their eyes, Chris’s gaze softened. “Not at all. You reached out to me when I needed a friend. I’m grateful for that.”
Frannie looked from Chris to Beth to Chris again. Beth looked like it was taking everything she had not to jump from her chair and perch at Chris’s side. And Chris? Well, he truly looked ready to shield her from the worst news about his abduction.
With a heap of satisfaction, Frannie realized that her earlier suspicions had definitely been on the mark. A connection had sprung up between these two while she’d been sitting in her beige room at the hospital.
Luke looked even more alert. “What are your plans now?”
“Now that I’ve been beaten up?” he asked wryly. “Now I need to check out of here and report in to my supervisors in Chicago. We’ll wait a few days to see if I can continue what I’m doing, or if I need to head out.” He stood up with a wince. “But first I better go lie down.”
Just as Frannie was about to volunteer Luke to take him to the doctor or offer some more bags of ice, Beth rushed forward. “I’ll help you up the stairs.”
“Thanks.”
Luke stood up, too. “I’ll leave my card with Frannie. I’d love to talk more with you. Maybe some of your leads could be the break in my case.”
“Will do,” Chris said, then turned and walked slowly upstairs with Beth by his side.
When the two of them were out of sight, Frannie turned to Luke. “Wonders never cease! Never would I have imagined I would be housing such a man. I feel like I’m in the middle of a spy novel.”
Luke ran a hand through his hair. “You shouldn’t be more shocked than me. I thought I knew a lot about Perry’s case but Chris just showed me I know next to nothing. I’m going to have to talk to Mose again. I thought he was keeping me informed about everything, but that obviously isn’t the case.”
“Maybe he didn’t know about Chris and his DEA job, either?”
Staring at the empty stairway, Luke’s expression darkened. “Mose knew. He must have. He knew and he decided not to tell me.”
“Try not to be so upset. Maybe there’s a good reason?”
Turning to her, his posture relaxed. “Yet again, I’m finding that there’s more going on under the surface of Crittenden County than appears at first glance.”
The small smile he sent her way made the rest of the day’s aches and pains fade away to something manageable. She felt her heartbeat quicken as a new awareness passed between them.
Nothing about her and Luke made sense. But perhaps there was a reason they’d been thrown together for such a dark time?
As the silence between them grew heavy, Frannie gathered her courage and touched his hand again. “So, Luke, did you come over to make sure I was resting? ”
He blinked, looking taken off guard by her question. For a moment, she felt sure he was going to turn his hand and enfold hers in his own.
But then, with a small shake of his head, he replied. “No. Actually, I came over here to speak to you.”
“Oh?” Perhaps he, too, had realized that there was something special between them! If he took a chance and told her his feelings, Frannie felt sure that she could gain the courage to share her feelings, too. “Did you want to speak about anything special? We’re alone now, so we have some privacy.”
“Frannie, I . . . I feel a lot of the same things you do. I do care for you. But now isn’t the time to talk about that.”
“It can be.” Oh, she couldn’t believe she was being so bold!
With a look of real regret, he shook his head. “Frannie, I want to know about the sunglasses.”
Once again, his voice was hard and cool. All business.
Frannie was struck dumb. She had completely misread the signals and let her dreamy nature get the best of her.
In spite of his handsomeness and the way he’d seemed to care for her in the hospital, he really was Detective Luke Reynolds. The police officer visiting with only one goal in mind—to catch Perry’s killer.
Attempting to cover up her disappointment, she tried to play dumb. “Sunglasses?”
“The ones in the field. The sunglasses that Perry wore. The ones that have your fingerprints on them.” With his voice cold and clipped, he said, “Frannie, I cannot even believe you’ve been keeping those sunglasses a secret.”
He couldn’t believe? Her