He’ll never see me that way. Maybe that’s for the best. Sometimes I wish he’d look at me and see more than a deputy with potential.
Tessa could still feel the weight of the paper in her hand, Sara’s handwriting tight and slanted like she’d been trying not to feel what she was admitting.
He never said a word, Tessa thought. Or she never told him.
Either way, the longing in that line sat wrong in Tessa’s chest. Not because she begrudged Sara anything—but because she understood too well what it meant to want more from a partner who only saw you as capable.
Scout drove, jaw set, eyes on the road. Protective to the point of feral when Sara’s name came up. It didn’t take a profiler to see he cared about her.
She just couldn’t tell how.
Tessa caught his profile in the passing light—strong nose, day-old scruff, a faint scar along his jaw she hadn’t noticed before. A good face. Solid. The kind you leaned on without planning to.
I can see why she’d fall for you,she thought.
There was a gravity around him—quiet, stubborn loyalty that made people feel anchored. Sara had written herself right up against that gravity and then stepped back before she fell.
The sticky note from the map flickered through Tessa’s mind.
PREGNANT?
Lauren… or Sara?
She forced the question back into its box. Facts first. Feelings later.
Scout’s fingers flexed once on the wheel. He didn’t look over, but she saw his throat move like he’d swallowed words and changed his mind.
He felt her watching.
“What?” he asked, voice rough from too little sleep. “You’re staring holes in the side of my head.”
Tessa blinked and dragged her gaze back to the windshield.
“Just thinking about her apartment,” she said. “About what she left out and what she didn’t.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Yes.” Tessa kept her tone even. “It looked like she was working a cold case. Missing girl. Lauren Pierce.”
Scout’s jaw tightened. “I remember that case. Holbrook had it. He was convinced she was a walk-away. It went cold.”
Tessa glanced at him. “He told me. Everyone got one?”
“Yeah,” Scout said. “Everybody got an old case. Mine’s still sitting in my locker. Between Caitlin’s mess and paperwork, I haven’t even cracked it open.”
A muscle jumped in his cheek.
“I figured Sara hadn’t either,” he admitted. “Didn’t know she’d already started in on hers. Didn’t know it was Pierce.”
Tessa didn’t argue.
She turned her head slightly, looking at him again from the corner of her eye.
He filled the driver’s seat like it had been built for him — broad shoulders, steady hands, a presence that made the cab feel smaller and safer at the same time. It made sense that Sara would be drawn to him.
He sure as hell was protective of her.
But was there more?
