Her hand brushed mine when we both reached for our coffee at the same time. It was barely anything. An accident. A fraction of a second. But my body registered it like a warning shot.
She stilled, glancing down, then back up at the windshield like nothing had happened. Tension tightened her shoulders and her fingers squeezed her coffee cup.
Fuck… My jaw clenched.
The drive to the hospital passed in a heavy, thoughtful silence. She watched the road, tapping her thumb against her leg. I watched the mirrors and the traffic and the reflection of her in the glass.
Every time she glanced at me, I felt it. Her gaze lingered just a beat too long. If I touched her, I wouldn’t stop. The thought hit me out of nowhere, sharp and unwelcome. I forced my attention back to the road, breathing slow and steady like I’d been trained.
Her phone buzzed once. She ignored it.
“You’re not going to answer that?” I asked.
“If it’s work, they can wait.”
It wasn’t work. Lone Star had flagged the number the second it hit her phone. The call was from a burner. The same contact Lucas had been dodging.
She glanced at me. “You never turn it off, do you? That look you get. You’re always somewhere else.”
“I’m right here.”
Her gaze drifted over me, slow and thoughtful. “You’re not normal.”
That comment almost earned her a smile. I’d been called a hell of a lot worse. I could deal with “not normal.” Hell, it was practically a compliment.
At the hospital entrance, I parked and walked her to the doors.
“You can’t come inside,” she said.
“I’m not planning to.”
“Good.”
I stopped in front of her, close enough to see the faint shadows under her eyes. Close enough to notice the soft curve of her mouth when she worried her bottom lip between her teeth. My hand flexed at my side, but I stopped myself from reaching for her.
“Text me when your shift ends,” I said.
Her eyes flicked to my mouth before lifting back to my eyes. The awareness between us tightened, stretched thin as wire.
“Do you always tell women what to do?”
“Only when it keeps them breathing.”
She shook her head. “You’re impossible.”
“And you’re stubborn.”
That earned me a tired huff of a laugh. “You noticed.”
I stepped back before the moment stretched into something I couldn’t afford. “Don’t leave the building, not even to step outside. Be safe and call me if you need me.”
She held my gaze for a long beat, then turned and disappeared inside.
I stayed there longer than I should have, watching the doors until they slid shut.
While Marisol was at work, I sat in the parking lot and got updates on the case. I wasn’t the only Lone Star agent involved. Gray had a guy following Lucas and another tracking that damn sedan that I’d seen parked down the road the other night. One of our guys had followed it to an industrial park on the north side of Valor Springs.
As I sipped my coffee, Lone Star’s feed lit up with activity. According to the app we’d installed on Lucas’s phone, he’d missed two calls. A text came through with a pinned location.
