Page 70 of Target Acquired

“Tracy, yes, I know,” she said.

The distaste in her voice almost made him smile. “Yeah. I liked her a lot. I’m not going to say I loved her, but I definitely cared about her. The truth is, she used me to further her own career and that hurt. Made me mad.”

“And suspicious of me? Did you wonder if I’d use your friendship with my brother to get you to make things easier for me?”

“Maybe a little in the beginning, but as time went on and you were obviously determined not to accept any help whatsoever, it didn’t take me long to realize you weren’t like Tracy.”

Anger flickered in her gaze, then fizzled. “No, I’m not. I’m glad you can see that.”

“When it comes to . . . certain situations . . . I make light of those that get to me. Make it seem like they don’t matter. When in reality, they matter more than I want to admit.”

She stayed quiet for a moment. “So, you’re saying when you almost kissed me in the hospital, it did mean something.”

“Yeah. It did.”

She blew out a low breath. “Thank you for admitting that. I didn’t like the thoughts I was having about you when you said it meant nothing.”

He winced. “I don’t blame you for the thoughts. But I was also worried that it was a wrong move in the sense that I’m your supervisor. It could be construed as taking advantage of you. And I never want to put either of us in that position ever again. It’s not fair to you at all.”

She sighed. “I get it. You don’t have to say anything else. It’s all good. We’ll just be coworkers and friends, all right?”

Relief and something else he refused to identify swept through him. “Right. Perfect. Thank you.”

“That was really hard for you, wasn’t it?”

“You have no idea.”

Kenzie tucked stray strands of hair behind her ear. “Well, it’s late and I’m ready to get some rest.”

He knew a dismissal when he heard one. He glanced at his phone. “Officer Butte is here and watching the house. Get some rest and I’ll call you after my coffee date in the morning with Sherry.”

She nodded, walked to the door, and held it open. Cole walked through it, wondering why it was so hard to do so. He acknowledged the officer with a wave and turned back to Kenzie. “Night, Kenzie.”

“Night, friend.”

The slight emphasis on that last word made him wince, but she shot him a tired smile before she shut the door with a definitive click, then the deadbolt slid home.

SEVENTEEN

Kenzie wanted to sleep. She was tired, but sleep was a couple hours off and she now had time to circle back to her mother’s death. She’d been avoiding thinking about it even while it was never far from her mind. She’d give just about anything to be at that meeting in the morning with Cole, but she promised to stay out of it, so she would.

She took out her phone and saw the string of text messages and groaned. Kristine, Lainie, James, Jesslyn, Allison, and Steph had all sent her messages asking if she was okay.

She tapped a response to the group.

I’m fine. Cole just left. Now I’m going to start going through my grandmother’s storage room because it’s about time and I HAVE the time.

Or she could go put in some hours at the hospital, but her side was sore and she frankly just didn’t want to. She hadn’t had a moment to herself in a while, so some alone time might be a good thing.

Want some help?

I can come help.

Help is just a text away.

She grinned at the responses and a wave of gratitude washed over her. She shot back a text to say thanks and she’d let them know. So this was what it felt like to have a community of friends, people who had her back and were concerned about her well-being. She’d hoped she’d find that with the guys in the unit. Hadn’t really expected to in the beginning, but had hoped that by now they’d trust her and have her back.

Unfortunately, real life was different from the television shows that had women on their SWAT teams. The guys still didn’t consider her an integral part of the team. No matter that she’d proved herself over and over. She glanced at her phone once more and took a deep breath. It didn’t matter. As long as she had this group. That had kept her going more than once over the last six months.