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  She remembered him having to get soaking wet in the shower last night to get her to stop scrubbing her hand. So, yeah, she wouldn’t blame him for deciding to firmly park in the friend zone. As much as she’d wanted to make her way over to his mostly naked body with her mostly naked body, she was afraid if she did he might gently stop her.

  Then an even more horrifying thought: maybe he wouldn’t stop her. Just let things continue out of kindness. Pity.

  She couldn’t stand the possible thought. She slid a little farther away without making eye contact.

  “Yeah, I’m just going to take a shower, okay?” She smiled as best she could before walking away.

  * * *

  SEEING SHERRY’S FACE as she had walked out of her house last night after she’d witnessed the crime scene had been disturbing. It was an image burned into his mind that he wasn’t likely to forget for a long time.

  But, honestly, that tiny fake smile she’d just given him before heading toward the shower was every bit as disturbing.

  Jon wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but he didn’t like it. He got up and wandered over to the window that looked out on the city as the sun began to rise and it began to wake up.

  He didn’t expect Sherry to jump into bed with him. Hell, after what had happened last night, if she decided she was sleeping on couches for the foreseeable future, he wouldn’t be able to blame her. He definitely didn’t expect her to feel all romantic after her house—and her emotions—had just been so brutally violated.

  But whatever had just happened a couple of minutes ago? Whatever was going on in that head of hers? Jon really didn’t like it.

  He hadn’t wanted to make any sexual advances because it seemed in bad taste after what she’d been through. Yet Jon felt he had made a critical tactical error by letting her get up from the bed and go into that shower alone.

  The biggest part of him—and other specific parts of him—all but demanded he rectify that error by following her in there and making love to her until neither of them was thinking about anything from yesterday.

  Mentally he knew he should give her some space. She’d been through another trauma after weeks of already balancing in a delicate emotional state. Yeah, she’d had a little bit of a rough time last night, but the fact that she was coherent and functioning this morning just showed her considerable mental and emotional strength.

  The scene of her scrubbing her hand in the shower had been scary, and for a few minutes Jon had thought he was going to have to call in professional help. A doctor-prescribed sedative would not be unheard of in this situation, maybe even advisable.

  She had pulled it together, though, had even managed to eat a little bit before going to sleep. She’d had a few bad dreams during the night, he’d been able to tell—whether they were specifically about her house or not he didn’t know—but she hadn’t woken up sobbing or screaming.

  Again, given that her mind was already dealing with the trauma of her work from the past few months, and that she’d been dealing with that alone without any sort of support system...last night could’ve—probably should’ve—emotionally crippled her. But it hadn’t.

  All in all, she was doing pretty damn good in Jon’s opinion.

  So what was it that was bothering him so much about their little talk a few minutes ago?

  He’d seen her glance over at him, had thought she might instigate something physical as they both sat on the bed. He’d sat back against the pillows in the most casual pose he could muster, wanting her to know she was welcome to ease on over but that it definitely wasn’t expected.

  He’d been sure she was about to ease. His body tightened now with him just thinking about it.

  But then she’d stopped. Shut down. Refused to look him in the eye. Given him that disturbing little smile that didn’t come anywhere close to her gorgeous blue eyes, and had all but run for the shower.

  Suddenly Jon understood why he was so disturbed with her behavior: she was shutting him out.

  Jon turned from the window and walked to the closed bathroom door. Shutting him out was unacceptable. His hand was on the doorknob and he was turning it to open the door when he stopped.

  Had she been shutting him out or had she just needed space?

  He let go of the knob. If she needed time to mentally and emotionally regroup, he should give her that. But he sure as hell didn’t want to.

  He walked into the condo’s little kitchen to make coffee and think about anything else except her in the shower. And what they had done in the shower yesterday morning. Because that was not going to result in him leaving her alone.

  He took stock of what food was in the cabinets. He didn’t have much to eat here. He preferred eating out to cooking. He didn’t even have Sugar-O’s, but he did have some bread to make toast—enough to get them through this morning. They would need to get some real groceries if they were going to be staying here a lot more.

  Jon needed to figure out logistically how he was going to manage working on the case. Thinking the rapist might be someone connected to the police department totally put a new spin on things. He didn’t want to take Sherry there, not that he expected her to be doing any work today anyway. And he definitely did not plan to leave her alone.

  “Hey.”

  Jon turned as he heard her soft voice from the kitchen doorway. She still had his shirt on but also had put on her jeans from yesterday. She still wasn’t quite looking him in the eye.

  “Hey. Shower okay?” He kept his distance, leaning against the counter, not wanting to spook her in any way.

  “I didn’t nearly scrub my hand off, if that’s what you mean.” Her short laugh was completely devoid of humor.

  She was embarrassed by how she’d reacted last night. Was that what this was all about? She was afraid he couldn’t deal with the drama?

  He all but rolled his eyes. She’d obviously never been around the Omega Sector office before. She had nothing on some of the stuff that happened around there.

  Jon walked up to her and put his hands gently on her waist. He didn’t want to come on too strong in case his assumptions were incorrect. But he definitely didn’t want her standing there looking all uncomfortable, thinking he didn’t want her.

  Because if she responded to him he wasn’t sure they would even make it to the bedroom. He might have to lay her down right here on the kitchen table. And, honestly, he wasn’t sure that table would support both of them.

  He’d sure as hell like to find out, though.

  “Sherry.” He pulled her closer to him and hooked a finger under her chin, since she still wouldn’t look him in the eyes. “If you need space, that’s fine. But if for one second you think that—”

  His sentence was cut off by a loud knocking on the door.

  Jon released Sherry and ran in to grab his Glock on the bedside table. He pulled her inside the bedroom as the knock came again.

  “Stay here.”

  “Why do you have your gun?” She was looking him in the eyes now, her own huge in her face.

  “Because I haven’t let anyone know where I’m staying. So nobody should be knocking on my door.”

  Chapter Twenty

  She was seeing a whole different side of Jon. Hard. Physical. Dangerous. He tended to use his mind for every part of the job she’d seen so far. But right now Sherry had no doubt that Jon Hatton, gun in hand, was also a physical force to be reckoned with. Whoever was coming through that door was going to have to make it through Jon.

  That was not going to be easy.

  Sherry stayed in the bedroom doorway, which allowed her to see what was going on in the kitchen without being in Jon’s way.

  He stuck his eye up to the peephole then pulled it away quickly, obviously not wanting to make himself a target if someone was waiting with a gun on the
other side.

  Sherry watched as Jon shook his head and put his gun down on the table.

  A knock on the door again. “Hatton, wake the hell up!” From the other side.

  As he unlocked the chain on the door, he turned back to her. “I’m sorry for everything that’s about to happen in the foreseeable future.”

  “What?” She took a step closer. “What do you mean?”

  Jon opened the door and two men walked in.

  “It’s about damn time,” one of them, the one with brown hair—just a touch too long to be conventional—and giant biceps said, looking at Jon as he strolled in. “I know you like to make sure your skin-care regimen is perfect in the morning, but seriously, leaving us out in the hallway like that?”

  “Liam,” Jon said in greeting, shaking his head. He shook the hand of the other man—handsome as sin, with some sort of Asian heritage—who walked in behind Liam. “Hi, Brandon. I guess Steve sent you guys.”

  “You know Drackett. Always afraid everyone is lonely,” Liam drawled and then noticed Sherry. “I see that is not the case.”

  Liam, gorgeous and obviously well aware of that fact, walked over and wrapped his arms around Sherry. She let out a small squeak when he lifted her off her feet in a huge hug.

  “Hey there, sweetheart. Why don’t you and I sneak away right now, get married in Vegas, and I’ll spend the rest of my life helping you forget the horrible time you ever spent with Jon Hatton?”

  He kissed her straight on the mouth. She let out another squeak.

  “Enough, Goetz,” Jon said. “I’m sure Sherry would appreciate it if you would stop molesting her.”

  Liam winked at her but set her back down. “Some people don’t know true love when it slaps them in the face, do they, sweetheart?”

  Sherry giggled. It was truly the only option when faced with Liam’s outrageousness, which was actually mostly for Jon’s benefit, she was sure.

  “Sherry, these are two of my colleagues from the Critical Response Division of Omega Sector, Liam Goetz and Brandon Han.”

  Liam winked at her again. “Introductions are obviously not necessary for me and my true love.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Sherry.” Brandon offered his hand to her.

  She shook his hand. “Sherry Mitchell.”

  Liam went over to pour himself a cup of coffee “Soon to be Mitchell-Goetz.”

  Jon came over and pulled a chair out for Sherry to sit at the table, then took the seat next to her. “Are you guys here for a reason besides for me to pound on Goetz when he continues to get out of line?”

  Liam gave a dramatic wounded face from over at the coffeemaker.

  “Actually, yes,” Brandon said, pulling out a large stack of files. “Drackett said you mentioned that the police department may be compromised. So he sent us with a copy of all the case files, thinking maybe we can work here.”

  Brandon turned to Sherry. “Sorry about what happened at your house, by the way.”

  “Thanks.” She turned and looked at Jon. “What do you think is wrong at the police department?”

  Jon shrugged. “Zane and I both agreed that whoever did that to your house yesterday might have connections to the Corpus Christi PD.”

  “Because of the note saying ‘Stay out of this’?” she asked.

  Jon nodded. “Exactly. People with connections to the department had the most knowledge of you helping us in the case.”

  “But it wasn’t exactly a secret. It could’ve been someone not directly related, who just heard about it,” she murmured.

  He took her hand. “Absolutely. I’d rather not take a chance having you at the precinct if we have other options. Like working here.”

  Sherry nodded. “Okay. We’ll still need somewhere for me to interview the other victims.”

  “No one expects you to do that today. Least of all me.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “It’s okay to rest, take it easy.”

  Sherry didn’t want to rest. Resting meant too much time to think. To feel useless. To give the attacker more time to plan for his next victim.

  “Han is a gifted profiler, one of the best Omega has,” Jon continued. “Goetz is more muscle. Actually, I think he might currently be working as a janitor.”

  Liam shrugged. “Hey, we can’t all sit around overthinking everything, like these two. I’m more of an action man myself. You ever get yourself in a hostage situation, trust me, you’ll want me rather than Tweedledum and Tweedledee here. And, by the way, we janitors prefer the term ‘custodial engineers.’”

  Even Jon snickered at that one. He had introduced them as colleagues, but they were much more than that. They were his friends. People he trusted. Even despite the bickering, she could already see an ease in Jon that hadn’t been there before.

  “Actually, I’m staying to help,” Brandon said. “Liam’s just passing through on his way to another case.”

  “Of course, I’m going to try to talk Sherry into coming with me.” Liam came over and stood behind her chair and began rubbing her shoulders. “We’ll have much more fun than you’ll have here with fuddy-duddy,” he said in an exaggerated stage whisper.

  “You know what?” Jon said, standing and rolling his eyes. “Why don’t you go get some groceries while the adults do some work?”

  “Only if Sherry comes with me,” Liam said.

  There was a moment of silence, of seriousness, between the two men. Something passing between them that she wasn’t sure she totally understood but knew it was Jon passing her over to Liam.

  “If you feel up to going with Liam, to getting some fresh air for a few minutes, that might be a good idea,” Jon said to her. “I’d like to run a few aspects of the case by Brandon. Get his opinion as a profiler.”

  “Yeah, no problem,” Sherry said with a chipperness she didn’t feel. “Just let me grab my bag.”

  Sherry felt a weight in her chest and not because she was going to the grocery store. Jon was right, getting out of the condo would probably do her good. This just confirmed that she’d been right: Jon really had decided they were better off as friends.

  If he was still interested in her, he wouldn’t be sending her off with his handsome, charismatic friend who wanted to steal her away. She knew Liam was just joking in all his grandiose gestures, and she, of course, wasn’t taking him seriously. But she knew if the roles were reversed and one of her friends was skirting around, making eyes toward Jon, there would be no way in hell she’d send them off alone for more flirty fun.

  Jon obviously did not feel the same way.

  * * *

  “I HEAR AVOCADOS are an aphrodisiac food,” Liam said, holding one up at the grocery store a little while later, waggling both eyebrows. “If not, you can still make some awesome guac with it. So a win either way.”

  Liam had been making similar outrageous comments throughout their entire time at the store. On any other day Sherry would’ve laughed and gotten into the whole act with him. But she just couldn’t seem to work her way past the heaviness in her midsection at the thought that Jon didn’t really want her anymore.

  “Hey, blue eyes.” Liam wrapped an arm around her. “What’s going on inside that head of yours? You sad because of what happened in your house yesterday? That’s messed up, by the way.”

  She shrugged as they walked down the grocery aisle. “Yeah, that was really bad. And I kind of freaked out last night.” She explained about trying to scrub the nonexistent blood off her hands.

  “Doesn’t sound too unreasonable to me.”

  “It’s not just that. I’ve also been having some post-traumatic-type symptoms the past couple of months. Cold spells. Not being able to draw.”

  Liam nodded. “Having negative emotional reactions—nightmares, insomnia, eating issues, substance abuse—are common problem
s among agents and officers their first couple of years. So don’t feel like you’re the only one. Eventually you learn to distance yourself a little from the emotional ugliness. Find some way to ground yourself.”

  “Yeah, Jon wanted to help with that, and probably could have. But my previous trauma symptoms coupled with last night’s little interlude? I’m afraid it’s kind of ruined everything between Jon and me. I think he wants to put a little distance between him and my crazy. For which I can’t blame him.”

  “Did he actually say that to you?”

  Sherry bit her lip. “Not in those exact words.”

  Liam rolled his eyes. “Did he say that to you in any words at all?”

  “How could he not be thinking it, Liam? I’m one step away from being certifiably committed.”

  “Hatton? Please, girl. Hatton is the one that keeps us all together back at Omega. If he bailed every time someone went a little crazy, he’d spend his entire life running. Jon lives for the ‘help me help you’ stuff.”

  “Yeah, well, you guys are all friends. Jon and I are...well, let’s just say we’d spent a grand total of one night together before the incident last night and me dumping my crazy on him. We’d only known each other a couple of days before that, so it’s not like we have some friendship to ground us.”

  Liam stopped walking and smiled down at her. An authentic smile that had nothing to do with jokes. It changed the entire look of his face. “So Hatton finally jumped in headfirst with someone. About damn time. He usually overthinks a relationship to death before getting involved with anybody.”

  “Really?”

  Liam nodded. “If he jumped in with you, it’s because he wasn’t thinking, he was feeling. That’s important. I’ve known Jon a lot of years and have never known him not to overthink a relationship. To just feel.”

  Sherry wasn’t convinced. “I saw the look between you before we left. The bro-code look that said, ‘Hey, yeah, can you take her off my hands?’”

  Liam laughed. “Well, you might need to brush up on your bro-code translating skills, because what that look actually said was, ‘Hey, there’s a maniac out there, so be damn sure you’re watching over her because she’s important.’”