Troubled Waters

“Of course not. But everything points to her.”

Heath wanted to defend Tracie, but he checked his emotions. Why did he feel so strongly about her? He couldn’t give a solid reason. “Okay,” he relented. “I’m on it.”

“Good. If you’re going to crack this case, you’ll need to crack her first. But I don’t think that will be too difficult for you.”

Heath hesitated. “Could you clarify that statement?”

The insinuation in Jonas’s voice carried clearly over the phone. “She’s a young woman working a lonely job. You’re an attractive man.” He cleared his throat. “Don’t worry about fallout. You do what you have to do. We’ll clean up afterward.”

Heath’s throat tightened as he realized what his boss was openly hinting at. He’d always enjoyed working under Jonas Goodman, who had a reputation as a maverick, and whose unorthodox tactics never failed to make his job more interesting. But a sick pit churned in his stomach as he realized how much more complicated his job description now was. He’d killed before. In his line of work, it was a given. But he’d never broken a woman’s heart.

“Heath?” Jonas spoke into the silence. “Do we have an understanding?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. I expect a full report tomorrow. And I don’t like disappointment.”

“Yes, sir.” Heath’s throat felt dry. He ended the call and pinched his eyes shut, one single image filling his mind.

Tracie. He’d saved her life the day before, and still felt a lingering need to protect her from harm, to find out what had caused fear to haunt her eyes and to save her from whatever troubled her. And now Jonas wanted him to intentionally hurt her.

Clenching his jaw, Heath stood and paced the room. Tracie was his target. He had to break through her defenses, find out what she knew, and report back to Jonas in less than twenty-four hours. He’d never had an assignment like this one, and he already knew Tracie wouldn’t open up to him easily. Still, he had a sense that getting close to her wouldn’t be the most difficult part of his new mission.

No, the hardest part would be forgiving himself afterward.

TWO

Tracie had her head in the cupboard and was evaluating her dinner choices when the phone rang. She held a box of cereal in one hand and a can of ravioli in the other, and set down the pasta to answer. “Hello?”

Heath’s voice caught her off guard. “Have you had dinner yet?”

She looked at the box of cereal. “Not quite.”

“Care to join me? I’m sorry for the late notice, I just…” he paused. She waited.

“I’ve eaten every meal by myself since I’ve been here, and I thought it might be nice not to have to do that, for a change.”

His words struck a chord, and Tracie felt an emptiness inside that was more than just her stomach growling. She couldn’t remember when she’d last shared a meal with another person. But she didn’t know Heath very well, and memories of her previous partner’s unprofessional behavior toward her set off warning bells. “I make it a personal policy not to fraternize with my coworkers when I’m off duty.” She was glad she’d established that before Trevor had gotten out of hand.

“Oh.” Disappointment resonated over the phone. “You wouldn’t make an exception for my sake?”

She hesitated. The man had saved her life. But her policy had saved her skin before, too. “No exceptions.”

“Right. Sorry to bother you. Goodbye then.”

“’Bye.” Tracie hung up the phone and leaned back against the cupboard. Gunnar, her German shepherd mix, whimpered in concern at her feet, and she realized she was clutching the cereal box so tightly to her chest that she’d crumpled it.

She looked at the box, then down at her dog. “It’s okay. I’m fine.” She forced a smile for Gunnar’s benefit, but he didn’t look any more convinced than she felt. Shaking off her doubts, she nodded resolutely and proceeded to pour herself a bowl of cereal. “That was the right answer. I’m pretty sure it was.”

Tracie pulled up at the Coast Guard station the next morning just as Heath was getting out of his truck. Her insides knotted at the sight of him.

“Medical leave,” she said with a pointed look at the bandage on his arm.

He grinned at her, and she felt her heart give a dip. “Not for me, thanks. How was your dinner?”

It had been horribly dissatisfying, and she’d ended up feeling so bad about turning him away that she hadn’t even been able to finish her cereal, which had seemed to stick halfway down her throat every time she tried to swallow. But she wasn’t about to tell him that. “It’s really none of your business,” she reminded him as she stepped through the door he held open for her.

“Mine too,” he agreed.

“What?” She spun and looked at him, meeting his eyes, where flickering sadness didn’t match the smile he’d pasted on his lips.

“Dinner,” he explained, letting the fake smile drop. “Lonely and disappointing.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Tracie’s heart thumped hard against her rib cage and she hurried to the office that housed her cubicle, hoping he’d disappear into his own. Instead, he followed her.

“Look, I don’t mean to be rude,” she stared him down, “but I have work to do.”

“We have work to do.”

“I don’t need your help completing my paperwork.”

“The paperwork can wait, Princess. Somebody tried to kill us on Saturday, and I intend to catch whoever it was before they get a chance to finish the job.”

Tracie bristled. She was no princess. Princesses didn’t work for the Coast Guard. “Look, Heath, I’d love to catch our gunman, but we have no idea who it is, and no leads right now to go on.” She sat at her desk and picked up a sheaf of papers.

“And we’re not going to find any leads sitting around doing paperwork.” Heath plucked the papers from her hands and set them out of her reach on top of her file cabinets.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Then what do you propose?”

“Have you had breakfast?”

“No,” Tracie stood. “Not that it’s any of your business.” She gestured for him to leave. “I have work to do.”

Heath smiled as he stepped out of the office. “I’ll be back.”

Twenty minutes later, Heath stepped, uninvited, into Tracie’s cubicle and plunked a fresh apple fritter on her desk, then slid a steaming cup of coffee next to it. “Half cream, no sugar,” he smiled triumphantly. “Jake ratted you out.”

“I had no idea Jake cared so much,” Tracie slid the coffee toward her, lifted the lid, and inhaled a deep breath of steam.

“From the Egg Toss Café,” Heath explained, hoping he’d earn points for fetching her favorite brew.

“I can see that.” She speared an icy eyebrow his way, but took a small swallow and reached for the fritter. “Have a seat,” she said, nodding toward the spare chair as she took a big bite of the pastry. “Tell me what I have to do to make you go away.”

Inwardly congratulating himself on his small victory, Heath took the chair and opened a white sack, pulling out another fritter for himself. “I want to know everything you know about Trevor.”