Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(34)

Even the mention of Pat Donovan made Shauna want to cringe. How she’d ever fallen for the man, she would never know. But her mother was right. She had been hiding from a relationship because she didn’t trust herself.

“He’s not Irish,” she said now to her mother. She didn’t really plan to debate the merits of dating Zach Reynolds with her mother, but hoped to get her ma off on a different track.

Her father came back into the room carrying a large box that she would guess contained food for her to bring back to the station with her. He grunted a dismissal of what she’d just said. “After what you went through with that Donovan fellow, we’ll make allowances.”

Shauna grinned. She knew just how to get to her dad. “His last name is Reynolds, pop. I’m pretty sure his family traces back to England.”

Her dad put a hand over his heart. “Don’t say it, girl, I can’t handle that much.”

Her mother laughed. “There were Reynolds families in Ireland. Maybe he’s got a bit of Irish blood in him.”

Shauna rolled her eyes and stood. She’d managed to eat her burger and most of the fries. “I have to get back.”

Her father pushed the box down the bar toward her. “Sandwiches and chips. I’d have made them burgers and fries, but they wouldn’t last the drive. These’ll keep.”

Shauna hugged her parents goodbye with promises to touch base by phone when she could throughout the investigation. She just prayed this investigation would be over soon. She didn’t know if she could stand to see the body of another slain girl.





Chapter Twenty-three





Zach looked up from where he was currently devouring the best sandwich he’d ever tasted and groaned at Shauna. “Tell me you can bring more of these.”

“Every day.” Ronan said. “Please say you’ll bring them every day.”

Zach and Ronan and a few of the other detectives in the squad had descended on Shauna the minute she’d come into the room with a box that smelled like heaven. There was no doubt it had contained food and he kind of liked that she didn’t bat an eye when they all started fighting for the wax-paper wrapped bundles.

“Please?” Zach pled around a mouthful of food. Okay, so he wasn’t the most gracious guy in the world and his manners sort of sucked. He was a cop. “I think it’s the seasoning that makes it so good. It’s like some magic combination of happy...” he struggled for the words... “happy goodness.”

Detective Jepsen walked up, peering in the box. “No one saved me one?”

There was a collective snort from the detectives. No one would save Jepsen anything. The man was an asshole of epic proportions. On the street, they’d have his back when he was in danger if for no other reason than he was a fellow cop. In a fight for sandwiches? Hell no.

Shauna shook her head, but her expression showed pleased pride. “It’s the bread. My brother makes it every morning.” She scrunched her face. “And the seasoning mix doesn’t hurt—that goes onto the turkey my other brother roasts several times a week—but there’s also the tapenade. I’m pretty sure it’s the tapenade that counts the most.”

“What’s tapenade?” Zach and Ronan asked in near unison.

“Olive spread.”

“I’m in love,” Zach said.

Shauna looked a little mortified and he grinned and winked at her before reaching for the bag of chips Jepsen had just tried to steal. Zach didn’t bother to assure her he’d been talking about being in love with the sandwich. He liked the way her cheeks heated at the mention of love.

He liked a hell of a lot of things about her. And he wasn’t too stupid to recognize that this time his feelings went past what he’d liked about her last time. It wasn’t just the way her eyes heated when she was passionate about something or the way her body filled out even the drabbest detective pants and blouse. It wasn’t the way his body hardened anytime he got within reach of her.

He was drawn to her mind, the way she worked the puzzles of a case. The way she genuinely cared about the people they were trying to protect, and those they could only hope to get justice for now. He was drawn to the way she could help them laugh when things got to be too heavy, and he would swear she seemed to calm him when he wanted to put his fist through a wall at some of the shit they were hearing and seeing on this case.

He liked everything he saw in her. Everything about being around her.

“I was thinking,” she said as she leaned back in his desk chair. He liked the way she looked sitting there.

Zach forced the other images from his mind. Ones of her sitting in his bed. Leaning back on the pillow, hair tousled and cheeks flushed. It was the last thing he needed to be thinking about at the moment.

Shauna continued, and he hoped that meant she couldn’t tell where his thoughts had been. “I know my team has been looking at the cold cases, but I think we need to take a look at them, too. There has to be a connection between the victims of thirty years ago and the ones we’re seeing now. I think we’ve been too focused on the crimes that are happening now.”

She seemed almost apologetic, as though she understood there were girls being murdered in the here and now and didn’t want to take the focus off them.

Ronan looked like he might argue, but Zach jumped in. “What did you guys find was the victimology in your cases?”