Page 15 of Cold Case Discovery

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. Life’s kind of an ouch.”

“That’s why I keep trying to turn into a robot.”

Which made her laugh. A rare thing. Oh, she laughed with Mary, with Anna, with just about everyone. But not as much with him as he would’ve liked.

She lifted her head from his shoulder, stretched forward and squinted out at the sunset. Then she turned back and met his gaze.

“You’re not much of an avoider, Jack. So why’d you come out here?” She didn’t ask the other question that hung in the air:Why’d you come get me?

Which he didn’t have an answer for. Not one that did them any good anyway. So he answered the one she’d voiced. “It’s like all those years I did my best to clean the ghosts out of that house, and now they’re all back.”

“Maybe they aren’t so much ghosts as...legacy.”

“Is that different?”

“Sort of. You loved your parents. They loved you. You guys had—have—a great family because they built it on a legacy of love. That was always going to hurt when a piece of it was lost, but it’s also like this...really cool thing. Because you’ve got Izzy and Caroline—and whatever Mary’s going to name the baby, which sherefusesto tell me even though I know they’ve decided. They’re all getting raised in that same legacy even though they’ll never get to meet the people who started it. Not everyone gets that, Jack. Which doesn’t mean it’s not sad or doesn’t hurt, especially losing them the way you did, especially having to relive it now. It just means...sad isn’t all bad. Sometimes ghosts can be a comfort instead of something to run from.”

He knew a lot of people saw him as brave, strong. That whole saint thing again. No one seemed to understand he always felt like he was running from something.

Except Chloe.

He wanted her. To come home with him, to share his bed. Not just because of sexual chemistry but also because of this. The moments where it felt like she was the only one he could lean on when he’d spent so many years refusing to lean on anyone.

She managed to find just the right access point to crack him open. He’d never understand how or why; he just knew that she did. And when he leaned on her, he didn’t feel guilty or ashamed. She never let him.

Somehow it figured it’d be one of the few women in his life who was completely off-limits.

“We should get back.”

She nodded, and that was that. She collected Tiger, against the cat’s protests. Jack shook out the blanket, and then they walked back to his truck and drove all the way to Chloe’s cabin without saying a single word.

He pulled into the drive this time, idling. She let Tiger out of the vehicle and then got out herself, but she leaned in.

“You don’t have to wait for me to get in the door, Jack. I’m a big girl.”

He nodded.

But he waited all the same.

Chapter Five

Chloe knew he wouldn’t drive away just because she’d told him to. He’d wait until she got inside. She supposed it should irritate or frustrate her, but considering her parents hadn’t cared that much about her when she’d been achild, she couldn’t muster up taking offense to Jack’s tendency to overprotect.

Hell, she didn’t just not take offense—she downright loved it. She’d been taking care of herself and everyone else for as long as she could remember. She’d even dedicated her life to a job that protected other people, best she could.

Yeah, she didn’t mind someone out there caring enough to protectherfor once.

And that is why you find yourself in a dysfunctional, secret relationship.

So lost in her own thoughts, she nearly stepped on something on her porch, but she pulled her foot back in the nick of time.

A snake. Maybe two. Except notfullsnakes. Chunks. Mutilated. Chopped into pieces strewn about her pretty porch. She might have been able to convince herself it was the work of an animal except for the fact that the head of one was sticking out from one of her planters of cheerful pansies.Thatwas pointed, and it made her stomach turn over a little bit.

“Call it in.”

She nearly jumped a foot. She’d been caught so off guard by the snake, she hadn’t heard Jack come up to see what had made her stop.

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