Page 59 of Burning Justice

He shrugged. “I just thought it was cool.” A partial truth, like so many he’d told her.

The tattoo he’d chosen was a classic black dragon with scales and a long, forked tail that curved around from the underside of his forearm. A dragon had become the bane of his sleeping existence, showing up in his nightmares and killing everyone. The other reason he’d gotten the tattoo was a stupid one.

To show the dragon in his nightmares that he wasn’t afraid of it. But he was. More than he cared to admit.

“What did Tori mean when she said you saved her life?” Gemma asked.

“A few months ago, she nearly died in an explosion. It wasn’t really me who saved her. Evan was there, too, but it was Deck and his dog, Thor, who nearly died saving her.”

Gemma resumed petting Blaze, who’d finally lowered his legs and now lay solidly between them as if he were a chaperone on a date. “Tori and Deck seem made for each other.”

Brett couldn’t contain the snort that escaped his lips. “Now, yes. It wasn’t always that way. In fact, I think it was hate at first sight. It took them a while, but they’re in a good place now.”

“I see that. They’re engaged. What about Evan? What’s his story?” she asked on a yawn.

“Evan is complicated.” To say the least.

“How so? I saw the look on his face when you two were discussing finding Gavin Aldrich’s sister.”

“Most of Evan’s story isn’t mine to tell.” Especially the ugly parts. The rest was a matter of public record. “Years ago, Evan’s sister was taken. Kidnapped. They never got her back. They didn’t even have a body to bury.”

Gemma’s eyes held sympathy. “That must have been heartbreaking.”

“It was.” He nodded. “Still is. They never got closure.” Evan still hadn’t stopped searching for her and probably never would.

“Was he young when this happened?”

Brett nodded. “Twelve.”

“So he’s dedicated his life to finding other missing kids,” Gemma said. “I’m thinking that one day, he still hopes he’ll find her.”

Again, Brett nodded. “You never know. His track record is the best in the FBI.” But every child Evan brought home to their parents was both a triumph and a knife strike to his friend’s heart, a deeply painful reminder that his sister hadn’t come home. Dead or alive.

“This happened when he was twelve, so that had to be over twenty years ago.”

“Twenty-four.” Since then, Evan’s personal life had pretty much been on hold.

“What if he never finds her?”

In response, he shook his head. “Don’t know.” The answer to that question had worried Deck and him since the day they’d learned about Evan’s sister—that his friend would never recover and would continue being a shell of a man. It was as if Evan had been living and breathing since the night his sister had been taken, but her abductor had taken Evan’s soul with him.

Brett shifted to his side and touched two fingers to Gemma’s cheek, not for the first time thinking how sweet she was.

Sleepy eyes looked up at him. “What are you doing?”

Against his better judgment, he cupped her cheek, stroking the pad of his thumb back and forth across her cheekbone. He knew he should let her sleep, but he had to know something. “We both wear body armor, only yours is strictly emotional. You put up a protective wall, so the rest of the world doesn’t see how soft and sweet you really are. Why do you do that?”

Eyes that, only a moment ago, had been banked with exhaustion, widened. “I don’t put up any walls.”

“Yeah. You do,” he interrupted, chuckling. “A lot.”

“Oh.” She clasped his hand, threading their fingers and tugging their hands to between her breasts. “I never really thought about it.”

“Is that why you pulled away from me in the hotel room?” Given how hot they’d been for each other, only to have her end things so abruptly, he figured he must have hit a nerve. Or maybe she realized the wisdom of keeping things all business.

“Maybe,” she admitted. “That and I haven’t shared a bed with a guy in so long I don’t remember.”

“That’s hard to believe.” Then again, it would be hard for anyone to get past that thick armor. He knew a dozen guys who’d jump at the chance to be with her, if she’d only let them in.