Harlequin Intrigue April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Carol Ericson (short books to read TXT) 📖

“What? You didn’t like the peanut butter, jelly and nacho chip sandwiches?” A hint of a smile broke through the haunted emptiness in her features. Visibly fighting to stay steady on her feet, she shuffled back through the hallway toward the bedrooms. Three steps. Four. She stopped just past the office off to the left and turned her head over one shoulder, a shadow of the woman who’d led the Oregon division to the highest closing office in the country. “Thank you. For getting me out of there. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to find the exit to the lava tubes if you hadn’t come for me.”

The biological part of him wanted to close the short space between them, to help her forget everything she’d endured and to smooth the rough edges of the emotions that’d broken through to the surface in that hospital bed. Instead, he curled his fingers into the center of his palms to keep himself in place. “You were there for me when I needed you. It’s about time I returned the favor.”

Remi nodded once then continued down the hallway. A door clicked closed, and the sound of water hitting tile echoed through the house.

Dylan stared at the corner she’d vanished behind as his own pain reminded him a slug had been dug from his side less than twenty-four hours ago. The bullet itself had been sent to the forensics lab to see if it matched any other crimes in the database, but he didn’t think anything significant would come back. Whoever’d abducted Remi had been too careful these past two years. He’d murdered twenty-six people before Watson had made a connection to the same killer. The bastard wasn’t going to let a single bullet bring him down, and Dylan doubted the prints from Remi’s phone would yield any useful results, either.

He dragged himself into the kitchen and wrenched open the oversize fridge to see what the former FBI bomb technician had stocked. The pain flared again. Nothing compared to the agony Remi had shouldered these past few hours after insisting she be discharged against doctor’s orders. The doctor had sent her home with pain meds, but Dylan knew her. She’d only see the pills as a hindrance to solving the case.

Dylan pulled a fresh head of broccoli from one of the drawers, a bag of spinach, a cube of butter and sharp cheese from the fridge. He studied the selection of pasta in the pantry before choosing small shells for his plan. “Cheese solves everything.”

He made quick work of shredding the block of cheese, poured a cup of milk and started boiling the pasta. Pure comfort food, and exactly what they both needed to get through the night. Mixing it all together in a single pot, he caught the sound of bare footsteps padding down the hallway. He took the homemade mac and cheese with broccoli and spinach off the stove and divided it between two large ceramic cereal bowls he’d found at the back of one of the cabinets. “Hope you’re hungry.”

He lifted his gaze to her and froze, pot in hand.

Lean muscle shaped curves along her calves and thighs below a pair of running shorts, and his mouth dried. The oversize T-shirt sponged water from her long, wet hair and did nothing to hide the outline of gauze underneath. Any thoughts he’d had of dinner instantly vanished. His gut flexed. Damn, she was beautiful, as though she’d been designed just for him.

“You’re staring,” she said.

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you in anything less than your standard uniform of long-sleeved shirts and boots. Can you blame me?” The heat from the pot registered, and Dylan tossed it onto the kitchen island. The loud reverberating sound of metal on granite shot through him. “Sorry. I... I didn’t expect—”

“That I didn’t sleep in my holster and Kevlar? I tried. It’s not very comfortable. I had to settle for keeping my gun under my pillow and my vest beside the bed.” A smile tugged at the edges of her mouth, and his heart jerked in his chest. When was the last time he’d seen her smile? Had he ever? Her bare feet stuck to the hardwood slightly as she entered the kitchen. She pressed her hands into the granite, accentuating the long tendons in her forearms beneath the tattoos. The block letters branded across her forearm ended just above her wrist. “It smells good.”

“The carbs and fats will help you recover faster, but veggies are an important food group.” He pushed a bowl toward her and turned to extract two forks from one of the drawers. Handing one off to her, he dove into his own portion, and nearly melted in exhaustion right there in the middle of the floor.

“You seem to know your way around a kitchen. Why don’t I remember that?” She forked a large bite into her mouth, careful of the split in her lip. A thin string of cheese flattened along her chin, and he reached up, slowly, to wipe it away. Her eyes widened as she stopped chewing, and the whole world seemed to stop right then.

Heat coiled through him as he envisioned closing that small distance between them, but Remi had made it clear before. Nothing would happen between them as long as they were working together, and he’d never been one to change the chief’s mind. He forced himself to take a step back. “I don’t think we got that far. You and I both know what we had in Delaware was nothing more than stress relief from the case. It worked. We didn’t need much else.”

“Is that what you really thought of us?” she asked. “That we were taking advantage of each other?”

“As far as I knew.” Dylan took another bite to give himself long enough to process the change in her tone. One of the conditions she’d laid out when he’d joined her team