“Keller’s got ties to Kara,” Raines went on, his voice flat, “which makes this even messier. She should be here soon to answer some questions.”
Alena straightened, setting her phone aside. “What about Arneson?”
“He’s due in too,” Raines let her know. “The strip mall’s been tied back to his construction company, so he needs to explain why his name keeps coming up in this mess.”
Cal shifted in his chair, fatigue dragging at him, but his mind wouldn’t let up. Melissa was still out there. “Any word on her?”
Raines shook his head. “Not yet. No sign of her, but the CSIs are in the abandoned shop where she says she was held. If there’s anything to find, they’ll dig it up.”
Cal exchanged a look with Alena. He didn’t have to say what was written all over her face. They were running out of time, and Melissa was still in the wind.
Raines glanced at the clock on the wall and rubbed a hand over his face. “It’s after two, and none of us has had lunch. I’ll have something sent over from the diner up the street.” He pushed back from his desk, stood, and stepped out, pulling the door closed behind him.
The quiet settled heavily. Alena let out a low groan and pressed her hands over her face. The sound of it, the sheer weight behind it, clawed at Cal.
“I had to fight down a panic attack,” she said, her voice muffled but tight. She lowered her hands, and he saw the strain etched around her eyes. “When I saw Melissa being dragged like that, it pulled me straight back to the warehouse. For a second, I wasn’t here. I was there again.”
Cal was out of his chair before the words were even finished. He reached for her, took her hands, and tugged her gently to her feet. Then he pulled her in against him, wrappinghis arms around her. She was stiff for a moment, then her head settled against his chest.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured. “You’re here. With me.”
Her breath shuddered out against him, but she held on tight.
Alena didn’t pull away. She stayed in his arms, her breathing uneven, her forehead resting against his chest. Cal smoothed a hand down her back, trying to anchor her here, not in the past.
“You know what Mason’s into right now?” Cal said softly. “Model rockets. He built one last weekend that almost cleared the school roof. He was grinning so big you’d have thought he’d just won the Super Bowl.”
That earned him a small, forced smile. She tipped her face up just enough to meet his eyes. “You’re trying to distract me.”
“I am,” he admitted. “Is it working?”
Her smile warmed, this one genuine. “Yes.”
For a moment, the tension eased between them. Then she whispered, “I took the next step in the adoption once. Just more paper but still the next step.”
Cal searched her face, his chest tightening. “You’re trying to distract me now.”
She gave him the same smile he’d just given her. “Is it working?”
Before he could think better of it, he dipped his head and kissed her. Just a brush of his mouth over hers, reckless and unplanned. He knew it was stupid, knew they shouldn’t cross that line. But he did it anyway.
The kiss lingered, her lips soft and warm against his, and heat slammed through him so hard it stole his breath. For a moment, he forgot the office, the case, the danger outside. It was only her.
He forced himself to ease back, his hands still resting on her arms. He searched her face, worried he’d dragged her into a memory she didn’t want, something that would cut her deeper. But her expression told him otherwise.
There was no fear in her eyes, no shadow of the past. Just a spark he knew too well, one that pulled at him as fiercely now as it had the first time.
They’d walked away from their marriage and told themselves it was over. But the truth was written in her gaze, in the racing of his pulse. They’d let go of the vows, but not the pull between them.
The sound of the door opening pulled Cal back to the present. Raines stepped in, his expression lined with fatigue. “Pizza’s on the way. Should be here in twenty minutes.”
Before Cal could respond, his phone buzzed in his pocket. Isla’s name lit the screen. He answered fast. “Talk to me.”
“I’m pulling what I can from traffic cams,” Isla said, her voice clipped but steady. “Melissa and her abductor might’ve been caught on one about three streets from the strip mall. I’m sending you the still now. Tell me if it looks right.”
The image popped up a second later. Cal turned the phone so Alena could see. A blurry sedan in motion, shadowed by the sun’s glare.
“It could be the one,” Alena said, squinting. “Hard to be sure.”
