LITMIR.BIZ

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voicing sentimental feelings, she made peace with his silence, placed her cheek against his chest, took comfort in the strong beat of his heart. But she couldn’t regret her boldness. She felt a rapport with Jake that hadn’t diminished over time. Telling Jake her thoughts and feelings had always been easy. That she’d returned to Florida without bothering to renew their friendship had been a mistake. A mistake she intended to rectify if Jake would let her. She was no longer an innocent eighteen-year-old who needed to follow her childhood dream, but a grown woman who’d achieved her goals and could now make her own choices.

      Yet, with her outspoken revelation, the closeness between them ended. The air of intimacy vanished.

      Jake had withdrawn from her. He might still be holding her on his lap, but his fingers no longer combed through her hair. He no longer curled his arms protectively around her. A stillness surrounded him, practically encasing him in ice.

      But it was the emotional distance that had grown as vast as the Gulf of Mexico. Jake had a way of closing off the world, closing off his emotions, from others, from her, maybe even from himself.

      “This is Officer Silvero. Everyone okay in there?” a man called out.

      Jake’s gestures were gentle, yet more efficient than tender, as he lifted her off his lap and placed her beside him on the sofa. Then, back straight, shoulders squared, he stood to greet the cop. “We’re in the den and all right.”

      By the time the police officer entered the room, Jake had his detective identification out of his pocket. Cassidy watched him shake hands with a young earnest-looking officer who couldn’t be much older than twenty, and she heard Jake murmur, “Go easy on her.” Then Jake leaned forward and whispered something she couldn’t hear in the cop’s ear.

      “I may be in shock, but I can answer your questions, Officer,” Cassidy said. She knew Jake was probably trying to protect her, but she preferred knowing the facts, no matter how bad a picture those facts painted. She’d never believed in hiding from the truth or letting others take on her problems, and was slightly annoyed with Jake for attempting to do so, even if she did understand his motives.

      “I’m Silvero. My partner, Jonesy, is looking around out back. Would you prefer to speak with a female officer, ma’am?”

      Cassidy shook her head and regretted it as her skull throbbed. “I wasn’t raped. But I won’t be able to help much, since I can’t identify the man who…”

      She stopped and realized this was going to be harder to retell than she’d anticipated. As she’d spoken, images rose to haunt her. Helplessness at being tied. Fear that she had no idea what the man wanted from her. Horror that she would most likely die after a short period of intense suffering. The telling would make her relive the incident—one she badly wanted to forget.

      Always sensitive, Jake seemed to understand her difficulty. He leaned close, but didn’t touch her. Instead, he used the soothing tone that had calmed her before. “There’s no rush, Sunshine. You can wait until tomorrow.”

      Silvero took out a pad of paper. “Now would be better, sir. She may forget something important by tomorrow.”

      “I won’t forget,” Cassidy said, and then looked at Jake, who clearly stood ready to protect her. “And I’d like to get this over with.”

      But the ambulance had finally arrived. Cassidy insisted she didn’t need to go to the hospital, and after checking her pulse and her pupils, the medic agreed. “Don’t drink any alcohol for twenty-four hours. If you feel dizzy, have someone take you to the hospital or call 911.

      After the medics left, Cassidy quickly told the officer her story, but this time she was detached, pushing her emotions aside. A trick she’d learned when she’d been in law school and had dealt with some unpleasant cases.

      She summed up the horrifying incident by sticking to the facts and squashing her emotions in the back of her mind. The effort sapped her energy, and she’d never felt so tired, as though all her muscles had gone to sleep, but she continued through to the end.

      “You never saw the intruder?” Silvero asked again when she’d finished.

      Cassidy knew better than to shake her head, since every time she did, the pain flared. “Either I was running and my back was to him, or my eyes were covered by the hat.”

      “You’re positive it was a man?”

      “Yes. He had a guttural voice. And he sounded educated.”

      The cop stopped writing and looked up. “What makes you say that?”

      Cassidy paused, trying to remember. “His grammar was good.”

      Silvero started writing again. “Did he have an accent?”

      “No.”

      The cop frowned and looked from Cassidy to Jake. “You sure it wasn’t him that hit you?”

      “Jake would never strike a woman,” Cassidy said.

      Jake sighed as if he’d expected the question. “I’m carrying a weapon in my ankle holster. I never fired it and I gave it to Cassidy to reassure her. Would you like to inspect my weapon, Officer?”

      Silvero nodded. “Move slowly, sir.”

      Jake bent and handed the cop the weapon just as he’d done Cassidy. Suddenly she felt ashamed that the cop had questioned his honor. He’d saved her life. He didn’t deserve to be questioned. “Jake’s voice is different, deeper, than that of the man who hit me.”

      Jake gave him harder evidence than she could supply. “Once you dig the slugs from her wall, you’ll see they don’t match my gun.”

      The officer took Jake’s weapon and sniffed. Finally he handed it back to Jake. “How did you happen to come along when you did?”

      “I needed to finish an earlier discussion between Cassidy and me.”

      Their earlier discussion had been over! Jake had practically thrown her out of his house. Why had he come to her home uninvited, showing up at exactly the right time? Cassidy had seen movies where one man did the dirty work and the other befriended a mark to set up a sting. Although Jake had been furious with her earlier, he had no reason to do that to her.

      Jake had once told her how the orphanage unfairly punished children. How he’d often taken onto his shoulders blame that wasn’t his. He couldn’t have changed that much. Besides, after the way he’d gently tended to her, she knew he’d never ever condone violence. Although Jake could be evasive, he was never sneaky or underhanded.

      Jake answered the cop, speaking stiffly, shoulders thrown back and defiant. Cassidy sensed how much he disliked this inquisition and how useless he felt it to be. But he remained polite, if aloof.

      Cassidy lost track of the interrogation and was jerked back to the present when the cop cleared his throat. “Ma’am?”

      “I’m sorry. What was the question?”

      “Can you think of anyone who could have done this to you? An ex-husband or former lover? A client?”

      “I’m a small-town lawyer. Mostly I draw up wills and trusts, handle real-estate transactions, that sort of thing. I’ve never done criminal work or been married. And my last relationship ended amicably several years ago.”

      Cassidy had mixed feelings about the cops going through her home, and once again she was glad Jake was with her. While she appreciated the extra police protection, it seemed an invasion of her privacy to have strangers roaming through her home and asking about her private life. She wanted to close this episode and put it behind her.

      Jake folded his arms over his chest and spoke to Officer Silvero. “Enough. She’s tired. Let her rest, and if she thinks of anything else, she’ll call. You have a business card?”

      The officer reluctantly closed his notepad. Cassidy sensed that if not for Jake’s intervention, the cop would have questioned her all day.

      The

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