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He chuckled. “Not in these conditions. Besides, I like my legs.” He adopted the limp all the way across the parking lot.
She compressed her lips, trying to hold back laughter, but his antics were too much and she cracked. “If you plan to sue the government for bodily harm, you don’t stand a chance. The hotel cameras surely caught you putting on the act.”
He dragged his leg so dramatically that it was a wonder he stayed upright at all.
“I’d like to see you slip and fall on your ass right now.”
“See? I told you…cold. Ice-cold.” His eyes twinkled with a look that was the complete opposite of his words.
Once they were on the road for a couple miles, he flipped on his turn signal to take an exit.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
He threw her a look. “We’re grabbing breakfast.”
“We’re about to give statements on the dead person we found. How can you eat?”
“I’m hungry.”
“You’re not even a little bit bothered by what we’re going to get into with forensics?”
“As a living person, I eat, Alexia. I’m alive. To stay alive, I have to eat. And so do you.”
Her stomach lurched at the thought of food. Each time she closed her eyes, she still saw that body. Maybe that was why sleeping with Bryson was so appealing—it washed away some of that horror and replaced it with something that made her feel alive and comforted at the same time.
She had to question the reason she was so affected by this particular case. She was no rookie. She’d seen worse.
She stole a peek at Bryson. Maybe it was the fact thathewas so close to it all that made her almost want to stop looking for answers and put the case to bed—for the sake of his niece and for the man who’d let her see how broken he was over it.
She always stayed aware that these investigations involved real people with families and people who loved them. But until now, she hadn’t been so close to one of them.
While they ordered breakfast sandwiches to go, neither of them spoke. There was none of the teasing banter that lovers shared after a night in each other’s arms.
Following that toe-curling, panty-melting kiss back in the room, Bryson was all business. They ate while they drove the icy roads that led back to Kelsey and Caden’s home.
By the time they arrived, the forensics team was pulling in behind them, and she powered into work mode.
She walked through the house and around the property with the team while they gathered more evidence, most of which came from the woods. As she dealt with them, she threw a glance across the yard to Bryson.
A couple local police officers approached him. One look at the tense lines of Bryson’s shoulders told her that he wasnothappy with whatever they said to him.
He sliced a hand through the air in a sharp gesture before swinging to look her way. From this distance, she couldn’t make out his eyes but it was clear to her that something was going down.
She excused herself from the head of the forensics team and strode over to Bryson.
“What’s going on?” she asked as she approached.
“They expect us to go into town with them and answer questions.”
She felt the waves of anger rolling off him. Could the cops feel it too? Seeking to calm him down, she closed the gap between their bodies. While she refrained from touching him, she hoped that he gathered some calm from her.
Now what made her even think that she could impact him in such a way? He was a freakin’ special operator—he didn’t need soothing. He needed to hit something.
Or someone.
Hopefully not one of the cops.
She let the back of her hand brush against his fist and instantly felt his fingers unfurl and the backs of his fingers press against hers.
