“I’ve gone further on less. What can you tell me?”

“That you’re not the only one with eyes on the prize.”

Parker read between the lines on that one. “Local law’s on it?”

“Bigger,” Kel said. “We were told to stay out of it. I can nose around some if you need.”

“I need.” Parker heard Zoe coming in the front door, heard the sounds of Oreo scrambling off the spot on the couch he wasn’t supposed to nap in and go skidding to the foyer with a welcoming woof! He thanked Kel and disconnected, and then ambled into the living room.

Zoe had dropped her things and crouched down to give Oreo a doggie treat from her purse. “Who’s a good boy?” she murmured.

“Well, I don’t like to brag, but I’ve been pretty good,” Parker said.

She lifted her gaze to where he’d stopped in the doorway between the kitchen and living room, leaning against the jamb. “Do you want a cookie, too?” she asked.

“Depends,” he said. “Did you bake them?”

She rolled her eyes and pulled Oreo in for a full body hug, giving him a loud smooch on top of his snout.

“I wouldn’t say no to one of those, either,” Parker said. She ignored this, too, except for the flush that stained her cheeks. She looked beat to hell. Her hair was tousled and she had what might have been a grease stain across her jaw. At some point she’d ditched her blazer and wore just the white silky tank top, also sporting a stain across one breast.

Catching him looking, she shrugged. “Dougie, our mechanic, was moving too slow on the Cessna Caravan. I was giving him a hand.”

“You can work on an airplane but you can’t fix anything here at the house?”

“Yeah, well, I’m an enigma,” she said. “An annoying one. Just ask anyone in my family.”

Pushing off the jamb, Parker moved close to her, watching as her breath caught and her eyes locked on his mouth.

It was a relief, really, to know that he caused the same baffling reactions in her as she did in him. “I’m not annoyed by you,” he said.

“No?”

He smiled. “No.”

“What are you?” she whispered, still staring at his mouth.

“Lots of things.” He pulled her up and rubbed his thumb over the stain on her jaw, feeling a surge of satisfaction when her breath caught again. “Including turned on.”

Her gaze flew to his. “I turn you on?”

“Yes.”

She stared at him some more. “We’re not doing this. We’d be stupid to do this.”

“I agree. But that doesn’t seem to mean a damn thing to me.”

She didn’t say anything and he raised his brows. “Am I alone in this, Zoe?”

Appearing to wrestle with that, she hesitated, and he wondered if she’d lie.

“No,” she finally said. “But that’s only because I haven’t actually . . . Well.” She grimaced. “Let’s just say it’s been a while for me. With someone else. Together.” When he smiled, she groaned. “You know what I mean!”

“And that’s the only reason you want me, because it’s been a while?”

She busied herself with gathering up her things.

But Parker hadn’t gained his investigator skills by accident. He’d started as a teen trying to figure out how to get out of the life that had been set in stone long before he’d been born, and he’d only honed his ways of ferreting out the truth in the years since. He’d long ago learned the value of holding his silence, and sure enough his patience was rewarded.

“Okay, that’s not the only reason,” she finally said. “My current theory is that it’s because you’re sweet to my big, silly dog.” She paused. “And also maybe a little bit because you have nice eyes.” She closed hers.

He laughed. “I like where you’re going with this.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” She fanned her heated cheeks. “Except to the shower.” She popped open her eyes. “Alone.” She headed up the stairs.

Parker was trying really hard not to imagine her stripping out of her clothes when he heard the bathroom door yank back open.

“Hey,” she yelled down the stairs. “Why does this lock work?”

Oreo looked at Parker.

Parker put a finger to his lips, and Oreo seemed to grin at him.

The door slammed again.

And a brick fell out of the fireplace.

The next morning Parker found himself at the local gym being beat all to shit by Wyatt’s good friend AJ. Wyatt had recommended the guy for PT, and AJ was putting Parker through his paces when his cell buzzed.

Sharon.

“Sorry,” Parker gasped to AJ. “Gotta take this.” He moved aside for privacy. “Hola.”

“I told you to back off,” Sharon said.

Parker didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Backing off isn’t a strong suit of mine.”

“How about being unemployed?” she asked. “Is that going to be a strong suit of yours?”

“He’s here, Sharon,” he said quietly. “Carver’s hiding out until the heat on him dies down.”

“Have you seen him?”

“No, but—”

“Parker—”

“We can nail him.”

“No,” she said flatly. “We can’t.”

“But—”

“Listen to me very carefully,” she said in her someone’s-gonna-die tone. “Don’t be stupid and jeopardize your career.”

“You think this is about my career?” he asked in disbelief.

She sighed. “No. But this is bigger than us. Okay? That’s all I can say. Now back the fuck off and walk away so I don’t have to come out there and kick your ass myself.”

And then she hung up on him.

Parker stared at his phone.

“Problem?” AJ asked.

“No,” he said automatically. But yeah, there was a problem, a big one. Walk away? Kel had hinted that another agency was involved in this thing. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives? FBI? Homeland Security?

And why?

And even more importantly, how the hell was he supposed to ever walk away from this case?

Very late that night, Zoe sat on the couch in some serious pain—and shame. As a rule, she ate fairly healthily but all bets were off during times of stress. Proving the point, she’d just polished off an entire bag of pizza rolls by herself and was covered in crumbs and questioning her choices in life. Plus, she’d screwed up another batch of cookies, burning this bunch, so the place was a little smoky.

Oreo sat with her, taking up more than his fair share of the couch, snoring audibly.

She hadn’t turned on any lights. Not because she was trying to save money on her electric bill, although she could do with a little saving there. Earlier she’d attempted to change the lightbulb in the hallway and most of the downstairs had gone dark. Not all of it. She could, for instance, turn on a light in the living room, but she didn’t need a light in here. She needed one in the kitchen to clean up her mess.

And to forage for more food.

But try as she might to figure out the electrical problem, she couldn’t. It would have to get in line with all the other things that needed fixing.