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“You just seemed a little standoffish back there, almost as if you didn’t like her. People don’t usually form such sudden opinions unless they’ve known a person before.”
“Never met her in this lifetime,” he said firmly. “She just rubs me the wrong way.”
“Yes, I saw that,” Cora teased. “Just be glad the captain didn’t.”
Liam gave a dismissive shake of his head. “Let’s have a look at the video footage so we can get on the road.”
Back at Cora’s computer, they watched the grainy, black-and-white video clip of a man in a hooded sweatshirt pulling money from the mini-mart till.
She replayed it two more times before sitting back with a sigh. “There’s no way we can identify him with this. All we’ve got is a male, possibly Caucasian, around six feet tall. It could be you, for goodness’ sake.” She pushed away from the desk. “You weren’t out robbing shops last night while I slept, were you?”
“No,” Liam said absently, examining her computer mouse like he’d never seen it before. He set the mouse on her desk and began rolling it, watching the cursor drag across the screen. “If I were out robbing shops, I wouldn’t be that sloppy.”
“What do you mean?”
“The man didn’t plan it out well.” Now Liam was studying the mouse, turning it over in his hands. For some reason it intrigued him. “He’s got no place to put the money, for one thing. Did you see how he stuffed it down his shirt before running out? What kind of an idiot doesn’t bring a bag to a robbery? And his sweatpants didn’t appear to have pockets. Either he was very drunk, or just very stupid and decided to rob the shop on a whim.” Liam scoffed. “I’d never carry out a robbery like that.”
Cora stared at him. Suddenly, a fragmented memory of a dream she’d had the night before flickered through her mind. Liam in ragged clothes, half-hidden in shadow, climbing over a windowsill. The dream vision of him had been so vivid, she was surprised she’d forgotten it. Even now, she could practically see the ghost of it superimposed over the man beside her.
He put the mouse back on her desk and stood. “Ready to get out of here?”
She blinked. Like morning mist in sunlight, the dream memory evaporated until all Cora saw was him, standing in front of her in his collared shirt and blue jeans. She shook her head to clear it. It was definitely time for caffeine. “Yeah. But first I need—”
“I know, I know,” Liam said with an exaggerated sigh. “Coffee.”
She gave an unapologetic shrug. “Always.”
Questioning the owner of the mini-mart proved to be a dead end. He knew nothing beyond what the video footage conveyed. Cora and Liam visited with the tenants whose apartments were in the vicinity, but no one had seen anything. The mini-mart was in a run-down section of town, and several of the streetlamps were burned out. It wasn’t likely anyone could’ve had a clear view, even if they had witnessed the robbery.
Cora reluctantly walked back to her car with Liam. An entire morning gone, and nothing to show for it. She was just about to suggest lunch when someone about a block away gave a high-pitched screech.
Cora spun around and saw a man in a black hoodie sprinting down the street with a purse in his hand.
“Stop!” An old woman was hollering and pointing after him. “He stole my bag!”
Liam shot off after the man, and Cora followed a split second later.
The man ran for a good two blocks before he turned into the alley between the butcher shop and the pet store. By the time Cora rounded the corner, Liam was already at the end of the alley. There was a tall chain-link fence, so the alley was a dead end. The man was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’d he go?” Cora asked, out of breath. Liam had only been a few seconds behind the man. He couldn’t have climbed the fence that fast.
Liam shook his head, then started back toward her.
Suddenly, a dark figure bolted straight at Cora from behind a dumpster. Instinctively, she raised her hands to block him with her body. He slammed into her with all his weight, trying to get past her. She staggered backward, but stood her ground and gritted out, “You’re not going anywhere.”
She was dimly aware of Liam running toward them, shouting.
“I don’t want any trouble, lady,” the man said. “Out of my way, and no one gets hurt.” He tried to push past her again, but this time she used his momentum to trip him up, twisting at the last second.
The man fell, and she started to reach for her gun.
“You asked for it.” He jumped up and slid something shiny from beneath his sweatshirt. Before Cora had a chance to react, he lunged at her.
Liam was on him before Cora could blink. In one swift move, Liam knocked the knife from the man’s hand and slammed him to the ground with a loud crack. Blood spewed from the man’s broken nose. He began to howl.
Cora took a shaky breath and glanced down at her jacket. The fabric was sliced right over her heart. If Liam’s timing had been one second off...
Liam cuffed the man, then glanced over at her, taking in her shredded jacket. His dark eyes met Cora’s and something powerful passed between them.
She swallowed hard. She couldn’t find words. Just like that, he’d saved her life. Adrenaline pumping, she jerkily reached for her phone, but Liam was already calling it in. He held the man down with a knee to his back, never taking his eyes off Cora’s face.
“You okay?” Liam asked after he’d made the call.
She nodded.
The man continued to howl, but Cora barely heard him. She was too caught up in the feelings at war inside her. Liam had just saved her life. All those things that annoyed her about him were fading away. She felt an odd, fluttery sensation in her chest. Little by little, the adrenaline rush began to wear off, and a warm, melty feeling replaced it. She knew exactly what it was. Trust. She recognized it because it was not something she felt often. Somehow, in just a short amount of time, he’d slid past her normal defenses which shouldn’t have been surprising, since nothing about him felt “normal.” She couldn’t explain her feelings, but she couldn’t deny them, either. For the first time since she’d met him, something began to shift inside her, as if she were making room in her life for him to stay.
