“We’ll need to be careful though.” She glanced around the moonlit park. “If there really is a pattern, if Jane Doe’s death is connected to other cases—”
“Then we could be dealing with something bigger than either of us expected.” The protective instinct that had been growing all evening surged again. “Are you sure you want to get involved in this?”
The look she gave him could have melted steel. “Try to stop me.”
Her fierceness hit him right in the chest. Noah found himself leaning forward, drinking in every word as she laid out her thoughts about the case. The way her mind worked, jumping three steps ahead, connecting dots others might miss—it was intoxicating. When she mentioned being anxious to dig deeper, to find real answers, his whole body hummed with recognition.
He couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect scenario. Here was this incredible woman who matched him not just in attraction, but in drive and intelligence. The chance to work with her, to combine business with the pleasure of her company, it felt like fate.
“What do you say to taking Dancer out in the morning?” he asked. “We can take a stroll through Peavine Canyon. Maybe find something the recovery team missed.”
“Yes.” No hesitation. “I see that poor woman’s face when I close my eyes. If we can help get her some closure, that would be icing on the cake.”
He could already tell Sabrina was the charge-ahead type, the kind who would push aggressively for answers. It suited his style perfectly.
Watching her eyes light up with plans and possibilities, Noah finally understood why he’d ended up back in Dark Canyon after leaving his globe-trotting journalism career. Why life had steered him here, to this moment.
To Sabrina.
Good grief, she was magnificent. Standing there in the moonlight, fearless, ready to dive into whatever to find the truth. Every cell in his body urged him to pull her close, to show her exactly how he was feeling, she called to him at a basic level.
But she deserved his honesty first.
“I should warn you.” He stepped into her space, drawn by the energy radiating from her. “I’m kind of a whirlwind. It’s a lot for some people. I’ve been called Hurricane Noah more than once. My tendency is to start out at category five and only get more intense. It feels like that won’t be a problem for you, but I’m going to need your express consent to baptism by fire.”
She grinned. “Are you trying to scare me off, or is this just the welcome spiel everyone gets?”
“No one else was asked to apply.”
“Good.” She stuck out her hand. “Because I don’t do anything halfway either. And I don’t like sharing.”
The space between them crackled with possibility. He was on the edge of something all right—an opportunity to soar or crash spectacularly. But he’d be doing it right alongside Sabrina.
It felt like fate. Like step one of an amazing journey.
When he finally kissed her, everything shifted, and then it felt like falling. Into what, he couldn’t wait to find out.
* * *
Noah had never been one to sleep late, but after the best first date ever, the bed seemed unnaturally empty despite the fact that he’d slept alone in it every night of the four years he’d lived here. It was far too easy to imagine a certain fierce blonde in the space next to him.
Since she wasn’t here, he got started on the day early. Before dawn.
Sabrina had agreed to meet him at Peavine this morning, and he could think of literally nothing he’d like better than to see her ASAP. Probably he could have found something to occupy his time besides cooling his heels—literally—out in Dark Canyon Wilderness while he waited on her to arrive, though.
But he found himself headed in that direction anyway, his body still on high alert from both the kiss and from being poised on the threshold of possibly getting his life back.
He hadn’t wanted to think about it too hard. This investigation—it could literally change everything for him. Allow him to reclaim lost pieces of himself, pieces he’d only very briefly acknowledged losing.
It was too difficult to think about otherwise.
So he didn’t. He didn’t regret spending time with his mom before she’d passed and never would. As the gulf between then and now stretched, he could see shifting his life again. Drifting away from Dark Canyon gradually as he immersed himself in investigative reporting again. This Jane Doe mystery could be the beginning, but there certainly weren’t a wide swath of those types of cases thick on the ground around here.
He’d end up traversing the globe again if he had his way and make no apologies about it.
Which he wasn’t quite ready to admit to anyone. Not until he found out if he still had the chops. That’s why Jane Doe mattered so much. She was a chance to warm up with a few graceful practice dives before he tried the ten-meter platform.
The sharp bite of January air put a spring in his step and whetted his appetite to see Sabrina again. It was an odd thing to associate frigid temperatures with a woman who burned as hot as Officer West, but it was definitely a thing. Maybe it was the contrast.
