Page 2 of The Perfect People

It completed an ensemble that included loose-fitting athletic slacks, also great for physically tricky situations, and a lightweight gray top that looked professional but would hopefully afford her some reprieve from the sweltering late-summer days they’d been having lately. She tied her shoulder-length brown hair in a loose ponytail that wouldn’t get in the way if she had to do anything more taxing than paperwork today.

She checked herself one last time in the mirror before heading out and let out a relieved sigh. None but those closest to her would guess that the put-together person looking back at her had been through such a rough stretch of late. They’d just see the attractive face, the beaming smile, the bright green eyes, the tall, athletic frame, and the confident posture and invariably assume all was well.

And technically it was. She reminded herself to be grateful. After all, there had been more than two months of relative calm since the madness of late June, when a series of coinciding nightmares had turned her life into a real-world horror show.

She hadn’t had a near-concussion event since that night in June when a woman who had murdered her billionaire husband hit Jessie in the head with an ice bucket while trying to escape. Luckily, her doctor had determined that no additional damage had been done.

But considering that Jessie was still only five months removed from a major concussion that caused weeks of headaches, memory loss, confusion, and dizziness, she knew she wasn’t out of the woods. Dr. Varma had warned her that she was still at risk ofSecond-impact syndrome, a condition where someone suffers a second concussion before completely recovering from the first one and gets brain swelling, seriously increasing the chance of death. It was a concern that was, quite literally, always on her mind.

But that worry paled in comparison to the other trauma that had upended her inner circle the same night she was getting hit with an ice bucket. At almost that exact moment, her little sister, Hannah, and Jessie’s best friend, Kat Gentry, were almost murdered by a hitwoman named Ash Pierce, who was paid to kill them in order to punish Jessie.

Though they managed to ultimately outwit and defeat the assassin, it wasn’t without consequence. Kat was only now nearing functional recovery from injuries that included a broken nose, a fractured left kneecap, and multiple stab wounds, the worst of which went deep into her right shoulder. She’d only gotten full range of motion back in the last week.

She’d been doing her rehab at the Lake Arrowhead mountain cabin of her sheriff’s deputy boyfriend, Mitch, where she’d been staying this whole time. It was two hours northeast of L.A., so Jessie, Hannah, and Ryan hadn’t gotten to see much of her this summer.

Because of that distance, Jessie hadn’t been able to observe how Kat had been handling her emotional recovery either. But she’d been keeping a close eye on her sister’s. To her relief, Hannah didn’t show any outward signs of trauma from her run-in with Ash Pierce.

But Jessie knew better than to assume her sister wasn’t hurting inside. Hannah had been through enough suffering in her eighteen years that she had become a master at hiding it from others. That didn’t mean she wasn’t absorbing every blow.

Jessie worried how both women would handle it when Pierce’s case came to trial, which was only months away. They’d both have to testify and face in court the woman who had intended to torture and murder them on camera. Would they be ready when that scab was ripped off?

How could Jessie expect either of them—both civilians—to be up to such a monumental task whenshewasn’t sure that she was able to manage her own emotional burdens, both internal and, in one massive instance, external? And she was supposed to be a professional.

“Are you joining us?” Ryan called out from the kitchen.

Jessie snapped out of it, realizing that she’d been fiddling listlessly with her ponytail for the last minute, lost in thought.

“Coming!” she shouted as she left the bedroom and joined them.

Hannah’s back was to her as she prepped something in a pan on the stove. Ryan was clumsily moving hot slices of toast from the toaster onto plates while trying to avoid burning his fingers. One of the pieces fell to the floor and he looked up sheepishly to see if anyone had seen it happen. Jessie shook her head in feigned disappointment.

“That one will be mine,” he said.

“I should think so, Captain Hernandez,” she replied officiously, trying to frown.

But she could only hold it for a second before his giant, warm brown eyes made her lips involuntarily reverse course and turn into a smile. He returned it and she felt herself melt. Even though their five months of marriage had been through more bumps than most couples would expect in a decade, she was still a sucker for his shy grin and adorable dimples.

She conceded that she wasn’t immune to his other assets either. In addition to being a sharp investigator and tough cop who had graduated to leading both LAPD’s Central Station and her specialized unit, he was sexy as hell. Six feet tall and 200 pounds, with short dark hair, a square jaw, and a well-muscled frame that strained at his dress shirts, he had the body of an MMA fighter and the brain of a sleuth.

She sat down at the breakfast table, where a mug of coffee was waiting for her. A moment later Hannah turned around and served her a big helping of cheesy scrambled eggs with avocado cubes, grilled mushrooms, and red onions. For Hannah, who until recently had been planning to go to culinary school, it was a relatively simple meal.

As Jessie watched her little sister scoop the food onto her plate, she marveled at how, less than two years ago, this young woman with the same green eyes, tall, lean figure, and intense focus as herself had been a complete stranger. Now it was hard to imagine a life without her, though soon she’d have to. College started for Hannah in less than three weeks. And even before then, she’d be losing valuable time with her.

“When are you going again?” she asked.

“The rideshare is picking me up at ten a.m.,” Hannah said. “I should be at Patrice’s beach house by eleven.”

“And how long are you planning to be there?” Jessie checked, though she knew the answer and just wanted to make sure that her sister hadn’t changed the plans.

“Don’t worry,” Hannah said. “I know Kat is planning to come back to town on Monday afternoon and you want me to cook a big welcome back Labor Day dinner for her. I promise I’ll be back in time. I want to see her as much as you guys do, maybe even more. Does she still want to reopen Gentry Investigations on Tuesday morning?”

“Last I heard,” Jessie said.

“Well, I don’t start school until the nineteenth so I can probably help her out for a couple of weeks before I move into the dorm.”

“I’m sure she’d really appreciate that,” Ryan said, after swallowing a mouthful of cheesy eggs.

“Are you going to have any time to hang out with me?” Jessie asked, pretending to be hurt in order to hide the fact that she actually was mildly hurt. “You’ve got this beach house thing this weekend. You’re moving in at school in two weekends. That only leaves one free weekend left for family.”

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