Strange as it seemed, the moment he met Shay, Jaylynn had gone from being his ex to someone he once knew way back when. He could take care of himself. But dammit, Shay didn’t deserve another stone in her road.
He wasn’t arrogant or foolish enough to think he could just swoop in and make Shay’s life all better, or even that she’d want him to, in the long run. Their relationship was too new for that kind of thinking.
James’s steps slowed. But he was thinking about it. He just hadn’t realized it until this second.
Shay’d had so much grief in her life. She had paid too heavy a price for an incident that left her unjustly accused, tried, and convicted in the public eye. All she’d ever wanted to do was outrun her past. How could he tell her he was responsible for the shitstorm that was about to drag her into public view again? And worst of all, that it was his fault?
“Damn it!” He slammed a fist against the closest wall. In trying to set the record straight about Bogart’s disappearance, he’d royally screwed the woman who’d saved Bogart’s life.
“You ready?”
James looked up. Matt Reed stood before him in full gear for the next test. Had he seen the punch James had thrown? Possibly. It didn’t show on the lawman’s face.
“Yeah. Ready. Wait.” James sent Matt a direct look. “I need to go into Raleigh this evening. After the testing.”
His trainer frowned. “You know the drill.”
James did. It would be twenty-four hours more before he was done with his retraining. K-9 boot camp was a lot like regular boot camp. He hated asking for favors. He locked his jaw against doing so.
Matt stared at him. “Somebody dead or dying?”
James wagged his head though he suspected his relationship with Shay might be on life support after she received her summons.
“Then it can wait. Let’s get ’er done.”
James glanced at his phone. Shay would still be working. She hadn’t called him so it might be safe to assume she had not yet been served. He really didn’t want to drop this bomb on her in the middle of the day and have to hang up.
He could text her a warning. No, that would only scare her. And without an explanation, she would freak—and who could blame her?
He needed to be able to reassure her that he would figure out a way to protect her. And be right about that. But first he’d have to explain all about Jaylynn. Couldn’t really text that, either.
He punched a few words into his phone. We need to talk. I’ll call late. Love you.
He stared at the words then punched the key to back up and erase “love you.” Too soon. And not even remotely relevant at the moment. Considering what he had to confess.
He was getting soft between the ears.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Shay ached all over. Her head throbbed. Her eyes itched and burned as she read her monitor. Her knuckles ached where she gripped her mouse. Maybe she was coming down with the flu.
“That’s all I need.” She rubbed two fingers between her brows to smooth out the tightness. The flu. Final insult after a roller-coaster week.
“You up for pizza and a beer?”
Shay made the effort to smile at Angie and Henry who had come up to her at the receptionist’s desk. They were dressed similarly in jeans, tees, and leather jackets. Of course, Angie’s jacket looked like a zippered version of a fifteenth-century gentleman’s doublet, tightly fitted with puffed sleeves and a ruffle on each upper arm: Charles VII meets Steampunk.
She glanced at the wall clock. “I’ve got six minutes to put in.”
Her friends exchanged glances. “Perry is making you punch a clock?”
When not out working a temp job, Logital Solutions’s employees had a lot of freedom. Many still came in and often stayed late, because it allowed them access to some of the fastest computers around. Because much of it wasn’t paid work, Perry didn’t keep track of hours.
“I’m not temping. I’m staff. We clock in and out.”
“All the more reason for us to spirit you away, lowly drudge,” Angie intoned in her best snotty English accent.
“I don’t think so, guys. Have you heard if anyone in the building has come down with the flu?”
They both backed up a foot.
“You do look sort of illin’,” Henry said, sliding a hank of long black hair back from his face.
“No, you should come. Beer is a natural viral deterrent.”
Henry turned to Angie. “Seriously?”
“Absolutely. Don’t you remember The Andromeda Strain? The drunk guy didn’t get the virus. Something about acid levels in his blood. Shay needs isoalpha acids to fight her plague.” Angie said it with such conviction Henry nodded.
He glanced at the clock. “That settles it. Beer therapy for Shay in T minus five minutes and counting.”
Shay didn’t say no a second time, though the last thing she felt like doing was sitting in a too warm, too loud overcrowded bar. She wanted to go home and curl up in bed clutching a pillow that still smelled a tiny bit like James. How dorky did that sound?