Luna paced her office, waiting for forensics to return with the ballistics from the bullet, unable to stop thinking about how close they’d come to meeting their maker. Whoever shot that bullet had been happy to take out either her or Benjamin, which meant that Benjamin wasn’t safe anymore.
The wheels were turning fast. She’d been willing to write off the slashed tires as a cruel prank by punks but after this incident, it seemed highly unlikely the two were unrelated. A dark chill anchored her thoughts. What if the bullet had found its target tonight?
She turned to Benjamin, knowing he wouldn’t like what she was about to say, but it had to be done. “I can’t have you on the investigation any longer when it puts you at risk.” The fact that she’d been letting him tag along was an embarrassing slip in protocol that could’ve had disastrous consequences, and it was past time to rectify her oversight. “It’s too dangerous.”
Benjamin, lost in his thoughts, looked up with a subtle scowl. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re a civilian and it’s not safe for you to be participating in the investigation now that people are shooting at us.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“It’s a liability issue for the department,” she said, holding firm, even though that wasn’t the biggest reason. She would never forgive herself if anything happened to Benjamin on her watch, but she didn’t know how to verbalize her fears without sounding overly attached. “Sorry.”
“And what about you? That bullet could’ve been meant for you as much as it was for me,” he reminded her.
“It’s possible but the risk comes with the job—my job, not yours.”
“And I’m a retired marine. I think between us we can handle whatever that jack knob thinks he can throw our way.”
“We don’t know that and I can’t take the risk.” She added, “And we don’t know that it’s not a woman who took the shot.”
“Man, woman, jackalope, it doesn’t matter. I’m not running from anything.”
“You’re not running. I’m taking you out of the game,” she clarified for his male pride. “It’s not the same.”
“Stop,” he said, irritated. “You sound like a broken record. It could’ve been a bunch of stupid kids messing around. Let’s not jump to conclusions.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence. Not like this.”
“Luna—”
“No, I can’t let anything happen to you.”
Her eyes burned with sudden tears, but she held them back. She wasn’t going to negotiate on this point. Benjamin saw that she wasn’t going to budge and swore under his breath, but he didn’t press any further. He grabbed his jacket and headed out. She was prepared to let him leave without saying anything further, but the minute he’d left the building, she was hurrying after him. Damn it.
“You shouldn’t go back to the rental,” she said, catching up to him.
He turned, his lips compressed. “And where should I go? Your place? Are you offering up your bed?”
She pulled up short, her breath catching. “N-no, I mean, that would create a lot of questions that I don’t have time to deal with right now,” she answered, blanching at the very thought of her sisters peppering Benjamin for personal information the minute he walked through the door. “But a hotel wouldn’t be a terrible idea...”
“I’m already paying for a rental. Why would I pay for a hotel room?” he asked.
She saw his point. So what was her solution? She didn’t have one. All she had was a bundle of feelings quickly knotting like a tangled mess of hair. “I don’t think you should be alone,” Luna said, wincing at how terribly she was communicating. She’d suddenly regressed to a seventh-grader and forgotten how to adult. She drew a deep breath and tried again. “I’m sorry, you’re right,” she admitted, trying for complete transparency. “I can’t stop thinking about how you could’ve been killed and I’m sick to my stomach, okay?”
“Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?” His expression gentled with understanding. He reached for her, drawing her to him. Even though she should’ve pulled back, she wanted to feel his touch. “It’s natural to knee-jerk react to situations that feel out of our control and threaten something or someone we care about, but it doesn’t make sense to shut me out of this investigation when you’re already scraping the bottom of the barrel with resources.”
“It isn’t right to put our limitations on your shoulders,” she said, frustrated. “Especially if helping could get you killed.”
“I could’ve been killed a hundred different times when deployed—still didn’t stop me from serving my country, so some punk-ass coward shooting through windows isn’t going to stop me from helping find justice for my sister.” He gently thumbed her cheek, searching her gaze. “Now, if you want to keep me safe, I wouldn’t be opposed to you spending the night, if that’s what you’re offering.”
Was that what she was offering? She didn’t know what she was doing aside from acting recklessly and out of character. What was it about Benjamin that made her weak all over? She frowned, annoyed at the situation and the pull between them. “You and I both know we’re breaking all the rules and rules are there for a reason.”
“Some rules are stupid.”
“Not these.”
He shrugged. “Agree to disagree. Come with me and keep me safe.”
A smile tugged at her lips, even as she wanted to stay firm. “What happened to you being able to take care of yourself?”
“You made me realize how vulnerable I am,” he quipped, not taking this situation nearly serious enough but his attitude was contagious. Why was he so damn handsome? When he reached for her, she didn’t resist. He tried a different approach, offering, “How about some logic? It’s useless to sit at the station when nothing will be processed until morning, which leaves you here pacing for no good reason, and since I’m not going anywhere if you’re not, that means we’re going to watch paint peel all night when we could be taking advantage of a soft bed.”
“Compelling argument,” she conceded, thinking out loud, adding, “Or I could sleep on the couch, thereby keeping you safe and avoiding anything inappropriate.”
“You’re in my bed, beside me,” he corrected as his hold tightened around her. “It’s the most efficient way to keep me safe.”
A shiver danced through her. “You’re impossible,” she said in a low, breathy tone. “But convincing.”
A low chuckle smacking of victory followed a throaty “Get your stuff,” and she bounded up the stairs to close up her office.
The butterflies in her stomach tickled as they fluttered around, and she had to shut down the feminine purr that wanted to follow.
She was an out-of-control steam engine barreling down the tracks knowing full well a dead end awaited at the end of the line, but she couldn’t seem to make herself stop.
No matter the crash that would follow.
Luna was concerned about protecting him, but he’d been just as pressed about someone shooting at her. An odd sense of protectiveness washed over him, and he’d wanted to wrap her in Kevlar so he knew she’d be safe.
But that was as ridiculous as her wanting to kick him to the curb for his protection.
And he couldn’t exactly admit to it either. She was already keyed up; he’d needed to find a way to settle her nerves in a manner that wasn’t going to set her off in the wrong way.
He may have made light of the situation but internally, it was a different story. He didn’t like the idea of someone shooting at either of them but it made him see red that someone might’ve taken a shot at Luna.
And there was only one reason he could figure that someone would take that shot—either to scare Luna or take her out to stop the investigation.
That meant Charlotte’s killer was still in Cottonwood.
He’d never believed their murders were committed by a random psycho passing through town. He knew some people felt safer thinking it was accidental, bad luck, but he’d never bought into that theory.
The reality was that someone in this town was involved, and they were trying to intimidate him and Luna into closing the investigation.
It had to be someone who knew they’d talked to Roger’s former employer and found out that he hadn’t worked there for years.
They didn’t know that intimidation tactics didn’t work for him. He’d stared into the gaping maw of destruction before, and death didn’t scare him.
Now, Luna getting hurt? That was a different story. The feelings growing for Luna were complicated and messy, definitely not what he wanted to focus on, but hard to ignore.
For now, he was content to have her in his bed. At least he knew she was safe with him.
Once back at the rental, he spent a short time using cardboard to temporarily block up the broken section in the glass until the repairman came, and then, he and Luna headed for bed.
They were tired, drained from the tension of the night, and neither had much steam for more than holding each other, which was fine by Benjamin.
“You’ve never been married,” she said, breaking the silence.
“No.”
“Any particular reason why?”
He sighed. “I’ll be honest, when I was younger, I spent most of my time running away from my childhood, which was easy to do when enlisted. Then, when I realized I was a hot mess I actually started to do the healing work I needed, but by that point, I was pretty content with my life and didn’t see the need to change it. I figured if the right person came along, I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. As it happened, that bridge never materialized.”
She chuckled, admitting, “I’m impressed that you got therapy. Not a lot of military guys are willing to do that, even if they need it.”
“Hey now, who’s playing into the stereotype?” he teased, but she was right. “Naw, I’ve seen too many buddies sink into addiction trying to blot out their pain so I didn’t ignore my own when I saw things heading in the wrong direction, but before you give me too much credit, it might be that I’m too damn stubborn to let myself turn into a statistic, so I got help.”
“You don’t have to justify the way you helped yourself for me to admire the end result.”
“Fair enough.”
“Remember that boyfriend I told you about before?”
“Yeah, the one who ran off with a coworker?”
“Well, he was more than my boyfriend. We’d been engaged.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. I think the hardest part was everyone knowing what’d happened. Maybe I was projecting but I always thought people were looking at me with pity in their eyes for being the poor woman whose man ran off on her. I guess the saving grace was that he didn’t leave me at the altar, which totally would’ve been worse.”
“Only cowards run off in the middle of the night. He should’ve had the balls to tell you that the relationship was over.”
“Yeah, he wasn’t great,” she admitted. “I’m glad it didn’t work out but at the time I was devastated.”
“I used to hate the saying ‘everything happens for a reason’ but sometimes it does seem that way.”
She smiled against his chest. “I’ve always hated that saying, too.”
He had a hard time imagining anyone walking away from Luna for someone else. That guy had been an idiot, but that was his loss because she was in his arms now.
Almost subconsciously, his arms tightened around her. Luna’s contented sigh felt like a warm hug around his soul.
That was the problem. He wanted more, but more of what? He lived in Arizona, and she lived here. He had zero interest in moving back to Cottonwood. This place was the place of his nightmares. It’d been hard enough to drag himself back a few times for family dinners with Charlotte.
“I can hear the gears moving,” she teased.
He didn’t want to ruin the moment with the sudden dampening of his spirits, so he responded by brushing his lips across hers in a tender kiss. She shifted, her hand sliding down his stomach to rest lightly above his groin. That tantalizingly close touch was enough to drive the fatigue from his body and the turbulent thoughts from his brain.
When he hardened at her gentle touch, she teased, “I thought you were tired?” moving to straddle him. He reached up to caress her back, drawing her to his mouth. Her tongue darted to meet his as her hot center ground into his stiffened length.
“Suddenly, I’m wide awake.”
Her light laughter was sweet like summer rain, but it did something to his head that he couldn’t control.
He growled as his hands filled with her backside, drawing her closer. He wanted to experience her all around him. “You’re beginning to feel like the most dangerous addiction I’ve ever faced down,” he murmured against her mouth.
“Likewise,” she said, her hair coming down to tickle his chest. “But that’s a problem for another day, okay?”
“I’m on board with that plan,” he said, rolling her on the bed, pressing against her softness, ready to forget everything but this moment.
All that mattered was now.
Tomorrow would come soon enough.