Page 85 of Target Acquired

Be strong, my love, I’m coming.

TWENTY-TWO

PRESENT DAY

Cole shut his laptop and rubbed his eyes. Three quiet days had passed since they’d implemented the plan, and Kenzie seemed to be feeling back to normal. They’d had two legitimate calls in the three days, and Magic Man had taken the call that was over two hours from Kenzie’s house. They’d alternated “bodyguard duty” for Kenzie and it had worked well. No attacks on the team had occurred, but Cole wasn’t ready to drop his guard. He just didn’t know where to look next. The guy was lying low, which was good. But not.

At least they’d all been able to work on other cases they had to stay on top of outside of their SWAT duties. Cole had made great progress on several and thought he’d be closing them out before too long.

Unfortunately, that didn’t include Kenzie’s father’s cold case, and the man had been about as accusing and belligerent as one could be. Kenzie had finally quit looking at her phone. More so than usual.

“You’re thinking hard there, my friend,” James said around a bite of a chicken biscuit. Cowboy and Greene had ridden up the road to a fast-food place and returned with breakfast.

“Just can’t believe how quiet it’s been.”

“You trying to jinx it?”

“I don’t believe in that and neither do you.”

“Nope, I don’t.”

Footsteps pounded up the stairs and Butler joined them at the table, grabbing two of the biscuits from the plate. “All the weapons are clean, I changed the oil in Dolly, I’ve even shined my boots.” He sighed and leaned back to stare at the ceiling. “Can we get any more bored?”

“Be grateful for it and work on the cases stacked on your desk—or laptop.”

“I’ve done that too, of course. Closed three of them with about a hundred phone calls and sent officers to make the arrests. Where are the other guys?”

Greene and Otis chose that moment to come in the front door after a short run. Otis headed straight for his water bowl while Greene grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and three biscuits from the plate.

Kenzie walked in, looked around, took a deep breath, and did a one-eighty. Cole rose and followed her into the sunroom—the only unoccupied space in her house. She sat on the wicker sofa and pulled her knees up to rest her chin on them.

He shut the door behind him. “How are you feeling?”

“Antsy. I have too much protection. He’s not going to make a move with all of you here. The hospital is wondering when I’m going to come back to work and I don’t have an answer, which sits well with no one. I haven’t left my house in three days and I’m about to climb a wall.”

“Well, you got most of the storage room cleaned out and we hauled everything off for you. So that’s progress, right?”

She shot him a small smile tinged with weariness. “Yes. True. I just have a few more boxes and my grandmother’s trunk to go through.”

And she needed a distraction. “Well, the next call is yours if you want it. You’re officially back on duty.”

Her eyes widened. “I want it.”

She said it so fast he laughed. “Okay then, it’s yours.” He turned serious. “But you’re right. He’s not going to make a move as long as you’re holed up here. We’ll take all the precautions we can, but you’re going back to work.”

“Thank God,” she whispered.

“In the meantime, you want to go get the rest of that room done?”

She looked up and wrinkled her nose at him, and his mind snagged on how cute she was. Then he struck that thought away immediately. He would not notice the fact that she was cute, attractive, funny, highly intelligent—

“Sure, why not?”

“Right. Let’s do this.”

They walked back into the den to find Buzz on the couch. If he couldn’t go back to work yet, he was going to be a bodyguard. Butler had joined him and the two were playing cards. Cole smiled. Kenzie might not realize it, but the team had her back whether she wanted it or not. He glanced at Butler. Well, most of the team. Butler had been cool to Kenzie and hadn’t mentioned the lunch with Woodruff, but he’d basically kept his distance and had little interaction with her. If he was trying to kill her, he was biding his time.

The thought did not comfort him. “Kenzie’s back in the rotation, guys. Next call is hers.”