CHAPTER THREE

Olivia and Nate had lived together in Chicago, but being in her apartment in D.C. had never felt right to Nate. It wasn’t home. It had been three months since the last time Nate had been there and not much had changed other than the conspicuous absence of any of Nate’s possessions. Olivia must have boxed them up. Nate shouldn’t have been surprised, but it still stung.

“Do you want a drink or anything?” Olivia asked, suddenly sounding nervous as she shut the door behind them.

“All I want is you,” Nate said. It was the truth. He had been miserable without her for the last three months. His separation from Olivia had been a hundred times harder than his divorce from his ex-wife.

Olivia’s temporary residence in D.C. was small. It was just one open room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. That meant they didn’t have to go far to find the bed. But Olivia seemed frozen as she stood looking at him.

“What’s wrong? Did you change your mind?” Nate tried not to sound disappointed. He never should have accepted her offer, but Nate had never been able to say no to Olivia.

“You’re really here,” she said, sounding awed. “I want to enjoy this moment.”

Nate let her take the lead, happy to be a willing prop in her fantasy. She took her time peeling off his suit jacket and hesitated when her hand grazed his gun holster.

“Hang on,” Nate said, easily removing it and setting it on the table.

“That’s better.” She smiled nervously before loosening his tie. Nate waited patiently as she slowly peeled away his clothes. It would’ve been faster for him to just do it himself, but they were both enjoying the process. When she was done, she stepped back and pulled her dress off in one big swoop. She unclasped her bra and that was tossed aside, too.

Not for the first time, Nate was overwhelmed by her beauty. Every soft curve and toned muscle only enhanced her perfection. He put his hand gently at her hip and slipped a thumb into the silk fabric. A soft moan escaped her lips and Nate’s patience was gone. He quickly removed the panties and then backed her toward the bed.

It had been three months since they had been together, but it felt like yesterday to Nate. Olivia’s body was as familiar to him as his own. Nate took control, but followed Olivia’s lead in taking it slow. He wanted to savor every moment with her because there was a chance it could be his last. That was something he had never worried about in the past and it only served to heighten his appreciation of the moment.

Afterwards, Olivia lay sprawled on top of him. Her body was warm and fit perfectly around the contours of his body. If Nate had been at all religious, he would have sworn that they had been built to fit together.

“I’ve missed that,” Olivia said, her lips brushing over his chest as she spoke.

“I’ve missed you,” Nate replied quietly as he stroked Olivia’s back with his fingertips.

She sighed contentedly and lifted her head. “Should we talk about what this means?”

Nate wasn’t normally opposed to discussing such matters with Olivia, but this time he was worried. He was afraid that Olivia would say it had been nice, but it hadn’t changed how she felt about him. He was afraid she would say that it couldn’t happen again and they needed to go back to living separate lives. But Nate also had never been good at lying to Olivia.

“It means everything to me, Liv. You mean everything to me. I’ve been lost without you.” Nate kept thinking that he just needed to say the right thing and Olivia would understand how much he loved her. If she could understand that, there would be no way she could doubt his reasons for the decision he had made.

“Nate.” She bit down on her lip as she studied him. Her dark hair fell in waves across his chest. “I meant what I said earlier. This was never about whether or not I love you.”

“Then what’s it about, Liv? Cause I can’t figure it out. You know why I had to do what I did. You know it was the right thing to do.” Nate hated the way her entire body tensed.

She frowned at him. “I told you earlier that I don’t want to fight about this.”

“Maybe that’s the problem. You tried to pretend like everything was fine and you weren’t mad at me. Meanwhile, your anger kept building up until you couldn’t stand to be around me. Maybe you need to scream and curse at me in order to move on.” Nate had given it a lot of thought. In fact, he had hardly been able to think of anything else lately.

“You don’t deserve that, Nate.” She sighed and sat up.

Nate instantly hated the distance between them and longed to be holding her again even though she was less than a foot away. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. “Just tell me what to do, Olivia. Just tell me how to fix us.”

“If I knew how to do that, I would’ve already done it myself. I hate feeling like this.” Olivia pulled her long legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I hate being the one that’s hurting you. Maybe it would be better if I just let you go completely.”

“Is that really what you want?” Nate asked, feeling broken. Just six months ago, he had been planning a proposal to this woman and now she was talking about leaving his life for good.

“No. It’s the opposite of what I want.” Olivia turned to him and there were tears in her eyes. “I want you, Nate. I’ll always want you.”

Like he had done countless times, Nate opened his arms and she curled against him. This time it felt different than just a few minutes earlier. She felt lighter in his arms, like she had let go of whatever had been weighing her down over the last few months. For the first time, Nate wondered if she might be ready to move past everything that had come between them. He was just about to ask her to come back to Chicago with him when his phone rang.

“You should get that,” Olivia said after the fourth ring. She had always understood that when Nate’s phone rang, it could be a matter of life and death.

Reluctantly, he snatched his discarded pants from the floor and dug out his phone, all the while keeping Olivia in his arms. “Tucker,” he said, hoping that it would be a wrong number. It wasn’t.

He listened intently to the voice on the other end and felt a familiar sense of dread and purpose run through his body. As much as he hated receiving each call involving a missing person or dead body, Nate also never felt more driven than when he started working a new case. Even the cases that took him away from Olivia.

“You’re leaving,” she said when he hung up. It wasn’t a question. She could tell from the way he looked at her.

“They need me back in Chicago.” He finally let go of her, slowly letting her pull away. “There’s been another murder.”

“Another woman?” Olivia asked. She had no doubt been keeping up on the news back in Chicago and knew there was a serial killer hunting women in their late twenties and early thirties. This was the fourth woman to be murdered.

Nate ignored the question, as he often did when she tried to get more information about his cases. “Why don’t you come back with me, Liv? There’s nothing keeping you here.”

“I wish that were true,” she said with a faint smile. “I have a few things to take care of at the Bureau before I can leave.”

“Right.” Nate instantly felt silly for having asked in the first place. If she had wanted to come back, they wouldn’t even be in her D.C. apartment right then.

“Nate.” She put a hand on his arm. “I really do wish I could go back with you. I’m ready to come home.”

He felt a hopeful twinge flutter in his chest. “You’re ready to come home to Chicago?”

The look she gave him was the same one she used to give him when they first got together. It was the look that said exactly how she felt about him and it made Nate feel breathless. That only worsened when she said, “I’m ready to come home to you.”

* * *

Nate caught a flight back to Chicago three hours later. It was the earliest flight he could book, but part of him had also hoped that there wouldn’t be any available flights for the next week. He didn’t want to leave Olivia again just when they were finally in a good place.

He went straight from O’Hare to the station, dropping his bag at his desk. His partner was on the phone with the coroner.

Nate grabbed the file from his desk and started thumbing through it. While much of their work was done on the computer these days, Nate and Vince still kept detailed physical files on each case. Nate felt there was something to be said for tangibly holding the crime scene photos and autopsy reports. It helped keep the personal element attached to each case.

“It’s about time, Tucker,” Vince said as he hung up. “Thought I was going to have to solve this one without you.”

“As if you could,” Nate scoffed.

“What’s different about you?” Vince said as he studied Nate. Slowly, he began to smile. “You saw Olivia, didn’t you?”

It would have been pointless for Nate to deny it. Vince knew that Nate had been in D.C. and that Olivia lived there. It was a logical conclusion for him to reach.

“I was with her when you called,” Nate admitted. While he usually preferred not to share his personal life at work, this was something he didn’t want to keep to himself. “Liv is coming home next week.”

“It’s about damn time,” Vince said, grinning. He was a huge fan of Olivia and had been almost as devastated as Nate when Olivia had moved to D.C. and later asked for a break. “How is she?”

“She’s good.” Nate thought about the twenty minutes they spent saying goodbye. Olivia had clung to him even as she had promised that she would be home soon. “She’s looking forward to the wedding.”

Vince groaned. “Don’t remind me. Natasha has us picking the center pieces this week.”

“You love it,” Nate said, ignoring his feigned horror. “Enough gossip. Fill me in what I missed while I was gone.”

“Victim is Quinn Daniels. She’s 31-year-old accountant who was found dead in her apartment. Sexual assault, trauma, and slit throat.”

“Just like the others,” Nate said, looking at the file. “Where are the crime scene photos?”

Vince said, “Here are the ones taken of the body. I had everything else left in place so you can check it out yourself.”

“Good call, partner.” Nate was glad that Vince had been a fast learner. Seeing the crime scene in person was vital to understanding the motive of the criminal. “Let’s head over there.”

“Sure, just one more thing.” Any trace of a smile was long gone from Vince’s face. Nate didn’t know what was coming next, but he knew it wasn’t going to be good. “Grace was born in Mercy, Ohio.”

“Mercy?” A knot began to form in Nate’s stomach.

Vince nodded. “She went to school with Olivia.”