Page 31

Then Jake asked, “What was the call-out?”

And just like that, it all came crashing back in.

The riverbank. Warm air making him sweat. The body dragged in from the water by the team of divers. Hours of standing in the aftermath. Directing, deciding, containing. CSI. The pathologist. Uniforms waiting for his word. Briefings. Reports. CCTV requests. Keeping everything clean. Controlled.

Then that irreversible moment when uncertainty led to only one conclusion.

Murder.

He exhaled hard, dragging a hand over his face. “I shouldn’t have…” He stopped himself, closing his eyes for a beat. “I was wired. After the day I’ve had, I just…”

Jake lifted his chin from Harrison’s chest. “Are you about to tell me this was a mistake?”

“No.” Harrison shook his head quickly. “No… though that’s probably what I should say.”

Not because this had been a mistake. Christ, no.

But because he’d come here for something else entirely. Then Jake had opened the door and every carefully arranged thought in his head had scattered. Control. Timing. Professional distance. Gone in the space of a breath. Traded for instinct before he’d even realised it was happening.

He hadn’t come here for this.

He’d come to warn him. Get ahead of it before the town did what towns like Hartswick always did and turned tragedy into gossip before the police even had facts. Jake shouldn’t have the information yet. Couldn’t officially have it. But Harrison had needed him prepared all the same.

A body. Female. Pulled from the river. No identification.

And one possibility sitting beneath it all, dark and unavoidable.

It could be her.

That had been the point of coming here.

Instead, he’d ended up tangled in Jake’s sheets with Jake’s mouth on his, forgetting himself long enough to pretend none of it existed. Guilt hit suddenly, draining the warmth from his chest until all that remained was cold.

Jake exhaled sharply and rolled off of him, landing on his back and dragging the sheet over his naked body as he stared up at the ceiling. The distance between them appeared instantly. Wrong in a way Harrison felt physically.

He hated himself for creating it.

For letting them have something soft and good only to drag reality into the middle of it.

So Harrison owed him something. “The call out was because a body had been found.”

Jake turned sharply, eyes locking onto his.

Harrison knew he wouldn’t immediately think Robyn. And he’d bet Jake wouldn’t even say her name. Because that wasn’t how this worked for him anymore. Thirteen years dulled certain instincts through sheer survival. If Jake let himself believe every tiny bit of police work linked to her, it would’ve destroyed him years ago. So instead Harrison watched him do what grief had taught him to do best: brace first. Hope second.

Jake rolled onto his side, propping himself up on one elbow and rested a hand on Harrison’s stomach. “What sort of body?”

Harrison let out a hollow breath. “A dead one.”

Jake’s silence was absolutely devastating.

Harrison closed his eyes, sliding his hand over Jake’s on his stomach. “Sorry.”

“Copper humour?”

“Inappropriate, I know.”

Jake nodded, chewing his lip.