopped to photograph the exterior of the building. A huge hole had been punched in the side of the building and when Allie peered inside, she could see that the second floor had partially collapsed. Blue sky showed through huge gaps in the roof above that. Mounds of fallen beams—partially burned and piled like pick-up sticks—were covered with ceiling plaster and filled the lower floor to knee height.

“Major mess in there,” Allie said.

“From what I understand, this part of town was largely cut off and even if it hadn’t been, there were so many fires, it’s doubtful all of them could have been contained,” Ash said.

Allie nodded. “A fire on one of the piers threatened to destroy the

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biggest boat building in town. Most of the volunteers were there. They couldn’t get to a lot of the individual structure fires until well after the buildings were fully involved.”

“Nobody’s fault, but it happens a lot in situations like this.” Ash climbed through a fire-scorched opening and straddled a pile of charred flooring material while she photographed the interior. When she heard Allie clambering toward her, she said, “This structure hasn’t been cleared yet. You should wait outside.”

“You’re in here,” Allie pointed out testily.

“I know where to step.” Ash pivoted and forgot about the job.

Allie was backlit by sunlight, her hair a dark halo around her pale, achingly beautiful face. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I think we’ve established it’s a little late for that.”

“I’ve apologized and you’ve moved on, so—”

“You’re right. That was bitchy.” Allie ignored the impulse to shout that she hadn’t moved on. That she wanted to, but she couldn’t. Ash didn’t need to know that. And now that she had found Flynn, the perfect person to help her finally manage a clean break, she wasn’t about to tell Ash. Flynn. Thinking about Flynn helped. She took a breath and struggled for the only neutral ground they had. “So tell me how you decide if this fire is arson or not.”

“Okay.” Ash appreciated Allie’s attempt to smooth things over.

They were going to spend a lot time together the next few weeks. It would be good not to keep drawing blood. “For someone to deliberately torch a building, they need three things—some kind of fuel, a heat source, and oxygen to sustain the blaze. We call that the fire triangle.

So when we evaluate a fire site, first we look for the typical accidental sources of a blaze—faulty wiring, malfunctioning space heaters, a source of open flames like a fireplace or a kitchen stove—but we’re also looking for signs that any of the three points of the fire triangle were intentionally manipulated.”

“Like someone pouring gasoline on the floor or punching holes in the ceiling and walls to augment air flow. Right?”

“Exactly.” Ash checked her file. “This place had a first-floor rear coffee shop. So we want to look there first as the most likely site for an accidental blaze to start.”

Allie stepped in Ash’s footprints as Ash carefully picked her way through the debris toward the back of the building. Almost two weeks

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after the fire, the atmosphere was still thick with the acrid odor of charred wood and synthetics. Their footsteps stirred up fresh soot that rose in clouds around them. Allie coughed, her eyes tearing.

“You okay?” Ash asked.

“Yeah. Sensitive nose.”

“If you weren’t so stubborn, you could wait outside. I’ll call you if I find anything.”

“Just shut up, Walker, and keep talking. If I have to traipse around in this shit, I want to get something out of it.”

Ash laughed, having forgotten how tough Allie was beneath her seductive siren exterior. Her own laughter sounded foreign to her. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had made her laugh. “Okay.

Lesson one. Most arsonists, especially amateurs, believe that the fire itself will destroy all evidence of the crime.”

“Almost never true, right?”

“Only with the very best. Usually some trace of an accelerant or the heat source is left behind. Or they use multiple points of ignition—a dead giveaway.” Ash stopped in the middle of what had once been the small coffee shop and began to take more pictures. Three of the four walls had collapsed, and sunlight cut sharp swaths through the murky air. “Our problem is that the firefighters themselves are often the best observers of a fire’s suspicious origins. They arrive before signs of the arson are destroyed in the fire. The color of the smoke often indicates what type of accelerant was used. The pattern of closed doors and open windows may indicate intentional venting to speed up the burn.

Firefighters are trained to look for suspicious signs, but we don’t have the benefit of firsthand accounts with most of these cases. So we’re going to have to try to reconstruct and hope that any arsonists we might be dealing with are not pros.”

“Or hope that the storm put the fires out while there was still some evidence left,” Allie said. She watched Ash work in silence for a while, appreciating her focus and efficiency, before asking, “Can I take notes for you or anything?”

“That would be great.” Ash handed Allie a folder with a pen clipped to it. “I’ll just talk us through this scene, and you can check off the boxes and make notes. It’s all pretty self-explanatory.”

“Okay.”

Slowly, they worked their way through the structure. Occasionally

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Allie would ask a question and Ash would elaborate on some point of the investigation. Allie hadn’t had this much fun doing fieldwork since she’d been at the academy. She’d always loved treasure hunts and playing Clue. She liked the idea of pitting her mind against that of a perp—that was one of the fun things about being a cop. She didn’t notice the time pass until Ash started using her flashlight because it had gotten so dark inside.

“We’re going to have to quit,” Ash said, starting back the way they had come. “It’s not safe with the visibility so bad. Stay close to me on the way out.”

“So what do you think about this place?” Allie asked, dogging Ash’s steps.

Ash slowed, pointing to one wall that was still standing. The window in its center was still intact. “What do you see over there?”

Allie squinted through the gloom and trained her Maglite on the wall, which was covered with floral-patterned wallpaper above beaded dark wood wainscoting. The wallpaper was streaked with black and curling in places. “It looks like the interior wall started burning, but the fire went out for some reason. Not enough air flow, maybe,” she mused, surveying the intact ceiling above.

“What do you see up there?”

Frowning, Allie studied the beaten tin ceiling. The halogen beam from her Mag reflected off a shiny surface, and she focused on a two-inch stainless steel fixture. “A sprinkler.”

“Uh-huh. Except where are the water marks on the wall? Where is the water damage on the wall and floor?”

“So it didn’t work.” Allie shrugged. “Lots of sprinkler systems don’t work very well. Maybe it wasn’t hot enough in here to set it off?”

“Maybe. Or maybe the water was turned off at the source. We’ll have to find out.”

We’ll have to find out.

Allie didn’t want to leave. She wanted to keep searching the site.

She was hot and sticky and downright filthy, but she was also charged.

Teaming with Ash the last couple of hours had been easy. More than easy. Fun and exciting. This was the kind of work she loved. This was one of the things that had attracted her to Ash Walker, besides how downright scorching hot she was. They shared a mutual respect for

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their jobs. Ash was an intense, savvy investigator. She was also one of the best. Allie had loved discussing cases with her, and Ash had always been a good sounding board for her. They had connected on a really important level.

Just as Allie decided this assignment might not be so bad, she caught Ash in her flashlight beam as Ash plucked her sweat-soaked shirt away from her chest. She was braless and the hard points of her nipples stood out beneath the thin white cotton. Allie couldn’t look away from Ash’s breasts, picturing Ash braced above her, one hard, lean thigh pumping between her legs, Ash’s bullet-hard nipples just above her lips. A wave of heat coursed through her, and she ground her teeth together. Damn it. She didn’t want the unwelcome memories to spoil what had almost been a pleasant interlude. When she finally dragged her gaze up, she found Ash staring at her, her eyes glittering dangerously in the half-light.

“You’re right, it’s getting dark. Let’s get out of here.” Pivoting abruptly, Allie jumped over a gap in the floor she hadn’t noticed before. When she landed, beams shifted beneath her feet. Her balance wavering, she saw Ash flailing as a mound of debris seemed to pitch upward and then just disappear. She lunged for Ash, grabbing for her shirt. “Ash. Ash!”

Her hand closed on empty air.

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chapteR twelve

Reese pulled into the driveway of a tidy, pale pink one-story bungalow bordering the north side of the Winslow Street Cemetery. A well-kept ten-year-old Toyota hatchback was parked in the gravel drive in front of an open, single-car detached garage. A dusty black Ford pickup, along with stacks of aluminum lawn furniture and a push mower, took up most of the space inside the garage. The buildings appeared to have weathered the hurricane fairly well. A broken window box lying on the grass in front of the low front porch was the only sign of casualties.

Reese preceded Carter across the lawn to the porch and rapped on the pitted metal storm door. The inner door was open and she could hear the drone of a television. After a minute, she knocked again, louder, and saw a shadow pass across the shaft of blue light from the television, and then a woman appeared at the door. In her sixties, she had straight gray hair cut in a short, layered, no-frills style and wore shapeless black slacks with a fuzzy sweater a shade darker than the pink of the house.

When she saw Reese her lips thinned, but she opened the door a sliver and said pleasantly, “Hello, Sheriff. Hot enough for you?”

Her gaze flickered past Reese to Carter, sharp and appraising.

“Feels like August again,” Reese agreed. “Mrs. Everly, this is Officer Wayne. May we come in and talk to you for a few minutes?”

“I don’t see why not.” Her tone was mild but her expression said she wasn’t happy about it. She pushed the door open another inch, and when Reese caught the edge, she turned and walked away, leaving them to follow her through the small living room into an eat-in kitchen. “Get you two something to drink?”

“Thank you, but there’s no need for you to bother,” Reese replied.

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She’d seen no sign of William Everly on her quick walk through the house. No beer cans, no men’s magazines, no sign of any men’s clothing lying around. One plate and one glass in the dish drainer next to the sink. Two doors leading off the living room were closed. Those were presumably the bedrooms. She doubted Everly could be staying in the small house without leaving some sign of himself in plain sight. But she didn’t rule it out. Assumptions got you killed.

“What can I do for you, Sheriff?” Mrs. Everly said, folding her arms under her ample breasts.

“We’re looking for William, Mrs. Everly.”

“Billy?” Her face and voice registered surprise. “Why, you know where he is, Sheriff Conlon. You’re the one who put him there.”

“You didn’t know he was out on parole?” Carter asked, her voice low and tight. Not exactly intimidating, but she was a stranger to Mrs.

Everly, whereas Reese was not. Being questioned by someone she didn’t know might shake the woman up just enough to make her slip up, if she were hiding something.

“Parole! You mean he’s out?” Everly’s mother shook her head.

“He didn’t tell me. Are you sure? We talk on the phone every month, and I try to get down there to see him as often as I can.”

“When did you last speak to him?” Carter asked.

“Let me see…about the first of August, I’d say.”

“And he didn’t mention he was no longer in prison?” Carter let her incredulity show.

“No,” Mrs. Everly said, smiling politely. “I’m sure I would have remembered that.”

Reese changed tack. “Do you know where he might go if he didn’t come home? Friends or a girlfriend, maybe?”

Mrs. Everly narrowed her eyes. “You don’t know where he is?”

“He hasn’t checked in with his parole officer in several weeks.”

“I only knew his friends in high school and that was some time ago, as you know. He had a girlfriend, more than a few,” she said with a faint trace of disapproval. “But I don’t think any of them have been waiting around for him.”

“Would you remember any of their names?”

“The girls? Oh my, no. As to the fellas, Billy was popular. On the football team and all that. He had a lot of friends.”

“If you talk to him, it’s very important that he contact his parole

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officer immediately,” Reese said. “The longer he goes without checking in, the more problems he’s making for himself.”

“I’ll do that, Sheriff. I’m sure he doesn’t mean to be causing any trouble.”

“No,” Reese said. “Of course not.”

Carter wanted to push her more, but when Reese turned and signaled they were leaving, she followed. If she let her temper get the best of her, Reese was going to shut her out of the investigation. She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t sit back and leave it to someone else to figure out what was going on, not when Rica was involved. Not even Reese, whom she respected more than anyone she’d ever worked with.

“I’ll never stop being amazed at the powers of denial,” Carter said when she slid into the front seat of the cruiser and slammed the door. “Of course he doesn’t mean to cause any trouble. At least she didn’t start in on what a good boy he’s always been.” She thumped the dashboard with her fist. “God damn it.”

“We don’t know Everly has anything to do with what’s happening here in town.”

Carter tilted her head back and closed her eyes. She’d just promised herself she wouldn’t lose her temper, and she already was. “I know.

Sorry. I’m just strung a little tight about this. Rica…” She shook her head. “Thanks for letting me ride along.”

“We’ll have a patrol car swing by here, couple of times a shift.

His mother may not be expecting him, but odds are, he’ll turn up here.”

Reese started the engine and backed out of the driveway. “I want to take a walk around your house.”

“Sure. Now?”

“Is Rica home?”

“No, she went to the gallery.”

“Then this ought to be a good time.”

Reese’s radio crackled to life and the dispatcher said, “All available units. Code eight—officer needs assistance. Fifty-six Commercial.”

“This is Conlon,” Reese said as she hit the sirens and made a tight, fast U-turn in the middle of the street. “What do we have?”

“It’s Tremont. Building collapse. Paramedics are on the way.”

v

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“Ash!” Allie had been knocked to her knees when half the floor collapsed. Now she edged toward the gaping pit where Ash had just been standing. The bitter taste of bile flooded her mouth and she swallowed around her terror. “Ash?”

She heard a muffled groan and her heart soared with relief and gratitude. “It’s all right. Help is on the way. It’s all right, Ash.”

“Allie, get out of here.”

Ash sounded strained, as if each word was a struggle.

“Are you hurt?” Allie eased her weight forward onto what looked like an intact section of plywood subflooring. The floor tiles had all cracked into fragments from the heat or been burned away. As she put her hand down, she felt the floor shift beneath her with an ominous grating sound. “Oh shit.”

Ash’s voice was stronger now. “Get the fuck out!”

“Just shut up, will you,” Allie barked back. “I’m not leaving you down there. Are you hurt?”

“I don’t think so. But I can’t move without risking more collapse.

You’re not safe up there.”

“I’m coming to get you.”

Allie heard sirens approaching from all directions. It was totally dark inside now and everything looked different as she shone her Maglite in front of her. Nothing was where it had been five minutes ago. Sweat trickled into her eyes and her lungs screamed with every breath. Her hands were bleeding, but they didn’t hurt.

“Allie. Please. Listen to me, baby, I—”

“What did I tell you about calling me that?” Allie couldn’t ever remember Ash being scared, but she sounded scared now, and that scared Allie more than the thought of falling into the blackness. She moved another few inches. Something sharp tore through her pants and she muffled a cry at the sudden pain.

“Allie? You okay?”

“Yes.” Allie heard the thunk of timber falling and her stomach turned over. “What just happened? Ash?”

“Nothing. Go outside, Allie. Just back up slowly the way we came in.”

“I’m not leaving you there. Can’t you ever just trust me?”

“I—”

“Tremont?” Reese called loudly. “Tremont, what’s your twenty?”

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“Here.” Allie raised her Mag and looked over her shoulder, blinking as a half dozen lights focused on her. “Part of the floor collapsed. Ash Walker is down there.”

“This is the fire marshal.” A big dark shadow appeared beside Reese. “Stay right where you are, Officer. We’re coming to get you out.”

“No, not until—”

“You’ll evacuate as ordered, Officer,” Reese said. “We don’t need another casualty. You can’t help Ash if you’re under a pile of rubble yourself.”

As firefighters in turnout gear and halogen headlamps slowly drew near, Allie turned back to the black hole that had swallowed Ash. She couldn’t leave her there. She couldn’t. She focused her light in front of her again and started to crawl forward when a firm hand grasped her shoulder.

“You’ll just endanger her, Allie,” the fire marshal said. “We’ll get her out.”

Another firefighter appeared next to her and Allie had no choice.

She let herself be guided out into the crisp, clean night air.

“It’s my fault,” Allie said, her voice breaking.

“What happened?” Reese asked.

“We were almost finished and then I misstepped and everything just collapsed.”

“What’s her status?”

“She’s conscious. She says she’s all right, but—” Allie heard her voice shaking and consciously steadied it. She didn’t want Reese to think she couldn’t handle an emergency. “I haven’t had any visual contact since the collapse.”

Flynn appeared by Allie’s side out of the throng of officers, volunteer firefighters, and EMTs. “Allie,” she said urgently, “are you hurt?”

“No, I’m okay.”

“You don’t look it.” Flynn’s expression was tight and tense, but her voice was calm and professional. “Your hands are bleeding, your pants are ripped, and there’s blood running down your leg. Let me get you back to the rig and check you out.”

“No,” Allie said, although she felt shaky all of a sudden. “I need to—”

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“Go with her,” Reese said. “You’re all in, Tremont. You’ll be shocky in another few minutes.”

Allie stiffened her shoulders. “Sheriff, I—”

“I’ll update you as soon as they get her out. But I don’t want to see your face back here until you’ve been cleared by medical.”

“Yes ma’am.” Allie was cold and dizzy, and when Flynn put her arm around her waist to guide her through the crowd, she leaned into her, grateful for her strength and her warmth.

v

Tory rapped on the examining room door and stuck her head in.

“Dr. Burgoyne? Got a minute?”

Nita patted the knee of the elderly woman she’d been examining.

“I’ll be right back, June.” Outside in the hall, she asked, “Problem?”

“Reese just called. The EMTs are bringing Allie Tremont over.

She and Ashley Walker, an insurance investigator, were caught in a building collapse. Allie is going to need some stitches. I don’t know Ash’s status. If she’s seriously injured, we’ll have the EMTs transport her to the airport and medevac her out of here.”

“Do you want me to take care of Allie or pick up your patients?”

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to see to Allie myself. She’s one of Reese’s people, and Reese always takes it hard when she has an officer injured. I’m just going to be hovering otherwise.”

Nita laughed softly. “I understand. If one of Deo’s crew were injured, I’d feel the same way.”

“Thanks. If they end up bringing Ash here, I may need you to evaluate her if I’m tied up.”

“No problem. Just have Randy call me.” Nita sighed. “I hate to hear about this kind of thing. Deo and her crew are in and out of those unstable buildings all day long. I know they’re all professionals, but the chance of an accident is so much higher than on a regular job.”

“I know.” Tory squeezed Nita’s hand, oddly comforted that she wasn’t the only one worrying in silence about her partner. “Trust her.

Deo’s good at what she does.”

Nina cocked her head and smiled. “Is that what you tell yourself about Reese?”

“Every day,” Tory said. “Every single day.”

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v

“Hey, Allie,” Tory said as two EMTs wheeled Allie on a gurney into the treatment room. Allie had an IV running in her left hand and a blood pressure cuff around her right biceps. She was pale but alert.

“How are you doing?”

“Her BP dropped to sixty palp so we started an IV,” the good-looking blond EMT Tory had seen the night before reported, efficiently releasing the buckles on the straps that secured Allie to the gurney.

“I know we met last night,” Tory said. “I’m sorry. Flynn, is it?”

“That’s right. No reason you should remember, Dr. King.”

“Quite the contrary. Thank you for all your help.” Tory turned her attention back to Allie. “Let’s get her over here so I can have a look.”

Flynn slid her hands under Allie’s shoulders and said to her partner,

“Chuck, get her hips.”

“I can move,” Allie said irritably. “I’m fine. I wasn’t the one that had a building fall on me.”

“Let them do their jobs, Allie,” Tory said calmly, leaning across the treatment table to help in the transfer. “So tell me what happened.”

“Nothing happened to me. Part of the floor collapsed and Ash…

Ash went down. They didn’t have her out yet when we left.” Allie glared at the EMTs. “I didn’t need to be brought in right away.”

“Uh-huh.” Tory ignored the all-too-familiar complaints and quickly scanned the EMT records. Allie’s pulse was rapid, her blood pressure erratic. “Nothing fell on you? Hit you?”

“No. I fell when the floor buckled, but it was nothing.”

Flynn rested her hand on Allie’s shoulder. “Stop fussing and let Dr. King check you out.”

Tory peeled back the leg of Allie’s uniform pants where someone had applied a field dressing to her left thigh. After donning gloves, Tory removed the bandage. “You’ve got a fifteen-centimeter laceration here.

It’s fairly deep. I’ll need to irrigate it out and suture it. Are you allergic to any drugs?”

“No.”

“Do you remember when your last tetanus shot was?”

“No,” Allie said distractedly, looking up at Flynn. “Do you think you can radio someone in the field and find out what’s happening with Ash?”

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“Sure.” Flynn stroked Allie’s hair for a second and then stepped away to the far corner of the room.

“Reese will make sure she’s taken care of,” Tory murmured. “How about letting me get you taken care of?”

“Fine. Whatever. Do anything you want.” Exhausted, guilty, and just plain scared, Allie closed her eyes. “I can’t freaking believe this.

The sheriff puts me in charge and I totally fuck it up.”

“Somehow, I find that hard to believe.”

Allie didn’t think she would ever forget the sight of Ash falling, just disappearing. Even though she’d lost Ash long ago, the thought of truly losing her forever was the most terrifying feeling she’d ever experienced.

“It’s going to hurt a little bit,” Tory murmured as she began injecting the wound edges with lidocaine. “Okay?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Allie whispered. The pain in her leg was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.

v

“Stand by on the line,” the firefighter shouted up to the team on the surface, who waited to winch up the rescue sked, a molded plastic litter that could be used to immobilize and drag a victim out of the tightest of confined spaces.

“Have them drop a rope ladder,” Ash repeated for the tenth time.

“I can climb out now that you’ve got the sides braced.”

The young dark-haired man in a bright yellow turnout coat ignored her and tightened the safety straps around her waist and thighs that secured her in the narrow stretcher. After an hour of carefully removing loose debris and shoring up the remaining support structures, he’d slowly worked his way down into the V-shaped depression where she’d been lodged when a portion of the floor had fallen into the basement.

Fortunately, she’d tobogganed down on top of the debris and none of it had fallen on her. The steep angles of the cavity and the instability of the structure had made it impossible for her to climb out before.

She was still worried that the vibration set up by her ascent might trigger further collapse, and the young firefighter would be beneath her handling the guide ropes. She didn’t want him at risk. “I’m not injured.

I can climb.”

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“This is safer until we can get a medic to look you over.”

Ash grimaced. “I’m banged up a little, but nothing serious. We’ll stand less chance of destabilizing this area if we don’t use the winch.”

“Can’t do it, ma’am. Protocol.”

“Listen, hotshot, imagine how you’d feel if you dropped through a floor and your buddies had to bring you out in a basket.”

He grinned, his grime-streaked face devilishly handsome in the bright light of the halogen lamps shining down on them. “Definitely a dick-shrinking thought.”

“Damn right. So have a little pity. It’s your call to make, so unstrap me and tell them we’re climbing.”

He tugged on the guideline attached to the bright orange sked.

“On the line,” he called up. Then he gave her a charming boyish smile.

“Don’t worry, ma’am. The shrinkage is only temporary.”

She gripped his hand. “What’s your name?”

“Mike Torres.”

“Thanks, Mike. And be careful down here.”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

After five painstaking minutes, she was at the surface and being rapidly transferred into the back of the waiting fire rescue van. She peered up at the small African American woman guiding the front of the stretcher into the brightly lit rear compartment. “What happened to Allie Tremont? The officer who was with me? Is she all right?”

“I think she went to the clinic in the first truck,” the woman said as she efficiently slapped on EKG leads and ripped open the plastic sheath around a bag of IV solution.

“What do you mean, she went to the clinic?” Ash grabbed the woman’s arm and tried to sit up, fumbling frantically to release the safety strap. “She’s hurt? Where did they take her? How badly is she hurt?”

“Hey! Whoa. Take it easy,” the tech said. “Let’s worry about you first.”

“I’ve been telling everybody for the last hour, I’m okay.” She’d landed on her left side, and her hip and shoulder pounded unmercifully.

Still, she could move everything. She’d been hurt on the job before, and she’d be in for a couple of weeks of discomfort, but this was nothing major. “I want to talk to someone in charge. I want to know what happened to her.”

• 119 •

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“Look. We’re on our way to the clinic right now. As soon as I get you lined up, I’ll see if I can get some information. But you have to cooperate.”

Ash slumped down, suddenly exhausted. “Okay. Okay, fine. But call someone, please.” The jostling of the vehicle set her back and hips on fire, and she closed her eyes to fight down the pain. Time became fluid, and the voice of the technician reporting her vital signs drifted into an incoherent rumble in the recesses of her mind.

When the vehicle came to an abrupt halt, she groaned and opened her eyes. The double doors sprang open and she was being lifted out into a parking lot.

“Where’s Allie?” she demanded again.

“She’s inside,” a new voice said.

Ash focused on the woman walking beside the stretcher. Blond, young, chiseled face and tight body. She knew her. She’d seen her the night before. Allie’s girlfriend. “Is she all right?”

“The doc’s about finished with her. She’s fine.” Flynn looked down, grinning. “I thought I was going to have to tie her down to keep her from going back after you. She’ll be happy to see you.”

“Tell her I’m okay. She doesn’t have to hang around here.”

“I’ll tell her, but you know your partner.” Flynn guided the stretcher up the few stairs to the main entrance and pulled the door open. “I doubt she’ll leave until she’s satisfied that you’re all right.”

Partner. Ash gritted her teeth. Allie wasn’t her partner, not in any sense of the word, and the very last thing she wanted was Allie and her new squeeze waiting around. “Do me a favor and get her to go home.

There’s nothing she can do here. Nothing at all.”

• 120 •

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chapteR thiRteen

Reese pulled into the clinic parking lot right behind the EMT

rig, left her cruiser, and followed Ash and the EMS personnel inside to the treatment area. At the far end of the hall, Tory directed the medics guiding Ash’s stretcher into an open treatment room.

“How’s everyone doing?” Reese asked.

“I’ve only got a minute because I need to see to Ash,” Tory said,

“but Allie’s okay.”

“Nothing serious?”

“Lacerations and abrasions,” Tory said. “She’s shook up and she’s going to be sore for a while. She’s handling it well, but I’d still recommend putting her on desk duty for a day or two. Any problems getting Ash extricated?”

“It all went smoothly. She’s pretty banged up too, but from what I could tell, she got lucky. They both did.”

“How are you?” Tory asked.

“Me?”

Tory smiled at Reese’s genuine confusion and stroked her arm.

“Things must’ve been pretty harrowing there for a while.”

Reese glanced around to make sure they were still alone. “I didn’t have any recurrence of those symptoms. That’s what you’re worried about, isn’t it?”

“Let’s say concerned.”

“Don’t be. I’m okay. You’ve got enough to do taking care of my people.”

“You’ll always come first,” Tory murmured.

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Reese glanced at her watch. “By my count, you’ve been standing for close to ten hours again. How is your leg?”

“Better than I’d hoped.”

“That’s a cagey answer, Doctor. I know you can’t leave now, but as soon as you can, all right?” When Tory nodded, Reese kissed her quickly. “Can I see Allie?”

“Yes. She’s across the hall in three. I’ll update you on Ash when I know something.”

“Thanks. I’ll call Kate and tell her I’ll be by to pick Reggie up in an hour or so.”

“Good. I hope I’ll be home about then too. I’ll see you later, darling.”

Tory left to see Ash, and Reese crossed to the other treatment room.

Just as she was about to knock on the door, Bri barreled in from the reception area. She looked like she’d just jumped out of the shower—

her dark hair was wet and windblown, and she wore threadbare jeans, a faded blue polo shirt, and her motorcycle boots. From the wild look in her eyes, she’d probably rushed over to the clinic after hearing about the cave-in on her police scanner. Reese held up a hand.

“Take it easy. Everybody’s okay.”

“Allie?” Bri asked, panting from her run in from the parking lot.

Reese nodded. “Cuts and bruises. Nothing worse. I was just about to check on her.”

Bri let out a long sigh of relief. “Man, that’s good news. Can I go in with you?”

“Yes.” Reese checked behind her. They were still alone. “I told Carter about Everly. We checked his mother’s house today. No sign of him.”

“Thanks for the heads up.” Bri added casually, “I’m okay with you telling whoever needs to know.”

“Did you talk to Caroline?”

“Not yet. She was just leaving when I got home. I’ll tell her tonight.”

“Don’t wait any longer. There may be nothing to worry about, but make sure she’s careful.”

“Don’t worry. As soon as I leave here, I’ll do it. She’s been with Rica at the gallery all day, so I figured she was safe.”

• 122 •

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“Good enough.” Reese reached for the doorknob on treatment room three. “Let’s go see how your partner’s doing.”

v

“You talked to her?” Allie asked Flynn as she pushed herself up on the side of the stretcher and started buttoning her shirt. Tory had removed the IV and cleared her to go home, but she couldn’t leave until she knew Ash was all right. “She looked okay?”

“She was stable when I talked to her.” Flynn rubbed Allie’s back soothingly. “Awake and asking about you.”

Allie stiffened, resisting the little trill of pleasure that came from just knowing Ash had asked about her. “What did the EMTs say? Is she hurt seriously?”

“I only got a quick report from Sharon, the medic who brought her in, but it sounds like she’s in good shape. She looked it to me.”

“Good,” Allie said briskly. “That’s good.”

Flynn clasped Allie’s hand. “It will probably be a while before Dr.

King is done with the x-rays. Maybe you ought to go home.”

“I feel pretty normal right now.” Allie squeezed Flynn’s hand.

“Thanks for looking after me and making sure I got here okay. I guess I was more shook up than I realized.”

“You had a right to be shook up—you were both really lucky.”

Flynn kissed Allie’s cheek. “When I heard what happened, I was pretty scared.”

Allie forced a laugh, feeling oddly guilty about Flynn’s concern.

After all, the entire debacle had been her fault, and since it happened, she hadn’t been able to think about anything except Ash. Through the whole thing, Flynn had been a rock—supporting her, comforting her, looking after her. “You were great, Flynn. I’m really glad you were there and I really appreciate—”

“I wanted to be there. I want to be here. Don’t thank me,” Flynn murmured, dipping her head to kiss Allie on the lips.

Allie jerked away when she heard the door open. Reese and Bri stood in the doorway. Reese’s face was completely expressionless. Bri smirked ever so slightly.

“Officer Tremont,” Reese said, continuing into the room. “I

• 123 •

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understand Tory has cleared you to leave. I suggest you head home and get some rest. I’m taking you off rotation tomorrow. You’ll be on the desk when you come back the next day. I’ll need your report before that, including anything that you or Ash might have found suspicious in the structure. Can you take care of that while at home?”

“Yes, Sheriff,” Allie said formally, processing the news about desk duty. Was she being reprimanded because she’d screwed up? Probably.

She could’ve gotten Ash killed just because she’d let her personal feelings compromise her judgment, even if for only a few seconds.

Maybe Ash was right all along. Maybe she wasn’t mature enough for anything—a relationship or her job. “I’ll type up the report tonight and e-mail it to you. You’ll have it on your desk by start of first shift tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow by noon will be fine, Tremont,” Reese said. “Take it easy tonight.”

“Thank you, but I want to finish what I started.”

Reese glanced at Bri. “Can you take her home?”

Bri shook her head. “Sorry, Sheriff, but I came on my bike. I don’t think she should—”

“I’ll see that she gets home all right,” Flynn said. She’d released Allie’s hand but still stood close by her side.

“Good enough,” Reese said. “I’ll check in with you later, Tremont.”

“Okay, Sheriff.” Allie waited until the door closed behind Reese and Bri, then said to Flynn, “Don’t you have to get back to work?”

“I’ll take some personal time. It’s no problem. I’ll keep my radio on and leave if I have to.”

“You sure?”

Flynn slipped her arm around Allie’s waist. “Yeah, positive. I want to stay with you a while.”

“Can you wait just a minute while I find out if I can see Ash?”

“Sure. I’ll wait out in the hall for you. I have to call the station house anyhow.”

“Thanks, Flynn. You’re terrific.”

“I’ll remind you of that the first time I piss you off.” Flynn grinned and walked Allie out to the hall, her arm still around Allie’s waist. The door to the treatment room opposite them swung open and Tory halted when she saw them, holding the door open.

• 124 •

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“Prefect timing. I was just about to deliver a status report,” Tory said.

Allie looked past Tory to where Ash lay on the treatment table, a sheet pulled up to her chest. Her shoulders were bare and her left shoulder was mottled with the beginning of a huge bruise. Her cheek was scraped and still bleeding. Ash Walker’s gaze skated over Allie’s face before moving to Flynn. Then she slowly closed her eyes and turned her face away.

Tory said, “I can give you a minute, but that’s about it right now.”

“I don’t want to interfere,” Allie said softly. Ash didn’t want to see her, that was clear enough. “I only wanted to be sure she would be all right.”

“Everything looks good so far.”

“That’s all I needed to know,” Allie said. “I won’t keep you, then.

We were just leaving.”

v

Rica stood back and admired the five new paintings she’d just hung on prominent display in the front of the gallery. She’d placed the main work, a 4 x 5 foot impressionistic rendering of a cityscape that appeared to be at once ethereal and ominous, on a half-wall in front of the street-level plate glass window where it would be eye-catching to passersby.

“What do you think?” she asked Caroline Clark.

“I think I should reconsider my choice of careers. God, she is so awesome.” Caroline shook her head, her shoulder-length flaxen hair teasing around her cheeks and sweeping her neck, making her look innocent and sweetly seductive at the same time. In her tight black hiphugger pants and red short-sleeved corset shirt, she’d been the object of admiring glances all day long. Rica had watched at least four people—

women and men—trying to pick her up, but Caroline was completely oblivious. The thin silver band on her left ring finger was more than an ornament, and Rica found her complete lack of guile refreshing and heartbreakingly tender.

“Give up painting? Really?” Rica said, carrying the final canvas she intended to display to the side wall opposite the one showcasing

• 125 •

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the featured works. She hung the brilliantly hued landscape depicting a sliver of land, sweeping dunes, and several ramshackle dune shacks overlooking a stormy ocean, and stepped back to admire it. The scene, while a frequent one in works of local artists, was captivating in the purity of color and the wild, untamed brushstrokes. Rica felt the wind against her face and tasted the tang of salt water just looking at it. “Well then, I’m not sure I should sell this. In ten years, I might be able to retire on it.”

Caroline gasped. “That’s mine.”

“It certainly is, and I hope there’s more where this came from. I love it.”

“You do? Really?”

Rica slipped her arm around Caroline’s shoulders and gave her a hug. “Sweetheart, it’s terrific. I know you just brought it over for me to see, but you don’t mind if I show it, do you?”

“Mind? Oh my God! Oh, I can’t wait to tell Bri!” Caroline threw her arms around Rica’s neck and hugged her exuberantly. “You’re the best. I love you. I love you.”

Laughing, Rica hugged her back.

v

He leaned against the storefront opposite the gallery, sipping coffee from a paper cup and watching them through the front window.

Watching them caress each other—their breasts molded together, their hips pressing, parting, pressing again—made him wish they were naked. Women together aroused him. He liked watching them in videos, their long hair sweeping over full breasts and soft bellies.

He liked to imagine one of the women was her—just like now—and he would stroke himself, biding his time. In the end, she would turn to him, open her arms to him, and beg him to give her what she truly needed. The pictures in magazines weren’t as satisfying as the videos, and the videos couldn’t come close to exciting him the way watching her like this did. Smiling, he thought about following her home. Maybe she would leave the light on in her bedroom. He slid his hand into his pocket and fingered the square of red silk he’d cut from the shirt. He rubbed it up and down inside his pocket, over the ridge of his erection.

The first time he’d seen her after—after—he’d gotten so hard he’d

• 126 •

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almost taken her right then, not caring who might’ve seen or heard. He’d barely managed to restrain himself, but now he was so glad that he had.

Watching her, envisioning all the different ways he would touch her and taste her, was proving to be so much more satisfying than having her just once. And there were all the others to amuse himself with—all the pretty women. Her friends. All for him.

Suddenly, a figure cut across his line of vision, striding rapidly toward the front door of the gallery. He stepped back into the shadows, his fingers stilling against his cock. Pressure built in his chest, his head pounded. One of them. He’d been so intent on her, he hadn’t seen which one it was, but they were all the same. They defiled what was rightfully his. Maybe he didn’t have to wait for his pleasure. Maybe it was time to take one of them.

v

The chime above the door sounded, and Bri walked into the gallery. Stopping abruptly with her hands on her hips, she cocked her head and growled, “Hey! What am I missing here?”

Caroline looked over her shoulder, her arms still around Rica’s waist. “Hi, baby.” She tilted her head toward the wall. “Look!”

Bri followed her gaze and grinned. “Oh yeah. What did I tell you?”

She opened her arms and Caroline threw herself at her. Laughing, Bri kissed her, sliding her hands down her back to cup her butt. Caroline wrapped her arms around Bri’s neck and hooked her heel behind Bri’s leg. Bri broke off the kiss after half a minute and whispered in her ear,

“You’re going to be famous, babe. Just wait and see.”

“I don’t care about that,” Caroline said. “I just want you to be proud of me.”

Bri nuzzled her neck. “Always, babe. Always.”

Rica laughed, wondering if she should break them up or just charge admission. She settled for tapping Bri on the shoulder. “Hi, Bri.”

“Hey, Rica.” Reluctantly, Bri loosened her hold on Caroline, who eased away a few inches and pushed her hand into Bri’s back pocket, gripping her ass. “She’s really good, huh?”

“She really is.”

“Okay, okay,” Caroline protested. “Enough already. Where have you been, baby? I thought you were going to meet me for dinner.”

• 127 •

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“I would have, but Allie and Ash got caught in a building collapse this afternoon. I was at the clinic.”

“Are they okay?” Caroline asked anxiously.

“Yeah. They’re both going to be fine.”

“Was anyone else with them?” Rica asked. “Is Carter all right? I haven’t heard from her all afternoon.”

“Carter’s probably still there, securing the scene. She’s good.” Bri checked the time, then said apologetically, “We should go, babe. I, uh, need to talk to you before I get ready for work.”

Caroline asked Rica, “Do you need me to help close up or anything?”

“No. You go ahead. Thanks for giving me a hand getting these paintings uncrated and hung.” Rica dimmed the lights in the front of the gallery. “I’ll be leaving soon myself.”

Caroline kissed Rica’s cheek. “Thanks again. You’ve made me so happy.”

“You deserve it.” Rica hugged Caroline. “Now go, before Bri busts something. From the way she’s looking at you, I think you better go straight home.”

“Oh, she always looks at me that way,” Caroline confided with a tiny smirk.

“Lucky you.” Rica laughed. “Get out of here, you two.”

Rica held the door for them, still smiling as they sauntered off, arms around each other. She watched them, wondering what it would have been like if she’d met Carter when she was their age. Her father had made it clear before she was out of her teens that he expected her to marry, preferably the man of his choice. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself when she thought of Lorenzo Brassi and his dark hungry eyes, undressing her, devouring her, as if she were already his.

But Enzo was gone, and she had Carter. She would have fallen in love with Carter at any age, and that thought was enough to warm her all the way through. She closed the door and went in search of her phone, unsure why she suddenly felt so unsettled. All she knew was that she needed to hear Carter’s voice.

v

• 128 •

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“He’s out?” Caroline asked softly, dropping abruptly onto the side of the bed. She clasped her hands together in her lap and stared at Bri.

Bri nodded, hating the tremor of fear she heard in Carre’s voice, even though Carre tried hard to hide it. “We don’t know he’s here, babe.

Okay? You just need to be careful. Don’t walk around alone at night.

Make sure the doors are locked. Keep your phone with you all the time, even when you’re in the house.”

“What about you? Will you be all right?”

“Hey,” Bri said, putting a swagger in her voice. “I’m a cop, babe.

You don’t have to worry about me.”

Caroline laughed and shook her head. “You are so full of it.”

She patted the bed next to her. “Come here and hold me for a few minutes.”

Bri covered the distance in one second flat. She stretched out on top of their platform bed and pulled Carre into her arms. “It’s going to be okay, babe. Reese will find him, if he’s here.”

Caroline rubbed her hand back and forth over Bri’s chest. “You’ll be careful too, right? Even if you are a big tough cop?”

“Count on it.”

“And like you said, he might not be here at all, right?”

“Right.” Bri tightened her hold, wishing she could stay there for the rest of the night. She felt him. He was out there somewhere, she knew it.

• 129 •

• 130 •

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chapteR fOuRteen

Turn here,” Allie told Flynn, pointing to a narrow one-way street near the center of town that ran between Commercial and Bradford. “I’m about halfway up on the right. I used to rent a place in Wellfleet, but I can walk to work from here.”

“I know what you mean. One of the perks of small-town living.”

Flynn pulled her Jeep Wrangler into the small three-car parking lot in front of a six-foot wooden privacy fence. She’d hitched a ride with one of the EMTs at the clinic to pick up her Jeep earlier so she could take Allie home.

“I’ve got the apartment in the back.” Allie led Flynn through the gate into a postage-stamp-sized yard. One of the things she loved about her apartment was that she had her own entrance and didn’t have to see anyone coming or going. If she brought women home, she wasn’t broadcasting her business. Not that there’d been very many. Come to think of it, there hadn’t been any for the six months she’d lived there.

During the summer she’d always gone to Deo’s condo, and before Deo, she’d mostly been trysting with pickups in their rooms. Now she was bringing Flynn home, and she was nervous. She never got nervous with women. She unlocked the door that opened on her kitchen and held it open.

Flynn looked around after Allie turned on the light. “This is nice.”

She slid her hands in the back pockets of her navy blue uniform pants.

“So can I fix you anything? Tea? A drink, maybe?”

“You know what?” Allie said. “I’m filthy and I could really use a

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shower. After that, a beer, I think. Do you mind helping yourself?” She pointed to the door opposite the one they came in. “Living room is right through there. It will only take me a few minutes.”

“Hey. Take your time.”

“Thanks.” Allie kissed her cheek. “Be right back.”

Allie showered and washed her hair, then dressed in loose tan drawstring pants and a white long-sleeved ribbed pullover. Barefoot, she padded into the living room. Flynn had stretched out on the couch and had a Victoria’s Secret catalog propped on her chest. Allie laughed.

“Looking for underwear?”

Flynn turned toward her, balancing her beer bottle on her thigh and marking her place in the catalog with a finger. She grinned lazily.

“Just looking at the girls.”

Allie sat on the edge of the sofa, her hip against Flynn’s. She could see herself stretching out beside her, curling up into her. She could see herself unbuttoning Flynn’s shirt with the EMT logo on the sleeve and slipping her hand inside. She could see herself doing a lot of things.

The pictures in her mind made her body warm and liquid. But she didn’t move. “How come you don’t have a girlfriend? You’re prime real estate, you know.”

Flynn’s grin flickered and disappeared.

“Sorry,” Allie said instantly. “I didn’t mean to get personal.”

“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” Flynn said quietly. “Getting personal?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure what I’m doing tonight.” She laughed shakily and pushed damp hair away from her face. “But I was serious about you being special.”

Flynn sat up and patted the sofa next to her. “Lean back and relax.

You’re supposed to be taking it easy.”

Allie made a face, but she settled back and curled her legs up under her. Flynn put her arm around her. It was comfortable. She was tired and sore and Flynn felt good. She rubbed Flynn’s thigh, remembering how it felt to have those hard muscles pressed tight between her legs.

“I don’t have anything against girls who play the field, you know. I’ve pretty much always been that way myself.”

“I haven’t had a lot of time to get a girlfriend, not seriously,” Flynn said after a while. “Before I became a paramedic, I went to school in Cambridge.”

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“What? They don’t have girls at Harvard?” Allie teased.

Flynn smiled. “They had a few girls. None of them were interested in me, though.”

Allie snorted. “I find that hard to believe.”

“I didn’t go to Harvard, I went to a place called EDS. Episcopal Divinity School. I’m a priest.”

“Holy shit,” Allie whispered, then clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh—I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said—”

Flynn grasped Allie’s wrist and pulled it away from her face. “You can see why I don’t talk about it that much. It’s kind of a mood killer on a date.”

“Then what are you doing here? Why aren’t you—in a church or something?”

“It’s a long story. I am ordained, but I’ve never ministered. I realized that I didn’t have the calling, and I think you need to. So I went another direction.”

“Wow.”

“I guess you don’t think I’m so hot anymore,” Flynn said softly.

Allie shifted on the sofa and grasped both of Flynn’s hands.

“Wrong. Totally wrong. In a perverted kind of way, I think you’re even sexier now.”

Flynn’s face relaxed and she laughed. Carefully, she pulled Allie onto her lap and wrapped her arms around her. She kissed her neck.

“You’re not freaked out?”

“I’m not very religious, so no. I’m curious, though.”

“I meant it when I said it’s a long story. Some other time, maybe.”

Flynn lightly nibbled a spot below her ear.

“Okay,” Allie agreed. She would have probed but Flynn didn’t seem anxious to talk about it, and Flynn’s mouth was doing dangerous things to her brain. Like melting it. Flynn’s kisses turned to gentle bites, and Allie’s nipples started to tingle. The next thing to start would be her clit, and she didn’t want to go there. Not tonight. But she didn’t want Flynn to think it was because of what she’d just told her. “In fact, I’m not religious at all. I’m not sure I get it, completely. Does that freak you out?”

“Uh-uh,” Flynn murmured.

“You’re not a virgin, are you?”

Flynn tilted her head back and stared into Allie’s eyes. “Episcopal

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priests don’t take a vow of celibacy. And I’ve had a few years to catch up to what I missed while I was in seminary.”

“Oh good,” Allie whispered, squirming in Flynn’s lap as Flynn rubbed her cheek over Allie’s breast, making her nipple harden beneath the thin cotton. “Oh fuck, that feels good. Sorry—sorry, I can’t think when you do that.”

“Don’t apologize. Swearing doesn’t bother me.”

Flynn’s warm breath teased her breast through her shirt. Her breasts were a huge trigger and she couldn’t stop herself from pressing her nipple against Flynn’s mouth. When Flynn obediently bit down, Allie whimpered softly. “God, Flynn, that turns me on so much.”

With a groan, Flynn released Allie’s nipple and let her head fall back against the couch. “All I have to do is kiss you and I totally forget everything. Like the fact that you’re bruised and sore and I’m trying to maul you. I’m sorry.”

“Any other time, believe me, maul away.” Allie leaned down and kissed her, slowly and thoroughly. When she pulled back, she was panting and Flynn’s eyes were glazed. “I hate to say this, but I really do think I need to go to bed. I’m just—I’m just a little strung out over everything, you know?”

“I know, and I’m good with that, really.” Flynn hesitated. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention anything about what I told you.”

“I won’t. Promise.” Allie sighed.

Flynn helped Allie get to her feet, then put her arms around her and whispered, “Anything I can do before I go?”

“Oh, you’ve done plenty. Gold star, Flynn.” Allie walked Flynn to the door and gave her another serious good-night kiss. Flynn held her close, caressing her back and her ass, but not pushing for anything more than the kiss. Just the same, Allie throbbed in all the danger zones by the time she broke it off. “And I don’t just think you’re hot. I think you’re blazing.”

v

“You need to get out of here,” Nita said, leaning in the doorway of Tory’s office. “You were only supposed to work half a day, remember?”

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“Did Ash Walker get taken care of?” Tory asked wearily.

“Yes. One of Reese’s officers came by to drive her home. Really, you look beat. I’ll take care of the chart work.”

“I appreciate it. Reese picked the baby up a little while ago, and I’d really like to get home before she goes to sleep. It’s been a long couple of weeks without her.”

“Go, go.”

“Can you come in for a minute and close the door?” Tory dreaded asking, but she’d pushed everything out of her mind during the last few chaotic hours, taking care of two injured friends. She couldn’t hold her worry off any longer. “What do you think about Reese?”

“You know the party line,” Nita said gently, settling into one of the chairs in front of Tory’s desk. She crossed her legs and draped one arm over her knee, leaning forward, her face serious and compassionate. “I told her I wanted to get a CAT scan just to be sure we aren’t dealing with some small area of cortical scarring that’s acting as a seizure focus.

I had Sally draw blood for routine chemistry and also an endocrine panel. Until I get the results, anything I say would be premature and possibly inaccurate.”

“All right. You’ve given me the safe answer,” Tory said evenly.

“Now tell me what your gut says.”

“I think she’s possibly the most amazing women I’ve ever met.”

Tory laughed. “Flatterer.”

“I mean it,” Nita said, smiling, “and you know how I feel about Deo.”

“Yes, I witnessed the courtship, remember.”

“And I have no secrets left.” Nita’s smooth café au lait skin flushed. “In addition to all her obvious attributes, psychologically Reese is really remarkable. And unusual. You know that, right?”

“She’s spoiled me,” Tory said softly. “When I met her, I didn’t believe in love anymore. Not the kind of love that changes your life.

Not the kind that…well, you know.” Tory took a breath. “And then, there she was. So…damn perfect. So strong, so clear minded, so utterly completely focused on me. She gave me everything I ever wanted and let me want more.” Tory folded her hands on her desk and stared at her intertwined fingers. “And I’ve indulged myself in how wonderful that makes me feel. How wonderful she makes me feel. And maybe I’ve asked too much of her all this time.”

• 135 •

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“Oh boy,” Nita murmured. “I’m going out on a limb here, because I’ve only known you two a relatively short time. But I think you’re wrong. About indulging yourself and about taking advantage of her.

That’s what you’re getting at, aren’t you?”

“Maybe. I guess so.” Tory was sick thinking that Reese needed her and had been afraid to tell her. Thinking that she hadn’t given Reese what she needed when Reese came home so damaged. That she’d allowed herself to believe that Reese was strong enough to handle anything that came her way, because she needed her to be.

“Reese is about the most honest person I’ve ever met,” Nita said. “I asked her some pretty pointed questions and we talked about some pretty frightening things. Or what would be frightening for most people. In my opinion, she’s not frightened, she’s not anxious, she’s not psychologically fragile. She’s every bit as strong as you think she is.”

Tory straightened. “You don’t think she has PTSD?”

“I think she’s displaying completely normal, human reactions to a horrifying experience. Mild psychic trauma that’s well on the way to mending. She said herself that her nightmares are getting better. You seem to think that she’s improving.”

“Yes. But if it’s not that…” Tory’s chest tightened as if a huge hand were squeezing around her heart. For a second, she couldn’t catch her breath. “You think…you found something physical?”

“No, no,” Nita said quickly, shaking her head. “God, I knew I should wait until we had the tests—”

“I’m sorry. I’m fine. Really. I want…I need to hear this. Please.”

“Okay…bear with me while I try to put this into words. Reese is really complicated, and she’s also really simple. She functions on two levels, as far as I can tell. You said yourself she’s a Marine, and that goes far beyond just a job description. It’s part of her psyche—an ingrained need to take responsibility for others, to see that good wins out, if you will. It’s the soldier mentality. She needs to be the sheriff now just as much as she needed to be a Marine before. It’s her purpose.”

“I know. I realized that soon after we met, and as hard as it is, I would never ask her to change.”

Nita nodded. “And then there’s the bigger part of her. That part you’re too close to see. The part where she’s vulnerable. And that’s you.”

“Me.”

• 136 •

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“The only time I got a response out of her that was anything other than totally calm and controlled was when we were talking about you.

Anything that affects you—your mental or physical comfort—that’s her Achilles’ heel.” Nita hesitated.

“What? What aren’t you telling me?”

“Her blood pressure spiked to two-thirty systolic at one point. We happened to be talking about you.”

“Two-thirty,” Tory whispered. “God, Nita. She could stroke at that level.”

“If she weren’t in such superb physical condition, I’d be a lot more worried.” Nita kept her gaze steady on Tory’s. “I’m not saying it’s not something to worry about, but we need more information before we panic.”

“What do you recommend?” At that moment, Tory couldn’t even begin to think like a physician. All she could envision was something happening to Reese. She saw her hands trembling, but she couldn’t feel them. Her lips tingled but when she ran her tongue over them they felt like wood. The room dimmed and she wondered if someone had turned the lights off in the clinic.

“Tory.” Nita’s voice came from far away. “Tory, put your head down.”

Tory felt fingers on the back of her neck, gently kneading. She took a deep breath and slowly became aware of her cheek resting against her desk. She pushed herself upright. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

Nita sat back down, her expression sympathetic. “You know, Reese isn’t the only one susceptible to PTSD. You’ve been under almost as much stress as she has. And you’re exhausted.”

“I’m all right,” Tory said quickly. “I haven’t been sleeping that well and my leg’s bothering me.” She saw Nita’s eyebrows lift almost imperceptibly. “And, all right, I’m terrified of something happening to her.”

“Well, then I would say the two of you are perfectly matched. As far as Reese is concerned, I’m recommending that she wear a cardiac monitor and a transdermal blood-pressure sensor twenty-four hours a day for a week.” She pointed her finger at Tory. “And you need to let me be responsible for her. Let me take care of her. And trust me.”

“All right.” Tory smiled faintly. “I’ll try. I really will.”

• 137 •

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“Have her come by tomorrow and I’ll get her set up. Now you go home and remember your promise.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Tory looked at the pile of charts and lab reports on her desk that she still needed to review, and decided that nothing was more important at that moment than Reese. She repeated her promise to let Nita handle things all the way home, and when she walked in the house, the first thing she saw was Reese lying on the couch with Reggie perched on her chest. Jedi, his paws twitching in his sleep, snored on the floor beside the sofa. Tory vowed that for the rest of the night the only thing she would do was enjoy her family.

“Hi, love,” Reese said, a wide smile chasing the shadows from her eyes. “Look what I found.”

Reggie squealed and held up her arms. Tory dumped her blazer and briefcase unceremoniously in a pile on the floor and scooped up her daughter. She breathed in the faint odor of baby shampoo and apricots and thought she had never smelled anything so beautiful. She spun slowly in a circle. “Hello hello hello. Look who’s home!”

Reese made room on the sofa and Tory sat next to her. Reggie immediately demanded to get down, and Tory set her on the floor.

Watching Reggie out of one eye, she scooted closer to Reese, looped her arm around her waist, and kissed her. “Hello, darling. I missed you.”

“I’m glad you’re home,” Reese murmured against her ear. “Are you hungry? We’re having hot dogs.”

“It’s almost nine o’clock,” Tory chided. “She should be in bed.”

“But we’re hungry.”

“Hungry,” Reggie confirmed with a happy shout.

Laughing, feeling her weariness drop away like an unwanted coat on an early spring morning, Tory rose and pulled Reese up with her.

“Then you’re cooking.”

Reese leaned down and plucked Reggie up with an arm around her middle, then slung the other arm around Tory’s shoulders. “Grab a seat at the counter, put your leg up, and prepare to be feasted.”

“I love you,” Tory laughed, amazed at how easy it was to live just in this moment, when she had everything she needed.

v

• 138 •

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Allie rolled over and looked at the clock. Ten thirty. She couldn’t sleep even though she was tired. Every muscle and bone in her body ached. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the softness of Flynn’s lips, the heat of her mouth, the gentle tug of fingertips on her breasts.

When she started to get excited, she touched herself and instantly, the images shattered.

Cursing inwardly, she flopped onto her back and stared at the ceiling, so wide-eyed she was vibrating. Patchy moonlight cast leafy shadows across her ceiling. She thought of the flowers she’d seen along the path to Ash’s room that afternoon. The afternoon felt so long ago.

An image of the blossoming bruise on Ash’s shoulder as she lay on the treatment table clicked into sharp focus. Allie recalled the hot glint of Ash’s eyes when she’d looked at her in the burned-out building, just before she’d fallen. Just before she’d fallen and disappeared.

Allie lurched up straight in bed, clutching the sheet so tightly in her fists her fingers ached. Ash’s eyes had looked so empty when she’d stared at her and Flynn together in the clinic. God, Flynn. She couldn’t think about Flynn right now.

Grabbing her phone from the nightstand, she punched in Ash’s number from memory. A few seconds later her call went to voicemail.

Ash should be home by now. What if something had gone wrong? What if she was still at the clinic? Hurriedly, she dialed the clinic number.

She took injured tourists and townspeople there so frequently, she knew the number by heart. Three rings. Four rings. The answering machine picked up.

Tossing the covers aside, she vaulted from bed and dressed hurriedly in jeans and a cotton pullover sweater, not even bothering with underwear. She grabbed her keys and was in her car before she had time to talk sense to herself. Five minutes later, she pulled up in front of the Crown. A minute after that she knocked on Ash’s door.

“Ash?” she called softly. “Ash, it’s Allie. Are you there? Ash?”

She tried the knob. The door was locked. The room was dark. Maybe Ash was with a woman. The one from last night. Maybe she was inside, hurt. Maybe…

The door opened and Ash stared out at her. She was barefoot in a white V-neck T-shirt and loose navy blue sweatpants. The only light came from a series of muted floods situated near the eaves of the buildings surrounding the courtyard, but even in the dim illumination,

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Allie could see the blank futility in Ash’s eyes. She looked hurt. She looked beaten.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Allie whispered. “Damn you, Ash. I couldn’t sleep.”

Ash opened the door wider. “Neither could I.”

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chapteR fifteen

Allie followed Ash inside and stood in the dark wondering what to do next. After a few seconds, Ash turned on a table lamp in the sitting area. She looked at Allie questioningly, as if waiting for some explanation. Allie didn’t have one. Ash was pale, gaunt looking, as if she’d been ill for a long time. She stood awkwardly, clearly favoring her left hip. Allie could barely stand to see her hurting so much.

“I don’t know why I’m here, exactly,” Allie said softly. “I guess…

I’m worried about you.”

“I’m okay,” Ash said hoarsely.

“You look horrible.”

Ash grinned lopsidedly. “Your pickup lines could use some polish.”

“Bullshit,” Allie protested, smiling back. “My plays are legend.”

“True.”

Allie was grateful for the little bit of banter that defused some of the tension that filled the distance between them with a heaviness that made her ache inside. She’d been disappointed by women plenty of times in her life. She’d been crazy in love with Bri, and probably still was a little bit, somewhere deep inside. But Bri had been in love with Caroline, always and forever. She could have fallen for Deo—she’d been in a place where she’d wanted to fall for her, but that hadn’t worked out. And then another girl too, right after high school, who’d been special and who’d moved on. She hurt still, a little bit, for all of them and what might have been, but none of them had ever left with a piece of her heart. Ash had walked away with a huge chunk of it and maybe that was all this was about. Just trying to get back that piece of

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her heart that she needed to feel whole. Maybe she just had to sever whatever invisible connections still kept them tethered to one another, despite time and distance and hurt. But not now, not tonight.

“Go back to bed, Ash. I shouldn’t have come over here in the middle of the night.”

“I wasn’t sleeping,” Ash said. She’d been lying awake thinking about Allie. Half worried and half crazy. Worried that Allie might be more hurt than she appeared, and half crazy thinking about someone else taking care of her. No matter how many times she reminded herself that Allie didn’t need her anymore, she couldn’t stop the desire to see her, be near her, care for her.

“Can I get you anything?” Allie asked gently. “Medicine or something?”

Ash wiped the sweat that had suddenly surfaced on her forehead, even though the room was cool. “I took some aspirin. Earlier.”

“Okay, fine.” Allie couldn’t stand by and watch Ash struggle to stay upright any longer. She shot across the room and put her arm around Ash’s waist. “Then you need to go to bed. Now.”

Ash stiffened, her flesh burning beneath Allie’s fingers. The soft curve of Allie’s breast pressed against her side, and despite being sick at heart and battered physically, she was instantly aroused. She tried to pull away, but Allie held her more tightly.

“You can’t be here, Allie,” Ash whispered.

“I am here. Let me just help you and then I’ll go.”

Ash relented because she wasn’t strong enough to resist. Because Allie smelled so good, felt so good. They walked into the adjoining bedroom together, and Ash slowly lowered herself into bed. Allie disappeared and Ash thought she was leaving. She waited to hear the sound of the door closing. Waited for the night to yawn long and empty before her. Then Allie reappeared with a fresh glass of water and set it beside her.

“Did Tory give you any pills?”

“A prescription,” Ash admitted. “But I didn’t fill it.”

Allie jammed her hands on her hips. “Really, Ash. Do you have to be such a hardheaded ass all the time?”

“Apparently.” Ash shrugged, but cut the motion short when her shoulder screamed in protest. “I don’t want to take that kind of medication. I know what’s wrong, and it’s not going to kill me. I look worse than I am.”

• 142 •

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“That’s really not saying very much.”

Allie spun around and stomped into the bathroom. A few seconds later she came back and placed four aspirin next to the glass of water.

“Two if you wake up tonight, and two in the morning. Okay?”

“How are you feeling?”

Allie took stock and to her surprise, felt better than she had all night. The stitches in her leg twinged every time she moved, and her hands burned from the many small cuts on her palms, but the horrible sick tension that had plagued her since the moment of the accident was gone. She knew Ash was going to be all right, and that’s what she’d needed to know all along. “I’m not the one who fell through the floor.”

“Please don’t remind me.”

“I’m sorry,” Allie said softly. “It was my fault.”

“That’s not true.” Ash started to push herself up on her elbows, but groaned and fell back against the pillows.

“Would you please relax?” Allie snapped.

“Yes, all right, fine…but understand this. The situation could have just as easily been reversed. I could’ve put my foot down in the wrong place at any time this afternoon and you would have been the one falling ten feet into a hole. I shouldn’t have let you come with me.

It was all my mistake.”

“Look, Walker, I can take responsibility for myself. I insisted on coming along. I was there to do my job, just like you. I just…messed up.” Allie looked away, horrified to feel tears forming beneath her lashes. She blinked rapidly until she forced them back. “I let personal stuff get in the way of doing my job. I’m so sorry.”

Ignoring her protesting body, Ash sat up, unwilling to appear like a victim when Allie was taking all the blame for her injury. “No one can just turn off the things that matter to them, even when they’re working.

Everyone carries personal baggage around with them all the time.”

Allie shook her head vigorously. “Reese doesn’t.”

Ash rolled her eyes. “Oh, for Christ’s sake. None of us will ever be Reese Conlon.”

“Yeah, true,” Allie said, laughing despite her misery. “Okay, bad example. But I should’ve done better.”

“So next time you will. Next time I’ll keep a better eye on where you’re stepping too.”

“Next time?”

• 143 •

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Ash dropped back on the pillows, unable to support herself any longer. She sighed. “I’ve still got a dozen major scenes to evaluate. Are you planning on letting me do it by myself?”

“No,” Allie said vehemently, secretly hoping Reese wasn’t going to pull her from the assignment. She wanted to see it through. She really liked the work. And she really liked working with Ash. Maybe they could even end up friends, someday.

“So we’ll do better next time,” Ash said.

“I guess we can work on it.” Allie saw that Ash was fading. Her eyelids flickered and her words had begun to slur. Allie wanted to stay.

She just wanted to be there if Ash woke up. If she needed anything. If she hurt. She bit the inside of her lip and reminded herself of all the many reasons that was a really bad idea.

“I’m going to go now,” Allie said softly. “Will you go to sleep?”

“I’ll try.”

“Not good enough, Walker. Promise.”

“Promise,” Ash whispered.

Allie reached to turn the light out and as she leaned over, made the mistake of looking into Ash’s eyes. The dark pupils were cavernous and her irises had turned smoky, the way they did when Ash craved her.

Want surged in the pit of her stomach and she quickly extinguished the light before Ash could see it. She backed away, retreating by memory to the door.

“Good night, Ash.” She let herself out quickly, not waiting for an answer.

v

“Tell me she’s asleep,” Tory said as Reese came into the bedroom, undressing as she walked.

“The perks of a full stomach.” Reese grinned. “Down for the count.”

Tory leaned back against the pillows with a sigh. “I’m really glad she’s home, and I’m really glad she’s asleep.”

Nude, Reese pulled back the covers and slid under next to Tory.

She turned on her side and propped her head on her elbow. Skating her fingers lightly up and down Tory’s arm, she said, “Tired?”

“Darling,” Tory murmured, “the heart is willing but the body…”

• 144 •

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Reese laughed. “I wasn’t talking about that. I was actually talking about talking.”

“Why? Is something wrong?” Tory rolled over to face her, draping one arm around Reese’s middle.

“Nothing’s wrong at all. But we never finished talking about the baby thing this morning.”

“Oh. That.”

“Uh-huh.” Reese wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to say, but she couldn’t ignore something that she knew was important to Tory.

“You took me by surprise. I kind of thought that we were done.”

“I guess it did seem to come out of nowhere,” Tory said quietly. A lot had changed in the course of a day. Right now, the foremost thing on her mind was determining if Reese had any serious physical illness, and helping her through whatever residual remained from her recent trauma. Baby-making was suddenly low down on her list. “My timing was bad, and maybe that’s an omen. Let’s talk about it some other time, when life is less hectic.”

“Our life is no more hectic now than it ever is.” Reese frowned.

“What’s got you backpedaling?”

“Nothing,” Tory said, knowing she was evading. She didn’t want to frighten Reese with her own fears.

“You talked to Nita,” Reese said flatly. “I asked her not to discuss anything with you until I was with you.”

“No…I mean, yes, we talked, but she didn’t go behind your back. She doesn’t have any of the results yet. We only talked in generalities.”

Reese snorted and sat up in bed, her hands tightening on her thighs. “You’re a doctor, Tory. There is no such thing as generalities with you.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to invade your privacy.”

“I don’t care about my privacy. This affects you as well as me. It’s just that…”

“What?” Tory asked softly, curling closer and resting her hand in the center of Reese’s chest. “It’s just what, darling?”

Reese covered Tory’s hand and ran her thumb slowly over Tory’s wrist. “I didn’t want you worrying.”

“Sweetheart. I love you. I’m going to worry…a little…about anything that hurts or troubles you.”

• 145 •

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“What did Nita say?”

“That’s just it,” Tory said. “Nothing. She has to wait until the tests come back.”

“Something came up to make you decide it’s not the right time to get pregnant.”

“I just want to deal with one thing at a time.”

Reese knew she should be relieved that the subject was tabled temporarily, but she wasn’t. She didn’t want Tory to sacrifice anything in her life because of her, and she didn’t want to use an excuse not to be honest with her. She took Tory’s hand. “I need to tell you something.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t know if I want another baby.”

“Okay,” Tory said slowly. “That’s really important information.”

Reese sighed. “It’s not what you think. I’m crazy about Reggie. I think Reggie would probably like a sibling, but—”

“That’s all right, darling. You don’t need to explain yourself. It’s enough—”

“Tory.” Reese gently drew Tory into her arms. “Love. Listen. It’s not that I don’t like the idea. But last time, you almost died. I can’t…”

Reese remembered the ambulance ride so clearly—the blood, the EMTs shouting Tory’s vital signs over the radio, Tory whispering for her to choose the baby, if a choice had to be made. She felt the ambulance careening around the curves, heard the wail of sirens, felt the earth tilt.

Bombs burst, men screamed, and she was helpless, helpless…helpless to help them. She groaned softly.

Tory felt Reese’s heart pound wildly beneath her cheek, so fast she couldn’t count the beats. Reese’s body shuddered lightly all over, as if an electric current were coursing beneath her skin. Tory didn’t doubt if she took her blood pressure right then it would be in the stratosphere.

She sat up, her own heart racing, and took both of Reese’s hands in hers. “Reese. Reese, darling, look at me. I’m fine. You’re home with me, and we’re both fine.”

“Sorry,” Reese said thickly. “I drifted there for a minute.”

“I know.” Tory skimmed her fingers through Reese’s hair. “I know.

It’s all right.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. Nothing at all.” Tory pushed up higher on the bed and reversed their positions, drawing Reese’s head

• 146 •

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to her shoulder. She stroked her back, waiting for Reese’s breathing to quiet and her heart rate to steady. “All right now?”

“Yes.” Reese closed her eyes. “You know, when Ash went down today, I was fine. Worried, but fine.”

“Why don’t you try to get some sleep? We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

“You’re not going to pull the plug on me? Declare me unfit for duty?”

“No, absolutely not.” Tory tightened her hold. Nita had said that she was Reese’s Achilles’ heel, and she thought Nita might be right.

She wasn’t certain what she was going to do about that, but she wasn’t going to compound the problem by taking away something that meant so much to Reese. “You haven’t shown any evidence that your command abilities are compromised. And if you did, I know that you would put yourself behind a desk.”

Reese relaxed. “I’ll work this out, Tory. I promise.”

“Oh, sweetheart. I know.” Tory kissed her. “We’ll work it out together.”

v

The town was small enough, only three miles from one end to the other, that he could walk or take the bus for a dollar and complete his circuit in an hour. He enjoyed making the rounds, watching the lights go on and off in a downstairs living room, in an upstairs bedroom. It hadn’t taken him long, just a few days of observing, to discover who was important to her. Who her friends were. Now he visited them regularly.

Since he’d arrived right after the storm had passed through, he’d come to realize that the residents were all focused on disaster relief and the law officers were spread thin and overworked. He’d gotten tired of breaking into empty houses, and rented a room in a bed and breakfast on a small quiet street north of Bradford. Clean sheets and breakfast in the morning. No one paid him any attention at all.

So he was surprised when he realized that he was being followed.

At first, he thought the man was just another man like him, walking aimlessly down empty streets after midnight. It wasn’t until he’d started walking toward her house that he sensed the man somewhere in the

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shadows, behind him. Then he began to wonder how long he’d been there. Long enough to see him watching her through the window? Long enough to suspect? Abruptly, he changed directions, skirting down a narrow gravel alley barely wide enough for a car. When he reached the most shadowed spot, he stepped off and pressed against the side of a wooden fence. He waited, listening to the silence.

Then he heard the quiet, nearly inaudible crunch of careful footsteps on stone. The man was good. A professional. A cop, maybe?

But his survival instincts were better. As the man drew nearer, his anger escalated. He would never again be the hunted. He was the hunter.

So when the figure glided into view, he took down his prey with a single long slice of the blade.

• 148 •

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chapteR sixteen

This is Conlon,” Reese said when her cell phone rang sometime in the middle of the night. She felt Tory come awake next to her and automatically put a hand on her shoulder to urge her back to sleep.

“It’s Carter. We’ve got a homicide.”

Reese got out of bed and headed toward the closet for a fresh uniform. “Where?”

“An alley between Franklin and Creek—Clover.”

“Who do you have on the scene?”

“I assigned Smith and Chang to secure the scene. Bri’s canvassing witnesses. We’re starting to draw a little bit of a crowd.”

“Suspects?”

“Nothing yet.”

“ETA five minutes.”

“You’ll tell the coroner?”

Reese glanced at the bed where Tory was now sitting up. “I’ll tell her.”

“What is it?” Tory said as she got out of bed and Reese ended the call.

“Carter has a homicide. I don’t have the details.” Since Tory was also the county coroner, Reese didn’t have to elaborate. Tory would need to examine the body, not only to declare death, but to document the evidence. She gave her the location as she pulled on her pants.

“I’ll call Kate and see if she wants to come here,” Tory said. “I hate to wake the baby up now.”

• 149 •

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“Okay. Thanks.”

“Homicide. Unusual for here.” Tory grabbed a pair of comfortable jeans, hoping she’d actually get home before she had to go back to the office.

“Yes,” Reese said. Bar brawls, muggings, vehicular manslaughter—

those were the violent crimes she usually dealt with. Homicide in their small seaside village, even during the height of the tourist season, was very unusual. “You should probably take your own car. I’ll be out there the rest of the night.”

“Good idea.” Tory paused while buttoning her shirt. “Reese, Nita will probably want to see you in the morning. She wants you to wear some monitoring devices for a few days.”

“Why?”

“Your blood pressure was erratic and quite high at times. She wants to see how it fluctuates over the course of your normal activities.”

Reese shook her head. “I’m going to be really busy tomorrow.

Can’t it wait?”

“No,” Tory said evenly. “It can’t wait.”

“Monitoring devices. All the time?”

“Not in the shower.”

“What about when we’re having sex?”

Tory smiled. “You know you have a one-track mind?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” With a sigh, Reese started for the door.

“I’ll find time, if she calls. I’ll see you at the scene.”

v

Reese parked behind a cruiser, with its light bar flashing, blocking the alley generously called Clover Street. Carter had already rigged a portable floodlight, and Reese could make out figures moving within a cone of bright light halfway down the narrow gravel pathway.

Fluorescent yellow crime scene tape marked a generous perimeter all around the area. Civilians, probably awakened by the lights and activity, milled around. Chang, one of the part-time officers, was talking to the onlookers, taking notes.

Ducking under the plastic tape, Reese played her Maglite over the ground in front of her, taking care not to tread on footprints, tire tracks, or anything else that might be evidence. Carter stood in the circle of

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light, alternately regarding the body at her feet and scrawling in a palm-sized spiral notebook. Her face was all sharp angles and shadowed hollows in the flat, harsh glare. She looked up when Reese stopped a few feet away. A man lay on the ground on his back, a black puddle beneath his head and shoulders. The source of the puddle appeared to be a wide gash that bisected his neck halfway between his chin and the collar of his blazer.

“ID?” Reese asked.

“None yet,” Carter said. “I didn’t want to turn the body until Tory gets here. I patted his front jacket and pants pockets. Nothing in them.”

She stepped closer to Reese and said quietly, “He’s packing a Glock.”

“Witnesses?”

“None. A young tourist couple on their way home from a party almost tripped over him. They’re giving their statements to Bri right now. I don’t think they’ve got anything useful for us. They didn’t see anyone in the vicinity, didn’t hear anything. Just taking a shortcut back to their B-and-B.”

“Someone going door-to-door?”

“Smith.”

“Nice work. Thanks.”

“Not exactly what I expected my second night on the job.” Carter regarded the dead man. “Fast and clean. Looks like one slice—the doc will have to tell us for sure, but whoever did this—it wasn’t his first time.”

Reese squatted down and shone her light over the man’s face. She didn’t know him. Light sandy hair, cut short on the sides and back; no facial hair; clean, even features. His eyes were closed. His clothes were business casual. Tan chinos, navy blazer, a dark polo shirt—new, upper end of the price spectrum, suitcase wrinkles in the pants. His shoes were dark brown loafers, polished, well soled. His skin appeared waxy white. Matching two-inch-wide trails of black coagulated blood ribboned down either side of his neck, ending in an irregular pool beneath his head and shoulders. The wound itself gaped open several inches with the severed ends of muscles, tendons, and a circular ring of tracheal cartilage visible. Carter was right—this was a deep, killing cut. A practiced cut. Most amateurs involved in a knife fight stabbed or slashed at their opponents, generally inflicting superficial damage or shallow punctures. This wound took strength, intention, and cold

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calculation. She lifted the edge of his blazer with a pen and noted the holstered weapon on his hip. A Glock 22 or 23.

Reese rose and regarded Carter. “He looks like a cop.”

“That’s what I’m thinking too.” Carter regarded Reese with a puzzled expression. “But what the hell? If he was, why don’t we know about him? And what’s he doing out here in the middle of the night?”

“I don’t know.” Reese fought down her anger. If he was a law enforcement agent and there was some kind of official investigation going on, she should have been notified. If he’d had backup, or if she’d known there was a potentially dangerous situation brewing, he might not be dead. If it turned out he was a civilian and not a LEO, which she doubted, his murder was still in her territory. Her town. “But I intend to find out.”

“Looks like the coroner has arrived,” Carter said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll wait to see what she has to say and then give Bri a hand checking the area.” She eyed the crowd, which had grown in the last few minutes. “He could still be here.”

“This might be a revenge killing,” Reese said. “Someone recognizes this guy and decides to take him out in retribution for something that went down in the past.”

“It might,” Carter said carefully.

Reese appreciated both Carter’s expertise in handling the scene and her diplomacy in not expressing her disagreement with Reese’s theory. Carter was not only a good cop, she was also a good team player, despite the reputation she had gained as a loner and a rebel.

Reese suspected Carter’s rep was more about doing what had to be done to complete her assignment, rather than an inherent desire to buck authority. “But it doesn’t smell like revenge. For one thing, this guy was probably taken from behind. When you kill someone for revenge, you want them to see your face. You also want to see them suffer for the injustice done to you, so there tends to be overkill. Multiple stab wounds, not one quick one. If the kill is over too fast, there’s no time to enjoy the revenge.”

“I agree,” Carter said, nodding to Tory as she joined them. “This looks like an ambush.”

“Or an execution.” Reese turned to Tory. “He’s wearing a weapon.

We don’t have an ID yet, so I’d like to turn him as soon as possible to check for a wallet.”

• 152 •

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“I understand. Can you get the lights focused on him a little more?” Tory looked at Carter. “Do you have a video camera in your squad car?”

“We’ve got a dash mount. I can get that.”

“Good. I want you to walk the perimeter and video his position from three hundred and sixty degrees.”

Reese added, “See if you can get the crowd too.”

“Got it,” Carter said, moving away.

Tory opened her emergency kit, removed a camera, and handed it to Reese. “Photograph the body. I’m going to have to move his clothing to get a core temperature. It’s getting colder out here by the minute and I don’t want to wait until we finish the scene photos.” As she spoke, she withdrew a twelve-inch temperature probe. While she was doing that, Reese took several shots of the undisturbed corpse and then Tory carefully pulled his shirt from beneath the waistband of his trousers, palpated the lower edge of his anterior rib cage, and inserted the sharp stainless steel probe through the skin and into the core of the liver. The digital readout when compared to the ambient temperature would give her a very good approximation of the time of death. However, she could tell when she touched him that he had not been dead very long. His skin was still pliable, and even through her gloves, she could feel that his body was not cold.

“He hasn’t been here very long,” she murmured.

“Any doubt that he was killed here?”

“None. I’ll take some soil samples and see if we can extrapolate the volume of blood underneath him, but from the looks of the extent of spread, I’d say he bled out here and very quickly.”

As she spoke, Tory removed paper bags from her kit and secured them around the victim’s hands to preserve any evidence that might have resulted from an altercation. “There’s no indication of trauma on his hands—no scrapes, lacerations, or bruises. It doesn’t look like he fought back. It’s probable he never saw his attacker.”

“Came up behind him?”

“That will have to wait until I have him on the table where I can examine the wound more carefully. It’s too dark out here and the wound itself is too deep for me to tell the direction of the slice. This kind of injury, though, is almost always inflicted from behind.” Tory shook her head. “But you don’t need me to tell you that.”

• 153 •

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“Your observations are more important than mine at this point,”

Reese reminded her quietly.

Tory reached into her kit one more time and took out a small recorder. She quickly recited the date, the time, the location, her name, and the general appearance of the body, the surrounding ground, and other facts that would help her to write a report that might at some later date be crucial to convicting a killer. While she spoke, she concentrated on being thorough and accurate. She did not allow herself to wonder about the victim or the fact that Reese thought he might be a law enforcement agent. She especially did not let her mind veer toward the dangerous territory of imagining that the body on the ground might have been her lover’s. Although this man was dead and she could not help him, her job was critical to ensuring that his killer was brought to justice—that was all she could allow herself to think about right now.

“Let’s turn him.” Tory crouched down, wincing as pain shot up her leg.

“Carter and I can do that,” Reese said quickly.

Tory smiled faintly and slid her hands under the victim’s shoulders.

“Remember our talk earlier about putting yourself on desk duty if necessary? Same goes for me. I’m fine.”

Reese nodded and gripped his legs. On Tory’s count, they turned him. Tory felt his back pockets and extracted a slim leather folder that she handed to Reese.

Carter, a small portable video camera in her hand, came over and craned her neck as Reese flipped open the holder and focused her Mag on it.

“Son of a bitch,” Carter murmured. “What the hell is going on?”

Tory stood and moved closer. When she saw the picture of their victim beneath the laminated overlay of letters spelling out FBI, she caught her breath.

Reese clenched her jaw, carefully closed the badge holder, and slid it into the inside pocket of her short uniform jacket. “Carter, you’re lead on this case. We don’t cede jurisdiction, no matter what.”

“You got it.”

“Tory, they’re going to want the body. Let’s get everything we can as quickly as we can. He was killed here for a reason, and whatever that reason is, it affects this town. That makes it my business. My responsibility.”

• 154 •

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“Yes. I understand.” Tory waved over the EMS techs who had been waiting to help transport the body. “We’ll take him to the clinic and get started now.”

“I’m sorry to rush you.”

Tory regarded the man on the ground. “You’re not rushing me at all. He deserves all the attention we can give him.”

v

He lingered in the crowd of onlookers, comfortable that no one was paying any attention to him, until they took the body away. When the officers videoed the bystanders, he ducked his head and stepped behind several other people. Everyone was focused on the comings and goings of the investigators, so he hadn’t been concerned that anyone would notice the few spots of blood on his shirt. He’d been careful, but it was nearly impossible to avoid a little bit of cast-off when the big arteries in a man’s throat were slashed.

He hadn’t planned on staying around, but when he heard the sirens, he couldn’t help but backtrack to see the reaction to his handiwork.

Then when he recognized the first responders, it felt like poetic justice.

Earlier in the evening he’d been contemplating making one of them his victim, and now here they were, players on the stage that he had set. He felt powerful and superior, watching all of them scurrying about.

The kill had been unexpectedly pleasurable. The exhilaration of feeling the body stiffen as he slashed the neck, then the almost instantaneous death tremor, had given him the kind of satisfaction he usually got from dominating a woman sexually. His body had responded in the same way, and the gratification had left him euphoric, very much as if he’d actually had an orgasm. But now that the scene had played out and everyone was leaving, he felt oddly deflated. Empty. Suddenly, he wanted, needed, to get that high back again. He wasn’t ready for another kill. But he was ready for a woman, and he knew just the one he wanted. He’d made his choice. His first, but not his last.

• 155 •

• 156 •

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chapteR seventeen

Caroline woke up with a start, her senses on high alert and her heart racing. The room was cold. She was cold. She’d gone to bed in only a T-shirt and hadn’t thought to close the window.

The air blowing through the six-inch opening felt more like November than September. She jumped out of bed, raced across the room, and slammed the window closed. On her way back, she grabbed a pair of Bri’s sweatpants from a chair, dove into bed, and pulled on the sweats under the covers. Then she curled into a small ball and wrapped her arms around herself, hoping to get warm. She loved the new apartment they’d rented from Carter when Carter had moved in with Rica, but when she was there alone in the middle of the night it seemed a lot bigger and a lot emptier than the studio they’d had before.

She shivered. That was another big reason why she hated it when Bri worked nights. Not only didn’t they get to go to bed together and have sex before falling asleep—or when waking up, or both—she missed Bri’s warmth during the night. Not just the heat of her body, and Bri always radiated like a furnace, but being wrapped up in Bri’s arms as she slept, sheltered and secure. She missed the way Bri cuddled and stroked her when they were both half asleep. Bri never let her doubt for a second that she was wanted.

Wide awake now, Caroline started thinking about the morning and what she’d do when Bri got home. Bri always came home wired, and when Bri was wired she always wanted sex. Caroline laughed inwardly and rubbed her arms, starting to feel warm all through. Maybe she’d give Bri a massage, work her up nice and high and make her wait for the payoff. Teasing her was so much fun because Bri didn’t have a

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whole lot in the way of self-control. Of course if she did that, she’d end up suffering too, because just touching Bri always got her so hot.

Caroline glanced at the clock. Almost 3:45 in the morning. Nothing happened in this town at this hour. Bri was probably sitting in her cruiser somewhere drinking coffee and bullshitting with Carter. Maybe she ought to call her and tease her a little bit right now. She reached for her cell phone. She could masturbate and then call her right when she was getting ready to come. That would be quick, she wouldn’t take Bri away from work for more than a few seconds, and hearing her come would make Bri totally crazy. By the time Bri got home, she’d be a wild woman. Caroline slipped her hand inside her sweatpants. She knew she’d already be wet. Thinking about Bri did that to her. She tapped a fingertip on her clitoris and caught her breath. Not just wet. Really hard too. She put her thumb on the number on her speed dial—she wasn’t going to have very long before she needed to call.

She held her breath, preparing for the pleasure, and that’s when she heard it. A rattle. Different than the night noises she’d grown accustomed to—tree branches creaking in the wind, distant shouts, engines revving.

The thump of the radiator kicking on in the middle of the night. This was something different, something foreign. Metal scraping on metal.

She looked at the window, but of course there was nothing there. She was two stories up at the back of the building and there was nothing outside except the parking lot. One thing she’d learned a long time ago was to trust her instincts. She got out of bed and walked carefully to the doorway that separated the bedroom from the kitchen, living room, and dining area. The rattle came again, louder this time, and she knew what it was. Someone was jiggling the doorknob on the front door.

v

Reese sat halfway in her cruiser at the end of Clover while Carter and Bri wrapped up the scene. Tory had already taken the body back to the clinic. Reese figured they’d have an hour or two at most once she notified the FBI before the feds demanded jurisdiction. She could fight them for investigative control, but they weren’t going to let them keep the body. Still, she couldn’t put off contacting them—a man was dead and his family as well as his superiors needed to be notified. She pulled up the number for the Boston field office and punched it in.

• 158 •

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A minute later, a man said in a bored, flat voice, “Federal Bureau of Investigation, Special Agent McCoy, how may I help you?”

Reese introduced herself, gave her rank and location, and said,

“I’d like to speak to Special Agent Robert Lloyd’s supervisor, please.”

“What’s this in reference to, Sheriff?”

“Just get his supervisor and I’ll be happy to explain. Here’s my number.” Reese gave him her cell phone number. “I wouldn’t be calling in the middle of the night if it weren’t important.”

“Well, the office opens at seven, so if you’ll tell me the nature of your problem I’ll pass it on.”

Reese had spent a lot of years in the military police, most of it as a senior investigator. She knew how carefully the rank-and-file guarded the peace and privacy of senior agents, especially in the middle of the night. She also knew the agent on the phone was obligated to relay her message now—it was an official request, with or without further details. He was just trying to impress her with how busy they all were at the FBI.

She wasn’t about to tell him that a fellow agent had been killed in the field. If there was an ongoing investigation, she couldn’t risk compromising it. In addition, the Bureau would want to put a cover story in place before news of the agent’s death became public. If it ever became public. “Thanks for your help, Agent. Have a nice night.”

Reese checked her watch. Ten minutes to four. At least the supervisory agent who was about to be awakened had had almost a full night’s sleep. She climbed out of the cruiser and started back down the alley to see where things stood with Carter before heading over to the clinic. Suddenly, she heard a shout and then someone came barreling toward her, a flashlight swinging crazily back and forth like a light-saber cutting a swath. She sidestepped quickly as Bri raced past, yelling something into her phone as she ran.

Reese didn’t bother asking questions—she just took off after Bri.

She managed to make it to the cruiser and yank open the passenger side door just as Bri slammed it into Drive. Reese dragged her door shut, punched the lights and sirens, and grabbed the ceiling grip as they rocketed forward.

“What’s going on?” Reese said.

“Caroline. Somebody’s trying to break in.”

Reese radioed for backup.

• 159 •

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“Where are you?” Bri yelled into her phone as she drove one-handed. “No! Don’t try to leave.” Bri fishtailed around the corner onto Bradford and floored the accelerator. “We’ll be there in one minute.

One minute. Where is he? Can you see him?”

Reese reached across the space between them and gripped Bri’s forearm. “Angle the cruiser into the alley at the bottom of the staircase.

If he’s inside, he’s got to come down that way.”

Bri nodded grimly and jammed the cruiser nose first into the gravel walkway that led to the outside staircase and their second floor apartment. She was out of the car with her weapon in her hand before the vehicle had rocked to a stop but, following procedure, she waited at the bottom of the stairs for Reese.

“Bri?” a voice called down from somewhere above. “Baby, I’m out here.”

Reese tapped Bri on the shoulder, indicating she should wait, and after scanning the alley, stepped back and looked up. Caroline was leaning over the second floor deck staring down at them.

“Did he get inside?” Reese asked.

“I don’t think so. I’m not sure.”

“Stay right there. Do not go back inside.” Reese returned to Bri, pointed to the staircase, and they both started up, Bri covering the door in case an intruder should bolt from the apartment, and Reese scanning the street and alley below them for any sign of a suspect.

Bri pulled her shirttail out with her left hand and used it to turn the knob, keeping her weapon up and ready. She shook her head. Locked.

“Use your key,” Reese whispered. An intruder could have jimmied the lock and slipped inside, and then let the door lock again behind him.

Bri used her left hand to insert the key and slowly turned the lock.

She glanced at Reese, who silently mouthed a countdown, and on three, Bri twisted the knob and pushed open the door. Bri went in fast and low to her left and Reese went high and right.

“Clear,” Reese shouted after surveying the small room. To her right, sliding glass doors opened onto the front deck. She and Bri moved quickly to the rear, each taking a bedroom.

“Clear,” Bri shouted.

“Clear.” Reese holstered her weapon, radioed backup to stand by, and strode through the apartment to the front deck. By the time she got there, Bri already had Caroline wrapped tight in her arms.

• 160 •

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“Let’s go inside so you can tell us what happened,” Reese said.

“Okay, babe?” Bri kissed Caroline’s forehead.

“Uh-huh. I’m okay.” Caroline patted Bri’s chest and eased out of her arms.

Inside, Bri sat on the futon sofa with Caroline curled against her side.

“What happened?” Reese asked.

“I woke up and I heard something strange—after a while I realized it was the doorknob rattling. When I went to check, I saw someone standing on the landing. I knew it wasn’t Bri, because she would’ve used her key, and he was bigger than Bri.” Caroline’s voice cracked and she shivered. “I called Bri. I didn’t think to call nine-one-one.”

Stony faced, Bri rubbed Caroline’s arm and murmured, “You did good, babe. Real good. Don’t be scared.”

“Did you recognize him?” Reese asked evenly, needing to get the facts while they were still fresh in Caroline’s mind. When Caroline had time to think about what might have happened, her fear could cloud her memory. As difficult as it was for the victim to talk about the details of a crime, it was critical that they do so as soon as possible. And Reese needed to be the one asking the questions. Bri had done well outside, had handled herself with a clear head. But right now, Bri was completely focused on Caroline, as she should be. “Did he say anything?”

Caroline shook her head, staring at her fingers entwined with Bri’s. “I couldn’t see his face. I think I screamed when I saw him.” She lifted her eyes to Reese. “He laughed. He laughed like he was having a good time.”

“Fucker,” Bri muttered.

“Then I pushed speed dial for Bri and ran toward the deck. I didn’t know where else to go and I didn’t want to be stuck in the back of the apartment. I thought I could maybe jump off the deck if he got in.”

Bri made a low sound in her throat, like an animal in pain, and turned her face into Caroline’s hair.

“You did well, Caroline,” Reese said. “When you were outside, did you hear him run away? Did you hear what direction he might’ve gone?”

Caroline frowned. “It’s funny, I can always hear Bri on the stairs.

They’re kind of creaky and noisy and she usually runs up them.” She smiled and rubbed Bri’s leg. “I didn’t hear him go down, and I would have if he was running. I think he just took his time walking away.”

• 161 •

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“What about a car door slamming? A motor starting? Motorcycle, maybe?”

“No, nothing. And I didn’t see anyone on the street out front, so he must have gone down the alley to the back.”

“That leads to Center Street, and from there to Cemetery Road,”

Reese said. “Plenty of places to disappear back there.” She radioed the backup officers and instructed them to cruise through the streets directly behind Bri and Caroline’s apartment. “It’s a little early yet for recreational walkers,” she told the officers, “so take a good look at any single males who don’t seem like they’re on their way to work.

Make sure you have the description of William Everly I circulated earlier.”

Caroline gripped Bri’s leg tighter. “You think it was him?”

Reese was aware of both Bri and Caroline staring at her, waiting for her to announce that a nightmare had re-entered their lives. “I don’t know. I’m going to swing by his mother’s place right now, just to check.

You two went to school with him—or not that far behind him, at least.

If he was coming home, but didn’t want to stay with his mother, who might he crash with?”

Bri looked at Caroline. “Ned Phelps? They were pretty tight all through high school. Who was the girl he was dating right before…”

“Um, Suzy Silva, I think.” Caroline grimaced. “I never paid that much attention to him.”

“And I don’t want you to waste a lot of energy on him now, either,”

Reese said, standing up. “I want you to be cautious. I want you to be aware of your surroundings. All the things Bri has probably already told you and that you know anyhow.” Reese leaned down and kissed Caroline’s cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Bri started to get up, but Reese waved her back. “It’s almost end of shift for you. Stay here. Anything you need to write up, you can do tomorrow sometime.”

“No,” Caroline said instantly. “Bri, you go back to work.”

“How about this,” Reese suggested to Caroline. “How about we take you over to Rica’s—she won’t mind if we wake her up. In fact, it might be a good idea if you stayed over there the next few nights while Bri’s on the night shift.”

Caroline looked at Bri. “You okay with that, baby?”

“Absolutely. Come on.” Bri rose and put her arm around Caroline’s

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waist, her gaze on Reese. “Reese and I have to check on Everly’s potential locations. Right, Sheriff?”

Reese studied Bri, silently taking her measure. Bri’s eyes were hot, but steady. Things had changed since the morning, when she’d told Bri she didn’t want her involved in the hunt for Everly. This morning he was just a potential problem. Tonight, someone had threatened Caroline. She knew what she would do if Tory were threatened. She couldn’t deny Bri the same right, not until Bri showed she couldn’t handle it.

“Right,” Reese said. “Let’s get to it.”

v

An hour later, Reese and Bri had cruised past Everly’s mother’s house as well as the addresses of the high school friends Bri and Caroline had remembered. His mother’s house was still dark. The garage door was open, and his truck didn’t look as if it had been moved. At five thirty a.m., some of the other residences showed lights inside—people getting ready for work.

“What now?” Bri asked, her voice flat.

“I’ll send someone by the school this morning to talk to his teachers, the guidance counselors, and the principal. See if we can draw up a more comprehensive list of Everly’s previous associates.

Then we’ll question all of them.” Reese pulled into the parking lot at headquarters. “We’ll step up patrols in his old neighborhood and watch his friends. This is a small village. If he’s here, we’ll find him.”

“What about Caroline? What about during the day?” Bri scrubbed her face vigorously. “Jesus, I don’t want her to feel like she can’t go out, you know. She shouldn’t be the victim here.”

“You’re right, she shouldn’t be treated like one. Caroline is smart.

She’ll be careful.” Reese gripped Bri’s shoulder. “Trust her. She needs that from you.”

Bri swung her head around and stared at Reese. “I do trust her. But I couldn’t take him, and I’m tougher and stronger than Carre.”

“He’s not going to get that close to her.”

“How do you—”

Reese’s phone rang. She looked at the readout and took the call.

“Conlon.”

• 163 •

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“Sheriff?” a woman said with a hint of irritation.

“That’s right.”

“This is Supervisory Special Agent Marilyn Allen. You have some sort of problem that can’t wait for proper channels?”

“Is Agent Robert Lloyd under your command?”

“Sheriff, I realize that in little towns like yours protocol is, shall we say, not really all that necessary,” Agent Allen said without bothering to hide her condescension, “but we don’t discuss Bureau affairs with just anyone who happens to call.”

“Agent Lloyd was murdered in my town last night. I thought you might like to know. But I certainly don’t want to interfere with your protocol, so when I find out who did it, I’ll be sure to call during business hours.” Reese disconnected.

“Did you just hang up on the FBI?” Bri tried to stifle a grin.

Reese glanced at her and half smiled. “I’d prefer you pretend you didn’t hear that, Officer.”

“Yes ma’am. I mean, no ma’am, I didn’t hear a thing.”

Reese’s phone rang.

“That will be the supervisory special agent calling back, I imagine,”

Reese said. “Conlon.”

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes,” Marilyn Allen snapped. “And I’ll expect a full report upon my arrival.”

“Give me a call when you land,” Reese said. “I’ll brief you.”

“Where’s the body?”

“With our coroner.”

“I know something of your reputation, Sheriff,” Marilyn Allen said. “You may have made a name for yourself busting drug dealers and arsonists, but you don’t want to get in the Bureau’s way on one of our operations.”

“Agent Allen,” Reese said quietly, “my town, my case. Call me when you arrive.” Then she disconnected and put the phone back on her belt. “Well. This is going to be an interesting day.”

“Can I stay and watch?”

Reese laughed. “Don’t worry, we’ll be crawling with feds before we’re done. You won’t miss anything. When you’ve finished reports, check that Carter doesn’t need you. Then go collect your girlfriend, take her home, and get some sleep.”

“Do you know this FBI agent?”

“Not half as well as Carter does,” Reese said softly.

• 164 •

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chapteR eighteen

Reese let herself into the clinic with her key. The reception area was dark. The first time she’d entered the clinic, it had been dark too. She’d been answering a call from Tory, who had come upon a burglary in progress. That was the first time she’d seen Tory, and at that moment, everything in her life had changed.

She threaded her way through the rows of chairs and walked down the hall to the one room with a light shining under the door. She tapped on it and pushed through. Tory, wearing scrubs, gloves, and a mask, glanced over at her. Deep shadows underscored her eyes. The body on the table beneath the round surgical light was nude, skin tinted the faint bluish gray of death. His clothes rested in plastic evidence bags on the counter behind Tory. His holstered weapon sat in the center of metal tray on a stand next to her. Apparently he’d had nothing else in his pockets, which wasn’t unusual if he was on the job. Loose change could rattle. A wallet was unnecessary. A badge and a gun were all that was needed, and Reese had his badge in her pocket.

“Hi, love,” Reese said softly. “How’s it going?”

“I’ve just started the external exam. We need to make a decision about whether I do a full post. Ordinarily I would, but considering the circumstances…”

“Is there any doubt as to cause of death?” Reese walked to the opposite side of the table as Tory went back to work.

Tory shook her head. “None whatsoever.”

“Can you get everything you need without cutting him open?”

“If he’d been shot and we needed the bullet to identify the weapon, or there were any question as to COD, I’d insist on doing the internal

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part myself—jurisdictional issues be damned. But that’s really not the case here.” Tory tipped her head toward the counter where a row of blood-filled test tubes sat next to a line of small plastic containers, each labeled and filled with a clear solution. Pieces of tissue floated inside.

“I’ve taken blood and tissue samples for tox. I already have specimens from his hands and under his nails for possible foreign DNA, but I’m doubtful you’ll find anything. I’d want to have his clothes checked independently for trace anyhow—the FBI should handle that.”

“If we turn over the body to the feds without a fuss, that might buy me some leverage in keeping them at arm’s length in the investigation.

At least for a little while,” Reese said. “But that’s totally your call.”

“I’ll have everything I need if I can have another hour with him, without opening him up,” Tory said.

“You’ll have it. Can you tell anything more about the manner of death?”

“Your assailant was right-handed. No help there, I’m afraid.

A single cut, almost exactly as deep on the left as the right, which tells me that he’s not only ruthless, he’s trained. He understands the importance of severing both carotids and the trachea to produce nearly instantaneous death.” Tory looked up. “I’m thinking military—special forces probably. Or a terrorist-trained assassin. Or just your garden variety home-grown hitman who’s had lots of practice. Whoever he is, he kills for a living.”

“That narrows it down some.” Reese slid her hands into her pockets, thinking about all the men in prison who learned to be highly effective killers with only homemade shivs to work with. Knives made from toothbrushes, razor blades, and rubber bands. Food utensils honed on the chipped edges of bathroom tile until they were sharper than any conventional blade. Once released, with real weapons in their hands, these men were proficient and deadly. “Type of weapon?”

“A relatively short, thin blade. Probably a switchblade.”

“Double edged?” Reese asked, thinking a special forces member would more likely carry a standard single-edged combat knife.

“Possible. The slice in the trachea, which is in the deepest part of the wound, appears to be the same width as that in the skin. Nothing distinguishing, however.”

“Could it be a garrote?”

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“Not as likely. Even the sharpest garrote requires some amount of sawing—and back-and-forth movement tears up the edges of the skin.

I don’t see that here.”

“Okay,” Reese mused. “So our suspect probably didn’t go out hunting, but killed on impulse. You don’t set out to kill someone with a switchblade. That’s usually a defensive weapon. Something about this guy set him off.”

“It could be random,” Tory suggested. “Maybe your suspect is just psychotic and he didn’t like the color of this man’s jacket.”

“Anything is possible, but once a cop is involved, we have to assume a link. I have to believe this agent was murdered because our suspect made him or the agent stumbled into something he wasn’t prepared for.”

“Still, killing a cop.” Tory forced herself to think through the problem dispassionately. Ultimately, Reese’s life or the life of any other member of the department could be in the balance. “Even if your suspect recognized this man, why kill him? Why call attention to himself that way? Wouldn’t he be more likely to want to keep a low profile?”

Reese nodded. “Ordinarily, yes. And that worries me. Because a cop killer who’s also crazy is going to be completely unpredictable.”

“You keep saying he—couldn’t this be the work of a woman?”

“Possible. Women can be trained to kill with the same efficiency as men—the hardest hitmen to track down are female, precisely because they aren’t on most people’s radar. A female soldier could do this, sure.” Reese stared at the gaping wound in the neck. “She’d have to be tall, and damn fast to kill up close and personal like this. Most female assassins prefer guns—the great equalizer.”

“True.” Tory examined the wound through a dinner plate–sized magnifying glass that she swung over the table. “When do you expect the FBI?”

“Unfortunately, in about fifteen minutes. I won’t be able to put off briefing them, but I’ll try to keep them out of your hair as long as I can.”

Tory smiled over at her. “Thank you. I’m not feeling particularly diplomatic at the moment.”

“We had another incident just before I came over here.” At Tory’s look of alarm, Reese hastened to add, “Everything’s okay now. But

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someone tried to break into Bri and Caroline’s place. Caroline heard him working on the door and called us. He was gone by the time we got there.”

Tory straightened. “Oh, damn. Is she all right?”

“She seemed to be. A little scared, the way you’d expect. But she kept her head. Bri and I took her over to Rica’s.”

“Darling, what’s going on? Our house, Rica’s car, now Caroline?

Can these really all be coincidences?”

“I’ll admit, I don’t like it. But I don’t have anything at the moment that ties them all together.” Reese frowned, frustrated that she couldn’t get a handle on what was happening. She hated feeling that she was missing some critical piece of the puzzle, and if she could just find it, everything would make sense. What worried her was that she wouldn’t find it in time and someone she cared about would pay the price. She clenched her fists. Impotence was not a feeling she was familiar with.

“Talk it out, darling,” Tory said gently.

“I wish I could. It makes sense Everly would go after Caroline—

classic stalker behavior. I can even see him going after Bri first, not only to get her out of the way, but to make Caroline suffer. He has reason to be angry at me too, which would explain him breaking into our house. That would tie two of the three together.”

“And Rica’s car would just be coincidence?”

“That could easily be simple vandalism. Or Everly again, targeting Caroline’s friends.”

“But you don’t like it.”

“Not with this too,” Reese said, indicating the body on the table.

Tory handed Reese a pair of gloves. “Help me turn him.”

Reese pulled on the gloves and, together, they slid the body to the edge of the table with Reese supporting most of the weight, then tilted him up on his side and finally over onto his abdomen. Tory resumed her microscopic examination, starting with his hair. She sifted through it with a wide-toothed stainless steel comb, then visually examined his scalp for tears, blunt injury, or lacerations.

“Nothing here,” Tory murmured. “And if it’s not Everly?”

“Then we have a much bigger problem,” Reese said grimly.

v

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When Reese arrived back at the station, Carter was waiting for her. She motioned Carter into the office and closed the door.

“Sit down. Long night and it’s not over yet.” Reese settled behind her desk and Carter sprawled in a chair in front of it. “Where are we?”

“In a nutshell?” Carter said. “Nowhere. No wits to speak of, no suspects. Anything from the post?”

“Not much more than we already knew. The guy’s a pro.” Reese sighed and leaned back in her chair. “The one thing we have going for us is that nothing goes unnoticed in a place like this for very long.

We’ll ask around—check with shopkeepers and bartenders. See if we can put together a victim profile, since we don’t know anything about the suspect. If we know where the FBI agent was right before he was killed, we might have some idea what he was doing or who he might’ve gotten tangled up with.”

“A lot of legwork and a lot of luck.”

“That’s about it,” Reese agreed.

“Rica called me about what happened with Caroline. Any ideas about that?”

“If I was betting the odds, I’d have Everly at the top of my list.”

Carter nodded. “Mine too. But it doesn’t set completely right with me.”

“No,” Reese said. “Me neither. Unless he’s changed, he likes to ambush girls outdoors away from people. He’s a coward. Breaking into someone’s apartment, running the risk of their being able to get a call out—doesn’t feel like him.”

“Anything I can do to help there, let me know.”

“With Tremont out on sick leave today, I may need you to run some known associates down later.”

“No problem.” Carter leaned forward, her shoulders tense. “What about the feds?”

Reese looked at her watch. “I expect they’ll be here any—”

Someone knocked sharply on the door to her office. When Reese had arrived, the outer room had been empty except for one officer manning the phones and handling dispatch. Everyone else was out in the field. It was still too early for Gladys to arrive. Reese stood up as the knock was repeated with an impatient cadence.

“I’d say the FBI is here.” Reese opened the door and nodded to the

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thin, cool blonde in a severely cut black jacket and tailored pants. In her low heels, she was only an inch shorter than Reese.

“Supervisory Special Agent Marilyn Allen,” the blonde said.

“Reese Conlon, Agent Allen.” Reese held out her hand while behind her, the chair scraped back as Carter bolted to her feet. Reese stepped aside and watched Marilyn Allen’s face register first surprise, then a sharp predatory gleam. “And I believe you already know Officer Wayne.”

“I didn’t realize you’d returned to law enforcement, Carter,”

Marilyn said as she walked in.

“I guess your sources aren’t as good as you thought,” Carter said.

The FBI agent laughed lightly. “Oh, they’re quite good. Perhaps when I’m done with the sheriff, you and I can catch up.”

Carter glanced at Reese, who said, “Carter is the lead in the investigation into your agent’s death. She’ll be staying during the briefing.”

“I hardly see where that’s necessary,” Marilyn said smoothly, taking the chair next to the one Carter had abandoned. She sat down and crossed her legs with cool precision. “Since there won’t be any local investigation.”

“We don’t want to waste any of your time,” Reese said, “and I’m sure you don’t want to waste ours. So let’s cut through all the posturing and get right to it. We are not going to cede this investigation to you.

We’ll work with you because we all want this killer found. But we’re not going to sit back while you run your own investigation in our town.”

“A federal agent was murdered,” Marilyn said.

“Yes, and I’d very much like to know what he was doing here,”

Reese said. “What was he working on?”

“I’m afraid that’s highly confidential.”

“That’s not what I would call cooperation.”

“Very well,” Marilyn said, pursing her lips as if carefully considering her next words. As if she hadn’t already decided exactly how much she would give them before she’d set foot on the landing strip at Race Point. “Agent Lloyd is part of a much larger ongoing operation and he was here doing routine surveillance.”

“Alone?” Reese asked, knowing that federal agents rarely undertook solo assignments.

“He was checking out a lead from an intelligence source we did

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not believe to be particularly credible. He was supposed to be in and out in a few hours.” Marilyn smiled at Reese. “Otherwise, of course I would have notified you.”

“Of course,” Reese said. “Who was he following?”

“No one to concern you.” Marilyn shrugged. “A midlevel drug dealer who we were hoping would lead us to his connection, someone much higher up.”

Reese didn’t have any reason to believe or disbelieve her, but her instincts told her that the federal agent was blowing smoke. At the moment, however, challenging her would lead nowhere. “We have to assume that this suspect of yours recognized Lloyd and killed him. I’ll need a name and description.”

“I’ll see that the information is faxed to you.”

“This morning. You and your team can work out of here.”

“As soon as possible, Sheriff.” Marilyn rose and smoothed down her jacket. It bulged almost imperceptibly over her left hip where her weapon was holstered. “I’ve booked several rooms at the Driftwood Inn. We wouldn’t want to trouble you any more than necessary.”

“When we get your information, I’ll send you the crime scene photos and reports. Do you want to go to the scene?”

Marilyn cast Carter a speculative look. “I’m sure Officer Carter was thorough. If I have any questions after reading her report, I’ll let you know.”

“Fine.” Reese watched her walk out, then looked at Carter. “How much of her promise to provide information did you believe?”

“Try none. First of all, Marilyn Allen is the head of the regional anti-organized crime unit working out of Boston, at least she was the last time I heard. She’s probably got dozens of agents keeping tabs on midlevel dealers and above. She’s not likely to send one agent anywhere to check out one possible sighting.”

“Sounds thin to me too,” Reese mused. “For now the best we can do is watch them. Sooner or later, they’ll tip their hand.”

“Let’s hope it’s before someone else gets killed.”

v

Ash woke up aching, inside and out. She took a long hot shower—

her mind a careful blank—dried off, and dressed in jeans and a collarless

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pale blue shirt. She walked four blocks to a coffee shop and ordered coffee and chocolate croissants. While she waited, she asked if she could see a phonebook. The barista, who looked barely awake, shot her an annoyed glance and then dug around under the counter and came up with a dog-eared local phonebook a half inch thick. Ash thumbed through it quickly, then pushed it back across the counter. She took out a twenty, paid, and left the change as a tip.

“Hey, thanks,” the punked-out young woman behind the counter said in surprise.

“You’re welcome,” Ash said and left.

The early morning sky was hazy bright, the sun hidden behind clouds. Commercial Street was almost empty except for delivery vans and dog walkers. Ash strode quickly, knowing what she was doing was crazy. She was crazy. She’d been crazy for months and pretending otherwise. She couldn’t keep it up anymore. She just couldn’t. Maybe she would have been able to keep going, working around the clock, losing herself in strange bedrooms with strange women or at the bottom of a shot glass, if she hadn’t come here. But she was too close now, too close to escape. So she didn’t slow down long enough to think.

Turning up one of the many narrow side streets, she found the address and checked the mailboxes until she located the one she was looking for. She didn’t pause, but opened the wooden gate and followed the flagstone path through a small patio to the only door. She knocked and waited, nothing rehearsed, nothing planned. Only knowing she had no choice.

After a minute or two, the door opened and Allie stood in the doorway, wearing a loose ribbed tank that came just to the top of her thighs. A white bandage covered the outside of one leg. Her skin was damp and flushed, and the tendrils of dark hair at her temples moist, as if she’d just splashed water on her face.

“How did you find me?” Allie asked.

“Phonebook.” Ash held up the cardboard tray holding the cups and take-out bag. “Coffee and croissants.”

Allie hesitated. She’d been so amped after leaving Ash the night before, she’d had a hard time getting to sleep. She’d tossed and turned for a long time, angry and agitated because she’d wanted to stay with her. She’d wanted her. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb dumb dumb. She ought to close the door.

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“Chocolate croissants?” she asked instead.

Ash nodded, holding her breath, wanting to beg, knowing she didn’t have the right.

Allie moved aside to let Ash enter. “Come on in the living room.”

“Thanks.” Ash sat next to Allie on the sofa and handed her the café au lait she’d ordered for her. Then she took out the croissants and put them on napkins on the coffee table. Allie’s naked thigh was an inch from hers. Her skin was smooth and still tanned from the summer. A dark purple bruise extended from beneath the white bandage. “How’s your leg?”

Allie sipped her cafe au lait and murmured with pleasure. Just the way she liked it. Ash had gotten her favorite croissants and remembered exactly how she took her coffee. Stupid to care about something like that, but she did. “Not too bad. Achy, but not enough to set me behind a desk.” She sighed. “I think Reese is going to, though. I guess I don’t blame her, since I fucked up yesterday.”

Ash set down her coffee. “We’ve been through this. You didn’t fuck up. These things happen. Reese knows that. Quit beating yourself up.”

“Yeah. Okay,” Allie said quietly. It helped, talking with Ash.

Knowing that Ash wouldn’t say something just to make her feel better.

Ash was like Bri that way, always supportive but also always totally honest—at least about stuff like this. If she’d fucked up yesterday, Ash would’ve told her, if only so she would be safe the next time. She trusted Ash that way. She’d trusted her about everything once. Remembering that, the pain came flooding back. Turning, she stared at Ash. “What are you doing here?”

“I need you to know something,” Ash said, her throat feeling dry and tight. The hurt was so clear in Allie’s eyes. “You said something yesterday. Something that wasn’t true.”

“What?” Allie whispered.

Ash knew she shouldn’t touch her, but she couldn’t help it. She traced her fingers over Allie’s cheek. Her hand shook and she steadied it by cupping Allie’s jaw, her thumb gently tracing the corner of Allie’s mouth. “You said I only cared about your body. That’s not true. It was never true.” She grinned wryly. “I do think you’re beautiful. I love your body. I can’t stop thinking about it. But that’s not why I… You’re so

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much more, Allie. So much more. You’re tender and warm and brave and daring. You’re like a beacon in the dark, baby—I’m sorry, I know I’m not supposed to call you that…I just…Just being near you always made me feel so alive.”

“Jesus,” Allie whispered. She could barely absorb what Ash was saying. Ash’s hand was so hot, almost as hot as Ash’s eyes, roving over her face as if Ash wanted to devour her. Her stomach tightened. Her breasts flushed and her sex gave a warning pulse. “Ash, what are you doing?”

“I know it’s too late, but I needed you to know.” Ash groaned and slowly, with infinite tenderness, raised her other hand and cradled Allie’s face. She brushed her mouth over Allie’s, then rested her forehead against Allie’s and closed her eyes.

“You know what your problem is,” Allie murmured against Ash’s mouth as she stroked the back of her neck.

Eyes still closed, Ash shook her head, insanely on fire just from the sensation of Allie’s fingers on her neck.

“You always think you know what I feel.” Allie reached up for Ash’s hand and drew it down to her breast. Instantly her nipple tightened against Ash’s palm and she shuddered. “And you’re always wrong.”

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chapteR nineteen

At a little before eight, Carter finished typing in the last line of her report on the findings at the murder scene. Aware of Bri standing quietly just behind her chair, she pushed Save, then Print, and swung around in her chair. “What’s up?”

Bri rocked back on her heels, her hands bunched in her pockets.

“Reese told me to make sure you didn’t need anything.”

“We’re good here. Why don’t you head on out.” Carter cocked her head when Bri didn’t move. For such an honest kid, Bri wasn’t all that easy to read, and something was clearly bothering her now. Playing back recent events in her mind, Carter thought it might have been how she’d handled things when she and Bri had responded to the DB call.

She’d automatically kicked into investigative mode as soon as she saw the body, and had pretty much taken over. Then Reese had shown up and made her the lead in the murder investigation. She’d been too busy getting a jump on the early facts of the case to consider how all that might appear, but Bri was probably feeling pushed aside by someone who hadn’t earned her stripes yet. Justifiably so, too. “Problem?”

“No. Are you leaving now?”

“I thought I’d stick with things for a while,” Carter said carefully.

“Find out where Agent Lloyd was staying in town. Maybe get a lead on where he was last night. You can bet the feds won’t tell us.”

“You’re going to go door-to-door?”

Carter lifted her shoulder. “This is a small town. Someone will have seen this guy.”

“What’s she like, the agent in charge?” Bri asked.

“Not someone you want to cross.” Carter had spent a couple of

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days behind bars because Supervisory Special Agent Marilyn Allen had thought she could browbeat Carter into turning state’s evidence against Rica and her father. Come to think of it, she hadn’t heard anything through her considerable sources that the agent was still actively pursuing Alfonse Pareto, but she couldn’t believe Marilyn Allen would give up. Which made her all the more dangerous. Of course, Bri didn’t know any of that history. “Sometimes agents like her have an agenda that supersedes solving an individual case, if it doesn’t suit their long-term purpose. That’s why Reese is right in insisting that we keep control of this case. Our only agenda is to solve this murder.”

“So can I stick with you this morning?” Bri hurried on before Carter could respond. “I want to check and make sure Caroline’s okay, but you know…the first day in a murder investigation is critical, right?

So I figured I should work it with you. I’ve never had the chance before.”

“You okay with me taking lead?”

Bri’s eyebrows rose, then she grinned. “First of all, Reese wants it that way, so it’s fine by me. Secondly, next to Reese and my dad, you’re the most senior person here. I want to learn. And I want to solve the case.”

“Jesus, I wish I knew how Reese learned to walk on water.”

“Born that way,” Bri said seriously.

“I believe it.” Laughing, Carter stood up and stretched the kinks out of her shoulders. She hated typing. One of the great things about being undercover was that she almost never had to file formal reports.

Now that, along with almost everything else she knew about policing, had changed. Somehow, she’d become the senior partner, and a rabbi on top of it from the looks of things. She was surprised at just how good that felt. “I want to stop home and see Rica too. Why don’t we swing by my place, grab something to eat and maybe a shower.” She looked Bri up and down and shook her head. “I don’t have anything that will fit you, String Bean, but you’re welcome to the hot water.”

“Sounds good,” Bri said enthusiastically. “I’ve got a change of clothes in my locker.”

“You know if you plan on working this case, you won’t be getting any sleep until we break it.”

“I know that.”

Bri’s smooth, clear features hardened, reminding Carter that she

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was young but she wasn’t green. Reese had told her about Everly’s attack and how Bri, just a kid then, had fought him off. Bri wasn’t a kid anymore and she’d been tested more than once.

“How did you get that scar on your neck?” Carter asked quietly.

“Knife,” Bri said neutrally. “Reese put me undercover and I walked right into a drug bust gone bad.”

Carter nodded. “Yeah, been there. Looks like you handled that okay.”

“How do you know?” Bri asked.

“Easy. You’re not dead.” Carter clapped her on the shoulder. “Let’s go, partner.”

v

“Allie, what are you doing?” Ash’s fingers trembled on Allie’s breast.

“You know.” Allie bit her lip as Ash’s hand tightened on her, chafing her T-shirt over her nipple and sending shock waves through her core. She was tired of fighting the warning voices in her head cautioning her to stay far away from Ash Walker. Surrendering to every instinct she had, Allie slicked the tip of her tongue back and forth over Ash’s lower lip, darting inside and back out, taunting her. I wanted to do this from the moment I saw you in the parking lot. I wanted to do this when I saw you in the bar. I wanted to do this in the middle of a dark abandoned building. I wanted to do this last night. I’ve wanted and wanted and wanted and I can’t stop wanting.

“Allie,” Ash groaned.

“You know what I’m doing, what I want,” Allie murmured. “And you want this too.”

“You’re right.” Ash sank back on the sofa and pulled Allie with her. She skimmed a hand under the back of Allie’s ribbed tank and caressed the length of her spine while she chased Allie’s tongue with hers. She couldn’t touch her enough, couldn’t taste her enough, couldn’t get deep enough inside her. She wanted her so much she was afraid to touch her, afraid she would rip her clothes off, force herself on her, in her. So she feathered her fingertips lightly over the delicate curves of her shoulder blades, the muscles along her spine, the rise of her ass.

The lightest of touches, the gentlest of kisses. Careful, reverent, fearful

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that in the next breath, the next heartbeat, Allie would be gone and she would be alone again. Desolate. Lost. So empty all she could hear was herself screaming in the silence.

“Ash,” Allie whimpered. She was coming apart under Ash’s hands. Ash had been a considerate lover, but always a demanding one.

One of the things Allie had always loved about being with Ash was how much Ash wanted her, and how powerfully she made that clear.

Allie was used to fast and hard with Ash, used to being taken, used to being driven relentlessly, breathlessly over the edge. She’d missed the wild ride, the out-of-control abandon, the reckless surrender. The first touch of Ash’s hand on her breast had primed her, and now, now these slow, teasing kisses and delicate strokes were driving her completely out of her mind. She was poised on the peak of an enormous roller coaster and she wanted, needed, to careen down the slope, faster and faster and faster until she flew off the rails into screaming oblivion. She couldn’t rein in her excitement, dial it down, find the brakes—she was just helpless, mindless need. She climbed onto Ash’s lap, straddling her, her T-shirt riding up, her damp panties rubbing on Ash’s fly.

“God I want you, Al,” Ash gasped.

“Baby,” Allie moaned, “baby, don’t hold back.” She pushed her tongue into Ash’s mouth and gripped her wrist, dragging Ash’s hand between them. She lifted her hips and pressed herself into Ash’s palm.

“God, feel me. I’m so hot. If you don’t touch me I’ll die.”

When Ash gently circled the firm ridge beneath the wet silk panties with a fingertip, echoing the movement with her thumb on Allie’s nipple, Allie gasped and dropped her head onto Ash’s shoulder.

So good, so good but not enough.

“Oh my God.” Allie squeezed her eyes closed and squirmed against Ash’s hand. “Oh my God, I want to come so bad. Ash, please.

Help me, baby.”

“Shh,” Ash soothed, flicking the silk aside and sliding one finger into the warm slick groove. Allie’s hips bucked and she made a strangled sound in her throat. Ash kissed her jaw, felt her quiver all over. She eased farther inside, one finger, two. Her thumb brushed Allie’s rigid clitoris. She stroked gently over the top. Any harder, any faster, and Allie would come, and she didn’t want her to, not yet. She wanted to be inside her, this close, with no anger or hurt or disappointment between them, forever. “Pull your shirt up, honey. Let me suck you.”

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The muscles in Allie’s stomach danced and rolled as she sat upright, forcing Ash’s fingers deeper between her legs. Gripping the lower edge of her tank, she pulled it off, every movement adding to the pressure pulsing low in her belly. She kept her eyes on Ash as she braced one arm against the sofa next to Ash’s head and cupped her own breast in her hand. She leaned forward, brushing her nipple over Ash’s mouth. “Fuck me, goddamn you.”

Ash’s eyes turned to midnight and she flipped Allie onto her back so fast that Allie cried out. Then she cried out again as Ash knelt between her legs and filled her hard with one thrust. Allie’s vision went dark and stars danced against the inside of her eyelids. She drove her hips up, forcing Ash even deeper, and came on her hand in sharp, hard bursts of pleasure.

“Is that what you need?” Ash cried. “Is that what you need, Al?”

“Oh, yesss!” Allie dug her nails into Ash’s forearm as she held her inside. When Allie finally slumped back, her arms and legs shaking, Ash collapsed on top of her. Allie’s lids flickered open and she blinked until she could focus on Ash’s face. This was always the time, when they had dropped all their shields, surrendered all their defenses, when Ash was most open, most unable to hide what she was feeling. Right now, her eyes were hazy and twilight blue with a combination of desire and uncertainty. Allie marshaled her strength and traced Ash’s lower lip with her thumb. Ash’s tongue darted out and licked at her.

“Did you let that blonde from the bar go down on you?” Allie whispered.

“No,” Ash said, her voice gravelly and low.

“Why not?” Allie pushed her thumb into Ash’s mouth and Ash sucked on it. She felt herself getting hard again. She would come again fast if Ash touched her just a little, but what she ached for now wasn’t another orgasm. She slid her thumb in and out, sweeping over the inner surface of Ash’s lower lip. “You fucked her, didn’t you?”

“Allie.”

“You must have, from the looks of your neck the next morning.”

Allie kept up the rhythmic in and out with her thumb, watching Ash’s eyes glaze over. “Didn’t fucking her make you want to come?”

“No,” Ash gasped when Allie pulled her thumb out. “Fucking you makes me want to come.”

“Good. Now stand up.”

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Looking dazed, Ash climbed unsteadily to her feet and stood next to the couch. Allie sat up, pushed her knees between Ash’s legs, and unbuttoned her jeans. “Get these off.”

Ash kicked off her boots, shoved her jeans down, and stepped out of them. When Allie framed her sex with both hands and took her into her mouth, Ash braced her legs against the sofa to keep from falling.

Her head swirled wildly as Allie licked and sucked and nibbled at her.

Distantly, she heard Allie tell her not to come, or maybe telling her to ask permission first, but she couldn’t make out the words and it wouldn’t matter if she could. All that mattered was the silky heat of Allie’s mouth and the pull of her lips and the rhythmic sweep of her tongue. Pleasure mushroomed out of her depths and she jerked.

“I’m going to come,” she whispered, and Allie’s fingers dug into her ass, pulling her closer. Teeth teased over her, light and sharp, and she jerked again and came in Allie’s mouth. Her thighs trembled and she struggled to stay upright and Allie kept sucking and she came again.

Allie wouldn’t let go of her, wouldn’t let up on her, wouldn’t give her time to breathe and she kept coming until she dropped, sagging forward into Allie’s arms.

“So easy,” Ash gasped. “So easy with you.”

Laughing, feeling perversely triumphant to have fucked Ash to her knees, Allie ran her fingers through Ash’s sweat-soaked hair until she realized that her shoulder was wet underneath Ash’s face. Wet with tears, and she instantly feared she had pushed her too far. “Ash? Baby, did I hurt you?”

“No.” Ash kissed the side of Allie’s neck, just below her jaw, and whispered, “I hurt you.”

“I don’t want to talk about that now.” Allie held Ash against her, continuing to stroke the back of her head and neck, the rhythmic motion soothing her own inner turmoil. She was too raw and open to talk right now, to think about what they’d done. What it meant. Where she would put these feelings later. How she would go on without Ash, knowing that what lay between them, despite all that stood between them, was everything she wanted. She pushed back on the sofa. “Come hold me.”

Wordlessly, with infinite care, Ash did.

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chapteR twenty

Tory opened her eyes at the sound of movement at her office door. Reese leaned against the doorjamb, observing her with a whimsical smile. She imagined how she must look, clothes wrinkled and hair disheveled, slumped in her chair with her feet propped up on her desk, sound asleep. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep. She’d only retreated to her office for a few minutes’ downtime—she checked her watch—an hour ago.

“Was I snoring?” Tory asked Reese.

“I’m not sure,” Reese said seriously. “Your mouth was open, though.”

“It was not,” Tory protested as she carefully shifted her feet to the floor, favoring her damaged leg as she stood.

Reese came in and closed the door. “Nita called. I stopped by to get wired up.”

“Thanks for making the time.” Tory kissed her. “Is there any way you can stop by Kate’s and check on Reggie when you get a break?”

“Already did. In fact, I did airplane cereal with her.” Reese pointed to several damp spots on her uniform shirt. “Missed deliveries.”

Tory smiled. “Sorry I wasn’t there to witness that. I was hoping I could see her before my hours started, but there’s just not enough time.

Especially considering my unplanned nap.”

Reese rubbed her back. “I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.” Tory sighed and rested her cheek against Reese’s shoulder. “I’ll grab a quick shower here and be good as new. You missed Supervisory Special Agent Allen, by the way. Accent on supervisory.”

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“Now I’m really sorry,” Reese muttered.

Tory laughed softly. “Yes, I can imagine. She’s already arranged to pick up the body.”

“What about the evidence?”

“She made me sign over the blood and tissue specimens.” When Reese grimaced, Tory added, “One set of them.”

“One set?”

“I’ve seen too many specimens get lost or end up improperly catalogued. It’s always good to have a backup. I’ll be running my own set of reports.”

Reese grinned. “You’re good.”

Tory tapped Reese’s chin with a fingertip. “You’ve mentioned that.” “I guess I better go find Nita,” Reese said quietly.

Tory kissed Reese, then took her hand. “Let’s go find her together.”

Ten minutes later Reese perched on the examination table, staring at the flat two-by-one-inch plastic case attached with a flexible band around her left bicep. She looked up, her gaze shifting from Tory to Nita. “How does this work?”

“It’s a remote wireless system—using technology a lot like Bluetooth, the device records pulse and BP and transmits it to me,”

Nita explained. “My laptop is the base station, and depending on how I program your particular unit, you may feel the cuff inflate regularly or intermittently. The results will be graphically recorded in a file that I can review.”

“And I don’t have to do anything?”

“I will set the upper limit parameters and if the device registers a reading above that, you’ll hear a faint beep.” At Reese’s frown, Nita said, “It will be a very faint five-second pulse. Unless someone is very close to you, they’re not likely to hear it. If possible, you should take note of what’s happening at that moment. Your level of activity, perceived stress, physical symptoms.”

“Okay. If I can, I will.”

“That’s perfect, then.” Nita made a note in the chart. “I’ll call you tonight after I review today’s data, Reese.” Then she smiled at Tory and Reese and left them alone.

Tory handed Reese her shirt. She was glad Nita was being so

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thorough, but just the sight of the device on Reese’s arm made her anxious. Irrational, she knew. Diagnosis was the first step toward averting more serious problems, but she wasn’t thinking like a physician.

She was thinking like a woman who desperately did not want anything to threaten her partner. “I love you.”

Reese stopped buttoning her shirt and opened her arms. Tory pressed close and Reese wrapped her in an embrace. “I’m okay.”

“You know,” Tory said softly, “it’s okay for you not to be a rock all the time.”

“A rock.” Reese lifted Tory’s chin and studied her eyes. “We both know I’m not.”

Tory stroked Reese’s cheek. “I just don’t want you to think you need to be—for me.”

“You have it backwards, Tor.” Reese cupped her face and kissed her softly. “You are my strength. You’re the foundation of my whole world.” She carried Tory’s hand to her chest and pressed it over her heart. “As long as my heart beats, I’ll live for you. You and Reggie.”

She skimmed her hand over Tory’s abdomen. “And maybe one more before too long.”

Tory’s eyes flooded with tears. She knew she was tired, a little bit scared, but mostly, amazed. She wrapped her arms around Reese’s neck and kissed her back. “You make me so happy.”

Reese grinned. “Love?”

“Hmm?”

“If you keep it up, the thingamabob on my arm is going to start beeping.”

Tory laughed. “Well, we’ll know just what to tell Nita, won’t we?”

“Why don’t we try some serious testing tonight?”

“It’s a date.”

v

Bri found Caroline on Rica’s back deck, curled up in a lounge chair, an untouched cup of coffee on the low table next to her. She looked fragile and pale in the bright sunlight. Tenderness, mixed with near-blinding rage, sluiced through her. Some low-life bastard had tried to hurt her, and Bri wanted to find the fucker and tear him apart. She

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had to be cool, though, stay steady for Caroline. Leaning down, she kissed Caroline gently on the mouth. “Hi, babe. How are you doing?”

Caroline wrapped her arms around Bri’s neck and arched up to kiss her harder. Then she slumped back and dragged Bri down next to her. “Mostly okay.”

“Mostly?” Bri traced Caroline’s eyebrow with a fingertip, marveling at her delicate beauty.

“I don’t want this to be happening again.”

“I know, babe. I’m sorry.” Bri remembered how helpless she’d been to stop Everly’s harassment the first time, and how the impotent fury had become a barrier between her and Caroline. She wasn’t going to let that happen this time. “We’ll get him and send him away again.

Until then we’ll just be careful.”

“I wish I could be the one to find him. I want to kick his ass myself.”

Bri grinned, loving the way Caroline’s eyes sparkled with righteous anger. For all her sweet softness, Caroline was tough and strong. More than her, sometimes. A lot more than her. “If I get the chance, I’ll kick his ass for you.”

Caroline cuddled closer, fitting her head below Bri’s chin. “You think you will? Find him?”

“Carter and I will be questioning a lot of people today, about another case. I’ll be asking about Everly too. It won’t take long to track him down.”

“Good. Because I really like Rica, and I don’t mind staying here for a night or two.” She kissed Bri’s neck and then sucked lightly until Bri squirmed. “But being company really cramps my style. I had big plans for you this morning.”

“Yeah?” Bri twisted to check the kitchen through the glass doors behind them. It was empty. She found Caroline’s hand and drew it to her fly. “Want to demonstrate?”

“Can you be quiet?” Caroline murmured as she pulled on Bri’s belt.

“Babe,” Bri said hoarsely, lifting her hips. “You oughta know by now. I can be anything you want.”

v

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“So what do we do now?” Ash murmured when Allie stirred in her arms. They’d fallen asleep together on the couch, and judging from the light outside, it was late morning. She still wore her shirt and nothing else. Allie was naked. Despite the stiffness and pain in her injured shoulder, and considering she hadn’t had much to eat or hardly any sleep for a couple of days, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this good. This right. She was terrified to walk out the door, terrified that when she did, the rightness would disappear and she’d never get it back again.

“You know this was a bad idea,” Allie said softly.

“Why?” Ash asked, her breath catching in her throat.

“Breakup sex is always a bad idea. Great while it’s happening but then it just confuses everything.”

“Is that what this is?”

“This is way past breakup sex.” Allie leaned up on her elbow, her thigh resting over Ash’s. Her breasts swayed gently and Ash’s stomach tightened.

“Maybe it’s something else,” Ash whispered.

“Like what? You left, remember? You said you didn’t want to get involved with someone so much younger. You told me I wasn’t ready for a serious relationship.”

“I remember.”

“So we’re over. We’ve been over for a long time.” Allie smiled wryly and cast her eyes over their joined bodies. “Except for this part, I guess. Or maybe this is really all there ever was.”

“No. It was more than just this.” Ash needed Allie to know that.

No matter what happened, she needed her to know that there had always been more than just this. That’s why she’d come that morning, not expecting anything at all. Just needing her to know. “We were always about more than this, baby.”

“Really?” Allie asked, sorrow in her eyes. “Then explain to me what happened, Ash, because I just don’t get it.”

“I was scared,” Ash said softly. “I knew I was falling for you in a big way, and I panicked.”

“What?” Allie couldn’t believe she was just hearing this now.

They’d argued. She’d cried. Ash had stonewalled. She’d sworn at Ash, railed at her, practically begged her for a chance to prove her wrong—

all to no avail. Finally—to preserve her pride and her dignity—she’d

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done exactly what Ash had insisted she do. She’d let Ash walk away, she’d dated other women, she’d slept with other women. She tried to convince herself that she hadn’t been in love with Ash. If Ash had once said that it’d been about her fears, and not about Allie’s age or Allie’s lack of experience or something Allie was lacking, then everything might have been different. “What are you saying?”

“I wanted you so much that I was afraid. Afraid that if I fell in love with you I wouldn’t make it if you left me.”

Allie sat up abruptly, furious and confused. “You broke up with me—you broke my fucking heart—because you cared about me too much? Is that what you’re trying to tell me now?”

“Something like that.”

“You need to go.” Allie jumped up, snatched her tank top off the floor, and pulled it over her head. Her panties were nowhere to be found, but at least now she didn’t feel so vulnerable. She just felt mad.

Raging mad, and she needed to stay that way—especially now, when Ash looked so fragile, so damn wounded. At least when she was angry at Ash, she could bear the pain of losing her. Ash’s confession had flayed her heart open, and if she lost her anger, she’d be left with nothing but tears. “You fucking coward. How could you have done this?”

Ash sat up and reached for her pants. She pulled them on and found her boots and socks. “It wasn’t about you. It never was.” She finished dressing and finally met Allie’s eyes. “It was always me.”

“That doesn’t help me right now,” Allie whispered.

“I know.” Ash feathered her fingers over Allie’s cheek and kissed her lightly on the mouth. “I love you, Allie. And I’m so sorry.”

Ash walked to the door and Allie let her go. When she was sure she was alone, she sat on the sofa, rested her hand on the spot that was still warm from Ash’s body, and cried.

v

He slept well, despite his missed opportunity the night before. He hadn’t expected her to be awake, and definitely not so feisty. Most prey ran. They never confronted the hunter. She’d taken him by surprise when she’d appeared, a small shadowy figure through the glass. He’d barely had time to back into the shadows so she couldn’t see his face.

He heard her scream, but she stood her ground. The suddenness of her

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confronting him, the shock, had been so exciting he’d almost been satisfied with that. Almost. But it hadn’t been her face or her scream he’d returned to over and over in his mind, lying in his rented room with his hard, throbbing cock in his hand. It had been the sensation of the blade severing tissue, the sound of life escaping on a wheeze, the convulsion of death that felt so much like coming. He knew the next time he hunted down his prey, he’d experience it all.

So he was feeling confident, invincible, as he strolled casually to the coffee shop after awakening around noon. The midday crowds were thin, and after a few blocks he became aware of more officers on foot and in patrol cars then he’d noticed before. He slowed and moved closer to the buildings, studying the activity, ready to duck up one of the side streets if he needed to. Then he saw the two officers standing in the doorway of the bar he’d been in the night before, talking to someone who was probably the manager. One of them had a photo in her hand.

He recognized her and she would recognize him, if she saw him.

Quickly he slipped down a narrow passageway between two buildings, unnoticed. He almost laughed out loud. He’d always been so much better than her. Stronger. More clever. He’d remind her of that, before very long. When he took what belonged to him. When he took the woman she thought was hers and reminded her just how wrong she was.

v

Carter got into the passenger side of the cruiser and said to Bri,

“So what do you think?”

“I think Agent Lloyd was looking for someone last night,” Bri said carefully, thinking this might be a test. “So far we can put him at the Governor Bradford, the Gifford House, and the Atlantic House.

Chronologically, it looks like his last stop was Good Times—that was only half an hour before the estimated time of death.”

“The timeline works, I agree,” Carter said as Bri drove down Commercial Street. “So what do we do with this information?”

“We go back tonight and talk to the night bartender and the regulars.

Find out who else was there. Ask if anything unusual happened.”

Bri shot Carter a glance. “Maybe someone noticed Lloyd leave with someone or right after someone?”

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Carter nodded her approval. “Sounds like a plan. In the meantime, let’s start on the B-and-Bs. We still don’t know where he was sta—”

The radio crackled to life.

“All units. Code five at Bayberry and Pilgrim Heights. Approach with caution, code two.”

“Felony fugitive,” Bri exclaimed. “Everly!”

“That’s right around the corner from my house!” Carter hit the lights but not the siren to avoid alerting the suspect to their arrival.

“Go. Go!”

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chapteR twenty-One

Allie zipped her jeans, pulled on a sleeveless dark blue tee, and debated flip-flops versus running shoes. She opted for running shoes because she was going to work. She might be on sick leave, but she could be “sick” at the station. Reese hadn’t actually told her to stay home. So she’d have to sit at her desk. That was a lot more appealing than what she was doing now—staring at the walls and replaying every word that Ash had said, being alternately angry and hurt. Trying not to replay every moment of making love with her—burning one second, shivering the next, switching from hot to cold so fast her skin ached.

Even the idea of paperwork was looking good. If she sat around here thinking about Ash, or trying not to think about her—

Her police scanner blared, “All units. Code five at Bayberry and Pilgrim Heights. Approach with caution, code two.”

Allie shoved her badge into her back pocket, grabbed her weapon in one hand and her keys in the other, and raced out the door. “All Units” as far as she was concerned meant every able-bodied officer.

She was not going to let the scumbag who’d almost raped Bri get away. She backed out of her parking space in a hail of gravel and sped toward Bradford. She made the turn right behind a cruiser and followed close on its tail as its flashing light bar cleared the road ahead of them.

When the patrol car turned onto Pilgrim Heights and angled across the intersection, she pulled onto the shoulder next to it and jumped out.

Reese climbed out of the cruiser, took one look at her, and waved her over. Allie hurried forward and said quickly, “I know I’m supposed to be off—”

• 189 •

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“Rica and Caroline are in the house. We know where he is. I want you with them until we catch this guy.”

Allie knew better than to protest, even though she wanted to be in on the pursuit. She wasn’t even supposed to be working, so she was grateful that Reese didn’t sideline her. And if Caroline was a target, she needed to be protected. “Yes ma’am.”

Reese got on the radio and Allie ran across the street and sprinted up the hill toward Rica and Carter’s cliff-top home. Rica answered the door, looking worried. Caroline was right behind her.

“What’s going on?” Rica asked.

Allie glanced at Caroline, then realized there was no reason to keep anything from these women. “William Everly might be in the area. Reese wanted me to stay with you until they catch him.”

“Is Bri with Reese?” Caroline asked quickly.

“No, probably with Carter.” She smiled at Caroline. “Don’t worry.

Bri can handle herself.”

“Sure, I know.”

Caroline still looked worried, probably afraid that Bri would go off on Everly if she caught him. Allie wasn’t so sure she wouldn’t, and couldn’t blame Bri if she did. No one could really blame Bri for exorcising her demons in her own way. Just like all of them.

“There’s no reason to think he’s coming here, but until they clear the street or run him down, why don’t you two stay together, maybe in the kitchen.” Allie checked the front door to make sure it was locked and closed the drapes on the front windows. “I’m going to take a quick walk around outside. Do you have an extra key?”

Rica found one in the desk drawer in the living room and handed it to Allie. “Let me give you my cell phone number.” Rica repeated it and Allie plugged it into her phone, then gave Rica her cell number.

“Okay,” Allie said. “I’ll be right back. Any problems, call me or nine-one-one.”

v

Reese radioed Carter and Bri to confirm their locations, then did the same with Smith and his partner. All were on foot, scouring yards and footpaths around the area where Smith had apparently sighted

• 190 •

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Everly approaching the house of one of his old high school football buddies. Reese ordered the remaining officers in squad cars to block Bradford in case Everly tried to come down off the Heights in a vehicle.

They had no description of what he might be driving, but he wouldn’t be difficult to spot. Then she set out on foot to triangulate with the two teams moving through the neighborhood. Hopefully, they could converge and force him out into the open.

Every now and then she was aware of the cuff on her arm inflating, but she’d quickly become acclimated to it and now she just ignored it. It hadn’t beeped, and she wondered if it was working. Considering she was running uphill and charged with adrenaline, she suspected it was malfunctioning, because her blood pressure had to be elevated.

Probably just as well. Tory was already worried enough.

Then she heard a shout from somewhere up ahead, followed by a shot, and the only thing on her mind was securing the safety of her officers. She pulled her weapon and ran.

v

The sharp crack that rifled through the air might have been a tree falling. Allie had heard plenty of those during the storm. But the sun was shining and the sky was clear and she knew a gunshot when she heard it. Her heart leapt and she reflexively pulled her weapon. She couldn’t judge the distance of the shot, but suddenly the stakes had changed. She wanted to run toward the sound, to help protect her fellow officers. But she couldn’t leave Rica and Caroline unprotected. She moved carefully to the rear right corner of the house. The deck from the kitchen was cantilevered over her head, the brush-and scrub-covered hillside dropping away steeply below her. The nearest house was fifty yards away and separated from Rica’s by dense foliage. Anyone approaching the house from the rear was in for an arduous climb, and she doubted someone on the run would try it. Nevertheless, she waited a full minute, scanning the drop-off below the deck. Nothing moving. Skirting along the rear of the house, she climbed back up to the front. She didn’t see anyone in the street. She considered going back inside, but thought she’d have a better chance of spotting Everly if she took cover outside.

She called Rica’s cell phone.

• 191 •

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“Hello,” Rica said.

“Everything looks clear out here, but I’m going to stay outside.

Don’t leave the house.”

“We’re fine,” Rica said coolly. “You should also know that I’m armed.”

“Ah…” Allie said. “Maybe you’d better leave that to me.”

“It’s legal. And I know how to use it.”

“All right. Be careful.”

“Was that a shot?” Rica asked, lowering her voice to a whisper.

“I think so.”

There was a long silence, then Rica said, “You be careful too.”

“Will do. Just sit tight.” Allie disconnected and took cover near the front of the house behind a dense, chest-high shrub that gave her a vantage point of the street. If he came this way, she’d see him.

v

“Can you turn up the scanner?” Ash asked Gladys Martin, the sheriff’s department dispatcher, as she got to her feet. After leaving Allie, she’d walked aimlessly for an hour, unaware of the throbbing pain in her shoulder and hip. The pain in her heart had been all-consuming.

She couldn’t believe how many times she’d made the wrong decision where Allie was concerned. She’d let her fear of being hurt and, yes, her arrogance in thinking that she knew what Allie would do convince her that she and Allie had no future together. She’d pushed Allie away, pushed her at other women, just to prove that she was right. What an idiot. No, Allie had been right. What a coward.

And then she tried some half-assed apology when it was way too late—she was lucky Allie had even let her in the door. And then…God, and then she just stopped thinking completely and went to bed with her.

Being with Allie again had been like tasting cool clear water when she was dying of thirst—after she’d finally accepted that the arid wasteland in front of her stretched forever and she’d given up hoping for a drop of rain. Now, having tasted her again, her soul would never survive another drought. And she had no one to blame but herself.

So she’d finally just walked to the station house and sat down at an empty desk with her files. Working. The only thing short of chemical oblivion that would blunt the pain for a while. When the call for All

• 192 •

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Units came in, the two officers in the station ran out, leaving her alone with Gladys and the intermittent radio chatter on the scanner.

“Who is that? Is that Reese?” Ash asked again, working hard to quell her panic as she listened to the scattered reports from the officers in pursuit of William Everly. She stared at the scanner as if that would force it to divulge more news. When she glanced at the duty board behind Gladys and saw that Allie’s name wasn’t on it, some of her anxiety eased.

“That’s the sheriff,” Gladys said with a worried frown.

“Everybody’s out there. I imagine all our off duty people are headed that way too. They’ve all got scanners, and if they were anywhere near enough to hear that All Units call, they’ll respond.”

Then Allie was probably out there. Ash had seen the scanner on the kitchen counter on her way out that morning. She told herself to relax. Allie was a trained officer and good at her job. But Everly had to know he was going back to jail if apprehended, and the very nature of his original crime suggested he was unstable. Who knew what he was likely to do when cornered.

The scanner crackled and Reese’s voice filled the room.

“Shots fired. Suspect is armed and dangerous. Do not approach without backup.”

“Shit,” Ash muttered. She ran a hand through her hair for the hundredth time that morning, but this time she wasn’t frustrated or angry at herself, she was scared down to her toes. And she couldn’t just stand by waiting for word. She spun around and raced for the door.

v

“Jesus,” Bri yelled when a car window ten feet from her shattered, showering glass all over the street. “That maniac is shooting at us!” She dove behind a shiny new Mercedes and peered around into the street, searching for some sign of Everly. Carter was crouched next to a dusty pickup truck just opposite her. “You okay?”

“Yes. Did you see where he went?”

“He ran behind a house up at the corner of Pilgrim.” Bri’s uniform shirt was stuck to her back with cold sweat. She was too pumped to be scared, but her skin was tingling like she was high, except her mind wasn’t cloudy. It was crystal sharp. The whole world stood out in 3-D

• 193 •

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relief, every angle and shape shimmering, almost vibrating. God, she hoped that was normal, because she didn’t want to make a mistake.

Carter was depending on her. Caroline was depending on her. Reese trusted her to make the right call. She checked Carter again, and the calm resolve in Carter’s eyes steadied her. Carter trusted her, she could read it in her face. And that’s all it took to settle her down.

“Let’s go get him, yeah?” Bri called to Carter.

“Damn right. Keep your eye out for any civilians and make sure they get to cover.”

“Roger that.”

Bri rose and ran. The thud of Carter’s footsteps next to her was almost as good as Reese’s hand on her shoulder, reminding her she was not alone.

v

Allie caught a flicker of movement across the street. Reese was ducking cautiously from one yard to the next, checking up and down the street and scanning driveways. Allie wanted to go with her to cover her back, but she stayed at her post. She couldn’t see all the way down the street to the intersection with Bayberry, but that’s where Everly had first been spotted. The shot sounded like it came from down there—

where Bri and Carter were. She didn’t let herself think about that. She just kept watch, waiting, preparing. Reese was out of sight now, and she suddenly felt very much alone. Every second felt like an hour.

Her bare arms were covered with goose bumps even though she was sweating. Two houses up and diagonally across the street from her, a young woman with long blond hair and a short clingy dress came out her front door, beeped her car remote at a dark blue Honda Accord in the driveway, and hurried toward the driver’s side door. A second later, a bearded man in a dark T-shirt and blue jeans appeared out of nowhere and sprinted across the street on an intercept course with the blonde.

Everly. He was going to carjack the young woman. Allie didn’t even question her next move. She couldn’t let him take a hostage. She bolted into the street, her arms extended in front of her, her weapon two-fisted and trained on Everly.

“Stop, police! Down on the ground. Down on the ground!”

Without breaking stride, he half turned in her direction and fired.

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The air around her vibrated with heat and her ears rang with the report of the shot. She couldn’t return fire because now he was directly between her and the civilian. If she missed him, she could hit the woman or someone in the house. Hoping to draw his fire again, anything to distract him from the woman, who was now crouched next to her car and trying to scramble away, Allie ran toward him. Carter and Bri materialized at the end of the block and raced up the street, weapons out. Reese bolted from between two houses and grabbed the civilian, dragging the young woman behind the front of the Accord. Then Reese just stood up, tall and solid, and aimed her weapon at Everly.

“You’re done, Everly,” Reese shouted. “It’s over, drop the weapon.”

Everly’s head swiveled between Allie, who was blocking the street in one direction, and Bri and Carter, who cut off his retreat in the other direction. Smith and Chang vaulted out into the street from between two houses and took up a position behind him. Reese walked forward slowly, her face completely impassive, her weapon never wavering from his center mass. After another quick look around, Everly raised his free hand, knelt, and slowly placed his weapon on the ground. Then everyone converged on him. Bri got to him first and jammed her knee into the middle of his back while she cuffed him.

Allie couldn’t hear what Bri was shouting at him. She was still running, but she didn’t seem able to reach them. Her weapon was shaking in her hand, but when she tried to holster it, she couldn’t seem to do it. Then she saw the blood running down her left arm. That probably explained why she was moving in slow motion. In fact, she wasn’t really moving at all. She was kneeling in the middle of the street. That wasn’t what she wanted to do, but she was having trouble getting up.

“Officer down, officer down! Medics. We need medics, now,”

Reese shouted into her radio as she knelt next to Allie. “Take it easy, Allie. The medics will be here in a minute.”

“I don’t know why I’m bleeding,” Allie said quietly, confused.

“He didn’t hit me.”

Reese holstered her weapon and put an arm around Allie’s shoulders. She eased Allie back against her chest and, using her fingers, pressed closed the wound in Allie’s upper arm that pumped blood at a steady cadence. “Looks like he winged you. You’ll be fine. Medics will be here in a second.”

• 195 •

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Allie tilted her head back on Reese’s shoulder. “You have the most gorgeous eyes. I mean, like smoking sexy hot eyes.”

“Thank you,” Reese murmured.

“Is Bri okay?” Allie wondered why she sounded drunk.

“She’s good. Everybody’s good. You did fine today, Tremont.”

“I didn’t. I so didn’t,” Allie slurred. “I really fucked things up with Ash.”

“You can sort that out later,” Reese said.

“You think?” Allie whispered.

“Yeah, I’m sure of it. Just take it easy now.”

“That’s good. That’s good because I really…” Allie sighed and closed her eyes. “You’ll tell her, won’t you?”

“You bet.”

With Reese to keep her safe, Allie drifted off.

• 196 •

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chapteR twenty-twO

Tory heard the approaching sirens and hurried out the clinic door. When she saw Reese climb out of the patrol car ahead of the EMS vehicle in the clinic parking lot, she faltered, her legs suddenly weak. Reese’s shirt was soaked with blood. “Oh my God! Reese!”

“I’m okay,” Reese called, “it’s Allie’s. GSW—left arm.”

The back doors of the EMS rig flew open and two medics jumped out with Allie on a gurney. One held an IV bag in the air as he ran alongside the stretcher.

“Vital signs?” Tory asked as she stepped aside for them to get through the clinic door.

“Pulse ninety, BP one thirty. She’s in and out. Better since we got some fluid into her.”

Allie turned her head and her eyes fluttered open. “I want to go home.”

“Oh, I love cops,” Tory muttered, assessing the bandage on Allie’s arm as she followed the medics into the clinic. A three-inch splotch of bright red marked the center of the white gauze. Fresh bleeding.