Sunshine was already peeking through the slats of the mini blinds when Ree’s smartwatch buzzed. She sat bolt upright, trying to get her bearings.
“Morning.” Quint’s whiskey-on-ice voice poured over her and through her.
“Don’t you ever sleep?” She squinted through blurry eyes as she yawned.
His chuckle was a low rumble in his chest. He pushed to standing from the chair and headed into the kitchen. A few seconds later, he returned with a coffee mug in hand.
“Thank you,” she said, taking the offering and inhaling the smell of fresh brew.
“You’re welcome.” He reclaimed his seat and stared at his laptop. “I do sleep, by the way.”
“Really?” She took a sip, welcoming the burn on her throat. “And this is amazing.”
“Yes. Everyone does. Don’t believe anyone who tries to convince you otherwise. I just came into this assignment well rested. I’m good for a few nights sleeping in short bursts.”
“Gotcha. I’m more of a ‘straight eight’ type but can get by on six and a half when absolutely necessary. It gets ugly after that,” she said with a smile. “Are you a robot?”
“Yes,” he said, as serious as a pastor during Sunday morning church service. Then he picked up his own coffee mug and rewarded her with a smile in a show of perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth. Teeth were just the beginning of perfection on this man. Some might have considered the half-inch scar above his right eyebrow and other physical traits as flaws. Ree didn’t fall into that camp. Those little things were precisely what set someone apart and made them even more attractive, gave them sex appeal as opposed to just being a beautiful shell. Personality influenced looks. She’d met plenty of beautiful-on-the-outside people whose looks deteriorated in her eyes once they opened their mouths to speak. Intelligence was sexy. A sense of humor...sexy.
“Oh, you actually have a sense of humor,” she teased, thinking how nice it was to break some of the tension by joking around. Last night had thrown a lot at her at Greenlight. Based on the stress lines etched into his forehead, he didn’t laugh nearly often enough and was as concerned about her going back today as she was. She knew his mother was gone and wondered if there’d been someone else special in his life that he’d lost.
Hold on a minute. It was coming back to her now. Didn’t he use to work with someone who’d been killed on the job? Ree made a mental note to research that later. There would be news articles if an agent had been killed on duty. It was a big department but she’d heard about a female agent being killed in a bust after the New Year.
Setting the thought aside, she took another sip of coffee, figuring she needed to milk this morning before her day shifted into high gear.
“What are you studying on that thing?” she asked, hugging her knees into her chest.
“Video footage from the past—” he checked the time “—ten hours or so.”
“Are you seeing anything worth talking about?” she asked.
“Not yet. I’m still getting the lay of the land so I can start memorizing routines, regular customers, delivery flow,” he admitted. “I snapped a couple of faces to send to Grappell so he can run them through facial recognition software. See if we can get any hits there.”
“Looking for patterns,” she said. “How much data can that thing store?”
“Yes. And not enough to keep more than twenty-four hours of video on hand,” he said.
“Of course, we don’t need that much,” she surmised.
“Nope. So I’m capturing screenshots of vehicles with their license plates, too. Sending everything to headquarters. There was a liquor delivery at ten o’clock last night that I recorded,” he said. “I grabbed pictures of faces in the truck but I got side views and the pictures are grainy when I blow them up. There’s enough there to see if the same delivery drivers worked the route but not to ID anyone.”
“I’ll try to work the back of the house a little more today. A camera is pointed directly at the back door.” She grabbed a pen and notepad before drawing out the layout of Greenlight. “To be honest, yesterday was such a whirlwind that I didn’t do a great job of getting to know the players in the kitchen,” she admitted. “It’s been a really long time since I was a waitress and I spent most of the time praying I wouldn’t drop a tray while serving customers, and getting introduced to the other waitresses. I put most of my energy toward trying not to get fired my first day on the job. Then, we already know about Sarah and Marcus’s visit.”
She rolled the coffee mug around in her palms, appreciating the warmth after pushing the notepad toward Quint.
“It’s too soon for me to approach Charley about helping out with his computer system,” Quint said and she agreed. “This layout is helpful.”
“I caught him staring at you from across the room last night,” she said. “I meant to mention that before.”
“Then I better back off today. Think you’ll be okay?” he asked before seeming to catch himself.
“Yes,” she said a little too defensively.
“I didn’t mean that—”
“You don’t have to apologize,” she reassured him. “I jumped the gun. I can see that you trust me to get the job done.”
“You did great work yesterday. I believe you’ll do the same today,” he stated, looking over his screen. “How long before your shift?”
“An hour and a half.” She issued a sharp sigh. “I should get up and make something to eat.”
“On it,” he said, setting down his laptop and heading toward the kitchen.
“You’re spoiling me,” she teased in an attempt to lighten the tension from a few seconds ago when she’d overreacted.
“Anything for my new bride,” he quipped in a surprising show of his sense of humor. It had peeked out a few times and she liked that side of him.
“Be careful. I can get used to this,” she shot right back, enjoying the lightness of the conversation, realizing her day would end up another whirlwind. It might take a couple of days, but she would eventually get into a groove and, hopefully, the video footage would reveal something soon. Give them a path to follow.
“We should have something back about the sheriff before you head to work. Since I need to avoid the restaurant today, I might go into town and do a little grocery shopping. Check out the local scene,” he said as amazing smells emanated from the kitchen.
“What are you cooking?” she asked.
“Eggs,” he said. “I called your older brother Shane last night while you were at work and he said you love scrambled eggs, toast and jam for breakfast.”
“Wait a minute. How did you get my brother’s number?” she asked. “And how do you know his name?”
Quint shrugged his broad shoulders. She forced her gaze away from his muscled back.
“You need to tell me before I get really angry,” she said.
“Technically, he called me,” he confessed.
“He wouldn’t do that,” she said. Would he?
On second thought, that was exactly what her older brother would do. As the oldest, Shane had always felt responsible for his siblings. “Was he worried he gave me bad advice?”
“It sounded like he was. He seemed bothered by the fact the two of you didn’t have a chance to talk the situation through,” he said.
“How did he get your number?” she asked.
“Through the department, but he requested that I not tell you. He said he was afraid you might come on too strong after the two of you spoke on the phone. Everything happened so fast, he said, and then you cut off the conversation,” Quint said.
“If he asked you not to tell me, then why are you?” she asked, curious as to why he would break her brother’s trust.
“If we’re going to be ‘married’ we can’t have any division between us. No secrets. I thanked your brother for touching base with me and saw how much he cared about you. But I told him I couldn’t go behind your back. I didn’t tell you last night because we got off topic and you needed rest. I’m telling you now because this was the earliest point that I could bring it up,” he said, turning to study her like he was gauging her reaction.
“Sounds like my big brother,” she said with a sigh. “Always looking out for me.”
Quint set the plate down on the two-top in the kitchen area. “Breakfast is served.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Did you make me my favorite breakfast to smooth over the fact you quizzed my brother about me last night?”
“I don’t know,” he said, feigning being offended. “Would it work?”
More than she wanted to admit. Ree shook her head and smiled.
QUINT WASN’T TRYING to roll her brother under the bus. He also didn’t want to hide anything from her. It could show on his face at a critical moment. There could be no secrets between them, especially one like this. He wasn’t kidding about that before.
Ree crossed the room, coffee cup in hand. Lounge pants, a T-shirt and robe shouldn’t be this sexy on a person. Her sleepy smile tugged at his heart as he pulled her chair back like a server might at a five-star restaurant.
She took a seat and he pushed it in, handing over a napkin.
“If this is what waking up is like, I’ll take this treatment every day,” she said with a smile that smacked him square in the chest.
“You should be treated like an angel,” he said so low he wasn’t sure she heard him. Did he want her to?
Good question, he thought, trying to convince himself that he was only stoking the flame of attraction to “sell” their relationship to others when they were in public. He was doing nothing more than method acting. An annoying little voice in the back of his mind said there was more to it, but he wasn’t ready to unpack the meaning just yet.
“Are you eating with me?” she asked.
“I’m not missing out on scrambled eggs and toast,” he said, appreciating the lightness happening between them. It was a good way to bond and build a partnership—a partnership that could mean the difference between life and death. He needed to work with a sketch artist today while the bald guy and the one with the ruddy complexion were fresh on his mind. He could accomplish that while Ree worked, too.
As he walked over to the stove and plated his food, he flashed back to all the times he’d made breakfast for Tessa. Bagels, cream cheese and jam had been her hands-down favorite. Coffee with milk and two raw sugars had been her go-to before the pregnancy. He’d missed another sign early on because she’d switched over to decaf. Tessa had most definitely never been a decaf person. The only reason he’d caught on to the change was because he surprised her with one of her favorite coffeehouse drinks only to realize she let it sit on her desk. Before, the vanilla mocha would be gone in a heartbeat.
The memories fell into the category of too late and of no use anymore. He set his plate down on the table so hard there was a noise and eggs got shuffled around on the plate.
Ree gasped. Her gaze darted toward him before dropping to his hand where he fisted his fork. Quint released his grip and the fork tumbled onto the table.
He sat down without making eye contact.
“Anything you want to talk about?” Ree asked, pushing a clump of egg around with her fork.
“No,” he said with a finality that should tell her this subject was off-limits. He needed to find a way to get through this assignment without thinking about Tessa every hour. No matter how hard he tried, his mind kept cycling back to how he’d failed her when she’d needed him most.
Ree took in a slow breath that he could hear from across the table. And then another. She didn’t immediately move. She didn’t speak. She seemed to realize this wasn’t the time for words. He wouldn’t be able to find the right ones to express his anger, frustration and disappointment at himself anyway. Instead, the two of them sat in the same companionable silence and suddenly Quint felt an intimacy and connection to someone like he’d never known through spoken words.
He couldn’t be certain how long they stayed at the table but at some point he picked up his fork and began eating. Ree finished her plate, gathered both once they were empty, and then disappeared into the bathroom.
A short time later, she came back out, kissed him on the cheek and said, “Any word yet about the sheriff? I’m leaving for work now.”
“I can check if you have a minute,” he said.
She glanced at her cell. “I’d better not hang around. It’ll look good if I’m a few minutes early to work and I might be able to strike up a conversation with one of the other waitresses in the breakroom.”
“I’d like to walk you over, at least. It’ll familiarize Charley with me. Plus, he’ll see that I’m respecting his boundary by stopping at the door.” He instinctively reached for her hand, then stood when he found it.
“Okay.” Her smile was sunshine after a monsoon. “I’d like that a lot actually.”
Ree led the way. He left the cabin door unlocked during the short walk. He stopped at the restaurant door and planted a kiss on his “wife” that caused a tornado of heat to swirl in his chest. When they pulled apart, both were breathless. They opened their eyes at the same time and he saw a deep well of need in her glittery green eyes.
All he could think was...damn.
There hadn’t been anyone so off-limits and so tempting that he could ever remember. The breakup in his twenties seemed like nothing compared to what would happen if it was Ree instead of Maisy.
For a long moment, he stood at the door after she walked inside. Then he pulled it together and headed home. Halfway across the parking lot he realized he didn’t have on his boot. Quint cursed. It wasn’t like him to slip and that was a huge one as far as errors went. He could only pray the mistake wouldn’t cause unwanted attention or harm the investigation in any way. He cursed again.
As he rounded the corner to the cabin, he saw the unlocked door was open.
Quint glanced around, surveying the area. This cabin was closest to the restaurant and had the least amount of privacy from the road. He took in a deep breath, calming his racing pulse. Going in looking like an officer would risk blowing their cover. After Bald Guy and Ruddy Complexion last night and the fact Ree’s cover might have been compromised, Quint’s radar was on high alert. Was someone on to them?