“You’re most welcome.”
She slipped from his arms and didn’t turn around until she tried to close the bedroom door and discovered she couldn’t do it. She pulled back until she could see him. “Zane?”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to need to leave the bedroom door open.” If she closed that door, she would lose the grasp she had on her calm.
“Okay. Whatever you need. Do you want to leave? We could go to the hotel. Or to Luke and Faith’s. They have plenty of room.”
“No. I need to stay here and face my demons. I’m just not ready to shut myself in there alone.”
ZANE CLEANED UP THE KITCHEN,prepped the coffeepot, and returned to the living room. He sat on the sofa. That lasted approximately two seconds before he was up and walking around the apartment.
He walked, and he prayed.
Lord? Um. Wow. I’m not even sure what to say right now. Thank you seems woefully inadequate, but maybe if I say it every day for the next sixty years it will finally be enough.
He paused to pick up a framed photo. It was of him, Luke, and Thad Baker, a colleague who died under tragic circumstances not long after Tessa came to their team.
I don’t know how it works, Lord, but if you could let Thad know? He’d love to see this. He prayed for this. Please don’t let me hurt her ever again. Help me never forget how extraordinary she is, how blessed I am, and how my job is to make sure she knows that every single day.
His phone buzzed. Morris. He answered immediately. “What do you have for me?”
“How’s Tessa?” Morris tended to growl more than speak, and he was in a growly mood right now. Enough that Zane had no desire to mess with him.
“Good. She ate an omelet, and she’s getting ready for bed now.”
“Good. She going to be okay staying there tonight?”
And that was why he liked Morris even though the man had the personality of a ticked-off hedgehog. He knew what mattered, and he cared. “She wants to stay. We’ll see how it goes.”
“Fair enough. I didn’t want to call her number in case she was asleep.”
Tessa emerged from her room, hair up in a messy bun, bare feet peeking out of the bottom of flowy pajama pants that looked like a trip hazard to Zane. “Who is it?”
“Morris, I’m going to put you on speaker.” Zane did that and nudged Tessa toward the oversized chair in the corner.
They sat together and listened as Morris brought them up to speed. “We have a name,” Morris said.
Tessa’s entire body went solid beside him. “Anyone we should know?”
“I doubt it. Name’s Perry Loth. His record is long. Most of it’s petty. But he’s done time for assault, and he’s currently out on parole after having his sentence reduced.”
“What was he in for this time?”
“Rape.”
Zane had an intense desire to turn back time and accidentally ensure that Loth would find it impossible to ever perform that particular crime again. He put his arm around Tessa’s shoulders, and she wrapped an arm around his waist, then rested her face against his chest. Natural. Easy. Like they’d been sitting this way for years.
“Is he talking?” Tessa burrowed closer to him.
“No. And by no, I mean not a single word. He hasn’t requested a lawyer. He hasn’t requested a phone call. He hasn’t even requested a trip to the toilet.”
“I don’t suppose you’ve had him checked for pills of dubious origin, have you?” Tessa shifted in the chair. “Could they even check for that? Seems like there wouldn’t be much you could do short of pumping his stomach.”
Morris snorted. “He was doing his supersilent act when weasked him if he’d taken any medication in the last four hours. So, I casually mentioned we were asking this now because we had an inmate die from poison they’d ingested prior to committing their crime and that I’d hate for him to kick the bucket in one of my cells. The paperwork. You wouldn’t even believe.”
“He bought it?” Tessa asked.
