Quint wrinkled his nose again as he breathed in Ree’s fresh-from-the-shower, lavender scent. She had an effect on him like no one else. Was his attraction to Ree inconvenient? Yes. Was it getting in the way of his better judgment? If he thought so, he needed to pull himself from this case immediately. The only question that mattered was whether or not he could contain it and continue in a professional manner, because when her mouth was moving against his, all logic flew out the window and he was engulfed in a flame that threatened to turn into a raging wildfire.
He pulled up the document for Ree, noticing the excitement in her voice. Was she on to something?
She inched a little closer as she studied the screen like it was finals week in college. Her tongue darted across her bottom lip, and he tried to ignore the silky trail it left.
“What is it, Ree?”
“Phillip.” She pointed toward a blond-haired guy from truck number two. “I’m almost a hundred percent sure I overheard Adrian call him by this name at some point.”
Quint took down the information, placing a question mark next to the name.
“He must be a regular if Adrian knows him,” she said. “I wish there was a break in between shifts so I could really talk to her. You know, ask for the lay of the land. Find out who is who and some background information on everyone. But that would be difficult to do without sounding like an investigator.”
“True. If we’re too eager or ask too many questions it could put the spotlight on us,” he said, realizing he had to be more careful after the boot incident. It wasn’t like him to be sloppy and he sure hoped he was able to cover, but he didn’t like making mistakes. She nodded. “We might be in this one for a few weeks, a month.” He glanced at her. “Or it could be done in four days. My experience has been all over the map.”
“Somehow, I don’t think this one will be like that,” she said. “But if we’re going to be a couple for longer than a few days, we should probably dig a little deeper into each other’s lives.”
He didn’t mind sharing a little bit about his background for the sake of the investigation. Plus, a surprising part of him wanted to talk to her about Tessa.
“Do you know about my former partner?” Quint asked on a sharp sigh, figuring he needed to get that part of his history out of the way. He might have a desire to share but that didn’t mean it was going to be easy.
“I think I heard something,” she admitted.
“Do you know what happened to her?” he asked.
“I can piece bits of the story together, but I’d like to hear your version,” she said, taking in a slow breath.
“She was killed in the line of duty when we were working with another agency,” he said. “You know how it is. We don’t always have time to get to know each other or rehearse before it’s go time.”
“Those little things like who likes to come in from the right get glossed over,” she said. “It’s one of the easiest ways to be killed on the job.”
She did know and it sounded like she had a story to tell. Had her father’s high-speed crash resulted from another agency getting involved?
“Tessa.” He flashed eyes at Ree. “That was her name. Tessa was more than my partner.”
Ree’s gaze widened and he realized the implication.
“She was my best friend,” he quickly added.
“Were you in love?” she asked before seeming like she tried to quickly reel the question back in.
“I loved her but not in the romantic sense,” he admitted. “We had a long history and were basically the same person on the inside.”
“Did you ever date?” she asked.
“No, because I think we always knew we were too much alike to be anything more than friends,” he said. “Plus, it was much more like brother and sister. I’m sure you can relate to the thought of dating one of your brothers being less than appealing.”
The puckered face she made proved it. She faux-gagged in a way that was both endearing and funny.
“That’s basically the way I felt about Tessa. I will always love her but dating was always out of the question for both of us. She was pretty but I was never attracted to her in the same way that...” Had he really just almost admitted to an attraction to Ree? “Suffice it to say that we never even tried to go there with each other. We bonded over similar upbringings and had a lot in common, not the least of which was going into law enforcement. We both had someone step in during a critical time in our lives whom we credit with saving us.”
“Parallel lives?” she asked.
“You could say that,” he said. “Except that she got into a relationship that ended with a pregnancy.”
“Ended?”
“The guy bolted the minute he found out Tessa was carrying his child. Said it couldn’t be his and accused her of cheating on the relationship.” Quint fisted his hands. He flexed and released his fingers a couple of times to work off some of the tension of talking about it. Tessa being treated badly was a sore subject with him.
Ree surprised him by reaching over and touching his hands. “He sounds like a real jerk. Why is it that smart, beautiful women can walk into the trap of falling for a creep?”
Her words were balm to soothe a wounded soul. She brought more of that light to the darkest corners inside his soul.
“This guy doesn’t want to ever run into me in a dark alley,” he said, realizing that was probably the wrong answer and not caring. Five minutes alone with Mr. Jerk and the guy would think twice about getting a woman pregnant and then accusing her of sleeping around to get out of his responsibilities. Of course, Tessa could have forced a paternity test once the kid was born and gotten child support at the very least. But she hadn’t wanted anything to do with a man who could walk away from his own flesh and blood like that. Based on personal experience with his own non-dad, Quint couldn’t agree more.
“Or me,” Ree added, as indignant as he was. “Or any one of my brothers.”
“Sounds like you had the family we all wished for,” he said.
“We have our problems and disagreements, believe me, but we love each other to the moon and back,” she said. The warmth in her eyes poured more light into the dark.
He’d read as much in Shane’s voice during their phone call.
Ree was studying him when he brought his gaze up to meet hers. “What aren’t you telling me about the situation?” she asked quietly.
THERE WAS A storm brewing behind Quint’s eyes, a storm she recognized from the conversation they’d had at the table right before he’d shut down and walked away earlier.
“About Tessa?” he asked, and she could tell from his tone that he was holding something back.
“Or the situation in general,” she clarified. “What exactly happened on the bust?”
“Other than the fact she died?” he asked, his cold words cutting a hole in her chest. He seemed to regret his word choice immediately when he added, “It’s all still a little raw and I’m a whole lot of angry. I didn’t mean for that to come out the way it sounded or be so blunt.”
“You know what? You don’t have to apologize to me for being human,” she said. Growing up around guys had made her able to read through the lines when something was aimed at her or the world. Quint’s anger fell into the latter camp.
He didn’t speak for a long moment. But when he did, he said, “Thank you. I can’t say that anyone has understood what I meant rather than what I said before. I’m generally the king of miscommunication in relationships.”
“You’re welcome, Quint. Here’s the thing. We might be here for two more days or two months. Neither of us ever really knows what the future is going to bring, especially on a case. So, if we can really talk and do a little good here between us, it’ll make the time in between following up on leads or general investigating a whole lot more meaningful.” Ree surprised herself with the realization even though she meant every word. Truths like this came from the heart and she couldn’t have scripted it any better to get her point across.
Quint rocked his head.
“You’re right,” he said. “I just don’t normally talk to people.”
“Ever?”
He shook his head. “Not since Tessa.”
“I’d like to be friends, Quint.” This whole attraction welling up inside her, gaining steam, wished for something else, something more. But she would settle for friendship.
“She shouldn’t have died,” he confessed. Saying the words out loud seemed to take a lot of energy. “It was my fault.”
“I can’t imagine that to be true,” she said.
“What makes you say that?” he asked.
“Because you aren’t the kind of person who would go back on an assignment if you had been responsible for someone’s death. You would punish yourself for years to come and I highly doubt you’d ever do the same job again,” she said.
He nodded.
“The reason it’s my fault is because I let her convince me to keep quiet about the pregnancy when she should have been on desk duty. Now my godchild is...”
The news Quint was to be a godfather to Tessa’s baby caused a half dozen puzzle pieces to click together about the strength of their bond and the amount of guilt he must be feeling for letting Tessa down, like he believed he had.
Ree highly doubted Tessa would blame Quint for keeping her secret, but the blow that would cause to a person like Quint would devastate most others. The burden he’d been carrying around with him at the double blow would crush a lesser human.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered as she leaned into him. She had no idea, at that point, if her touch was welcome or not but it was all she had to give in the way of comfort. There was no way in hell she could sit idly by and watch him suffer if there was anything she could do about it.
He wrapped his arms around her, so she scooted closer. The steady rhythm of his heartbeat against her body comforted her beyond words and she could only hope he felt half the same as her in that moment.
“It’s not your fault,” she said quietly, reassuringly.
“Yeah?” he asked and she could hear his voice break. “Because it sure as hell feels like it is exactly my fault. I had the power to stop her from doing something that caused her to die. I should have been the one to force the desk duty issue sooner so she would still be here, dammit.”
There was so much pain and anguish in his voice that her heart nearly cracked in half.
“I know you feel that way and I know it feels like the truth right now. But you would never have done anything to hurt Tessa or her baby,” she said in as calm a voice as she could muster. She drew on all the compassion she had when she added, “Other people’s choices are not your fault. You did what she asked because you trusted her to make the right decisions.”
“I shouldn’t have and then she would still be here holding her daughter in her arms instead of...” His distress was palpable.
The sound of beer bottles being slammed against a wall broke into the heavy moment. Quint kicked into gear as immediately as Ree did.
“Boot,” she reminded as it seemed to dawn on him, too.
He bolted toward it, taking the extra few seconds to strap it on as she flew to the window, listening.
“Two male voices,” she whispered before risking a peek. “Charley just came running out the front door with Phillip.” She paused a couple of seconds to watch as Quint took off toward the front door. “Oh, goodness.”
“What’s going on?” Quint’s fingers were already wrapped around the door handle.
“They’re arguing,” she said.
“Is it possible Phillip’s drunk?” he asked, pausing at the door.
“From here it looks so. I’ll ask about it tomorrow at work and see if I can get anything else. It’ll make a nice conversation starter with Adrian,” she said as Quint backed away from the door.
“It’s getting late and you need rest if you’re going back there for the whole day again,” he finally said. “I’ll grab a shower.”
“Quint?” she began.
“Yeah?” He stopped halfway across the room but didn’t turn to look at her.
“Thank you for trusting me earlier,” she said. “It means more than you could ever know.”
“It’s a two-way street,” he said quietly. There was a stillness to his voice that brought her nerves down a few notches after the excitement. “And I’d appreciate if you kept everything I’ve said between us.”
“I wouldn’t tell a soul,” she said, hearing the defensiveness in her own voice. Rather than apologize for it, she left it out there.
“There’s more to it but that’s as far as I can go with it tonight,” he said. There was a detached quality to his tone now. So she shifted her focus to Charley and Phillip and the buzz of questions she anticipated at the beginning of tomorrow’s shift.