Leah

Thank God the coffee pods were right by the Keurig because, if not, she might have staged a one-woman riot in the middle of Drew's kitchen. She'd brass balled her way into having the bed to herself last night, but that didn't mean he hadn't been there anyway. He'd invaded her dreams to the point that she'd woken up this morning with her arms wrapped around his pillow and her nose buried in it as she inhaled the amber, musky scent of him that clung to it. That meant she was pissed off and horny at the same time—both of which were all too familiar when it came to being near Drew.

After half a cup of straight black goodness was warming her belly, she felt human enough to make the call. The contact list on her phone listed the number as being for Isaac, but her big brother wasn't the person she wanted to talk to. She hit dial.

"B-Squad Investigations and Security," a woman answered, her familiar voice as crisp, efficient, and borderline bitchy as the woman herself. She and Leah were like peas in a pod that way.

"Hey, Tamara." She sat down at the table and took another sip of coffee.

"Leah, is everything okay? Isaac just left on a job but I can patch him in." His brother's fiancée immediately ready to burst into action after Isaac had no doubt brought her up to speed on the craziness going on in Catfish Creek.

"Nope." She shook her head as if Tamara could see. "I was looking for Lexie."

"Really? Why?"

"Tamara, I know you love my brother and even if you didn't, you know he's got a way of crowbarring the truth out of people." And she didn't want the favor she was about to ask Lexie repeated to her big brother.

"Don't I know it," Tamara said with a chuckle.

"So it's better if you don't know the answer to why."

There was a pause long enough for her to look around Drew's sunny kitchen and realize that, like his office, it was completely bare of anything personal, as if he'd never unpacked when he'd moved in.

Tamara sighed. "Secrets are not the basis of a strong relationship."

"Are you telling me you two have always told each other everything?" The silence on the other end of the phone was telling. "It's not like I'm hiding a sixteen year old."

"That was just the once and I had a good reason."

Yeah, like the girl's megalomaniacal cult leader father who was dead set on forcing the girl to marry one of his middle-aged followers. "No argument."

"Fine," Tamara said with a huff, finally giving in. "Hold on."

B-Squad didn't have on hold music. It was just a series of rhythmic beeps. She'd counted fourteen beeps when Lexie, the resident computer guru and cat aficionado, picked up.

"Leah, what kind of trouble are you causing now?" Lexie asked, as always more than ready to hear the latest bit of gossipy crazy.

"What makes you think I'm causing trouble, Lexie?"

"Because I know you and your brother," Lexie said, the sound of her fingers click-clacking across the keyboard coming in loud and clear over the line. "If trouble isn't everyone in your family's middle name then I don't have a slight cat obsession."

"You're calling an entire wardrobe of cat T-shirts and enough kitty figurines to make a certified cat lady think you had a problem as slight?"

"I'm quirky," Lexie said. "So sue me."

"I'd rather put you to work."

"What've you got?" she asked, going straight into all-business mode.

"Two dirt bags, Hank Wynn and Markus Miller. They're involved in some kind of diamond theft ring. I want to know everything about them and anything about who's in charge of the crew."

"Doesn't sound like idle curiosity to me. You need me to come down and bring some of the B-Squad toys?"

Leah wasn't sure whether to be thankful or annoyed that her brother's B-Squad crew had adopted her as one of their own. For a girl with trust issues, it took a little getting used to.

"Nah, between the Feds and one big-dicked sheriff I have enough babysitters already."

"Big dicked as in has a big dick or acts like one?"

Leah thought about it as she took another sip of coffee. "Both."

Lexie laughed. "I want details the next time I'm in Denver or you're in Fort Worth, whichever happens first."

"Deal. I need any info you can find on Wynn and Miller fast and quiet."

"No big brother heads up, huh?"

"There's a new cat T-shirt in it for you."

Lexie snorted. "You really think there's one I don't have?"

"You have a Captain Ameri-cat one?" Leah asked, picturing the one she'd seen in a random email that had landed in her inbox. "It's a cat in a Captain America suit saying he fights crime one evil hairball at a time."

"I'll have everything including their favorite color of underwear by breakfast."

Leah smiled. "You're the best, Lexie."

"Don't you know it."

She hung up and downed the last third of her coffee. If there was anyone who could make that promise and keep it, it was Lexie. Not for the first time she wondered what the story was behind the cat-obsessed computer genius, but shoved it aside. She had to deal with the here and now before delving into any other mysteries. The sound of a man clearing his throat behind her made her jump out of her seat.

Drew stood in the kitchen doorway wearing a scowl and a very tiny blue towel slung low across his hips. Water droplets clung to his chest and she watched, unable to look away, as one drop made the downward trek across his hard abs to disappear behind the towel. It was enough to make her brain short out.

"What in the hell was that?" Drew asked, stalking toward her.

She swallowed past the sand pit in her mouth and—out of a sense of primal survival desperation—moved so the small, round kitchen table was between them. It wasn't that she was afraid of him. More like she was afraid of what she wanted to do when she was near him—every dirty thing she could possibly imagine.

"I'm moving things ahead."

He glanced down at the table and back up at her with a knowing smirk. "And how were you doing that?"

Her cheeks burned. Damn it. Why was it always like this with him? Taking a deep breath, she clicked together her bad attitude, using it as a shield against his cocky charms. "I called in a favor to get more information about the Rhinestone Cowboys."

He spread his legs wide and crossed his arms over his broad chest. "You don't need to know more."

His stance couldn't have screamed "I strong man, you weak woman" any more if he tried.

This wasn't how she worked. Drew, of all people, should know that. She wasn't about to entrust her life to some random FBI agents who were more concerned with catching the man in charge rather than keeping her safe. And Drew? She might be physically safe with him, but emotionally was a whole other story. The best way to save herself was to get this whole cat and mouse game over with as quickly as possible, so that was exactly what she was going to do.

"I'm not going to sit around Catfish Creek and wait for those two goons to make their move."

"That's the stupid plan the Feds came up with and you agreed to." He shoved his hand through his wet hair, making it stand up as he rounded the table to her side.

Her pulse picked up as he neared and desire warm and slick sent a shiver of anticipation through her body. Her nipples hardened automatically with his closeness, as if they'd been trained to sit up and take notice of Drew. Hell, with the way he played them like a maestro they had. She couldn't control her body's reaction to him and it pissed her off as much as it turned her on. He really was the one man she'd never been able to stop herself from wanting, which is exactly why she had to fight against it so hard. She couldn't trust him, that lesson he'd taught her oh so well. That pinprick of humiliation and hurt was enough to pull her back from the edge of desire and back to the problem at hand.

"I'm not going to sit back and wait for the other shoe to drop. That's not the way I roll."

"No, you just roll over everything in your path without any thought about the consequences, but there will be some if you do anything idiotic like try to draw Wynn and Miller out without backup."

"All the more reason why I can't wait for the Feds to do their job." Frustration over the situation and her body's reaction to the half naked man in front of her, she pushed past him, her only goal being to get out of the kitchen before she did something she'd regret, "I'm going to get ready. Until I know my next move I have to act like everything's normal. That means picking up my high school reunion welcome packet and saying hi to all the bitches who think I slept my way through the entire varsity football roster and the assholes who started that rumor in the first place."

"If that's the way you feel about coming to the reunion then why are you even here?" he asked.

Stopping in the doorway she glanced back at him. He had one hip propped against the table and the top of his towel had slunk down low enough she could see a few dark hairs curling over the edge. The temptation to walk back over and drop to her knees in front of him hit her like a sixty-mile-per-hour gust of wind. She could fuck him. She could suck his dick. She could tease and tempt and toy with him until they both were nothing but mush, but she wouldn't be able to walk away happy after that. That summer after graduate school had taught her that. When it came to her heart, Drew Jackson was danger in a tight pair of Levis. He always had been. He always would be. She could pretend she'd come back to Catfish Creek to flip her classmates the bird but that was a lie, she realized in a rush. She'd come back to see him.

"Why come back?" she asked. "To see if anything had changed."

Without waiting for his response, she turned and marched to the bedroom her chin high and her step faltering only a little bit.

* * *

Drew

He'd never thought of the cab of his truck as small before. It sure was with Leah in there making the whole place smell like strawberry shampoo instead of Whataburger or The Hamburger Shack. He stopped at one of the lights on Main Street a block from the high school. She didn't look up from her phone. Here he was acting as her well-armed chauffeur and she'd ignored him and spent the ride so far to the Catfish Creek High School texting. She let out a giggle that was so unlike any sound she had ever made around him before that he missed that the light had turned green until the driver behind him let him know with a prolonged honk.

"Something funny?" he asked, with a little more snarl than he meant to put in the question.

She didn't even look up. "Just Gray."

Grayson Cleary. The guy had been in the same class as Leah and Jess. Up until now he'd seemed like an okay guy. The unfamiliar prick of jealousy stabbed him in the left eyeball. "The dropout?"

Finally, she looked up from her phone, but only to cut him a glare. "You mean my best friend?"

"Since when?" Girls weren't friends with guys. It just didn't work out that way. If the chick was hot—and Leah was beyond that—then the dude wanted to bang her. End of story.

Her jaw went tight. "Since your sister blackballed me in school and Gray was the only one who stood by me."

There was just enough of a tremble in her voice to make him hate what was going to come out of his mouth next, but it had to be said. Jess could be a real bitch, but she was still his sister. "I'm sure there was a misunderstanding."

Leah laughed. It wasn't a happy sound. "Nope, no misunderstanding. Pretty, perky, perfect Jessica Jackson declared war and I'm sure she still thinks she won. As if I cared what she did."

"Sounds to me like you still do." He slammed his mouth shut before he could add that it had been ten years and pulled into the high school parking lot.

After pulling into a parking spot near the gym doors and turning off the engine, he pivoted in his seat. Leah's cheeks were beet red. This wasn't the spitfire response he loved to get from her. It was hurt. Probably embarrassment. More than likely a whole lot of half buried resentment. His gut twisted. Shit. He was an asshole.

She let out a slow breath and gave him a cold smile. "Well, if this isn't deep thoughts with Drew Jackson."

Over her shoulder he spotted Catfish Creek's own Ms. Gossip watching. Karly Stocker, reunion organizer and all-around rumor monger, was not someone he wanted anywhere nearby while Leah was fighting to get ahold of whatever lurked under the surface of her bad girl defenses. Too bad fate had other plans. Karly was click clacking her way across the hot asphalt parking lot in heels and full-on big Texas hair.

"We've got company," he said, jerking his chin toward the oncoming assault.

Leah glanced out the window. "Oh God. That's Karly, isn't it?"

"Yep." The one. The only. The permanently annoying.

She whipped back around. "Can we just drive away?"

He understood the feeling, but Karly was closing fast. "Too late."

They got out of the truck and Drew hustled around to the passenger's side, getting there at the same time as Karly.

"Well," Karly said with a smarmy fake smile. "If it isn't Leah Camacho as I live and breathe, and with Drew Jackson no less." She gave Leah an innuendo-heavy wink as if they were old friends. "Don't tell me that it's finally happened."

Crap. What had he missed now? "It?"

Karly laughed, an ear-piercing sound that just might cause an epileptic seizure in dogs. "Everyone knows Leah here has been in love with you since she was knee-high to a jackalope."

Next to him, Leah kept her mouth shut but her chin went a few inches higher and her don't-give-a-fuck mask slammed down into place. Everyone had known? Maybe everyone but him. Before that summer, he'd never noticed her as being anything other than the girl in black who used to hang out with his sister.

"Tell me." Karly leaned in, clutching a manilla envelope with L. Camacho scrawled across the top of it close to her chest. "Are you two together?"

"Nope," Leah said, a big, shit-eating grin on her face. "We're just fucking,"

Drew groaned. Karly's eyes went wide. Leah turned and looked up at him as if she was about to fuck him right there against the side of his truck. Karly let out a little hiss of a squeak. Oh hell. That was going to be all over town before dinner.

Turning back to Karly, Leah asked, "Is that my welcome packet?"

Gaze ping-ponging between Drew and Leah, Karly nodded and handed it over.

"Well then," Leah said, accepting the envelope and turning back toward the truck. "Nice seeing you."

"Wait," Karly said, her voice a few octaves higher than normal. She paused, took a deep breath, and pasted on that fake grin of hers before continuing. "We need your help."

Leah stiffened beside him, her body all but screaming "hell no." Why in the world she decided to come to the reunion if she was going to ignore every single person there was beyond him, but he was done with it. It was time to join in. He took her hand in his and gave it a quick squeeze before turning his attention to Karly.

"What can we do for you?"

The other woman's shoulders sank with obvious relief. "I need two people to hang the decorations up high in the gym. I can't climb a ladder in these shoes."

Leah glanced down at the other woman's ridiculously high heels. "So take them off."

"And go barefoot?" Karly gasped. "In public? No, thank you. I'd rather go into hiding than go out without my shoes and best lipstick."

Drew cut in again before Leah could make another astute, if snarly, observation. "We'd be happy to help."

"Thank you, glad to see someone in this town still does the right thing. Follow me." Without waiting for a response, Karly took off toward the gym doors, her heels wobbly on the uneven asphalt parking lot.

"Why am I doing this?" Leah asked under her breath as they followed behind.

Knowing just how she'd react to the real reason, he had to think fast. "Because wherever I am, you are until Wynn and Miller make their move and we take them down—and while I'm sheriff in pretty much name only at this point, I still need to act the part."

She snorted. "Always doing what everyone expects of you but when do you ever do what you want?"

He jerked to a stop, halting her progress since they were still holding hands, and yanked her close so that her curves fit perfectly against his hardness. "Does last night count?"

Her eyes went dark and her lids dropped to half staff. Then, she bit down on her full bottom lip making it look almost the exact same way it had last night when she'd come hard around his cock. Suddenly, helping with the high school reunion decorations started to sound like an even worse idea. Karly's high-pitched "yoo-hoo" didn't help. The sound was enough to obviously knock Leah back to reality though.

She blinked, gave him a smart-ass smirk, and tugged him along with her as she strutted next to him toward the door. "You're so romantic."

"Well, like you said." He dipped his head lower so his lips were nearly touching the shell of her ear. "We're just fucking."

* * *

Leah

Okay, helping out wasn't horrible. Celeste from Leah's honors calculus class was there and they'd gotten to catch up. A few other people who she didn't remember very well, a few who never would have spoken to her in school, stopped by her and Drew's section of the gym to say hello. It was...nice and kinda fun. Now that was a strange thing to experience in the hallowed halls of Catfish Creek High School. Maybe Drew was right. Maybe she did need to open herself up to the possibility that people changed, God knew she had.

Of course, that little realization jerked her attention right back to the man currently starring in every one of her old high school sex fantasies that had rushed to the forefront thanks to her ever horny subconscious. The bastard knew exactly what was going on in her head too. He'd found every excuse to trail his fingers across her skin, hold her hips in the guise of steadying her on the ladder, and "accidentally" grazing his palm across her ass. Finally, she had to take a step back using the lame excuse of wanting to get a big picture view of the decorations they'd been working on from across the gym.

Lame? Yes.

Necessary? Oh yeah.

Her phone vibrated. Leah didn't have to look to know who was making her back pocket buzz. She'd told Gray she'd meet him at The Grange. She was the one who'd pushed him into coming to the reunion. Why? Because she may wear big girl panties, but that didn't mean she wanted to face all of her high school demons without her best friend at her side.

Of course, all of that was before she'd discovered a fifteen-carat diamond in her rental car glove box and had mind-meltingly good sex with the only man she loved and hated in equal parts. Okay, maybe hated was too strong a word. Made her nuts? Drew Jackson definitely did that—and he wasn't about to stop as long as she was figuratively cuffed to him. Just the reminder of handcuffs made her wrists sore and other parts of her tingle to life as she stared at his perfect ass going up the ladder to hang decorations. She was already searching for a somewhat secluded spot to drag him off to before her brain caught up with the bad ideas trying to hijack it.

Girl, you have got to get your head clear.

Her ass buzzed again. Gray. He was just the person to help her screw her head on right. Without giving herself time to think of what could go wrong—sexual frustration mixed with desperation was like that—she pulled out her phone and opened her Uber app. There was a car two minutes away. Perfect.

She swaggered over to where Drew stood next to a ladder looking down at a box of decorations. "I'll be back in a few."

His eyes narrowed in the way only a suspicious cop could carry off. "Where are you going?"

"To talk to Gray." She held up her phone, intimating that she was gonna make a call. By the time Drew figured it out, her ass would be on a bar stool at The Grange.

Drew’s hand cupped the curve of her waist, the pad of his thumb brushing the bare skin above her jeans, sending jolts of electricity straight to her clit. Her breath caught. Her pulse sped up. Anticipation sizzled in the air between them, as hot and dangerous as a live wire. She licked her lips and pressed a hand to his chest as she rose up on her tip toes—a loud wolf whistle cut through the gym followed by friendly laughter. Leah whipped her head around. Most of the people in the gym were watching. Her feet fell flat to the floor as embarrassment beat her cheeks.

"I gotta go." The words sputtered out.

Drew grinned and let his thumb dip below her waistband for half a second. "Don't go far."

She just smiled and backed away. Quick. With any luck her Uber would be waiting outside the high school's front doors.

A quick ride with a chatty driver later and she was walking into The Grange. There was a pool hall in the back, dance floor to the right, and the world's jerkiest mechanical bull. The place even smelled the same—like stale beer and good times. Damn. She'd missed this dive. A quick scan of the dim interior and she spotted Gray's dark hair and killer smile. He was such a little hottie and her life would be a million times easier if she was even the slightest bit attracted to him, but he was her bestie, her brother, her solid constant. Anyway, there was a nice girl out there for him and he'd find her eventually. If he didn't, what hope was there for someone like Leah?

As she was walking toward him, she spotted two things. One: Kate, a girl they'd gone to high school with, in super cute leather leggings sneaking peeks at Gray. Two: The Rhinestone Cowboys a few tables beyond Gray near the pool tables. Shit. Nice thinking ghosting out on Drew, you idiot. This was not good, but at least they hadn't noticed her yet. Of course, they would in a hurry if she didn't stop Gray before he hollered out her name like he looked to be about to do.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." She rushed to his side, knowing her smile had to look a little on the crazy side but unable to get her face to calm the fuck down.

"It's fine, want me to order you something?" Gray cocked his head and gave her a considering look. "You doing okay?"

Fine? Well, she wasn't currently on fire. That was good. Why had she ditched Drew? Were the FBI guys outside? It wasn't like she could walk out the door and holler “Yo, FBI dudes." Slick move, girl. Way to go.

"I'm fine." She waved him off, her gaze darting over to the Rhinestone Cowboys' table. Both were too caught up watching the perfect heart-shaped ass of the waitress who'd dropped off their beers to pay attention to anyone who walked in the door—for the moment. She needed to get out of here. Fast. "Actually, I can't stay. I need to...I just need to do a rain check. Okay?"

Gray gave her a hard look. "You going to tell me what's going on?"

Oh yeah. Like her life wasn't shitastic enough without dragging her best friend into her mess.

She leaned over him, grabbed his mug, and chugged the rest of his water before putting the empty glass down on the bar top. "Can't right now. But I will."

"You know I'm always here for you, right?"

Now wasn't that enough to melt her cold, black heart. "I do, Gray, I do. Now, why don't you stop talking to me and look around at the pretty woman with those fantastic leather leggings who keeps staring at you."

"What are leather leggings?" he asked, a divot of confusion in-between his eyes.

Dudes. So fucking clueless. "They are nirvana. Stretchy and sexy." She winked, unable to stop herself from teasing him. "My new motto."

Gray let out a groan. "Dear Lord, never say that again."

"Seriously though, Kate is looking hot tonight. And I hear she's single." Her phone vibrated. One glance down confirmed a fourth text from Drew. Yep. Sheriff was pissed. She had to get out of here and back to the high school before his head popped off or the Rhinestone Cowboys spotted her. "Anyway, gotta run. Have fun!"

Without giving Gray a chance to stop her, she hustled out the door and into the bright late afternoon sunlight that temporarily blinded her, which explained why she didn't see trouble coming until it was too late. An arm wrapped around her waist and yanked her backward against a wall of rock hard muscle.

"Sweets," Drew's voice held a dark edge as he held her in his iron grip. "Didn't your mama ever teach you it's not polite to ditch your date?"

A shiver of anticipation glided across her skin as a quick blast of desire expanded out from her core. She snuggled her ass against Drew's thickening cock before her brain caught up to what her body was doing. She froze and gave her brain a second to catch up.

"I told you I was going to talk with Gray," she said, the explanation sounding dumb even to her ears.

"Uh-huh." He loosened his grip a fraction but didn't let go. "Try selling that story somewhere else."

"The Rhinestone Cowboys are inside."

He stilled behind her. "Which means you're not about to go back in," he said, something dangerous in his voice she'd never heard before now that made all her girl parts perk up with a hopeful sigh. Then, as quick as he'd grabbed her, he let her go and moved up so they stood next to each other. "Good thing you have other plans tonight."

"I do?" The images that flashed in her mind almost made her blush and she couldn't wait to try every single one of them out.

"Yeah." He slid his palm across the small of her back and guided her to his truck. "It's family dinner night at Casa Jackson."

Her gut churned. That was definitely not the answer she'd been expecting. In fact, it made the prospect of going head to head with the Rhinestone Cowboys sound totally doable. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes." He opened up the passenger door. "Even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming and handcuffed to me you're not getting out of my sight again."

Ditching Drew wasn't an option though. He'd cuff her, she didn't doubt it for a minute—and part of her was hoping he would.

* * *

Drew

Somewhere in hell the devil was laughing his tailed little ass off. His mom and Leah sat opposite each other across at the Jackson family dining room table. He sat opposite an empty seat. Oh yeah, there was a place setting for his father but he'd stopped deluding himself about his old man's dedication to family eons ago. Saying the stilted conversation and long silences were awkward was like saying he only kinda wanted to drag Leah into the closest room with a door and relieve some of the stress stringing him tight since she'd dipped out of decorating duty at the gym.

"So Leah." His mom, Jennifer, set her fork down, leaving exactly half a baked potato, half a steak and half her vegetables untouched—just like they'd stay for the rest of the meal. "You sell drugs?"

Drew almost choked on his medium rare steak.

"I operate a fully-legal marijuana shop in Denver, yes." Leah responded without an ounce of emotion in her tone, almost as if all the shit he'd been giving her for her choice in careers had beaten some of the fight out of her.

He hated that. As soon as he got her alone, he'd apologize.

"What an...interesting life you must lead," Mom said, smoothing her hair, a nervous gesture that had become more frequent since she'd gotten out of rehab.

Leah nodded and took a bite, chewing with more effort than her mashed potatoes required.

Yeah, this was going even worse than he'd expected, but dinner with his mom wasn't a responsibility he could ignore. Keeping his head down, he shoveled in another bite of potato.

Dinner at his parents’ house had never been fun, not even when he was a kid. There was always some passive aggressive fighting going on between his functioning alcoholic mother and his philandering father. Not that they'd ever divorce. Too public a scandal. Instead, they just seethed silently and spent as much time apart as humanly possible—right up until his mom decided to spend twenty-eight days at the "spa" and came home with a twelve-step program that didn't include telling a single soul in Catfish Creek where she'd really been. The price tag for that? Drew had to come home and help her with her cover story. Faced with the choice between seeing his mom get better, even if she was still the queen of the perfect facade, or watching her lose herself in a bottle, he'd done what he'd always done. He'd given up the policing he loved, came home to Catfish Creek and done the right thing. And with Jess across the country and his dad all but missing in action, there was no one else to do it but him.

"You know, Jessica will be here on Thursday," Mom said. "She's coming from Hollywood."

"How nice for her," Leah said, sounding about as happy as a woman facing a firing squad.

Either oblivious or just too deeply attached to the reality she'd created in her head, his mom nodded in agreement. "Yes, all those big stars really depend on her. Now, if she'd just listened to me when I advised her about what she needed to be doing in L.A., well, she'd be one of those big stars but that girl never did listen. I think it was because of who she hung out with, and look, now here you are with my son."

Like an unexpected slap across the face, the words hung in the air. Grinding his teeth together, he smacked his palms down on the table on either side of his plate and stood.

Leah spoke up before he got a chance, her voice carefully neutral. "I'm leaving town right after the reunion."

"Mom." The single word sounded more like a threat, but both women at the table ignored him.

"Your poor mother," Mom went on. "All of her children have abandoned her. I'm so glad that didn't happen to me."

"Mom. Stop." He smacked his open hand on the table. She loved to do this whole concerned but still evil thing with him and Jess, he wasn't about to let her do it with Leah. "Stop it right now."

"No, it's the truth," she said, her body practically vibrating with the same twisted righteousness she'd had back in her drinking days when she'd lecture him and Jess about the importance of always presenting the perfect family picture. "You're always here doing what needs to be done for family."

Yeah, and didn't he just love every soul-sucking moment of it. And when the call came for the job in Fort Worth, would she just give in and drop back into the bottle? Guilt ate away at him with all the delicacy of a long horn steer tearing through a glass shop.

"And what about what's best for him?" Leah asked, her voice soft but with a strident undertone.

That made both him and his mom stop. Best for him? That was usually the last thing on the long list of keeping the family together that he'd had since his mom brought Jess home as a baby and then proceeded to celebrate the birth of her second child by getting quietly drunk on vodka mixed in with her sweet tea while his dad continued his affair with his secretary. Taking care of the family had always been Drew’s first priority, one that had spilled over into the rest of his life where he'd chosen to go into public safety. His brain didn't work any other way.

"Well," his mother said, reaching for her wine goblet of water with a shaky hand. "What's best for family is best for everyone in that family, don't you think?"

Ten minutes later and finally out of the house he’d grown up in, Drew couldn't shake the question as he drummed his fingers against his truck's steering wheel and waited for the stoplight to turn. For her part, Leah was quiet, staring out the window at the people eating at one of the outdoor restaurants on Main Street. He'd opened his mouth at least half a dozen times since they left his parents' house but no words came out—probably because he had no idea what they should be. However, the silence screaming in the truck wasn't it though.

"I'm sorry about my mom," he said, pulling away from the intersection and turning left toward his house.

"Why?" Leah asked. "That's how your mom has always been, drunk or sober."

His jaw dropped. "You knew?"

She snorted and shook her head. "You think you're the only one who Jess called for a Dr. Pepper moment?"

Dr. Pepper had been his and Jess's code for help for as long as he could remember—usually called out because of their mom's obsession with perfection or their dad's casual indifference.

"I thought you and Jess stopped being friends in high school."

"We did but there was history between us." Leah let out a harsh breath. "Isn't that always the case when it comes to the Jackson family and doesn't it always come to bite me in the ass?”

Yeah. He wasn't going to touch that last part right now. "What happened with you and Jess?"

She shrugged. "Just high school girl things."

If that was the case, he didn't see how it would still bother her this much ten years later. "Just spit it out."

Leah chewed on her bottom lip and continued looking out the window at the passing businesses, her shoulders hunched and her arms stationed protectively in front of her stomach. Figuring she was just going to ignore the question, he lapsed back into silence as he turned toward a more residential section of town.

"We'd drifted apart our first year in high school," Leah said, keeping her gaze turned away from him. "Jess fit in perfectly with the popular cheerleader set. I did not. It was awkward, but not horrible, even if I didn't know what I'd done wrong to lose her as a friend. Then, one night our freshman year after she had a big fight with your mom, she called me. We met up at the park by my old house and talked for hours about everything. It was like we'd never stopped being friends. I thought everything would go back to how it was." She paused and drew in an unsteady breath. "I couldn't have been more wrong. The next day at school I made the mistake of saying hi to Jess when she was with some of her new friends. She didn't just snub me, she gave me this look like I wasn't even good enough to be the dirt on her shoe. Then, she asked her friends if they heard the ghost of a total loser talking. They walked off laughing while I stood there like she'd punched me right in the gut. After that, it was war. We were both guilty of firing shots. Sugar in a car tail pipe. Nasty gossip scrawled on the bathroom walls. Clothes going missing from gym lockers. Rumors. Innuendo. General assholery."

"What happened after that?" He didn't know shit about being a teenage girl, but that sounds like just the sort of thing that would have wrecked Jess if it had happened to her.

Leah's chin went up another few degrees. "We graduated and I left this town for good, or so I thought."

Yeah, right up until the summer after she'd gotten her master's degree and there he was all ready to bang her and leave as soon as he'd gotten that call from the Fort Worth PD. If it hadn't been for her encouraging him to see beyond his family's demands back then, he may have just toed the family line and followed his dad into the corporate world where he screwed people over for a living. And how had he repaid her? By leaving her in his rearview mirror without even a goodbye kiss. He'd been young but that was no excuse for being that big of a dick.

"I'm sorry."

She twisted in her seat, one eyebrow up. "For what?"

"For being one in a long line of Jacksons to fuck you over." He turned onto his street, determined to make sure it wouldn't happen again. "Look, don't ditch me again. You could really get hurt."

"I won't." Her arms tightened around her middle even as she got that look in her eye that only meant trouble. "But I'm not sitting by idly, either."

"So we'll do it together." Mind made up, he was already rolling through the scenarios and building a plan as he hit the button to open the garage.

"You mean it?" The surprise in her voice punched him right in the balls.

"Yeah, I do." He pulled into the garage and cut the engine. "It's the right thing to do."

And it was. Not just to make it up to Leah, but because she was right. Sitting around like a breathing target wasn't going to keep her safe. As long as the ringleader thought she had the diamond instead of it being in the sheriff's office evidence lock up, she was in danger and he couldn't have that. It was time to go on the offensive, which meant keeping his hands to himself and his mind on the mission instead of Leah's perfect ass. So, once inside, instead of giving into the call of the sway of her hips or the undeniable thing zipping between them, he offered her a curt goodnight. Then, he left her standing in the bedroom doorway, a confused look on her face, as he made up the couch for another night of lower back agony that was still less painful than the guilt and regret about his behavior that was eating him from the inside out.