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Again.
A place they’d frequently landed when they’d been teenagers and before he’d left Texas at twenty-two to go into the military. Dawn’s early light though had given them some regrets along with some clarity. He was leaving the following day to go back to the base in Turkey, and she was going back to her life as the social worker for a group home for troubled kids. She couldn’t go with him, and he couldn’t stay.
Oh, the irony of that.
Because less than a year later, he’d left the military after all for, well, a good reason. And by then Rachel had been involved with the perfect guy for her. A successful real estate agent and ranch owner who had roots miles deep in Texas.
Jericho hadn’t even gone to see her. He hadn’t wanted to disrupt her perfect life with her perfect guy. So, he’d started his new life working for Maverick Ops.
“I need to come in,” Rachel said. “I need your help.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
He stepped back, motioning her in and then adding a gesture for her to take either the sofa or the chair in the living room. She took the chair while glancing around, and then her attention settled back on him.
“You’ve got blood on your forehead,” she said. “Are you hurt?”
Jericho hadn’t known about the blood there, but it didn’t surprise him. Ass kicking killers often led to blood loss. “No. Someone else’s. I haven’t gotten around to a shower yet,” he felt the need to add. “I just got back home.”
“Yes, I know. I read about your latest case and figured you’d be coming back here soon.” She paused. “A tough case,” she tacked onto that, and it wasn’t a question. Probably because she could see the toll it’d taken on him.
Jericho had no intentions of getting into tolls and such, but he did go with a basic courtesy. “I don’t have anything other than Pop-Tarts to eat, but I can offer you coffee, sports drink or some Jack Daniels.”
Her mouth shifted a little in a slight smile that came nowhere close to making it to her eyes. “No, thank you. I’m fine. I figured you wouldn’t exactly be in the receiving visitors mode.”
“No,” he agreed. “I’m not on the beaten path.”
“You’re not, but I’m pretty good at searching land records, and that’s how I found out where you lived. Or at least found out you’d bought this place. I hoped I would find you here. If not, I would have called your boss, Ruby Maverick, and asked her to pass along that I needed to get in touch with you.”
Ruby was indeed his boss, and she would have let him know a woman, a blast from his past, was trying to reach him.
Rachel pulled in a long breath and slowly released it. “Sit, please. You look as if you’re standing guard.”
“I am,” he verified. “Spike, our visitor isn’t a threat. Secure the house,” Jericho added without taking his gaze off her.
That put some alarm on her face. “Spike?”
“It’s what I call my burglar alarm,” Jericho said just as Spike put in its two cents worth.
“Hang over, everyone,” it spewed in a thick British accent. “Daddy’s puttin’ the hammer down. House secured,” it added.
“Spike,” she questioned. “Named after the character you liked on Buffy?”
He nodded and wasn’t surprised she’d picked up on that. They’d watched that show together many times at the library in town when they’d been kids. It’d been one of their escapes.
“My Spike is an AI security assistant,” Jericho explained. “Bad attitude. Snarky tone. Resourceful. Every now and then it’ll put in a classic Spike quote like the one you just heard.”
“That sounds more complex than a mere burglar alarm,” Rachel was quick to point out.
Oh, it was. Definitely. When you worked for a company like Maverick Ops, the bells and whistles got bells and whistles of their own.
“The only thing Spike can’t do is physically kick ass,” Jericho told her, “but if my boss can figure out a way to add that, she will.”
She conjured up another smile. A half-assed attempt that was nowhere near close to the ones he knew she could dole out. Those were dazzling, for lack of a better word. This one was missing a whole lot of dazzle and was sprinkled with nerves.
“I’m guessing the help you need from me means you need the security to make sure no one followed you here and tries… What exactly?” Jericho came out and asked.
“And tries… Everything,” she settled for saying. “My kids are safe for now, but I’m not sure how long I can keep it that way.”
