“Ha ha. Open the door, doofus. I’m not going away. And I can getlouder,” she said, raising her for voice for the benefit of Jane’s neighbors.
Swearing under her breath, Jane yanked open the door and snarled, “What are you doing here?”
Raine opened her mouth to answer and closed it with a snap, her gaze glued to Jane’s cheek.
Crap.
“What the hell happened to you?”
Jane yanked her inside and shut the door after her. Now how much to confide to her cousin…?
“You’ll tell me everything,” Raine said, as if reading her mind. A nasty habit her cousin had always had, that of hearing the truth even when nothing had been said.
“Why should I?” Jane tried for bravado.
“Because if you don’t, I’ll call Uncle Chris.” Raine pulled out her phone and hit several buttons. “Don’t push me, because I’ll do it.”
Jane sighed. “Fine. Sit down, shut up, and listen.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“After nearly getting run over,why didn’t you go into the bar and ask for help?” Raine seemed to be having a hard time understanding Jane’s reasoning.
“I told you.”
“Tell me again.”
“Simple. I didn’t want to give anyone a second shot at me.” Jane ticked off her fingers. “If Scott knew he’d rattled me, he’d win. If he saw that I was okay, he could try again before I got home. Even if he had nothing to do with it, I’d become a spectacle in that bar, where a ton of law enforcement heroes would want to help the weak woman who nearly got run over.”
Raine sighed. “Okay, that makes sense. Best not to let anyone see you vulnerable.”
“Thank you.” Jane huffed.
“But you never ask for help, you know. And you need to.”
“Who would I ask?”
“Oh please. Hal and Joe are bored out of their minds. When they see your face, all bets are off.”
Jane blurted, “You can’t tell them. If they know I got hurt, they’ll try to take over my investigation. They’ll blow it.”
“Hey, they’re pros.” Raine looked hurt.
“Professional problem solvers.Killers,Raine.”
“Technically, Hal’s more of a computer nerd.”
“Who has drones drop his bombs for him,” Jane growled, since her cousin was missing the point. “They typically destroy their targets. I need my target alive to charge them for the murder of a DEA agent in addition to leaking info to a crime organization. I can’t do that with dead suspects.”
“You have a point, I guess.” Raine didn’t look pleased about that. Actually, she looked…tired.
A few inches shorter than Jane’s own five eleven, Raine was built on the lean side but healthy and strong. She had skin the same shade as Jane’s, but when she tanned, she turned more gold than red. Her long, dark hair was usually kept neat in a French braid but now had been tied back in a ponytail, with whisps of hair curling around her face. She’d dressed casually too, in a pair of jeans and a UW sweatshirt.
A natural beauty with brains and heart, Raine took after their uncle more than she’d like to admit. A hardhead who felt emotions keenly and liked to be vocal in her opinions about everything, Raine and Uncle Chris often butted heads. Jane rarely saw her sad.
And that’s what she saw in her cousin’s dark eyes. A kind of grief.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Jane asked more gently than she normally would.
