Page 34 of Armed ’N’ Ready

She took an unsteady breath. “I hope so. No matter what he’s done, he doesn’t deserve to die.” Her words came tumbling out. “Deep down, he’s a good man. I don’t understand how he could have done all those things, especially to me.” Despite the lingering warmth in the air, her body trembled.

“A lot of good people get into bad situations. Some think there’s no other way out, except by doing something illegal.” Or by killing themselves.

She blinked rapidly. “I don’t understand how things could have spiraled so far out of control. I may lose a good friend and my business. This place is everything to me. It’s all I have.” Her slim body began shaking with sobs, and when she covered her face with her hands, something inside him, a barrier—professional and personal—cracked wide open.

Don’t do it. You can’t.

His brain didn’t listen, and he took her in his arms. She shuddered as he tugged her against him. For an instant, she stood that way, with her arms locked around her waist. Then her hands crept up his back, allowing him to hold her closer.

“Shh,” he whispered against her hair, rocking her gently. “It’ll be all right.” God, he hoped that wasn’t a lie.

Sobbing openly now, she dug her fingers into his back, her breath warm against his chest. Her body was taut with tension, and he found himself rubbing his hands up and down her back, trying desperately to ease her pain. There was nothing else he could do.

Gradually her trembling eased. Her sobs lessened, and she relaxed against him, and damn if her body didn’t feel good. Warm…yielding…and the way she smelled…

He took an unsteady breath, not understanding why he was thinking of her on any level other than a professional one. Getting involved with her was a thousand miles beyond out of the question. “He’ll call again. I’m sure of it. When he does, you’ll talk him in, and I’ll be there to help you.”

Lifting her head, she gazed up at him. The flow of tears had ceased, yet her eyes still shimmered, and grief showed in every nuance of her face. “Thank you. I know it’s your job, and all, but—”

He pressed his lips to her forehead. He didn’t know why, but it seemed the most natural thing for him to do. When he pulled back, their eyes met and held. Hers were filled with undisguised shock, no more than what he was certain was mirrored in his own.

That one little kiss on her forehead shouldn’t have meant anything, but it had. He still needed her to get to Myer, but when he’d kissed her, he’d been scorched by an unexpected truth. In just a few days, he’d not only begun to care about her, but to seriously question his assumption of her guilt.

When she parted her lips, he involuntarily did the same. Startled awareness pounded in his brain. Professionally, this was wrong. Personally, this was a royally big mistake in judgment. He didn’t do caring, not anymore.

That didn’t stop him from slipping one hand to the small of her back, or from tugging her closer until her slim, curvy body pressed against his. When her fingers touched his waist, his resolve slipped more, leaving him dangling over the edge of a very dangerous wall. If he fell, he doubted he could climb back up.

“Hey, are you guys all ri—”

He released her, jerking his head to the screen door. Tess stood on the deck, her mouth agape. “Woops. Sorry. I seem to be making a habit of this.” The screen door slammed as she spun and went back inside.

Andi eased away from him, her tongue swiping at her lower lip. She reached for her phone on the table and turned to the door, but he caught her arm. He dragged his other hand down his face. He must be out of his mind. No matter how strong the attraction was between them, this was a place he couldn’t go. Neither of them could.

“We can’t do this.” As much as he wanted her, he knew it was the right thing to say and not just because she was a suspect. He’d frozen himself off from romantic entanglements the day his wife died. It was how he’d survived. It was the only way he knew how. They were flirting with disaster, and she would wind up seriously hurt. We both might, he had to admit.

The skin between her brows furrowed, and he couldn’t decipher whether it was from anger, regret, or something else. “I know.”

Then she was gone.

He turned and braced his hands on the railing, drawing in a ragged breath. With every passing day, whatever was sparking between them grew brighter and hotter.

Whatever that something was, it meant trouble. Big trouble.

Chapter Nine

Andi breathed harder, inhaling the scents of pine and moist earth as her feet pounded on the dirt trail. Sweat beaded on her forehead and upper lip, and she swiped it away. Despite the thick tree canopy shading her from the early morning sunlight, thick, dewy air pressed in on her from all sides. She didn’t care and picked up her pace, but not before glancing over her shoulder for what had to be the hundredth time since she’d left the house.

It was Saturday, just over two weeks since Joe had called, and while there’d been no more sightings of the man who’d been watching her that night, the woods seemed to have eyes. With every bend in the path, she tensed, half anticipating someone would jump out from behind a tree and grab her. After telling Nick what she’d seen in the dog run, he’d warned her to notify him immediately if she saw him again, but there’d been no more sightings.

As if that wasn’t enough to ruin the morning runs that were normally peaceful and mind-clearing, the memory of her second near-kiss with Nick had pretty much fried her brain cells for the duration of time.

Forget it. It hadn’t meant a thing. To either of them. It was only the heat of the moment. Nothing more than that.

But she’d clung to him. Actually, clung to him. If Tess hadn’t interrupted them, who knew what would have happened?

You know what would have happened. She would have given in to her crazed need to claw at his shirt to get to his bare skin and feel all those hard muscles beneath her fingertips. Joe had never come close to evoking that kind of no-holds-barred response from her. Yet another sign that they were better off as friends. “Friends” was something she and Nick could never be. Friends or lovers. It was just as well that his presence at the DPC was temporary.

The trail straightened, and she dug into her reserves, kicking up her pace until her muscles screamed.