Page 108 of Burning Justice

Deck grinned. “You’re gonna need it. And take this.” He handed Brett a potted aloe vera. “It’s from Tori for Gemma’s legs.”

“I’ll tell her.” As Brett went through the living room, he noted the newly installed floor and ceiling molding and, in the kitchen, the new tile backsplash and fresh paint. He found Gemma in the backyard, sitting in a chair with her legs propped on the edge of a firepit. Blaze busied himself by trotting around the yard, sniffing the grass, then laying down and rolling around on his back.

Since she didn’t invite him to sit in one of the other chairs, he waited. And waited.

And it was killing him.

Finally, after what seemed like minutes but was probably only seconds, she let out a huff. “You can sit down, if you want to.”

He held back the breath of relief threatening to whoosh loudly from his lungs, then took the chair next to Gemma’s. Her toenails were white with little orange fish on the big nails.

“Nice toenails.”

“Thanks. With my burns, I had to forego the usual foot bath and calf massage.” She sighed. “Too bad. That’s the best part about getting a pedi.”

“I’ll have to take your word for that. And speaking of burns…” He set the aloe plant on the ledge of the firepit. “This is from Tori. For your legs.”

“Tell her I said thanks.” From the determined set of her jaw and the fact that she wouldn’t look at him, he had a lot of sucking up to do. Groveling and sucking up. He was just as determined as she was. More so, but he understood her anger. He’d certainly earned it.

For someone unaccustomed to working with others, let alone asking for help, trusting and partnering with him hadn’t come easily for her. When it finally had, he’d yanked the rug out from under her.

As he stared into the flickering blue-and-orange flames in the firepit, it occurred to him that she’d broken new ground by asking Evan for help, then by recruiting her family to help with all the new work he’d seen. They were both making life changes.

Still, she said nothing, preferring to stare at the firepit.

“Don’t you want to know what I’ve been doing over the last week and a half?” he asked, breaking the silence.

“Aside from reuniting Gavin with his sister, I don’t care what you were doing.” Her lips trembled, and she shifted in the chair.

Brett grinned. It was killing her that he wasn’t telling her. It was the oldest rule in the federal agent interviewing handbook. Human beings had an inherent need to fill in the pregnant pauses, so if you wanted a person to say something, you clammed up. Frankly, he wanted to confirm that she still cared enough to know what he’d been up to. “Are you sure you don’t want to know?”

She shifted again, recrossing her legs. “Yes. I’m sure. Of course I’m sure.”

Wait for it.

She made a sound of exasperation. “Okay, what?”

Brett’s grin broadened. Gotcha. “Besides helping Evan with Gavin and his sister, I’ve been working with Tom Willard to put the finishing touches on the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.” He recapped everything that had happened in the last week, including the indictments.

“How nice for you.” She smiled, that same sarcastic, vinegar-sweet smile he’d seen on her before. “It sounds like you wrapped up the case with a bow.”

“Don’t you mean we wrapped up the case with a bow?”

“No.” She looked at him as if she wanted to gut him. Which she probably did. “We didn’t. Because you went off without me.”

“It was your rapport with Sally Nash,” he countered, “that solved the Torrance Lane fire.” Something so unimaginably important to him, he could never repay her. “So yeah. We wrapped up the case. Together.”

“There is no together,” she hissed. “Not anymore. Not since you went around me. The only reason I was able to find you at the airport was because I followed Evan.”

Ah. They’d all been wondering how she’d managed that. Evan had assured him that he hadn’t told her where he’d been going after taking Sally Nash’s statement.

He waited a few moments for some of the steam to stop shooting from her ears. “I’m sorry for what I did, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I never meant to hurt you. I went around you to protect you.”

“I don’t need protecting. What I need is to be part of a team again. Our team.”

“Not a chance.” He stood and began pacing around the firepit. “I can’t work with you anymore.”

“Why not?” She stood and fisted her hands at her hips, something he’d come to realize she did when she was about to stand her ground, and damn did she look hot doing it. “You waltz in here, bearing gifts, yet you don’t want to work with me again?”