She looked up. She took quick breaths through her nose and looked for all the world like a cornered animal.
He was doing this all wrong. “Is it so awful to think about being with me?”
Her face registered confusion. “No. It isn’t awful at all.”
It was his turn to be surprised. “Then what’s the problem?”
She looked away, blinked a few times, swallowed. The fingers on his chest curled into a fist. “I’m the problem, Gabe. Assuming you don’t wind up dead, which, if you haven’t noticed, is what tends to happen to people I care about, I’ll end up hurting you. I think we both know that.”
He wrapped his right hand around her fist. “What if we decided to take it a day at a time?” He lifted her fist off his chest. “What if we agreed not to project our fears about something that might happen onto what’s happening right now?” He laced his fingers through hers. “What if we took a chance?”
She stared at their hands. “I didn’t think you were the type to ever take that kind of chance. What is it you always say? Relationships are too important to take risks with?”
“You’re the only one I’ve ever been willing to risk everything for, Anissa.”
17
Anissa soaked in Gabe’s words.
He’d never been so blunt. So bold. Until now, everything she’d suspected about his feelings for her had been just that—suspicion. And sometimes suspicions were way off. But this was fact. Laid out there with no pretense. No holding back.
His words were warm sunlight on dive-chilled skin, cool water after a tough workout, hope in a dark universe.
He slid his left arm out of the sling, and his hand found her waist. She stepped closer and he dropped the hand he’d been holding. Now both of his arms were around her.
She rested her forehead against his chest, careful to avoid the stab wound, her arms pinned between them. Her last little piece of resistance. If she moved . . . there’d be no turning back.
Oh, who was she kidding? He already had her heart. He just didn’t know it. What was wrong with her? She looked up and lost herself in his eyes. There was no judgment, no hurry, no frustration in them. She saw understanding, and a little bit of a challenge.
He had put himself out there and was waiting to see what she would do. How she would respond. She slid her arms around his sides, taking extra care on his left side, and rested her face against his chest. He pulled her closer and settled his head on top of hers. She could feel him inhale, deep and slow.
“Would this be a good time for me to ask you out on a date?”
“Hmm . . . maybe,” she said.
“Maybe?” He pulled back until he could look at her, his brow furrowed in mock concern. “If this is a maybe, we need to discuss your communication skills.”
She pretended to think about it for another second, then shrugged. “What did you have in mind?”
“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be? You’re going to wait to say yes until I come up with some big plan, huh? Talk about pressure.”
He was laughing, joking. She knew it. But . . . she tucked her face against his chest. “I’ll go anywhere, Gabe. Or nowhere. It doesn’t matter.”
She could feel his surprise at her words. The way his chest froze in mid-inhale, then deflated rapidly. “So a sunset boat ride would work?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Then it’s a date.”
“It’s a date.” She had a date with Gabe Chavez. That was . . . great, and terrifying.
As if he could read her thoughts, he whispered, “One day at a time. We’ll take it slow so neither of us panics. Deal?”
“Deal.”
As much as she hated to, she pulled away. “Leigh will strangle us both if you don’t get some sleep.”
“Yeah.”
The way he was looking at her . . . was he going to kiss her? She wanted him to. But then, she didn’t. She’d never forgotten their kiss. It had rocked her world and he hadn’t even meant it.
He took a step toward her, his lips landing on her forehead. “Good night, Anissa.” He ran his thumb across her cheek. The gesture was so tender, so careful, like he was stroking a fragile piece of art. He winked at her, then turned to the stairs.
“Good night.”
The next morning, Anissa sat at the kitchen counter nursing her coffee.
“Everything okay?” Leigh asked as she set a scone in front of her.
Anissa pasted on a quick smile. “Yes.”
“You sure? You were pretty ticked at Gabe last night.”
“Oh yeah, that. I’m fine.”
Gabe chose that moment to enter. “Morning, ladies.” He went straight to the coffeepot. Anissa wasn’t sure what she’d expected. It wasn’t like they were to the point where he was going to start the day with a good-morning kiss. But maybe he could have winked? Smiled? Stopped by her side first?
“Where’s your sling?” Leigh glared at Gabe.
“I’ll get it after breakfast. Promise.”
“It’s to help you not pull—”
“I know. I know. I promised, didn’t I?”
Ryan entered and went straight to Leigh. After planting a very nonpecky kiss on his bride, he turned to Anissa. “We diving today, boss?”
“Yes. After lunch though. I’ve got some stuff I need to do in the office, and neither Lane nor Stu can get loose before then either.”
Gabe took the scone Leigh offered him and sat beside Anissa. “I notice you haven’t invited me on this dive.”
“You can’t dive!” Leigh turned to Anissa. “You can’t let him dive.”
Her horrified expression wasn’t meant to be funny, but Anissa couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “He isn’t diving.” For emphasis, she turned to Gabe. “You aren’t diving.”
He gave her his most annoyed look. “I don’t think I like you right now, Bell.”
She had a flicker of panic. Was he already wishing last night had never happened? Because no one watching would be able to tell that anything had changed. Or maybe that was the idea?
Then he shifted in his chair and his left knee pressed against hers. And stayed there. His annoyed expression remained, but she now had a different take. She could play this game.
In fact, she liked playing this game.
“Get used to it, Chavez. You’re out of the water. One month.”
Gabe threw his hands in the air and turned to Ryan. “Help me out, man. Can’t you overrule her or something?”
“No, he can’t. I rule with an iron fist.” Anissa took a bite of her scone as Leigh and Ryan laughed.
Gabe glared at all of them. “I don’t like any of you people right now.”
They only laughed harder.
“I bet Anissa will let you drive the boat,” Ryan said. “If you’re very, very nice to her.”
“What do you think, Leigh? Should he be allowed to drive the boat?” Anissa asked.
Leigh shook her head. “I don’t like it. But if you’re in a bind, I guess it would be okay. Maybe. But, Gabe, really, you can’t get in that water. Not with a stab wound. Lake water is—”
“He won’t,” Anissa said.
Gabe gave her a look she couldn’t quite decipher. At first she thought he might be ticked, but the longer he looked at her the more she suspected he was pleased.
“Do you two need us to give you the room?” Ryan asked.
Leigh didn’t wait for them to respond. “Babe, they’re going to start either yelling or kissing. I can’t tell which. We should clear out either way.”
Ryan threw back his head and laughed.
Leigh leaned toward Anissa and didn’t even try to keep her voice down. “You have some explaining to do, young lady. ‘Oh yeah, that. I’m fine.’” Leigh mimicked Anissa’s earlier statement. “Liar.”
“I wasn’t lying.”
Leigh glanced at Gabe, then back to Anissa. “Lies by omission are still lies.”
A knock on the door brought the moment to an abrupt end. Three
hands rested on three weapons. Leigh stood behind Ryan.
“Open up, Parker.”
Adam.
Ryan went to the door. Adam entered.
“Coffee, Adam? Scone?”
“Oh, Leigh, that would be wonderful. But would it be horribly rude of me to get them to go?” No matter what else was going on, Adam’s manners were always on point.
“Of course not. Will you see Sabrina before I do?” Leigh was already putting scones in a tiny paper box.
“Yes, I’m headed to the university.”
Leigh added another scone as Ryan handed Adam a paper cup. “Talk while you fix your coffee. What’s going on? Did they find a body in the house or something?”
“There’s no body to my knowledge. But Sabrina called me at five thirty this morning and she’s had an idea that she’s running with. She’s doing some kind of cross-check of people associated with Anissa’s cases who were let out of prison in March or earlier.”
“That’s a good idea,” Anissa said. “Please tell her thank you.”
“I will.”
“And I hate to ask, but can you dive this afternoon? The firefighters found some evidence near the dock that makes them think the arsonist might have tossed some accelerant into the lake. They want us to check it out. And get it out of the lake, if possible.”
“What time?” Adam took a sip of coffee.
“One thirty at the house. We need to run the sonar first. There might not be anything down there at all. But the property is a lot closer than driving all the way to the marina, so we can pick you up off the dock.” She turned to Gabe. “No diving for you.”
He clutched his chest. “You’re wounding me, Bell.”
Adam put a lid on his cup. “Perfect. Sabrina’s already got some results for me. I’m also checking on something for the captain on the camp’s property. So as soon as I finish up with Sabrina, I’ll be in the office until we dive.”
He grinned at Anissa. “I know you’re ticked, but Grandfather says if you try to dodge the security guards he’s assigned to you, he’ll never get you that boat he promised.”
“He promised you a boat?” Ryan and Gabe asked together.
“He never promised me a boat.” Adam winked.
Was his grandfather seriously thinking about getting them a new boat? “This is coercion, Adam Campbell.”
“Take it up with him, Anissa. I gotta run.”
Adam took his scones and coffee and blew out the door as quickly as he’d blown in.
The reality of security guards had popped the pleasant morning balloon she’d been enjoying. That and the realization that she didn’t have a car. “When can I get my house and my car back?” she asked Ryan.
Gabe stiffened.
Ryan cut his eyes between them. No way he’d missed Gabe’s reaction. “The car? Today. Dante said he’ll have it at the office. The house is ready. It was ready yesterday. But I don’t recommend going in alone. Or staying alone.”
“I won’t.” She responded to Ryan’s words and Gabe’s tension. “I won’t. I just . . . I don’t like this.”
“None of us do.” Ryan poured himself another cup of coffee. “I have to go to the courthouse first thing. Will you two be okay to ride in together? Or should we make other arrangements?” He smirked at Anissa and Gabe.
“We’ll manage.” Gabe gave Ryan the fakest of fake grins. “Don’t you give us a second thought.”
“We? Us?” Leigh laced her arm through Ryan’s. “Come on. We definitely need to give them the room.”
When Ryan and Leigh were almost out of the kitchen, Gabe winked at Anissa and made no effort to speak quietly. “I didn’t think they would ever leave.”
“I heard that, Gabe Chavez,” Leigh yelled back.
Gabe couldn’t resist messing with Leigh. “Is that your mad voice, Leigh Weston Parker? Because it’s pathetic.”
Leigh’s laughter faded away. The sound of a door closing cut it off completely.
Anissa’s expression morphed from amused to . . . tentative. He reached for her hand. “Good morning.”
She squeezed his fingers. “Morning. How did you sleep?”
“Eh. I sleep on my left side, so . . .”
She grimaced. “Sorry.”
He raised her fingers to his lips. “Any second thoughts?”
“About letting you dive?” She smiled at him. A devious smile. A flirty smile. “Nope. There’s absolutely nothing you could do to make me change my mind.”
Gabe almost dropped her hand. Anissa Bell was flirting with him. His heart thudded against his rib cage as he kissed one knuckle, then the next, then the next. “That sounds like a dare to me.”
Her teasing smile softened. “I think we’ll have to table this discussion for later. I have a lot to do before we dive. Well, before I dive.”
He released her hand. “Fine, but don’t think for a second that I won’t bring it up again.”
“I’m counting on it.”
Forty-five minutes later they were the only two investigators in the homicide office. She was working. A study in intense concentration.
He was intensely concentrating on her.
“Gabe,” she said without looking away from her computer.
“Hmm?”
“If you don’t quit staring at me like that, our first real kiss is going to be in this office, and for what it’s worth, I’d really rather we save it for somewhere—anywhere—else.”
He almost fell out of his chair. “What do you mean our first real kiss?”
She cut her eyes at him for a second and then trained them back on her monitor. “You know exactly what I mean. I know you remember. You weren’t drunk that night. At all.”
Oh, he knew. He’d never forgotten anything about that night. Not one moment. Especially not the kiss.
She didn’t think that kiss was real? Did she think he went around kissing everybody like that?
The phone rang. “Chavez.” It was the captain requesting his presence. “I’ll be right there, sir.” Great. Time to find out if he’d lost the case.
Even with his stress levels reaching the stratosphere, he couldn’t resist leaning over Anissa’s back as she sat in her chair. He put his right hand on her shoulder. His lips brushed the tip of her ear. “Whoever said that wasn’t a real kiss?”
He squeezed her shoulder and left the room before she could respond. But as the door closed behind him, he looked back. She was staring after him, eyes wide, face red . . . smiling.
Gabe wasn’t smiling when he got back to the office fifteen minutes later. Anissa wasn’t at her desk, but Ryan was at his.
“What’s the matter with you, man?” Ryan asked as he slid into his chair. “Honestly, I would have expected you to look a little happier. Did she break up with you already?”
“No, she didn’t,” Anissa said as she returned to the office and sat at her desk. “Don’t we have work to discuss?”
“Yes,” Gabe said.
“Not really,” Ryan said.
Anissa shook her head at the two of them. “I’m with Gabe.”
“She’s with me.” Gabe pointed to his chest. Ryan made a disgusted face, but Gabe could tell he wasn’t displeased. Maybe cautiously optimistic.
“Work?” Anissa prompted. She didn’t look up. She started typing something, her gaze locked on her screen.
“Right. Work. The captain is sure Anissa’s in danger and not thrilled the Campbells are providing security but rolling with it for the moment. And if I ever want to see a promotion, I need to solve the Jeremy Littlefield case. Yesterday.”
Gabe needed a break in this case. How could he ever be what Anissa needed if he couldn’t even keep his job? There were so many reasons—reasons he’d barely allowed himself to consider—why Anissa was the perfect person for him. But this work drama was one reason why dating Anissa was a bad idea. How could he keep her fooled into thinking he had a clue about what he was doing in life if she was sitting across from him, a witness to every fa
ilure—big and small?
Anissa never stopped typing. “Number one, the danger to me has nothing to do with the Jeremy Littlefield case. Number two, the captain can’t hold you personally responsible for what Charles Campbell is doing. If anyone should be worried about the captain’s annoyance with the Campbells, it should be Adam. Third”—she looked at Gabe this time—“the captain is the one worried about his promotions, so he’s taking it out on you.”
Ryan pointed his pen in Anissa’s direction. “I agree with everything she said.”
“You weren’t in there.” The captain had been . . . ticked.
“I’ve been in there before,” Ryan said.
“Same here,” Anissa said. “Your success rate is so high that you haven’t gotten the ‘this case is two weeks old and I’m looking bad’ lecture before. Welcome to the club.”
“We should get jackets,” Ryan said.
“Yes,” Anissa agreed. “With patches or something for repeat lectures.”
“I like it,” Ryan said.
Gabe couldn’t decide if they were being helpful or truthful. Or both.
“Did he say anything else about taking you off the case?” Ryan asked.
Anissa stopped typing. “What? No. He can’t.”
“No. He said as long as I could work this week, he’d rather me stay on the case.”
“That was big of him.” Ryan tossed a wadded-up piece of paper into the recycling bin. “I’d like to see how quickly he’d come back to work after getting stabbed.”
“Exactly.” Anissa took a sip of coffee, but instead of staring at her monitor she was looking at him. When they made eye contact, she smiled. That same tentative smile from this morning. The one that said, “Hey, I like you and I’m excited to see where this goes.” Or at least that’s how he’d chosen to interpret it.
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