HER TEAM LEADER was in the waiting room, talking away on his cell. Chalmers raised a brow when he saw Ezra. He disconnected and looked at the two of them. “Hahn? Any particular reason you’re still here when you should be on the clock?”

“Yeah. Taxi service. Sent by the best Dr. Chalmers.” A stretch, and they all three knew it. Chalmers had a look in his eyes that said the damned profiler suspected exactly why Ezra had suddenly shown up the way he had.

He didn’t give a damn.

Ezra didn’t care who got it. Who knew how he felt.

What mattered was that she did.

“What do we know so far?” Shannon asked. She was a bit more subdued than he was used to seeing, but the stubbornness was still there. The determination. It was only a matter of time before she insisted on heading back to PAVAD.

He had no doubt about that. And he was going to be the one to get her there.

“You are going home. Two days, minimum, medical leave,” her team leader said.

Ezra saw the stubbornness hit her face immediately.

“Ken, it’s a scratch. It’s not like it’s even the first time. He hit me worse in Nebraska.” She waved her hand in Ezra’s direction. “Remember that, boys? I can still work. Time is of the essence on this, and you need my skills on this.”

Chalmers hesitated.

“Jaynice is an acquaintance of mine, Ken. We’ve worked together before. I want to help find out who did this to her.”

Shannon’s quiet tone had Chalmers’s face softening.

Ezra didn’t blame him. When Shannon turned those eyes on a guy, he had to give in. Chalmers frowned down at her, clearly deciding what to do.

“I’ll clear it with Paige. See if I can be reassigned. You have a sharpshooter to catch.”

Chalmers’s attention shifted to Ezra. Turned contemplative. “You know anything about this case?”

“Not yet. I know that the guy who shot her today had to be damned skilled to shoot from that hotel. He had to time his shot perfectly. And it wasn’t easy to do. It takes a sharpshooter of exceptional skill to pull off what he did today. There’s not too many of us out there like that.”

It hadn’t been random. It had been skill.

“I’ll clear it with Paige.” Chalmers looked at Shannon, his concern still there for Ezra to see. “Only—and I do mean only—when I tell you to, you can put your little tap-tappers on the keyboard after you go home for the rest of the day. Got me?”

She held up her hand, two fingers up. “I do solemnly swear to do only what you tell me to do.”

“Good.” Chalmers glanced at Ezra again. “Welcome aboard. I’ll move you to my team in a few. I’m heading to the St. Louis field office now. Someone’s going to have to meet with Jaynice Miller’s team. Let them know what we know.”

Ezra winced. He hadn’t ever met the woman, but she was FBI. One of their own. He hoped to hell that she pulled through.

It could have been Shannon.

“You take her home. Sit on her there if you have to. Get some rest yourself. I don’t want you if you’re exhausted from the last twenty-four hours in Tallahassee. I’ll call you when I’m ready for you. In the meantime, help Shannon.”

There were a million silent messages in Chalmers’s expression, and Ezra got it. He was supposed to ride herd on her.

Keep her from hurting herself worse. To keep her safe.

Exactly what he wanted to be doing.

They were both silent until her supervisor was gone and he was leading her out to the truck he’d parked in front of the building. He helped her in by lifting her over the running boards and onto the passenger seat as gently as he could.

She made him want to treat her like one of those blown glass statues his mother still collected. He almost smiled at that.

He never would have felt this way about her before that night at Smokey’s.

Then she looked at him, a knowing look in those eyes of hers. “What exactly are you doing? Be honest. Anyone on my team could have babysat me this afternoon.”

“I told you. Checking on you. And I do have experience with this kind of killer.” Hell, he was one. He had always known that. “I had to come see you for myself. And Chalmers was right—I’ve been up for twenty-four straight. I watch over you, he can have people out there finding the shooter. This is where I belong. Being your shadow.”

“Why? Because we’ve slept together once?”

“Yes.” Because his world had stopped in that heartbeat when he’d heard the words Team Four.

“You go crazy protective over all the women you’ve slept with?”

Ezra hesitated. That was a loaded question, if he’d ever heard one. “No. And...I...it had been a while. A long while.”

“There was Neya, from Accounting just last week. She was bragging all about how you asked her out. And how the two of you didn’t come up for air for three days. In the third-floor restroom, to anyone who could hear. She looked right at me when she said it.”

He sent her a look. “Listening to gossip, Toliver? I haven’t even spoken to that woman in at least four months. When I did, she terrified me. And that was just over my damned pay withholding. I never dated her, never had sex with her. And if I can help it, I will never be alone with her. The only woman I’ve slept with since I joined PAVAD is currently right next to me. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Ezra the Chaste? Somehow I don’t see it.”

He snorted. One of the things he’d most appreciated about this woman was her humor. Mostly. There were times what she’d said to him burned right through him. But he had to admit, he’d always enjoyed the challenge—and the anticipation of Shannon Toliver. “Ezra, the Discerning. I’m very picky about who I get involved with. Even on impulse.”

“I’m the lucky one?”

“I didn’t hear any complaints.” He smirked at her. Some of the panic and fear that had motivated him was lessening as they got closer to her place. “Any of the three times. Or was it four, that night? I didn’t exactly keep track. Did we come up for air?”

“Seriously? You had to bring that up?”

“A smart man uses every tool in his toolbox to get what he wants.” And just exactly what he was wanting was becoming more and more clear.

“And what is it that you want?”

He shot her a quick look. “I think you know exactly what—who—I want. Who I can’t forget. I haven’t exactly been hiding things from you. Hell, Chalmers knew. Took one look at the two of us a minute ago and probably figured out exactly what happened. Maybe not the details. But he knew. And I don’t give a damn.”