to hers.
He remained quietly calm, which she greatly admired. She wanted to be quietly calm. And he smelled good. How she could notice such a thing was beyond her, but he smelled yummy and looked even yummier with that hair tousled just enough that she wanted to run her fingers through it.
“You’re staring at me,” he murmured.
A short, mirthless laugh escaped her. “Sorry.”
What he did next surprised her. He reached out and took her hand in his.
She stared down at their entwined fingers, his long and tanned, work-roughened. And warm. So wonderfully warm. She pictured them gliding over the parts of her that were chilled, imagined how that would feel, and shivered again.
“You really should have let me go up there,” he said, cranking up the heat.
“No, it’s all right.”
“Or called the police.”
“If I’d called the police the two times you’d wanted me to tonight, I’d probably be at the station being held for a psych eval.”
His silence was his agreement, and she sighed again. The rain had picked up even more, if that was possible, and when a large truck came at them, splashing copious amounts of water across the windshield, Shayne let go of her hand to put both of his on the steering wheel, fighting the slick road and wind.
Feeling frozen from the inside out, she slipped her hands into her coat pockets-
And went still as stone.
Oh, God. “S-Shayne?”
Still fighting the road, he didn’t glance over. “Yeah?”
Heart kicking into full gear, she slowly pulled out what she’d found…
A gun.
Cool to the touch, surprisingly lightweight, it gleamed in her hand. As if it being lightweight was her biggest worry. Unable to believe she hadn’t felt it in her pocket, she just stared at it. “Um, Shayne?”
He glanced over and executed a double take. “
She held it in the air between them as if it were a ticking bomb. “A g-gun?”
“Why are you holding a gun, Dani?”
“I don’t know!”
“Okay.” Watching her as if she was a spitting cobra, he nudged it aside. “Which is infinitely better than saying ‘I’m going to use it on you, Shayne.’”
“You thought I-
With the same slow care he’d have given the snake, he reached out and took it from her, then let out a long breath. “That’s better.”
“I wasn’t going to-Is it real?”
“Oh yeah.” He was staring at the gun in his fingers. “Definitely real.”
“Oh God.” She couldn’t even wrap her mind around it. “
“Yeah, now see, I was kinda hoping you were going to tell me that story.” He held the gun with just his thumb and first finger, clearly trying not to get any more fingerprints than absolutely necessary on it now that he understood it wasn’t hers.
And thank God he understood. She had to give it to him for his composed, relaxed nature. He hadn’t freaked.
Which was good because she was freaking enough for the both of them. “It isn’t mine,” she whispered. “I swear it.”
Leaning past her, he opened his glove box and pulled out a small towel, which he used to hold the gun. Then he did something to it, and a part of it clicked open.
He was checking to see if it was loaded, she realized, and leaning in, she caught a flash of a bullet.
Oh, God. She covered her mouth with a shaking hand.
It was loaded.
Their eyes met, Shayne’s grim and determined as he wrapped up the gun.
“It was loaded,” she said very softly.
“Yes.”
“I could have shot off my own foot with it in my pocket like that.”
“Yeah.”
She swallowed hard. “I could have-”
“But you didn’t.”
Right. She’d focus on that. But she had to swallow again. “Do you think it’s the same gun that I saw someone use tonight? At Sky High?”
He closed his eyes briefly and rubbed his forehead. “What does it say about the way the night has gone that I actually forgot about that part of the evening?”
“That it’s been a long one?”
He opened his eyes and shook his head. “If it’s the same gun, and it’s not yours-”
“It’s not!”
“Then someone wanted it to look like yours.”
She just stared at him.
Swearing softly, he shifted in his seat to more fully face her. He put his hands on her arms, and she could tell by the look on his face that she wasn’t going to like what he said next.
“Dani, my brother is a cop, a detective, high up in the ranks-”
“Shayne-”
“No, listen to me. There’s something going on. What you saw tonight at Sky High, whatever happened in your apartment, and now this. It’s time for help.”
Staring into his face, she saw the concern there. Not for himself, but for her. And somehow that reached her. “I really did try to convince myself I imagined it all.”
“Well, you didn’t imagine the gun.”
“No.”
“Dani, we have to call the cops. It might as well be Patrick, who can-”
“Yes.” Her hands went to his chest, because he was solid. He was a solid piece of ground beneath her as she balanced on a spinning, out-of-control world. “I…” She closed her eyes. “I need help. Your help.”
Silently agreeing, he pulled out his cell phone and hit a number. “Patrick. Yeah, it’s Shayne. I have a problem.” He listened, then rolled his eyes. “No, I didn’t call you to take care of a speeding ticket-Look, it’s complicated. You available? Good.” His eyes cut to Dani. “I’m on the 134, between Victory and Zoo Drive, and there’s a gun-That’s right, a gun. It was found in the coat pocket of…”
But that’s not what he said. “A friend.”
Dani let out the breath she’d been holding and resisted the urge to hug him. He wasn’t a
“She’s never seen it before,” Shayne was saying. “And just a little while ago, she thought someone might be inside her place-Yes, we’ll wait here for you.” He gave his brother the address, then slipped the phone back into his pocket and looked at her.
She tried to smile, but couldn’t, so she gave up. “Now we wait?”
He nodded, still holding her gaze in that way he had that convinced her that not only could he read her mind, but he could see right through her.
Inside her.
To the real Dani Peterson, the one who felt more comfortable in pj’s than a fancy dress, the one who scooped elephant poop for a job and wouldn’t know a Prada item if it bit her on the ass.
