Chapter 10

What was wrong with him? Theo huffed out a humorless laugh as he slid out of his solitary booth and tossed down enough cash to cover the lunch he’d barely touched. A better question would be what wasn’t wrong with him.

Megan lifted her eyebrows as he passed her on the way to the door. To his relief, she wasn’t curious enough about his unusual lunchtime appearance to ask him why he was there. If she had asked, he wouldn’t have had an answer—at least not one he wanted to share.

It was the squirrelly waitress’s fault. He’d gotten used to seeing her every day, but their usual breakfast had been canceled when a traffic stop for a broken taillight turned out to be a wanted meth dealer in a car he’d stolen from his ex-girlfriend.

Jules hadn’t even been working, unless she’d been hiding in the kitchen the entire time he was there. That was a definite possibility, since he acted like a complete ass every time he saw her. But not seeing her made him cranky—well, crankier than usual—and that made him even more pissed that he was allowing an almost-stranger to determine his mood.

He shoved the door a little too hard as he left the diner. The perfect September weather mocked his bad mood. The sun was a little too bright and cheery, the air just cool enough to feel good against his face. His frown deepening, he shoved on his sunglasses.

A familiar Volkswagen Jetta was parked next to his squad car. It took him a few seconds to remember who the VW’s owner was. When it finally struck him, his step faltered, and he had the cowardly urge to duck back into the diner. It was too late, though. She was already headed his way.

“Hey, Theo.” Sherry Baker, Don’s daughter, attempted a smile, but it collapsed before it was fully formed.

Theo couldn’t even manage that much. Instead he gave her a stiff nod. “Sherry.” That was all he could say. If he tried anything else—an “I’m sorry for your loss,” or even “How are you?”—his guilt and grief would choke him before he could get out more than a word.

To his surprise, Sherry didn’t look offended. The last time he’d seen her had been at the funeral, where she’d been so angry, so devastated, trying desperately to find someone to blame…someone besides her father. Theo had accepted every accusing glare, knowing he deserved that and more…so much more. Don had been his friend, his mentor, his brother. Theo should’ve known, should’ve at least suspected. What kind of self-involved bubble had he lived in that Don’s misery had escaped him so completely?

Except for the downward cast of her mouth, Sherry looked like she always had before. Her blond hair was washed and brushed, pulled back in a neat braid, and her sundress looked new. The woman in front of him bore little resemblance to that pain-racked mourner at her dad’s funeral.

Now, she just seemed quietly sad. Oddly enough, Theo felt a jolt of envy for that sign of straight-up grief. He wished that was what he felt, rather than this seething mass of angry emotions that was corroding his insides.

“How’s it going, Theo?”

How was he supposed to answer that? Quite shittily, thank you for asking. I’ve even managed to fuck up your dad’s dog. How are you? Swallowing the words, Theo twitched one shoulder in a shrug. When Sherry’s mouth flattened and her eyes glossed with tears, he knew it had come off as callous and uncaring rather than the truth: that he was so locked up by regret he couldn’t even talk to her.

It was Sherry’s turn to offer a jerky nod. “See you around, Theo.”

He watched her go into the diner, his guilt multiplying into a giant churning mass so huge it felt as if his skin couldn’t contain it. Clenching and unclenching his fists as the urge to punch something—or someone—surged through him, he stalked the rest of the way to his squad car and jerked open the door.

His bad day had somehow, magically, become so much worse.

* * *

Her body was an idiot. A self-destructive idiot. An all-around-destructive idiot. There was no other explanation for the way her heart leapt when she saw Theo sitting at his usual booth. He was watching her, so she knew he saw her stupidly huge grin and the way she barely paused to snatch up a coffeepot before heading in his direction.

It had to be hormones or pheromones or some primitive instinct that made her body react to Theo that way. After all, it wasn’t like he was even nice to her. Except for that one bonding moment in the grocery store, that one fist bump, that one mention that he’d been worried about her, and her body had gone haywire. Her brain knew better, but somehow she was at his table, grinning at him like the fool she really, truly was.

“Hey,” she said, flipping his mug with unsteady fingers.

He gave her an upward tip of his head, and even that ultramasculine gesture made her melt in her comfy, completely unattractive shoes. She had to look away. There was no way she could stare at him and pour coffee. That would only result in second-degree burns and a huge mess.

“Your usual?”

“You know it already?” he asked.

Jules swallowed back the words before she could tell him that memorizing people’s breakfast choices wasn’t that hard compared to getting her accounting degree in three years. Instead, she just smiled and nodded. There was no excuse for her to stand there and stare at him anymore, no matter how much her stupid eyeballs wanted to, so Jules started to turn away.

“Wait.”

She stopped midturn and looked over her shoulder at Theo. He didn’t respond right away, and her brows lifted in question.

“Thanks,” he finally said, gripping his mug but not taking a sip. “For yesterday. At the store. Hugh can be…” Theo grimaced and stared into his coffee, as if searching for the right word.

“A good friend,” Jules finished, and his gaze jumped back to hers.

Although he scowled, there was a hint of amusement there, too. “I was thinking more along the lines of an obsessive stalker.”

She laughed. “Sometimes, the line between a good friend and obsessive stalker is a fine one.” With the hand not holding the coffeepot, Jules reached out and patted Theo’s forearm. He instantly focused on her hand, the muscles in his arm tightening under her fingers. After a charged, silent moment, she pulled her hand away, oddly flustered.

“I’ll just…um, get your order in.” This time, he didn’t stop her as she hurried away.

After returning the coffeepot to its station, she rushed into the kitchen. Pressing her hands to her face, she felt the heat of her burning cheeks and bit back a groan. Blushing, smiling, touching his arm…could she have made her budding interest in him any more obvious? Theo must’ve thought she was an infatuated idiot, and she was beginning to worry that he wasn’t wrong.

“Need something?” Vicki called from her spot by the grill.

Yes. Some dignity. Maybe some pride. Definitely some self-control. “Nope. Just…taking a second. Oh, and Theo wants his usual.”

“Got it.”

When no insults or threats followed, Jules looked at Vicki curiously. She seemed to be in an unusually nonabusive mood.

“Before you go, would you mind grabbing another flat of eggs out of the walk-in?”

Jules tried not to make a face. She hated going into the walk-in cooler. She’d hated small spaces—especially small, dark spaces—ever since her father had remarried for the fourth time when Jules had been a shy fifteen-year-old. One of Courtney’s favorite punishments had been to lock Jules in one of the linen closets. Most of the time, it had been only for a few hours. A few memorable times, though, Jules had been trapped in the tiny, dark space overnight. Although she’d mostly gotten over her claustrophobia in the years since she’d escaped from that house, something about the cooler made all Jules’s old fears flare to life.

She had to suck it up, though. There was no way out of going into the cooler, unless she wanted to sound like a big baby. “Sure.”

Flipping on the light switch, Jules closed her fingers around the metal handle. After taking a breath, she hauled back on the door. There was a brief hesitation before the heavy door released its seal and swung open, releasing a gust of chilled air. Jules shivered, although it was more from nerves than the cold.

She glanced over her shoulder and caught Vicki watching her. As soon as she saw Jules returning her gaze, Vicki focused on the grill, whistling tunelessly as she poked at some hash browns. Jules frowned but turned back toward the cooler. The longer she stood there, dreading it, the longer it was going to take. She needed to just go in, grab the eggs, and get out.

Jules stepped into the cooler, reluctantly letting the door close behind her. In three quick strides, she’d reached the egg boxes lining the bottom shelf. Crouching, she eyed the top of the container and sighed. The box was taped shut, but she didn’t want to go get a utility knife and have to return to the cooler. Instead, she just picked at a corner of the packing tape until she could pull it up and off the top of the box.

As she reached to open the flaps, everything went dark.

Jules froze. Her whole body flushed cold and then hot, and her fingers went numb. She couldn’t feel the cardboard under her hands anymore, and she lost all sense of direction, all sense of balance. It was as if she were underwater, unsure of which way was up. Her legs gave out, and she sat down hard on the cold, tiled floor.

There. I felt that. She pressed her palms against the floor next to her hips, increasing the pressure until pain darted up her wrists into her arms. Strangely enough, she was relieved by the discomfort. It grounded her, made her feel like she was rooted to the floor, rather than floating in the dark space.

She heard someone gasping, short pants of air, and Jules realized the sound was coming from her. Even though no one else could hear it, she was embarrassed by how pathetic she sounded. She was much, much too old to be scared of the dark.

“It’s just a power outage,” she whispered, her voice coming out unsteady, her words interrupted by her shallow gulps for breath. “The door is right there.” Her eyes blinked, trying to adjust to the absolute blackness, and a light-green glow caught her attention. At first, she thought it was nothing, just a blob of false light caused by her squeezing her eyes shut too tightly, but the green shape was there each time she opened her eyes to stare into the darkness. Finally, she realized it was the glow-in-the-dark emergency release handle.

Her relieved breath came out too close to a sob for comfort. Vicki would never let Jules live it down if she came out of the dark cooler crying. Her head still spun from fear and the dizzying darkness, so Jules crawled toward the green glow, her apron catching between the hard floor and her knees.

She’d made it. The emergency release knob was right at eye level, and Jules forced herself to stand. Crawling out of the cooler would be almost as bad as being in hysterics. Jules’s hands followed the metal-lined surface of the door, helping her keep her balance as she rose to her feet. Once she was upright, she pushed against the door.

Nothing happened. It didn’t budge.

Her breathing immediately sped up again. Was she trapped in the dark space? Jules could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears, the thumps so close together that it created a steady thunder. Cold pressed against her like a living thing, filling her lungs with each rapid, futile inhale. There wasn’t enough air. Each breath felt tight and empty, and she panted faster, trying to suck in oxygen.

Stop it! she snapped at herself. There is air. Fighting back the panic wanting to take control, Jules forced her breathing to slow. Gradually, her heartbeat followed enough for her logical brain to begin working. Maybe the door automatically latched in a power outage. She twisted the emergency release knob one direction and then pushed against the door again. Nothing. She tried the other way. The door remained stubbornly closed. Jules pushed and pulled and finally yanked so hard that the handle came off in her hand. She stared at the green, glowing, useless object in her hand and then burst into tears.

“Help!” she screamed, the panic rushing in and taking over. There were no rational thoughts left in her brain—just the desperate need to get out of the cooler. “Get me out!”

She pounded on the door, but its thick construction muffled her hits so even she could barely hear them. She wasn’t going to get out. She’d be trapped in that shrinking space for hours, even days, until she died of hypothermia. No! She couldn’t do it, couldn’t be stuck in this tight, airless blackness for even one more second. Forget hypothermia; her heart was about to explode in terror. Bracing her hands on the door, she shoved with all her might. It didn’t budge, immobile and horribly still…until suddenly the door was gone and everything was blindingly light and she was falling.

Theo caught her. Jules wasn’t sure how she knew, but she did, the instant his arms wrapped around her and her face pressed into his uniform shirt. It was stiff with starch, and a button pressed hard against her cheekbone, but she’d never felt anything better. His hand cupped her head, pulling her tighter against his chest, and his other arm wrapped around her back. It took a few seconds for Jules to realize that Theo was shouting.

“You’re a fucking psycho!”

Her head jerked back at that. She might be a kidnapper and a criminal and a liar, but she thought it was extremely unfair of him to call her a psycho. When she managed to focus her tear-blurred eyes on Theo’s face, though, he wasn’t looking at her. Jules followed his glare to Vicki, who was just a few feet away, doubled over with laughter. Jules blinked a few times, trying to tear herself free of the panic that still wanted to cling so she could figure out what was going on.

“C’mon, Theo,” Vicki finally wheezed, wiping her eyes. “I was just joking around. God, that was hilarious. When I pulled the same trick on Megan, she just sat on a crate of potatoes and played on her phone until I got bored and walked away.”

Theo snarled, “You—”

“What’s going on?” Hugh burst into the kitchen with Megan at his heels.

“Theo’s being a fun-wrecker. Again.” With a final hiccup of laughter, Vicki turned to the sink and started washing her hands.

Megan looked at Jules, then the walk-in cooler door, then Vicki, and understanding washed over her face. She groaned loudly. “Vicki, Theo’s right. You are a psycho. Did you do the whole turn-the-lights-off-and-hold-the-door-shut thing on poor Jules? You know she’s scared of the walk-in!”

“That’s what made it so funny!” When everyone just glared at Vicki, she threw her hands in the air. “You guys are no fun.”

Megan turned to Jules. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” With everyone’s eyes on her, embarrassment was starting to set in. It didn’t help that Jules realized she was still leaning against Theo’s very muscular chest. His hand was smoothing circles on her lower back, and she would’ve been very happy to stay there for the remainder of the morning. At that moment, resting against him, Jules gave in. It wasn’t just attraction; she was way too far gone for that. This was a huge, unmistakable, unignorable crush. She liked Theo…a lot.

When Megan and Hugh began to look more curious than concerned, Jules forced herself to take a step back, out of Theo’s tempting hold. He resisted for a fraction of a second, but then let her go. “I’m fine.” Her quivering voice turned her words into a lie. “I just don’t like small spaces.”

“Are you going to quit?” Megan asked, shooting an angry look at Vicki, who didn’t seem to notice. She’d returned to her grill and had started whistling again.

“I’ll stay if you promise I’ll never have to go in there again.” Jules jerked her thumb toward the cooler.

“Deal. Sorry about Vicki,” Megan said. “I should’ve warned you that she has a messed up sense of humor.”

Hugh nodded. “We all carry scars from Vicki’s jokes.”

There was a snort from the direction of the grill. “You’re not scarred, dumbass. How did giving you swirlies in fifth grade scar you?”

He placed a hand on his chest. “My heart, Vicki. You scarred my heart.” Letting his hand drop to his side, Hugh tilted his head. “And my pride. My pride definitely took a beating. I was so grateful that sixth-grade growth spurt finally made me taller than you.”

“I could still take you,” Vicki grumbled.

“You sure you’re okay?” Megan asked Jules.

“I’m fine.”

“Good, because there are hungry people waiting for us.” Pointing at Hugh and Theo, Megan jerked her head toward the door. “You two, out.”

Jules wanted to get back to work. All she’d do if they kept standing around was mentally relive her humiliating experience over and over. As Theo gave her one last, penetrating look and stepped toward the door, she caught his hand. “Thanks.”

His gaze ran down her body, as if checking to see if she was intact, and then he gave her one of those short nods she loved so much. He squeezed her hand before releasing it as he moved away. She watched him, remembering the feel of his shirt against her cheek. The terror of being trapped in the dark walk-in cooler had been almost worth being held against his chest.

Shaking her head, she forced herself to look away from his retreating form. Why did he have to be so…heroic? Her crush on Theo had just grown a thousand times bigger.

* * *

At the heavy knock, all conversation around the dinner table ceased. Everyone went still, not even chewing. Since her freak-out in the walk-in cooler that morning, Jules had been jumpy, and an unexpected visitor didn’t help matters. Their new life in Monroe was so fragile. The unknown person at the door could be the one who would destroy it. Jules exchanged a look with Sam, and then he ushered the other three kids out the back door toward the barn. Taking a shaky breath, she walked toward the front door.

I won’t let them get the kids, she told herself as she approached the entryway. I just need to buy them time to get away. Her hand shook as she flattened it against the door, rising on her tiptoes to look through the peephole. Her lungs and heart stilled for a second, only to rush into motion again when she recognized the person on her porch.

Light-headed with relief and a giddiness she felt only around Theo, she yanked open the door. “Hi.”

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here?”

For some reason, his scowl deepened. “This porch is a death trap.”

Confused, Jules looked down at the boards under his feet and then back up to his face. “Okay. Should you be standing on it then?”

His snort could’ve been a laugh if he hadn’t looked so cranky. “Probably not. I…uh…” He shifted, looking away, and Jules could’ve sworn he seemed uncomfortable. But he was Theo, and from what she’d seen, Theo wasn’t ever uncomfortable. Angry? Yes. Hostile? Sure. But uncomfortable? This was a first. “I brought some boards and my tools.” When she just stared, even more confused, he gestured toward the porch floor. “To fix it.”

“You’re going to fix our porch.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I told you. It’s a death trap.” He shifted impatiently, and the wood squeaked under his boots. “You could fall through. Or one of the kids could get hurt.”

As she looked at him, a wave of strong emotion washed over her. He was there to help, to do something she couldn’t to protect the kids, to protect her. She felt like she’d been treading water since she’d met with Mr. Espina, trying desperately to keep them all from drowning, and now Theo was there, offering her a hand. It was just a porch, but it was help, and it made her feel so much less alone.

Stepping forward, she wrapped her arms around his chest and hugged him hard. He stiffened, letting out a surprised grunt, but she held on, pressing her forehead against his worn T-shirt. Tears of gratitude rushed to her eyes, and she blinked hard, trying to keep them contained. Releasing him, she stepped back, giving him a shaky smile.

“Are you crying?”

“No.”

“It’s just a porch.”

“I know.” Her smile stretched bigger even as her eyes filled again. “Thank you.”

“I’m not fixing it if you cry,” he threatened, making her laugh.

“I’m going to go get the kids,” she said with a final sniffle.

Theo glanced toward her SUV, probably thinking she had to pick them up. “Where are they?”

“Oh, um…just playing in back.” She forced her brain to get back on track. Just because he was fixing her porch didn’t mean she could slip up and reveal that they were hiding in the barn. “Did you want me to keep them out of your hair?”

He shrugged. “They can help.”

Jules beamed at him.

“What?”

“You are such a sweetheart.”

His wary look shifted back into his usual scowl. “Am not.”

With another laugh, she turned away, moving toward the back door so she could give the kids the all clear. He really was. A porch-fixing, heroic, heart-stealing sweetheart.

* * *

“Maybe we could be homeschooled?” Ty asked hopefully.

As the five of them stared at the two-story building, a mustard-yellow box with just a few narrow windows on each corner, Jules was tempted to agree. Then she thought about the reality of trying to teach her siblings—especially Tio—and she sighed.

“C’mon, y’all.” She shoved the driver’s door open with more confidence than she felt. “Dee, you too.” Even though just a few people were around, and the few extra-early students were headed into the school, Jules didn’t want Dee to be left alone. It was going to be hard enough having them out of her sight for the whole day while they were in school.

Ty groaned, but Tio got out of the backseat more enthusiastically. Sam didn’t say anything, but Jules could feel his tension. If he’d been drawn any tighter, Sam would’ve snapped like an overstressed steel cable. Catching his sleeve—but being careful not to grab his arm—she held him back a few steps, allowing the twins and Dee to walk slightly ahead of them.

“Dennis is good at what he does,” she said very quietly, so only Sam could hear. “We have new names, new social security numbers, new ages, new lives.”

Sam stared straight ahead, the muscle in his jaw working.

“She won’t find us.” She looked for any sign that her words had reassured him, but his expression hadn’t changed. “If there’s any chance she even has a clue where we are, we’ll run again. I’m sure Dennis has a new-life warranty of some sort.”

It was a sad attempt at a joke, but it made Sam finally meet her eyes. “I’m okay, J-JuJu. It’s j-j-just…” He gestured toward the ugly building. “N-n-new school.”

“Oh.” It shouldn’t have been such a surprise that Sam was worried about such a normal thing as his first day at a new school, but it was. They’d been freaking out over getting away and staying away from Courtney so much that Jules had forgotten any other worries existed. “You’ll do great, Sam. All the work will be old hat to you. If anything, you’ll be bored.”

Sam came as close as she’d ever seen to rolling his eyes. “Sure, J-Ju.”

The twins and Dee waited at the main doors for Jules and Sam to catch up. Feeling like a parenting failure, she asked, “Are you nervous about starting school, Ty?”

“Nah.” His shrug was a hair too nonchalant as they passed through the door into the dimness of a hallway. “I’m not scared. Not that excited about getting homework and stuff, but school is school. Kids are kids. Some are nice and some are assholes.”

“Language!”

Tio looked at her seriously. “It is the most appropriate term for some people in our demographic.”

Since she couldn’t really argue with the truth of that, Jules changed the subject. “What about you, T? Any first-day jitters?”

The look her brother gave her was completely uncomprehending. “Why would school make me nervous?” For him, school had always been his safe place.

“Good,” she said. A sign that said “office” pointed to the right. “That’s…” Her attempt at a pep talk died as they turned the corner.

“Th-there’s one r-r-reason to b-b-be n-nervous about school,” Sam muttered under his breath as they all came to a startled halt—all except for Dee.

“Viggy!” she called, lurching forward. Grabbing a handful of her shirt, Jules caught her little sister just in time.

“Dee! Viggy’s working!” she whispered, excitement making her stomach buzz despite her efforts at staying calm. After Theo had fixed their porch the previous evening, she’d spent a sleepless night alternating between grinning like a besotted idiot and scolding herself for being a besotted idiot. At around three in the morning, she’d resolved to try her best to avoid Theo, so her crush on him would fade. Apparently, the universe was not cooperating with her plan. Theo—looking like hot, broody forbidden fruit—was already turning away from Hugh and moving toward them. Viggy was trying to plunge forward to get to Dee, and Theo’s arm strained, his biceps bulging under his uniform shirt as he held back the dog. Jules’s attention was caught by the way his sleeve looked on the verge of ripping, as if it was struggling to contain the impressive muscles underneath.

Theo stopped a few feet from them, greeting them with a short jerk of his head as he half-wrestled, half-ordered Viggy into a sit. When Dee lurched forward again, yanking against Jules’s hold, Jules realized she still had a grip on the back of her sister’s shirt.

“Dee,” she said, focusing on the girl in front of her so Theo’s…Theo-ness didn’t take away her ability to speak. “Stop.”

“But I want to pet him.” Viggy’s tail thumped against the floor, as if in approval of that plan.

“He’s on duty.” That deep, clipped voice made the hairs on Jules’s arms stand up straight, and it wasn’t from fear. “He can’t play with you when he’s on duty. He needs to focus.”

“Oh.” Dee drooped a little, but she didn’t make any additional efforts to get to Viggy.

“What’s he focusing on today?” Jules asked, trying to keep the question light and casual and not get distracted by how good Theo looked in his uniform.

Theo eyed her with a look filled with so much interest that she had to bite the inside of her lip hard to keep from babbling and filling the silence. “Looks like a false alarm,” Theo finally answered.

False alarm, Jules repeated in her head, confused until she remembered what Viggy’s job was. “A bomb threat?” Her voice went a little shrill on the last word. Her paranoia about the kidnapping made her forget that there were other dangers in the world, and she needed to protect her siblings. After all, they were her kids now.

“Happens a lot.” Theo seemed awfully casual about the threat of a bomb. “It’s usually some kid who’s pissed at a teacher or wants a free day.”

Jules’s brain seized on what she saw as the most important word in that sentence. “Usually? Shouldn’t you have evacuated the school, just in case?”

“We try to keep it low-key unless we believe it’s a legitimate threat. Otherwise, we’re just giving the kid who called it in what he—or she—wants,” Theo explained. “If I thought there was a chance there really was a bomb, Viggy and I wouldn’t be in here. We’d get everyone out of the building and call the bomb squad in Denver.”

Although his words were reassuring, Jules still felt jumpy. She glanced around, trying not to think of all the possible hiding spots—that locker, that recycling bin with the lid, that janitor’s closet. She nibbled on the inside of her lip as she forced herself to quit looking and focus on Theo’s face. If she was honest, that last part wasn’t a hardship.

“Jules.” Tio tipped his head toward the office. The flow of students had increased, although most of them were making a wide berth around the cop and his dog, and Jules wasn’t sure how long it would take to complete the admissions paperwork. She’d hate it if the kids had to walk in late to their first class. Being the new kids was bad enough without drawing extra attention. There was already a lot of staring going on, although Jules wasn’t sure if that was due to them being strangers or the K9 cop in their midst.

Taking a step toward the office, she said, “I need to get the kids registered.”

His nod was just a short dip of his chin. “I’ll wait.”

Jules stopped and blinked at him, trying to keep from smiling. One glance at Theo, and her newly formed resolution was tossed out the window. If only he wasn’t quite as nice to look at, maybe she could resist him. Or if he wasn’t so nice, period.

“C’mon, Jules!” Tio began nudging her in the direction of the office.

“I’m coming!” As she walked, keeping a firm hold on Dee just in case her sister decided to bolt for the dog, she refused to glance behind her, refused to check if he was keeping his word and waiting. She definitely didn’t want him to wait.

She shouldn’t want him to wait.

As she completed the necessary paperwork, she mentally thanked Dennis. Everything was perfect. There were immunization records and transcripts and custody papers. The administrative assistant—who had severe glasses and not a hair out of place—even gave her an approving look, murmuring, “Very organized.”

They managed to get all three boys registered and sent off with a student “buddy” to find their lockers. Jules watched them go, feeling a little scared and helpless that they’d be out of her reach.

A squeeze on her hand brought Jules out of her distracted worry. “They’ll be okay,” Dee said quietly.

“I know.” Giving her sister a small grin—the best she could manage—Jules added, “I just like to keep them close.”

Looking much older than eleven, Dee tightened her grip again. “They’re used to taking care of themselves.”

That made Jules frown as they left the office. “They shouldn’t be.”

“Right. That’s why you stole us.”

Even though Dee had used her quietest voice, Jules still bugged her eyes out at her. “Ix-nay on the ole-stay alk-tay.”

“Orry-say!” Dee whispered, making a zipping motion over her lips.

“Done?” The deep voice made her jump, and Jules barely held back a startled shriek. When she turned to Theo, Jules couldn’t help but marvel at how he got better-looking every time she saw him. Despite his scowl—or maybe, a contrary part of her brain whispered, because of it—he really was the poster child of masculine beauty.

When his eyebrows unsnarled enough to lift in question, Jules realized he was waiting for an answer. “Um…yes. Sure. Right. We’re all done getting them registered. The boys, at least. I mean, for this place, so everyone except for D. The elementary school starts later, so we decided to come here first. It helps that the junior and senior highs are both in one building, this…um, building, I mean. Because, if they were separate, we’d need to go to a third school.” She was painfully aware that she was rambling, and that Theo and Dee and even the dog were staring at her like she’d lost her mind, but Jules couldn’t manage to stop the flow of words. “Yeah. So, anyway…did you need to talk to me?”

“I’ll walk you out.”

“Don’t you need to do”—Jules waved a hand in the general direction of the lockers, recycling bin, and janitor’s closet she’d eyed so suspiciously before—“bomb stuff?”

There was the tiniest movement at the corner of his mouth, just the barest twitch of his lips, but it was enough to startle her. Was he actually almost smiling?

“Bomb…stuff is done. Hugh and I are the last ones here, finishing up the paperwork.” Any sign of amusement was gone now, and Jules decided she’d imagined that hint of a smile. “No sign of any explosives. It was just a prank call.”

“Did Viggy figure that out?” Dee asked, looking at the dog with equal parts fascination and awe.

The frown was back, heavier than before. “No.”

Jules flinched slightly at the snap in his voice, startled by the abrupt change in his manner. In their last few encounters, Theo had been different with her…gentler.

“No,” he repeated in a softer tone, as if he’d noticed her reaction. Jules suspected there wasn’t much he didn’t notice, which could be a problem. After all, she had a lot she wanted to hide. “Cliff County leant us one of their explosive-detection dogs. Viggy’s…” He looked down at the dog. Viggy was sitting slightly crouched, as if he was trying to appear smaller than he was. His jaw tight, Theo brought his gaze back to Jules. “Never mind. Don’t you need to get over to Cottonwood Elementary?”

“Right!” Jules glanced at Dee, who was still focused on the dog. The hot cop had a knack for getting her to forget where she was and what she was supposed to be doing. That also could be a problem. “C’mon, Dee. Let’s get you educated.”

When Theo fell into step next to her, Jules gave him a surprised glance. From his fierce scowl, she’d assumed he’d no longer be accompanying them outside.

Although he kept his body low to the ground, Viggy walked on the other side of Theo willingly enough. Jules wondered what the story was. Had the dog had a bad experience? Had Theo, as well? Was that the reason for his perma-scowl? Jules felt her stomach twist as she thought of what possible tragedies could’ve left such a mark on the two.

“Someone look at your stove?”

Once again, the question startled her. Jules didn’t know if it was his gruff manner of barking out conversation, or if she was still jumpy about the whole bomb-threat thing, and the being-away-from-her-brothers thing. “Yes.”

“A professional?”

“He knew what he was doing.” It wasn’t an outright lie. After finding a manual for the stove online at the library, Tio had managed to get it working without any additional explosions. By the time he’d finished fiddling with it, he was confident in his stove-fixing abilities. It was Jules who was a nervous wreck the whole time he was working.

Theo gave her a hard look, as if waiting to see if she was going to confess to her half-truth, but Jules put on her most innocent expression. After a long moment, Theo gave an accepting—or possibly skeptical—grunt. Taking a few long strides, he reached the door first and held it open for her and Dee.

Jules blinked against the morning sun until her eyes adjusted. Florida had been sunny, but Colorado was even brighter than the sunshine state. She figured it was something to do with the altitude or the clean mountain air or something.

The first thing she saw when she was no longer blinded was that Theo had slid on his sunglasses, which made him improbably hotter. Jules bit the inside of her lip hard. She needed to nip this crush in the bud immediately. Even if she hadn’t accepted that any relationship was not in the cards for years, just being friends with this man was a bad, bad idea.

Her eyes lingered on the way his upper arms stretched his uniform shirt. It took all her willpower to rip her gaze away and refocus on Dee, who was humming to herself, skipping a few feet ahead of them, happily oblivious to the fact that her older sister was being an idiot.

“What do—”

There was a strange sound, something between a crack and a thump, and then she was on the ground, a very large, very heavy cop on top of her. The sidewalk was hard beneath her, and Theo was just as hard above her, and Jules couldn’t figure out why he’d tackled her. She turned her head, meaning to ask him, but the intense, grim look on his face stopped her. Something was happening. Something bad.

“Stay down!” he ordered before rolling to his feet and running the few steps to Dee. She turned to look at him, her eyes and mouth rounding with surprise as he snatched her off her feet. Spinning around, Theo hunched over the little girl, as if protecting her. Jules’s brain still refused to work, refused to make sense of what was happening.

The sound came again, louder this time. A sharp pain bit into her calf, and she twisted to stare at the spot. A drop of dark-red blood welled before trickling across her leg. Her gaze darted from her injured calf to a hole in the asphalt walkway just inches away. There was a hole in the sidewalk. A bullet hole.

The sight finally knocked her brain back in gear, and she knew what was happening.

Someone was shooting at them.