Page 2 of Cold Case Discovery

Just another one of her very own choices she had to face. She opened her eyes.

Jack Hudson stood, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe of her bedroom. He was dressed now, in the clothes they’d left work in: Khakis that weren’t so perfectly pressed like they had been all through his workday. A Sunrise Sheriff’s Department polo—untucked now.

But she knew what he looked like without all those clothes.Hot.

Maybe his hair was a little rumpled, but no one would think or even believe that it wassex-rumpled hair. Jack Hudson, the upstanding sheriff and uptight head of the Hudson clan, engaging in a clandestine affair with one of his deputies?Impossible.

She still hadn’t spoken, and now she watched as Tiger wound her way between Jack’s long legs like she always did. Because that animal was just as foolish and weak as she was when it came to Jack.

“Chloe,” he said in that half-empathetic, half-scolding tone.

He only ever used her first namehere, what they were—and weren’t—perfectly compartmentalized. Her fault as much as his, she knew, though she wished she could blame him and his rigid personality. But she’d put up walls to save herself too.

Because she was self-aware enough to know he could emotionally crush her if she didn’t. She didn’t thinkheknew that, and that was all that mattered.

“Just my brother. Needs me to come check something out. Typical.” She slid out of bed, pulled on some sweats and put her smartwatch on her wrist. But Jack didn’t leave.

She shoved her phone in her pocket. Keys and shoes were out in her living room. So she moved for the door, but Jack still stood there. Blocking her exit.

“You should head home,” she told him. “A bit late for you.”

He didn’t say anything for a few moments as he studied her in nothing more than the glow of her smoke detector. They were shadows to each other, and yet it felt like—per usual—Jack Hudson could seeeverything.

“I’m coming with,” he finally said.

NotWould you like me to? Can I? Should I?Not for Jack Hudson. “Not necessary, Sheriff.” She threw that one at him when she wanted him to back off. Usually, it worked.

He didn’t budge.

“It’s two in the morning.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s your brother.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going with. We can either drive together or I can follow you, but I’m going.”

“And be seen together at this hour?”

He didn’t say anything. But he didn’t move. Because no, Jack Hudson didn’t relent. He was who he was.

Sometimes she thought she was as bad as her brother. Jack was her drug, and she couldn’t give him up. Because he wasn’t good for her—the secrecy; the way she couldn’t get past that impenetrable, taciturn wall. But the way he made her feel when he put his hands on her was worth it.

She sighed, and she didn’t relent, but Jack seemed to read the surrender in that sigh.

“I’ll drive,” he said, turning toward her front door.

“Of course you will,” she muttered, and didn’t bother to argue. She just made sure Tiger didn’t bolt out the door with them in a shameless effort to follow Jack.

Chloe might be a mess, but she knew better than to throw herself against a brick wall that wasn’t budging.

JACKHUDSONWASwell aware of his reputation. He knew what just about everyone thought of him. It varied a bit. To some people—particularly the law-abiding citizens of Sunrise, Wyoming—he was a saint. That was how he’d won the election for sheriff time and time again. To others—usually criminals and people related to him—he was an uptight ass.

Jack knew he was no saint, but he didn’t quite agree with his siblings. Maybe he was a little strict, a little more controlled thancompletelynecessary. But hey, they’d all somehow made it into adulthood in one piece and were mostly successful, and that was because ofhim.

He’d held the family together after his parents’ disappearance when he was eighteen. He’d created Hudson Sibling Solutions to ensure his siblings always had jobs and to help other people with unsolved cold cases—solving quite a few, thank you.

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