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Luke put his feet up on the table. “So let’s assume there wasn’t an insider helping out. How else could he have gotten the code?”
“A source at the alarm company?”
“Huh. I kinda like that idea. But it still puts him in an identifiable position, if you assume he’s using the same guy every time. Did we already check on the alarm company?”
“Yep,” Simone said. “Three different companies for the last four robberies.”
“Shit. But you know what? Maybe these days he doesn’t need any inside help. Maybe he could just set down a tiny camera in the back room to record the code. That would take, what? Two seconds?”
Simone nodded, but she shifted again and eased her hand behind the small of her back. Luke frowned until she shot him an irritated look. “What?”
“You’re not having Braxton Hicks, are you?”
“What?”
“It’s early yet. You should call your doctor.”
“Um, Luke? Have you lost your mind?”
“Look, I’m sorry. I know you don’t want me involved, but I can’t just prete
nd you’re not pregnant. And if you’re starting to have contractions, then—”
“I’m not having contractions. My back hurts. That’s all.”
“Sometimes back labor can masquerade as—”
“Are you kidding?” she interrupted with a screech. “Since when do you know anything about back labor or Braxton Hicks?”
“I’ve…read stuff.” Luke didn’t like the way she was staring at him, and now he was the one shifting in his chair.
“You’ve read stuff. About pregnancy.”
“Let’s get back to the case.” He bent over the computer and pretended to study the satellite map, but Simone pushed to her feet with surprising speed and headed toward his bedroom.
“Hey!” Luke jumped up and chased after her, but she was more agile than she’d been in weeks, and Simone slipped into his bedroom before he was even halfway down the hall. “Hey!” he shouted again. At first, he was mostly worried he’d missed one of the condom packets from this morning. Or that Tessa had left some lacy thing behind on his bed.
But when he finally burst into the room, he found that Simone had ignored the rumpled bed and was standing at the small desk under the window. She picked up a book and turned it over, then reached for another.
“You’re reading baby books?” Her soft voice swelled through the room and pressed against his brain.
“They were on a table at the front of the bookstore,” he said, but that was only a half-truth. Yes, the first book he’d bought had been an impulse buy. But the second and third and fourth had been a mission. Luckily, half of his purchases were still at the office.
She flipped one open and paged through it, then set both books down with a sigh. “You can’t do this, Luke,” she whispered.
“Do what?”
Simone just shook her head and edged past him to head for the door. But this time he was on her heels. “Do what, Simone?”
She snapped her computer closed and stuffed it in her bag, but he followed her all the way to the front door. Her hand touched the doorknob, but then she stopped and slumped. “You can’t save me from this, okay? You can’t fix this.”
“Aw, hell, Simone. I don’t even know what I’d be saving you from. Maybe the dad’s in the picture. Maybe he’s not. Maybe you went to a damn sperm bank. I don’t care anymore, all right? I just want to help.”
“You can’t help.”
“Yes, I can! Everybody has help. Women have husbands and sisters and moms and friends. I just… Maybe you have girlfriends. Maybe there are five women at your house every night making sure you know about preeclampsia and…and early labor, but I don’t think there are.”
“Luke…” She dropped her head and stared at the floor for too many heartbeats. When she pressed her hand to her eyes he worried she was crying, but he made himself hold his ground. He wasn’t going to back down. She needed him, whether she wanted to admit it or not.
