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“Think about this,” she went on. “With that kind of predatory personality, how likely is it he’s just been dormant all this time? He’s had to find some other place to blow off that steam. Has anyone ever checked surrounding counties?”
“Probably not, but I’m sure as hell going to.”
“Leanne had problems with her truck at night and needed help,” Dana went on. “Shannon would have accepted a ride rather than walk all the way down that road.”
Cole raked his fingers through his hair. “You have no idea how much I hope you’re wrong, Dana.”
“Me, too.”
“Being here with you does me a lot of good.”
Her laugh was shaky. “Even if I did add to your bag of troubles?”
“Even if.” Cole rose from the couch and reached a hand to Dana to help her up. “I think we could both use some sleep.”
“You’re right.” She closed her laptop and stacked her papers.
Suddenly, it hit her fully she’d be sleeping under the same roof as this man. A man who pushed every one of her sexual hot buttons. Who starred in her erotic fantasies. She’d come to High Ridge hoping to get past her hang-ups. She just hadn’t expected it to happen quite this way. When she straightened, Cole was right behind her.
“Everything okay in your room?”
“Uh, yes.”
“Good. Well, I’m going to take a shower and get some sleep. Someone’s dropping your car off. I’ll probably be gone when you get up in the morning. I want to be at the office early."
“Then, I guess, um, good night.” What was the matter with her that she was suddenly socially clumsy this way?
****
Cole stood under the shower, letting hot water wash away the stench and grime of the day. Dana puzzled him. There was something skittering beneath the taut professional surface.
Fear. Panic. Maybe both. Whatever it was, it wasn’t from something recent. An old wound that was festering perhaps or maybe a recent scab that had been torn away.
He thought about the few kisses they’d shared. Not mild by any means. Incendiary. But there again, something wasn’t right. Oh, she’d responded at first, but then quickly withdrew behind a wall he couldn’t breach.
He let his mind wander as he dried off and toweled his hair. Had she been raped? Had an abusive relationship? He dismissed either option out of hand. Those signs were different. He’d seen enough of them to know what to look for. He was just damn glad he hadn’t blurted out the details of his erotic dream.
He pulled on a pair of sweatpants, jerking them up over his hips, then grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste. He stared at himself in the mirror while he brushed his teeth, but it wasn’t his image he was seeing.
Dana.
She devoted herself to finding answers for other unsolved crimes, hoping to ease the pain of her own life. And after all this time, something had happened to push her to confront her past. A failed relationship? More than one?
Something about this case triggered whatever she was hiding. He was convinced that at some time she’d been a victim herself. Was that what drove her? Was that why she was so interested in the old cases? If that was true, he wondered how she could stand to be in the same room with a man at all.
Hadn’t she had therapy of any kind to help her?
His last thought as he fell asleep was that, despite everything, Dana Moretti had gotten to him. Something was going on between them, and he wasn’t going to just let her walk away before he figured out what it was. If this thing between them was to move forward, he needed to find the answer. He also knew it wouldn’t be easy.
****
A scream woke Cole as abruptly as a flood of ice water. He sat straight up in bed, the hair standing up on his arms. Had he imagined it? No! There it was again.
Had someone broken in? Attacked Dana? He threw back the covers and ran to the room she was in, banging open the door. She was alone but sitting straight up in bed, her body rigid, head thrown back, the scream still echoing in the air.
Cole took a deep breath and tried to calm his out-of-control heartbeat as he approached the bed slowly. Her eyes were wild, unseeing, and the muscles in her neck stood out.
“Dana?” He lowered himself to the bed next to her, gently touching her shoulders. “Dana, honey? Wake up. You’re dreaming.”
