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Lee was standing in the kitchen with his fists at his hips and he watched this exchange, his mouth set.
I noticed, belatedly, that Lee had already showered that morning. His dark hair was still slightly damp, curling a bit along his neck and behind his ear. I also noted he needed a haircut, but it looked good on him. Very good. Too good. He wore supremely faded jeans and a red T-shirt that was tight in all the right places. His feet were bare.
When I got within reaching distance, his arm shot out and pulled me to him with a hand hooked around my neck. My front pretty much slammed against his side and his arm curled further around my shoulders. From the blood draining out of Matt’s face, I’d say that Lee’s point had been made. If he banged on his chest and grunted, “Indy, my woman,” he wouldn’t have made the point any better.
Men.
Lee introduced the other guy as Bobby and then said, “We’ve found Duke.”
My stomach clenched and my body tensed. At that point I simply could not handle bad news, especially about Duke.
I tilted my head to look up at Lee and before I could control my reaction and not look like a total girl in front of the guys, I breathed, “Please.”
Lee’s eyes went that melty-chocolate again as he looked at me and his hand went from my shoulder to stroke my jaw.
“He’s fine, took a bender detour to Sturgis. He’s been briefed and he’s on his way home now.”
That sounded like Duke. Only Duke would detour from the Western Slope of Colorado to South Dakota for a bender.
The door buzzer rang and I disengaged from Lee to answer it. It was Hank.
Hank smiled his greeting at the door and we walked in, his arm slung around my shoulders.
“I guess you were wrong about being broken up with Lee by your dad’s barbeque,” he teased.
My eyes shot to Lee and his eyebrows went up.
Oopsie.
“Yeah, guess I was wrong,” I muttered.
Hank dropped his arm and looked at Lee, no more teasing, all business.
“We gotta talk about last night.”
“Yeah?” Lee said.
“Anyone want coffee?” I asked.
Hank’s eyes slid to me then back to Lee.
“Maybe we should go into the Command Center,” Hank said.
Lee’s lips twitched at Hank’s reference to the Command Center, but he said, “You can talk in front of Indy.”
Hank quickly sucked some breath into his nose, and then on an exhalation said, “I was afraid of that.”
I passed coffee all around. Everyone took it black except me. Once I accomplished this, I jumped up on the counter to listen.
Hank started in after I settled.
“They think they caught a break. Shubert had been dead more than a day. Looks professional, but they found fresh blood at the scene. Whoever broke in cut themselves at the window. They’re hoping that the killer went back in search of something.”
Without thinking, I looked to my shoulder, where I’d landed on the glass, pulling back my tee to see if I’d been cut. I hadn’t noticed any cuts or felt any, but the time since the break-in had been pretty filled up with emotional mayhem. A cut could go unnoticed.
Then it hit me how very,verystupid I was and I turned, slowly, back to the men.
Lee had a hand at his waist, the other one holding the mug and he was looking at his feet. I was pretty sure he was trying not to smile (at least I hoped so). Matt and Bobby, who were undoubtedly recruited for clean up last night and knew the whole story, were both watching me and smiling, flat out.
