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Except for the hair.
Her hair is short—like, drastically short. It’s not a professional I went to the salon cut, either. It’s jagged and blunt, the kind of hack-job that screams late-night crisis and a sharp pair of scissors. If I thought she was beautiful before, seeing her like this—a little unraveled, a little less like a polished expert and more like a real, living person—is a complete system failure for me. To know that she is messy under that exterior, impulsive even… I’ve never seen anything more attractive in my life.
I’m about to say something—anything to hide the fact that I’m staring—when a shadow moves behind her.
The cop.
What the fuck?
He steps into the frame, close enough that his shoulder rubs against hers—a casual, domestic proximity that makes the coffee in my stomach turn to battery acid. He’s adjusting his jacket, looking like he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be, while I’m the one standing on a sagging porch with a folded receipt and a sudden, violent case of vertigo.
“Everything okay?” Evan asks, dropping his voice into that gravelly, faux-heroic register that I’m certain every small-town cop practices in front of a mirror until they think they sound like a protagonist in a mid-season crime drama.
My gaze flickers between them. For a woman who radiates absolute clinical distance, Serena is looking awfully comfortable standing in a doorway with one of the lead investigators on this case. Under different circumstances, that kind of familiarity might raise questions about objectivity.
I find myself wondering whether she’s too close to the investigation.
Or whether I’m just looking for a defensible reason to dislike how close she’s standing to him.
Evan’s eyes lock onto mine, and he looks at me like I’m a particularly loud fly he’s considering swatting. “You again,” he says, his hand dropping to his belt. “What do you want?”
“He’s with me,” She doesn’t look flustered or guilty; she’s all cool, impenetrable composure—right up until the moment her jaw locks, a tiny, hard pulse flickering at the hinge, and she brushes an invisible, non-existent speck of dust from her sleeve in a single, perfectly symmetrical motion. “Or he’s about to be. It’s fine, Evan. I’ll deal with him.”
I’ll deal with him.
The words should feel like a dismissal, but in the heat of the morning sun, they feel like a challenge.
Evan glares at me for a moment before leaning down and pressing a quick kiss to the top of Serena’s head.
I do a quick calculation of the physics involved. The angle. The familiarity. The sheer, unadulterated audacity of it. Was that a platonic kiss? Or was that a I’m leaving but I’ll see you later kiss?
He gives her one last, lingering look before stepping past me on the porch. He makes sure his shoulder catches mine on the way out. He’s clearly laboring under the delusion that this is a display of alpha-male dominance, which is adorable.
Poor Neanderthal lost his club.
Which, okay fair. I did threaten to kick his ass.
Still might.
“You know,” I say, my voice just loud enough to drift back to him. “Most men just buy an unnecessarily large truck.”
Evan stops dead. When he turns, his face is a predictable shade of red.
He opens his mouth to retaliate, but Serena raises a hand. “Just go. I have neither the time nor the patience for a dick-measuring contest this morning.”
Evan hesitates, looking like a dog that’s been told to drop a stick, but he eventually nods and stomps down the steps.
I don't turn around to watch him leave. I’m too busy staring at the woman in the doorway, wondering if she’s the key to the case or the reason I’m about to ruin my own reputation. I can hear the blood rushing in my ears, a stuttering whoosh that seems to vibrate right through my sternum. It’s a dangerous sort of hunger, and it makes me want to break something.
I have absolutely no interest in advertising the fact that she’s already half-dismantled my resolve; a feeling I’ll take to my grave. Years of monastic restraint, all undermined by a woman who barely knows my name.
Suddenly, the Casket Case I’m most worried about is my own.
8
CONTROLLED EXCAVATION
SERENA
