Page 31 of Too Close To Home

Harrison looked up from his notebook and caught him staring. For a second, neither of them looked away.

Then Harrison’s expression changed. Barely anything, there and gone so quickly Jake might have imagined it, but he felt the answering hit low in his stomach anyway. Hotter this time. Sharper.

Fuck.

Jake bent and grabbed the stool he’d kicked earlier, shoving it back beneath the bar to give his hands something to do. “You found owt yet?”

Harrison furrowed his brow. “Excuse me?”

“Out there. Fell Edge.” Jake angled his head to the door. “Your officers. They found owt belonging to her?”

Harrison shook his head. “Search is ongoing. Officers are expanding the grid.”

Jake nodded and looked away, watching Pete fight with the coffee machine.

“I’ve been briefed,” Harrison lowered his voice, so it didn’t carry further than the two of them, “on your… history with a previous case.”

Jake’s shoulders tensed.

“I understand your reactions. But I would strongly advise you to let my team do the investigating.”

Jake looked back at him. “And if your team’s wrong?”

Harrison held his gaze. “Then I’ll answer for it.”

That stopped him.

No defensiveness. No we know what we’re doing. No warning Jake to keep his nose out because he was a fucking criminal and they were the police. Harrison said it as though the responsibility belonged to him and he had no intention of ducking it.

Jake studied him for a second longer.

Then he reached into the back pocket of his jeans, pulled out one of his battered business cards and slapped it onto the counter between them. “Case you need me.”

Harrison glanced down at it. “I… already have your card, actually.”

Jake frowned. “You do?”

Christ, he hadn’t fucked him already, had he?

No fucking chance.

He’d remember that.

“I called you earlier.” Harrison caught his bottom lip between his teeth. “About a leaking roof.”

Recognition clicked. “Huh.” Jake scratched his jaw. “Larkspur Lane.”

“Quite the coincidence.”

Jake gave a dry, half-smile. “Small town. And you’ve had a pretty shitty introduction to it.”

“I had a pretty shitty exit from my own. So I suppose I’m in familiar territory.”

Jake cocked his head. There was something in the way he said that. Too personal for the careful, measured copper who’d walked through the door. A weight behind the admission that made Jake look at him properly. Not the suit, or the blond hair, or the mouth he’d already spent far too much time noticing. Him.

So he asked, “What happened?”

Harrison seemed almost surprised by the question. For a second, Jake thought he might actually answer. Then whatever had slipped through disappeared. “Another time, perhaps.”