When he lifted her skirt, all he could do was let out a string of curses. He should have known better than to second-guess Lana.
She knew her shit. “She’s right. The girl is branded on her upper left thigh near her private area.”
“Well, fuck,” Lt. Brown mumbled as he scrubbed his face with his hands.
They stuck around the crime scene and looked through several things as Lana helped them look over a few things from her point of view. Jayson loved watching her in action.
He would never get bored watching her. He suddenly had the idea to see about Lana helping them out with this case.
“Lt., what are the chances to see if Lana and her team could help us with this case? It seems to coincide with theirs. They basically wrote the book on the Soriano Army.”
“Um, I don’t know if our captain can spare us that long. I mean, we could help you.”
Jayson watched Lana bite her lower lip as she thought of their caseload back home in Texas. If he had to get down on his knees and beg, he would.
“I can talk to the Sheriff himself and see what he says. I know this is driving his ass bat shit crazy. If he says it’s a go, then we’ll call your captain and see what we can work out.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to Rocky and Sunny, letting them know what is up. Rocky, I know will jump on it since she wants to nail one of the guys after one of the cases we had a while back.”
Jayson fought to hide the smile he wanted to give at the news. Now he had a shot at working things out with Lana or ruining the best thing that ever happened to him for good.
Jayson and Lana worked in tandem, going over notes from Lana’s past experience with the group they believe is the cause of their nightmares. Even Jayson’s Lt. was in awe at how attentive Lana was to details.
He knew without a shadow of a doubt that with Lana and her team’s help they would be able to solve this case quickly. He just prayed that he didn’t lose Lana in the process.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Lana pulled up to the house Jayson told her was his. She looked at it for a few seconds before looking away.
Part of her was glad that he’d managed to find something to create a home with someone of his choosing, but part of her was hurt that he had moved on so easily while she was still struggling with his loss all these years later.
“Mom and Dad purchased it while I was in the hospital in Germany. It was their way of believing I would come home. Dad knew I would need the space to be with the darkness, so Mom wasn’t worried more than she already was.”
Lana’s heart seized at the information. He’d been in the hospital…severely injured.
“H-how bad…” Lana had to stop and catch her breath, clearing her throat. “How badly were you injured?”
“Let’s go inside and I’ll make us a cup of coffee. I’ll answer any question you have. Plus, you can see where the kids will be when they are with me.”
“Okay.”
Lana got out of the vehicle and numbly followed Jayson into the house. She had to keep telling herself that he was standing in front of her, breathing and talking.
Lana sat at the kitchen table and watched as Jayson went about making the coffee. They made small talk about the twins.
When Jayson set her coffee in front of her, she had to blink, realizing she’d zoned out in a way. Why the news of him being hurt had her so fucked in the mind, but it did.
When Jayson sat across from her, she finally took her first real look at him. While he still looked like the boy she’d fallen hard for, she could see he’d aged with the lines forming around his eyes.
She noticed the scar that went through his right eyebrow and the scar on his jaw that seemed to flow from his upper jaw to just below it. She could tell he worked out more than he used to in high school.
His eyes were colder, more assuasive than they were in the past. He’d always been observant and hard, but his years in the military honed it to make him a stone-cold man.
“How bad were you hurt in the ambush?” Lana asked softly.
“I was shot multiple times. Had shrapnel from a roadside bomb in my left leg. Head trauma. Serious internal injuries. Like I said earlier, Jefferies and I made it, but we’d been through hell and back. Dad said the doctors told him I’d coded a couple of times enroute from the zone to base hospital, then from Afghanistan to Germany. Mom and Dad thought they were going to lose me. I was in a coma for two weeks before they brought me out. I was pretty bad from what they said.”
