Page 20 of Marked for Danger

The open area contained the team’s desks, their ‘crime board’ used to keep track of important details and players in whichever case they were working at the time. On the far end was their boss’s office, and to the right was the staff break room which precipitated the hallway leading to the unit’s interrogation rooms.

But when Grady turned the corner at the top of the stairs, he didn’t see any of those things. All he saw was…

Izzy.

By some twist of fate, he nearly collided with the woman who’d haunted his dreams for the past two nights…or the past several months, if he were being completely honest with himself.

“Oh!” Her round eyes met his with a start. “Sorry.”

“Whoa.” Grady reached out a hand to steady her. “Where’s the fire?”

“What? Oh.” A nervous chuckle. “No fire. Just distracted, I guess.”

Izzy attempted to brush off their near mishap, but Grady could tell something was wrong. Their time together may have been brief—and mostly sexual—but he knew her well enough to recognize when something was off.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just a jam-packed day, that’s all.”

The smile she wore was nowhere near genuine. Despite knowing he should, Grady couldn’t let that shit go.

“Try again.”

“Uh…I’ll go fill Sarge in on what we found. Or rather, what we didn’t find.” Dec stepped around them, offering Izzy a quick greeting as he passed. “Good to see you again, Dr. Garcia.”

“You, too, Detective.” Another fake smile.

Waiting for his partner to be out of ear shot, Grady let his hand drop back to his side and returned his full attention to the woman standing before him. “You look upset.”

“It’s nothing. Really.”

Nice try, sweetheart.

“Iz—”

“Really, Grady. It’s just been a day, and now I’m late for a meeting across town.”

She was lying. Maybe not about being late for the meeting or having a rough day, but there wassomethingthe sexy doc wasn’t telling him.

“You sure?” He slid his hands into his pockets to keep from reaching for her again. Lowering his voice, he added for her ears only, “You can still talk to me, you know.”

A flicker of hesitation passed over her worried face. For a second, he thought she was actually going to open up to him. Instead, Izzy’s shoulders moved back, her chin lifting slightly with an obvious move to compose herself.

“I appreciate that, but I really do have to go.”

Before he could protest further, she hastily excused herself and rushed down the stairs. Grady stood there, hands still in his pocket and heart sinking as he watched her disappear.

Needing answers, he moved further into the bullpen. Fellow detective Cole Archer was leaning against his desk, engrossed in a case file he was currently reading.

“Hey, Cole,” Grady approached the other man, doing his best not to show his frustration.

Cole glanced up. “Hey, Thorne. How’d it go with Valdez’s ex?”

“It didn’t. Listen…” He stepped closer, keeping his voice low so the others wouldn’t hear. “You know why Dr. Garcia was here?”

Setting the folder on the desk behind him, Cole crossed his arms in front of him casually. “No clue. She got here a while ago. Had a closed-door meeting with Riedell, Hunt, and Umbridge, then left.”

Grady swung his gaze toward his boss’s office in time to see FBI’s Special Agent in Charge Jeremy Hunt and Assistant District Attorney Camille Umbridge walking out. The two were involved in what appeared to be a serious conversation, barely noticing Grady and the others as they made their way through the open space and down the stairs.

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