overwhelmed her. Her being together with him, finally and completely, had been the culmination of years of her intense, one-sided attraction.
And last night they had made love on a blanket under the stars. Even though a bottle of chilled white wine had played a part in their loss of inhibition, the moon shining down on their bare skin had been magic. Jackson had undressed her. And his strong hands and warm mouth had stirred a passion she’d never felt before.
She never felt closer to him than she had last night, and she’d been certain that he felt the same, until this morning, after she’d awakened alone.
“There’s something I want you to do with me,” he told her. “You may not want to. And I’ll understand if you can’t . . .”
Before he finished, she let him off the hook and stroked his windswept hair. He’d become her addiction, and she couldn’t resist touching him.
“What is it?” she asked.
He swallowed hard as he stared at the ocean, but eventually he turned toward her, giving her his full attention with his intense green eyes.
“I have the ashes of my wife and child here on the island with me. I’ve kept them here. And I haven’t been able to let them go.” When his words caught in his throat, and his eyes filled with tears, he reached for her hands and held them in his. “But I think with you here, I can do that now. Will you . . . help me?”
Alexa had no words. She pulled him into her arms with tears of her own rolling down her cheeks. She knew how hard it would be for him to finally let go. And since she’d never been the type who wore rose-colored glasses, she also knew Jackson Kinkaid was far from whole.
But he’d asked her to help him deal with his grief. And that had to count for something.
Alexa woke up the next morning, listening to the sounds of Kinkaid’s heart beating in the quiet. It was a sound she could get used to. Feeling his warm bare skin next to hers was addictive.
She ran a finger through the curly hairs of his chest. And when she saw his strong hands lying across his stomach, she remembered how gentle they had been when he spread the ashes of his wife and child in the ocean at dusk last night. The ebb and flow of the salt water at their bare feet had reflected the brilliant orange of the sunset. That memory would stay with her forever. He said his good-byes, as he spoke aloud to them, making her a part of his ceremony. And when it was over, she felt as if she’d lost her family, too.
They didn’t make love last night. Without saying a word, they held each other and listened to the waves edging the shore until it lulled them both to sleep.
By morning, she could have stayed in bed forever, but when her cell phone rang, she felt compelled to answer it. Being with Kinkaid felt like she’d dropped off the planet. That was a good thing. She’d never felt so relaxed, but when her phone rang, she had to answer it.
“Hello.”
“Alexa, it’s me.”
She recognized Jessie’s voice. She wasn’t used to having a partner as aloof as Jessie was. So for her to call out of the blue, it took Alexa by surprise.
“You still on your trip?” Alexa kept her voice low as she left the bedroom, trying not to wake Jackson. She slipped into a light robe and went outside to walk the beach.
“No, I’m heading back now. Harper says hello.”
Alexa grinned. “I knew he had something to do with your great escape. You get things taken care of? Is everything okay?”
With a strange silence on the phone, Alexa waited for Jessie to answer.
“Yeah, I guess. But I’ve got something to tell you.”
“Oh?”
“I made a decision, and it feels right.”
“What did you decide, Jess?”
Alexa braced herself. She had no idea what Jessie would say.
“I decided to move back to Chicago. Seth asked me to move in with him, and I’m gonna do it.”
“That’s . . . great, I think. You still gonna be my partner?”
“Yeah, sure. Of course.” Jessie cleared her throat. “Who’s gonna watch your ass if it’s not me?”
“Good point.” Alexa grinned. “Well, I’m happy for you.”
“What do you think Garrett will say? Both of you recruited me. And I think he wanted me to like New York more than I did. What can I say? I’m a Midwest girl.”
Alexa hated to think about Jessie moving back to Chicago just as they were becoming closer as partners, but she heard the joy in her voice and knew she was doing the right thing.
“You leave Garrett to me. I got you into this. And I’m glad you’re still my partner. When will you get back to New York?”
“Tomorrow. I’ll call you. We’ve got catching up to do.”
“Uh, I won’t be there. I took a personal trip of my own, but I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Yeah, sure.” Before Jessie ended the call, she said, “Hey, Alexa? I just wanted you to know that I’m happy you recruited me. Working a real job for Garrett and having Seth in my life, I feel like I’ve turned a corner, you know?”
Alexa knew about turning corners. “Yeah, I do. And I’m glad you’re happy, Jessie. See you soon.”
As she walked along the shore, Alexa turned toward Jackson’s house, feeling the ocean breeze on her face. Hearing Jessie sounding so happy had been contagious. When her phone rang again, so soon after her partner’s call, she had a grin on her face when she answered.
“What did you forget now, partner?”
She heard a soft sniffle on the phone, and a woman came on the line, “Honey, is that you, Alexa?”
She recognized the voice of Tanya Spencer.
“Yeah, Tanya, it’s me. What’s up?”
“I’ve got some bad news, baby girl. And this time, it’s for real.” From the sounds of it, Tanya was crying. And it took a lot to make that woman break down. “You’ve got to come home, honey. I can’t do this without you.”
“Talk to me, Tanya. Tell me what happened.”
Garrett’s memorial service was in three days, but Alexa had come back early to help Tanya with the arrangements. Because of the severity of the explosion, his body had never been found. They’d only found enough DNA to make ID, but that was all they had.
Alexa thought about the lie Donovan Cross had once told her about Garrett being dead. Had Donovan Cross been predicting an outcome he would have something to do with, or had his lie been a coincidental guess? In the covert world she lived in, coincidences were always suspicious. And that left her raging against the man who had taken Garrett’s job—and most probably, his life.
Jackson had come back to New York with her. He was sleeping in her bed, still weak from his ordeal. But when she couldn’t sleep, she got up and slipped on a robe before she crept into her living room to pour a shot of single-malt scotch. Sitting in the dark, she drank and lost count of how many she’d had as she stared out her window to the park across the street.
She couldn’t get her head wrapped around Garrett being dead. His smile, his face, his eyes were still fresh in her memory. How could his death be real? And yet this time she felt it was.
When her glass was empty, she went to refill it, but a shadow under her threshold caught her eye. And when she heard a soft swish and saw something slide under her front door, she went for her gun.
Armed, she kept the light off and reached for the door handle. Before she opened it, she listened for any sounds coming from the hallway. When she didn’t hear anything, she flung open the door and aimed her weapon.
No one was in the hall, but someone had definitely been there.
She stepped back inside to find an envelope on her floor. After she flipped the dead bolt, she picked up the note, using her robe to hold it, not wanting to contaminate any evidence if it came to that. She dropped the note on
