“It seems I owe you an apology.Bree Daniels has no APBs out for her arrest, and no one has reported you either as a missing person or as someone of interest in any cases.”
“Glad to hear it.”
He wanted to say more.She could tell he wanted to say so much more, but one of the babies started to fuss from over in the playpen where they slept.
Tanner nodded.“You’ve had a full day of work, and I’m sure those kiddos don’t sleep very long.I’ll get out of your hair.”
She was surprised at the disappointment that washed over her.She wanted him gone, right?She didn’t long for a normal conversation with him, because that wasn’t very smart.
Smart is how you stay alive.
“Thank you for bringing dinner,” she whispered.
He nodded then walked to the door and opened it, looking back at her.“Bree?”
“Yes?”
Those brown eyes pinned her.“I’ll see you around.Soon.”
It was both a threat and a promise.
Chapter Six
When Bree’s name had come back clean in the report, Tanner immediately went to the station and ran it again himself.
It had been clean again.
After going home and sleeping for twelve hours, he’d come back to the station and run it again.
And yet again,nothing.
Bree Daniels was a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record and nothing to make anyone wary.Everything about her seemed legitimate.She was twenty-four years old, a little younger than he would’ve thought, but being a mother of two probably made someone grow up quickly.She’d never been married and, as she’d said, had no run-ins with the law, barring the shoplifting incident.
There was no reason to think she was anything other than what she said she was: someone making changes in her life that hadn’t worked out the way she thought they would.
But Tanner couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a lot more trouble surrounding her than that.Every instinct he had—honed by his ten years of law enforcement—told him there was more to Bree Daniels than met the eye.
A battle waged inside him between his sworn duty to protect Risk Peak and all of Grand County, and this unfamiliar need to help Bree with whatever danger was at her heels.
Because no clean record was going to convince him that she wasn’t frightened ofsomething.
So here he was a week later, having his second cup of coffee at the Sunrise, just like the last seven mornings.Mr.and Mrs.Andrews had taken to just ignoring him, since they knew he was there in a half-official capacity.In the unspoken battle between team Bree and team Tanner, they’d obviously chosen her side.
Tanner wasn’t surprised.It was hard for anyone not to be protective of the quiet woman.Not to mention Bree could’ve been Jack the Ripper and the Andrewses would’ve loved her because of the babies.
Tanner sipped and watched the woman in question.One thing was for sure: she was becomingmorefragile, not less so.In the week since he’d talked to her at her apartment, she’d lost weight, despite Mrs.Andrews’s insistence that she eat, and the circles under her eyes had become more pronounced.Maybe the babies kept her up all night.It couldn’t be easy having infant twins, even though they seemed pretty manageable during the day.
Mrs.A walked up beside him and refilled his coffee cup, both of them watching Bree clear off the table that had just been vacated.
“You’re worried about her,” she said.
Tanner turned slightly toward the older woman but kept his attention on Bree.“I thought you weren’t talking to me.”
Mrs.A shrugged.“Only if you’re going to spend your time trying to convince me Bree is dangerous.You watch her like she’s a suspect.”
“It’s my job to keep the people of Risk Peak safe.”
And while he couldn’t deny his attraction to Bree, he definitely didn’t trust her.
