Page 27 of Abandoned

He glanced at Logan, who was talking about his motorcycle, and then back at her and stretched his hand out and took hers.

Giant bolts of lightning zapped through her arm, leaving her fingers tingling and her heart fighting to regain a sense of normal beating.

Logan slapped the table. “It’s about time.” He looked at Zara. “I’ve been praying this guy would find a woman who would help me keep him out of trouble.”

“You really think I’m going to keep him out of trouble?”

Both guys laughed.

Logan said, “Touché. Well, if not out of trouble, then be his perfect partner in said trouble.”

“That I can handle.”

Logan darted his gaze back and forth between them. “That means I just crashed your date. Why didn’t you tell me to get lost?”

Zara gripped his arm with her free hand. “Because we like you. And what’s a tricycle without a third wheel?”

“I’m not sure how to take that.”

Will said, “Only the good way.”

“Then if we’re a tricycle, that means I’m the front wheel, because clearly you two are attached. So that means I decide where we go. And I say next stop, talk to the detectives about all that you shared with me.”

Zara nodded. “I told them about Ernie last night, but I wouldn’t mind checking in and seeing what they’ve learned. Will?”

“Seems reasonable.”

They paid their bill and left the diner. As they walked out, Zara wondered why Will had seemed so reticent during their meal but had turned around so quickly when she reached out to him.

They stepped off the curb, and Will grabbed Zara’s hand. She gripped his and stepped closer to him. At his truck, he opened the door for her.

“You know, I could get used to this kind of treatment. But it still feels so weird.”

He leaned against the door. “You’re telling me other guys didn’t treat you like a lady?”

“Goodness, no. Although I’m not sure I ever let them either.” She slid onto the seat.

Will stepped closer and brushed a strand of hair from her face. “Then thank you for letting me. You’re a strong, independent woman, and I appreciate the privilege it is to treat you like a lady. Because as much as you can keep up with us guys, you are a woman, not a man, and I very much like that fact.”

Her face warmed, but it wasn’t because it was like a hundred plus degrees inside the vehicle.

Zara walked into the police station between Will and Logan. Once they left the diner, Will had called Doug Ramirez, and he said he and Wyatt were at the station digging for information about any of Zara’s former arrestees who could be a potential suspect.

It was strange going into the station via the front door. She had probably only come in this door her first day and not since, but the detectives’ squad room was right by the main entrance.

As they crossed the lobby, Wyatt walked out of the squad room. “Hey, guys.”

They followed him back, past the captain’s office and into the bullpen where desks were situated in pairs. In the back right corner of the space, a door opened to a conference room.

The room was a bizarre combination of bustling with activity and quiet. A tall detective in a fedora and his short female partner argued in hushed tones near a whiteboard on the window side of the room.

Wyatt led them to a pair of desks in the center of the space. Doug greeted them and leaned back in his chair. “Pull up a seat. Not that we have much to give you.”

Zara sat beside Doug’s desk, but Will and Logan remained standing.

Wyatt sat at his desk. “We heard from the lab, and every fingerprint pulled belong to either you or Cooper.”

“So he wore gloves?” Will asked.