He came close and pushed her back into her seat with a palm to her shoulder. Efficient but not very lover-like. “Shh. You’re exhausted. I don’t want to argue. I’m not staying with you.”
She gave him a doubtful stare from her seated position. He had developed a black eye, and the vet had glued the cut over his eye shut. Even so, he looked dangerous, and sexy. She immediately regretted that selfish thought. He held his left shoulder hitched a fraction higher than the other when he used the crutches. How badly did it hurt him? He looked ready to drop.
“Where are you going to sleep?”
“At my desk, eventually.” He shrugged only his right shoulder. “I’ve a mountain of paperwork to fill out about what happened today. The feds have questions for me. My captain has his own set. My truck’s been totaled so I have to see about that, insurance, towing. And then I’ll need to withdraw from the state police physical tomorrow.” He looked down at himself. “It’s not going to happen. My prosthesis may not fit for a few days.”
Jori’s gaze dropped to the pinned-up leg of the sweatpants he wore. He must be in a lot of pain, but he wouldn’t admit it. “It doesn’t seem fair. You worked so hard.”
He shrugged. “I’ve waited this long.”
She reached out as if to touch him but stopped short at his backward step. She wondered what constellation of bruises lay underneath the Trooper L sweatshirt he wore. He’d been tossed like a salad in that tumbling truck. He probably needed first aid more than she did. But she saw it in his gaze. She didn’t have permission to invade his space just now.
Law was grateful for every inch between her hand and his body. If she had touched him …
He looked back at the window where winter was doing its best Disneyland version of Frozen. “It’s still snowing.”
“I noticed.” She rubbed her brow. “You should at least get a shower.”
He stared at her until her head came up and a little smile appeared on her face.
“I promise I won’t attack you. I’m too exhausted.”
He didn’t smile. “I can’t make the same promise.”
That brought color to her cheeks and reminded Law that even battered and bruised, he still had the capability to rise to the occasion of Jori. “I’ll take my chances.”
He shook his head. “No. You called me five times this morning. Yeah. I got the messages before my run-in with Becker.”
He pushed back against the hurt that suddenly shadowed her gaze because he hadn’t returned any of them. He needed to be very clear. He was an officer of the law at the moment with business to finish. “Why were you coming to see me this morning?”
He saw her reach back through the long hours of this day. It was only one thirty in the afternoon. “When I woke up I saw the news about Harold Tice being arrested as a suspect in a drug trafficking ring. I called because I thought you’d know more.”
“So did Becker.” Law let out a long sigh, the only indication that he was so tired he was practically asleep standing up on insufficient crutches and one very sore good leg.
“When you didn’t answer I couldn’t wait. I needed to know what you knew. That’s why I drove over. To talk.”
He knew she added those last two words as a defense, because the flush creeping up her neck was working on him, too. For that reason, he owed her a glimpse of what was on his mind. Now that they were safe. He was running an operation in his head one step after another.
“Becker was rattled when he came to see me today. He got the drop on me as I was coming off night duty. But it had nothing to do with the task force roundup. He claims that was a mistake. He isn’t part of a trafficking ring.”
Her expression perked up. “Then why was he running?”
“For reasons that I’m still piecing together.” Those reasons might turn out to be important to her. Maybe not. No way to know until he talked with Luke Tice.
“You know something.” She was reading him. He must be more tired than he realized. He ached everywhere.
“I need to go.”
She stood up, this time folding a hand over his wrist where he held the crutch. Her hand was cold but her touch lit him up. He could see worry, strain, and exhaustion in every line of her face and posture. “You promise you’ll let me know if you find out anything important? To me.”
“I promise.” Not going to touch her. Absolutely not happening. He really couldn’t understand why his arm wasn’t listening to his head. His left hand moved so quickly that he couldn’t prevent it from cupping the back of her neck to pull her close to his chest. “I thought I might die today. For the first time in a very long time, I cared about not doing that. Don’t read too much into this, Jori. I’m feeling my way here.”