“Detective Morgan.” Lieutenant Martin split his dark-eyed gaze between him and Noah, settling it on Jason before he spoke. “Are you still interested in this task force?”

  Confusion pricked through him, but he answered anyway. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good, because you’re about to be up to your ass in it. Up until this morning, Brody belonged to vice. But now he’s ours, and we’re going to need to work fast.”

  Noah shook his head, marking his confusion. “I don’t get it. Dirk Brody fronts the biggest drug ring in Brenstville, possibly in half of upstate New York. Vice has been trying to nail him for ages. Why would they just turn him over to us?” he asked, and Jason echoed the sentiment. No self-respecting cop would let another department snap up jurisdiction on a case they’d been building for years. Unless…

  “Because I just got off the phone with dispatch,” Lieutenant Martin said. “There was another robbery with the exact same MO at a hardware store on Ninth. Both employees were stabbed to death at the scene. This is a murder case now, gentlemen, and it happened in our backyard. Which means we have jurisdiction, but we’re going to need vice’s help to nail Brody if he’s responsible.”

  “Oh hell,” Jason murmured, his shoulders threading up tight. Brody had never been afraid to get his hands dirty, but he was notoriously careful, and even more notoriously clean. No one had ever been able to pin him for anything, let alone anything that would send him to prison for the rest of his rotten life. “You want me on this case as part of the task force so we can collar Brody for these murders and break up his drug ring?”

  Lieutenant Martin’s voice went as unyielding as his stare. “Exactly. And if Serenity Gallagher is going to testify against him in a case that’ll link him directly to a double murder, we need her in protective custody. As of right now, Morgan, that woman doesn’t leave your sight.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Serenity stared at Detective Morgan’s GQ-worthy profile from the passenger seat of his Tahoe, stuck squarely between wanting to scream her head off and cry her eyes out. Not that either would help her epically crappy situation, but right about now, at least the screaming would feel down-to-her-toes good.

  “Look, are you absolutely certain all of this is necessary?” It was a total last-ditch effort, but come on. Protective custody? She had a business to run. Not to mention sanity to preserve. Yes, Jules had stepped up to run Mac’s temporarily, and her staff had rallied to fill in the gaps in a show of incredible support. But being cooped up all alone with no one to cook for and no diner to manage was going to drive Serenity completely whack-a-doo.

  “’Fraid so,” Jason said, keeping his eyes on the road as he passed off a little shrug, and God. How could he be so nonchalant?

  “But you said this Brody guy has been arrested. I mean, I picked him out of a lineup.” A thick tangle of dread tugged her belly at the memory. None of the men in the lineup had been able to see her, and Jason and his boss had been right there at her side the whole time. The process had taken less than a minute once the DA had asked her to identify who’d attacked her in the diner.

  But a minute’s worth of looking into the eyes of the man who’d viciously stabbed her friend was fifty-nine seconds too long.

  “Yes, Brody’s in custody.” Jason made the turn toward her apartment building, the headlights of the SUV slicing through the warm evening air. “But since Colin wasn’t able to identify anyone from the photos my partner brought to the hospital, you’re our only witness. It’s safer to keep you in a secure location, at least for now.”

  Serenity cleared her throat, not quite willing to ditch her last-ditch. “If he’s in jail, then Brody can’t hurt me, right?”

  “It’s a necessary precaution, Ms. Gallagher. We wouldn’t do it otherwise.”

  The easygoing flash of his baby blues hit her in full force from the driver’s seat, and she rubbed a hand across the back of her aching neck with a wince. “That doesn’t work on me, just so you know.”

  He pulled the Tahoe into a vacant parking spot and cut the engine before turning to look at her more closely. “What doesn’t work on you?”

  “That…charming thing you do. To try and distract people and get what you want. It doesn’t work on me.” Okay, so maybe she was pushing the boundaries of polite conversation. But her whole life had just been upended with one swift tug. Would it kill him to give her a straight answer?

  Rather than take offense, or even get frosty, he simply said, “Good to know. Look, we don’t have a whole lot of time here, and I’m sure you’re exhausted. So what do you say we get your things and head over to the safe house so we can get settled in?”

  Her thoughts screeched to a halt right along with her movements, and she froze with one hand mid-lift toward the car door. “I’m sorry. Did you say we?”

  Jason got out and popped the handle for her, smooth as freshly rolled pie crust. “You’ll have someone with you for the first few days, at least until the arraignment.”

  “And that someone is you?” Say no. Please say no. Please…

  “Yes.” Cue the mischievous boyish smile, and her traitorous immunity considered a permanent holiday. “Most of the time, that someone will be me.”

  Fantastic. Because what she needed was a whole bunch of downtime with a silver-tongued detective whose ass looked firm enough to give perfectly in-season cantaloupes a run for their money.

  Not that she was checking out his ass for less-than-savory purposes, but come on. The guy was right in front of her on the sidewalk, and for God’s sake, dress pants at a casual gait gave a whole new meaning to the phrase scenic view.

  Serenity stumbled for just a step before speeding up to slip around him as they got closer to her front door, and she forced herself to focus. It wasn’t lost on her that Jason’s gaze swung from one end of the grounds to the other in a constant assessment of their surroundings. In the four years she’d lived here, there had never been so much as toilet paper in the trees. Surely he was overreacting with all this cloak and dagger stuff.

  “Okay,” he said after a cursory sweep of her apartment. “There’s a backup unit nearby who will come get your laptop and cell phone so we can keep them secure down at the precinct, but go ahead and grab anything else you’ll need.”

  Unease trickled into her chest as one more thing hurtled out of her control. “Nobody said anything about handing over my cell phone.”

  “It’s too easily traced. If we have guys who can find you in less than five minutes using the GPS coordinates, you can bet Brody does too.”

  “But what if there’s an emergency at Mac’s?” At the very least, Serenity needed to be able to get in touch with Jules. The diner was her lifeblood, her home. She hadn’t worked her butt off for four years just to pass it off like a football on game day.

  “Your manager has all my contact information, as well as my partner’s and my boss’s. Plus we’ve stepped up police presence at Mac’s and put a few extra security measures in place for your employees, just in case. You don’t have to worry,” Jason said, stepping in from his spot by the front hallway with a trust-me smile.

  Whether it was her shredded nerves playing catch-up from this morning or the unexpected blast of reality setting in, Serenity couldn’t be sure. But all of a sudden, the pain in her head grew fangs as it rattled along with her pulse, and she pressed her fingertips to the bridge of her nose to try and check the sensation.

  “If I didn’t have to worry, we wouldn’t be doing this.” The words lacked any heat, and Jason’s smile fell into something more serious as he pegged her with a stare.

  “I know this is a lot to take in right now. But Brody’s not going to hurt you. Not on my watch.”

  Whoa. Serenity reached out for the edge of the small table in the foyer, steadying herself against the sudden shot of dizziness rolling through her aching skull. “O-okay.”

  Jason’s brow tugged downward over a look she couldn’t decipher, but the expression disappeared before she could unravel it. “Why don’t I help you with your suitcase?”

  “Oh.” Surprise pinged through her chest, easing her grip on the polished wood of the hall table. Dr. Fisher had said even mild concussions could be serious, and her balance sure did seem like playing whoopsie-daisy was its new favorite pastime. A little assistance might not be such a bad plan. “Thanks. I’d appreciate that.”

  “No problem. It’ll go faster with two of us, and the less time we spend here, the better,” Jason said, giving up a thoroughly pleasant look chock full of just doin’ my job.

  “Right.” Of course that was why he’d offered to help. Ugh, even his ulterior motives were charming.

  Serenity squashed her chagrin like trash in the compactor and kicked her feet into gear, heading past her kitchen and through the cozy living room. Jason followed her down the short stretch of hallway leading into her bedroom. She realized, two steps too late, that her laundry hamper was about five days past critical mass and her bed was half-made at best. The bright red tank top and matching pair of boy shorts she’d tossed aside as she got dressed this morning were smack on the top of the clothes pile in his path, and great. Between that and this morning’s run-in at the hospital, Jason had officially seen more of her lingerie collection than everyone she’d dated for the past year combined.

  He cleared his throat, taking an awkward step back toward the doorframe as he locked eyes on the offending items, and suddenly her cozy little bedroom was hotter than Satan’s kitchen.

  “So, uh, apple turnovers,” Jason said, snapping up all her attention in one fell swoop as he winged his gaze up from the floorboards. It was just a weird enough thing to say that an involuntary laugh burst past her lips, scattering the tension that had hooked into to her shoulders for the last hour straight.

  “What about it?” Serenity asked, rebounding enough to excavate her suitcase from beneath the bed and start rifling through her closet. Maybe when she was finally done with this mess of a day, she’d be able to bake for a bit. Cooking always set her to rights, but apple turnovers, with their perfect juxtaposition of buttery, flaky crust and mellow, cinnamon sugar fruit? Now that was comfort food.

  “They’re a Mac’s specialty, right?” He shifted into a casual lean against the glossy white trim of the doorframe, and how had she not noticed how broad his shoulders were before now?

  “Oh, ah, yes.” She folded the thin cotton sweater she’d pulled from its perch in the closet, and the purposeful movement steadied her as she repeated the process with a few more garments. “A lot of the recipes at Mac’s are a group effort, and some of them are even family dishes brought in by the employees. But the turnovers are all mine. It’s one of the first recipes I ever came up with, right down to the pastry dough.”

  “Mac’s signature apple turnovers are your recipe?”

  The combination of interest and disbelief in his voice lifted her attention from the battered old suitcase splayed over her rumpled coverlet, and she bit back a tiny smile. “Don’t sound so surprised, Detective. I do own the place.”

  “Oh, I’m not shocked. It’s just that my sister would kill to know how you make those.” His eyes lit just a touch at the mention of his sister, and Serenity connected the dots with a start.

  “The blond you have lunch with every week is your sister?” Now that she thought about it, the resemblance was pretty obvious. But that’s what she got for sticking mostly to the kitchen.

  Jason nodded, shifting back to let her pass by and open the dresser drawers on the other side of her bedroom. “Violet’s my twin, although I’m older.”

  “You’re older.” The smile quirking at her lips was impossible to tamp down this time, and Jason matched it with a full-blown grin that took a potshot at her knees.

  “By six minutes. But it counts.”

  Serenity swallowed as she grabbed one last handful of T-shirts from a drawer to finish packing, and God, was her thermostat completely non-functional? “You two must be close if you have lunch together every week.”

  He nodded, a brief flash of fondness sparking in his eyes. “We are. What about you? Any brothers or sisters?”

  “Are you asking for the police report?” Jeez, he hadn’t been kidding about covering all the bases for safety. Not that family would be an issue for her, but still.

  “No, I’m asking out of curiosity. Or does polite conversation not work on you either?” Jason moved her well-worn suitcase to the floor with a fluid lift-and-swing, propping the handle into his palm to maneuver the thing across the floorboards with a chuckle Serenity felt under her skin.

  “Oh, no. I mean, yes.” She grabbed a dark blue travel bag and headed into the adjoining master bathroom, grateful as hell to have a task to focus on. Even if it would get her closer to leaving. “Polite conversation is fine. I don’t really have any family. Other than my staff at Mac’s.”

  “None at all?”

  At least this was an easy topic. “Well, I’ve never met my father, and my mom is somewhere in India, learning to read Sanskrit and embracing her inner light. Or at least she was four months ago. I’m not sure where she is now.”

  Jason did a quick blink-and-gape combination that would’ve been amusing if Serenity hadn’t built total immunity to the response over time. “That sounds…uh, deep.”

  She lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted demi-shrug and slid her shampoo from the ledge in the shower. “You don’t have to sugar-coat it. My mother’s lifestyle is totally weird, but she’s always been like that. She mostly moves around restoring failing restaurants, but there are plenty of extended ‘life-experience’ trips according to her latest whim.” She paused to snag her mother’s favorite phrase in air quotes. “I was raised on a steady diet of go-where-your-spirit-takes-you.”

  One gold-blond brow went up. “And how many places did her spirit take you?”

  Serenity didn’t have to pause to double check the count. She knew the number by heart. Even if her heart had never been in any of those places.

  “Twelve. Including two European countries and a commune in Oregon.”

  “Wow,” he murmured, watching her methodically pack the last of her toiletries into the bag balanced on the white marble vanity top. “That is a very free spirit.”

  The smile tickling the edges of her mouth tasted wry, but it felt better than she had all day. “The woman named me Serenity, Detective. Are you really surprised?”

  Jason took the bag from her, close enough for his woodsy, cedar-like scent to break over her senses. “So you’re pretty good at packing up, then. Is that why you’re so cynical?” His gaze flicked over the suitcase they’d left in the narrow confines of the hallway, and Serenity’s throat tightened at the sight.

  “I prefer to think of myself as pragmatic. And this is the first time I’ve gone anywhere in four years.” The thought of leaving Mac’s behind, even temporarily, plucked at her yet again. She was responsible for every person, every meal— hell, every last spoon— in the place, and that was exactly how she liked it.

  Only now, she wasn’t.

  Serenity dropped her eyes to the beige ceramic floor tiles under her feet. As much as she hated every ounce of leaving, it was better to just do it quickly, like ripping off a bad-situation Band-Aid in one hard yank.

  “Anyway. I just need to grab a few things from my kitchen, and then we can go if you want.”

  But Jason didn’t move from his spot in the doorframe. “I’m sorry.”

  She waited for the inevitable quip and agenda-fueled little half-smile that would surely follow on its heels, but instead he just met her eyes with a flash of sympathy so genuine and real, it might as well have reached out and held her tight. The thought pressed Serenity’s breath flat in her lungs, and as idiotic as it was, her arms ached to lift up in order to grab onto him, to cancel out the turmoil of her day, to let him surround her with the expression weaving between them so tightly right now.

  As if he’d camped out in her mind, Jason shifted toward her, close enough that she could feel the warmth rolling off his body, and it was all she needed to tumble right over the edge of reason. Serenity folded herself against the expanse of Jason’s chest, her breath releasing its iron-fisted hold on her lungs in one long exhale as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. His strong palms pressed into her shoulder blades, but he didn’t pull anything sappy like rubbing her back in little circles or trying to tell her everything would be fine, and damn it, that only made her want to hold him tighter.

  And the way they were clasped together in the tight, warm space of her bathroom made her want to do a hell of a lot more than hold him.

  Serenity pulled her chin up, angling her face toward his, and yeah, eyes that blue were just plain cheating. “Thank you,” she breathed, but still her arms refused to disengage from the lean, hard line of Jason’s shoulders.

  But he didn’t budge either, except to drop his eyes to her mouth. “You’re welcome.”

  She pressed up to brush her lips over his, intending it to be no more than a feather-light touch. But the warmth banked between them sparked low and hot in her belly, and when Jason slid one hand around to cup the side of her face, deepening the kiss instead of pulling away, she parted her lips to let him. The masculine scent of cedar and spice surrounded her, filling her up, and Serenity tightened her grip to press her aching breasts into the plane of his chest.

  Keeping the hand on her cheek in place as he slid his tongue over her upper lip in a lingering sweep, Jason swung her around to gently place her back to the vanity. He framed her hips with his own as he closed the last inch of space between their lower bodies, and any thoughts Serenity might’ve had of this being crazy or impulsive or wrong vanished like smoke in a downdraft. The flare in her belly spiraled down between her thighs, turning the ache into a demand as she skimmed her hands down his lean waist to get better access to the delicious friction building between them…

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10