“I’m not…I’m not everything you just said. I mean, that was really nice, but I’m not… I mean, sometimes I fuck up.” I cleared my throat. Then I said the most truthful thing I could think of, as fast as I could. Even though he had no idea what I was talking about. “Sometimes I fuck up a little bit…on purpose. Not on the job. Just…in life.”
Austin blinked at me. Then he burst into laughter. “That was refreshingly honest.”
“Okay, you have to take off those rose-tinted glasses. I’m trying to tell you that I’m a little messed up.”
“Oh, I know you are.” He leaned down and stole a kiss—a delicious little nibble of my lower lip, which sparked a tiny flame deep inside me. “And like I said, I know things are complicated right now.” Another kiss, and his next words barely skimmed my cheek on their way to my ear. “But they will calm down. And I’ve made up my mind. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You’re not—?” I stepped back, staring up at him.
“I want to be a part of what you’re building out here. So I applied to the Buford police department this afternoon.”
My pulse leapt into my throat. “You applied? You’re…moving? Here?” A coup for the zone, to be sure, and a not-unwelcome development for me personally. Still…he was right. Things were complicated.
He nodded slowly, holding my gaze. “If there’s a place for me.”
With me, or in the Buford PD? Or both? More double entendre…
“Anyway, you don’t have to answer now. In fact, don’t. Take some time. Just…know that I’m here.” Then Austin turned and walked across the gravel parking lot toward the white 4Runner.
Where Bishop sat in the driver’s seat waiting for him.
Watching us.
Half an hour later, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. Blinking into the dark, struggling to make my thoughts stop racing.
Failing. Miserably.
I’d failed to catch Yvette’s killer. Fired my best friend. Alienated my sister. And locked up my short order cook, who may or may not have played a knowing role in my infection, but definitely would not be flipping burgers for me any time soon.
With a sigh, I sat up and turned on my lamp. There was no sense just lying there awake.
I was halfway to the bathroom in search of a handful of sleeping pills when the creak of a familiar floorboard stopped me cold.
Someone was downstairs.
A handful of people had keys, but Titus and Vance were both hours away, Tucker wouldn’t come in without calling, and Davey…
Well, it had to be my sister. Except that the footsteps creeping softly up the stairs toward my apartment sounded nothing like hers.
I raced barefoot through the living room and pulled the baseball bat from the front closet, wishing for only the second time in the past two years that I kept a gun in the apartment.
My pulse pounding, I stood to the left of the door, listening as the loose third step creaked. Footsteps crossed the small landing and stopped just outside my door.
The knob began to turn, and I realized I hadn’t locked it. Because I was in my own damn building, and I was a goddamn mythical creature, armed with fucking claws! I should have been safe!
A growl rumbled up from my throat as the door creaked open. I choked up on the bat, and as I swung, that growl swelled into a flat-out snarl.
Bishop caught the fat part of the bat in one hand, flinching as it smackedhardagainst his palm. Driving his arm back several inches.
“Ouch, Marshal. Swinging for the stands, I see. Good for you. There’re a lot of creeps out there.”
“There’s one in here!” I snatched the bat from his grip and propped it in the nearest corner. “How the hell did you get in here? This is breaking and entering.”
He held up a familiar key, dangling from an even more familiar keychain: a pewter skull wearing a cowboy hat. “Nah, it’s only entering. And while we’re on the subject…” He grabbed me by both hips, keychain digging into my skin, and his eyes widened when he realized my legs were bare. “Good,” he growled, his eyes dilating as his nostrils flared. “Saves time.”
“Let go!” I shoved him back and snatched the key from his fist. “This is Davey’s. How the hell did you get it?”
“She gave it to Austin when he offered to open the bar for you in the morning.”
