We All Sleep Alone (Finley Creek #11) - Calle J. Brookes Page 0,113
to linger. Get in, get what you needed done, and get out.
He’d grab his favorite niece, take her to lunch somewhere, and then get the two of them home. They needed to talk.
She was getting serious about Jacobson, and that concerned him. He still didn’t trust that guy.
Someone else’s hand hit the door before his. Jake blinked the rain out of his eyes and looked at her.
It took him a moment to place her.
She’d been at the TSP after the tornado hit. She’d been doing search and rescue, but he didn’t think he’d ever caught her name.
Nor had he realized how hot she was that day. He’d had other things on his mind. Now…he felt like a tongue-tied idiot right now.
It was the eyes. Her eyes were the same color as the clouds building behind her. Ridiculous. But truth.
“E-excuse me.” She shot him a wary look. Her gaze dropped to the badge that was clipped on his belt. Her wariness tripled. She stepped back. That only pissed him off more. A lot of people reacted that way when they realized he was TSP.
Hell, he’d become a cop to help people, not frighten them away.
He took a closer look at her. It wasn’t a hardship. She was probably one of the most gorgeous women he had ever seen. Five nine or so and curved in all the right places. Stacked. Not model thin, but all woman through and through.
The eyes were bluer than he’d thought, more like the ocean before a storm. Golden brown hair hung down her back in a mad riot of curls that begged for a man to tangle his fingers in it. His own fingers curled as he imagined doing just that. Imagined taking her out of the conservative blouse and trousers and just… Jake reined himself in.
Hot. The woman was seriously hot.
”Excuse me, I didn’t see you there.” He waved a hand for her to go ahead of him into the building. She hesitated, then almost scurried inside in front of him. He didn’t really mind.
The back view was nice, too. He’s always loved women shaped like that.
He almost offered to buy her a cup of coffee down the street, but decided against it.
He didn’t have time for a woman like her. He wasn’t stupid—nor blind. The blouse she wore cost more than he probably made in a single day. This woman had money.
Lots of it.
She wouldn’t look twice at a cop like him. Jake knew that from experience. There’d been a woman a long time ago, right after Izzie had come to live with him that had made that fact very clear. The TSP didn’t pay all that well, and raising a traumatized teenager hadn’t been cheap. She hadn’t liked that.
He followed her at a discreet distance, curious to see where she was going. To his surprise, she took the last door on the right. W4HAV.
Jake immediately slowed down to give her time to get inside before stepping in behind her at a polite distance. He didn’t want to seem like he was following her. He wasn’t a creep like that. Most of the women he’d met involved with that charity were extra leery in general.
Izzie was inside; Jake focused on the woman he’d come for. “You want to grab something to eat?”
She looked at him, then smiled at the gorgeous goddess instead. “Hello, Shelby. I’m glad you’re early.”
“H-hello, Izzie. How are you today?” the goddess’s words were so quiet Jake strained to hear her. She was looking at Izzie like Izzie was a lifeline and she was drowning.
She kept shooting frightened little looks at Jake. He tried not to let it anger him. He didn’t want to scare her, damn it.
“I’m good. Shelby, this is my uncle, Detective Jake MacNamara. He’s one of the TSP detectives who keep an eye on the place. AKA, he’s always checking up on me and Annie. He works Major Crimes, here in the city.”
The woman almost flinched when she heard his name. His hackles rose. Something had happened to her. Either that, or she was involved in something up to her eyeballs and didn’t want to get caught. He’d seen it before.
Izzie continued, “Jake, this is Shelby Jacobson. Allen’s younger sister. She’s our newest here at W4HAV.”
“Yeah. Nice to meet you.” Of course, she’d be related to that prick Jacobson. He knew what that man was worth and knew exactly where the money had come from.
He knew all about the man’s younger sister, too. Now, he knew what