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  The guard licked his lips and crossed his arms over his chest, hunkering a bit. “After midnight. Totaled the car—killed the driver.” He glanced toward the revolving door of the rotunda behind Jason and back. “They think it’s one of the Welson project members.”

  “Who?”

  The guard shrugged. Evidently, he was not on the police’s need-to-know list. The revolving door swished several times. Two men in black overcoats walked across the rotunda, approaching the guard’s desk.

  “Mr. Ballard?” The older of the two men nodded and held out his hand. “I’m Detective Frost, Homicide, and my partner,” he nodded to his companion, “Detective Horsten. Can we speak to you for a moment, in private?”

  Jason looked at the men, but their expressions remained stoic. He gestured to the far end of the rotunda, away from the guard, the elevator, and the entrance to the coffee shop. “What is this about?”

  “We’ve identified a vehicle from an accident last night and traced the owner to a doctor working in this facility.” The detective glanced toward the guard. “I’m led to understand it’s a doctor on a team you lead?”

  “I’m the Welson Laboratories point of contact for a project in this facility, but none of the doctors report to me.”

  “But you would be able to help us contact someone who has the authority release personal information? We’ll also need someone to identify the body?”

  Jason blinked. His job functions on the project were definitely taking an unpleasant turn. “I’ll do everything I can. The doctors on the teams are registered with the hospital, so the Human Resources Department will have more detail on contacts than I could give. Who was in this accident?”

  The junior detective leaned forward, his hands clasped in front of his body, and his weight resting on the balls of his feet as his partner cleared his throat. “We believe the victim was a Dr. Hyden.”

  Jason shook his head, then stared at the man in disbelief. There was no way he'd heard correctly. “Excuse me?”

  The elder detective shifted slightly, his eyes widening in speculation. His perusal grew more interested with Jason’s response. “Dr. Briet Hyden. Her car was struck in a side-on collision with a garbage truck sometime after one this morning. The car ignited. There wasn't much left. Though we managed to run the VIN number through our database and confirm the car belonged to the doctor.”

  Jason didn’t hear the rest. He turned away and ran his hand over his face. No way. She couldn’t be dead. She’d been pissed at him but very much alive when the cab pulled away from the curb. It had been what, eleven, or had it been later?

  What reason in the world would she have to be out at one in the morning? Hell, she only lived two blocks from the hospital. She walked everywhere. Where would she be driving at one in the morning?

  He swung back to the officers who had stopped talking, waiting for him to tune back in. “Where did the accident take place? What street?”

  “The collision was four miles from here.”

  They seemed reluctant to give details. It didn’t matter. Four miles was way outside Briet’s daily radius of activity. Nowhere near either the hospital or her apartment, which was only three blocks away. He tried to focus his thoughts, desperation battling with logic. Jason froze as a detail registered. “Why are you here?”

  “I explained that before, sir. We need a contact to have someone try to make an identification of the—body.”

  “No.” Jason shook his head and tried to rid the cold, dead feeling sweeping through his gut. “You said you’re homicide detectives, not street cops. Why are you here? Is there any indication this wasn’t an accident?”

  The two detectives looked at each other as if sharing some silent message between them. The senior detective answered. “We’re not assuming anything at this point, Mr. Ballard. We know the blaze was fast and hot and the body is almost unrecognizable as—female.” The detective chewed on the inside of his cheek but continued with a hard look at Jason. “We want to rule out any issues. I gather you knew Dr. Hyden?”

  “I know all the doctors on the team.” Jason slid his hands into his pants pockets. “But, yes, Briet Hyden has a—had a unique perspective on the project. I spoke with her daily.”

  “When was the last time you saw her.”

  “Last night.”

  The detective’s stare intensified. Jason ignored him. “We were at a Welson function downtown. She took a cab home.”

  “What time was that?”

  “I believe about eleven, maybe eleven-thirty. It was a Metro cab. They should have record of taking her home.”

  “We’ll check into it.”

  The comment was less a reassurance than a confirmation that the two men had added Jason to their list. He didn’t care. “I can get you in touch with Dr. Thurmont. He’s the lead for her project team. He’ll know how to access her personal information. Thurmont’s usually on rounds until the afternoon.”

  Detective Frost handed him a card. “If you could have him call us I’d appreciate it.”

  Jason nodded.

  “Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Ballard.”

  Jason never saw the men leave. All he could think of was the look of grief on Briet’s face when she got into the cab last night. What wouldn’t he give to turn back the clock? Instead, he stood in the lobby and stared at the traffic in the street. It took him several minutes to realize he’d made it out to the sidewalk with no recollection of exiting the lobby doors.

  Cars and people moved. They were just color in motion. The cold chill of winter bit in the steady wind. He barely felt it. He closed his eyes and mentally ticked through ways he could have influenced the results of last night to turn out differently. Some way where Briet was alive, well, and still flouting a healthy annoyance with him.

  Releasing a harsh breath, he considered Thurmont’s schedule. The information was critical enough to page him out of rounds, or he’d track him down through the oncology administrative assistant. He glanced across the street to the hospital side entrance. Less likely to run into people he knew through that entrance than if he went back through the lab building and took the second floor bridge across.

  When had he turned into such a coward? He glanced back at the lab building and down the street again.

  An old man shielded an even older woman exiting their car, to usher her across the street. Two children burrowed into a woman, letting her cover them from the wind as they made their way down to the corner and out of sight. A lone pedestrian, dwarfed in a coat, hood grasped tight at the edges to keep the wind away, made their way up the street.

  He cataloged each person without emotion. The little black shit kickers from the person in the coat caught his attention, and his breath. Please, just once let me catch a break.

  “Briet.” The shout was out of his mouth before he realized he’d yelled.

  The hood slipped back. Annoyed brown eyes stared at him and the hood moved up against the wind again. He covered the distance in three steps and crushed her against his chest, lifting her off her feet and tucking her to him.

  “Put me down, Jason.”

  Never in his life had he been happier to hear a woman so angry with him. He put her down and pushed back her hood as she tried to push it back up.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  He held the hood down and smiled into her lovely, annoyed face. “Make my day, Briet. Just bitch at me a little more.”

  ***

  Briet’s eyebrows pinched together as she stared at the lunatic who had ruined her life. He grinned back, evidently hell bent on ruining her day, too. “Well, then you’re going to be ecstatic. Now let go of me.” He pulled his hands away but kept stepping in her way until she stopped, folding her arms across her chest, and waited. “What is wrong with you?”

  “I have to talk to you. Now. It’s urgent.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “No. It’s police-type of urgent.” His blue eyes looked darker, worried.
/>   Her heart melted a fraction. She stopped fighting her way around him long enough to let him guide her through the side door to the small coffee shop off the rotunda.

  “Urgent.” Her reminder before she spread her hands on top of the table to keep from drumming her fingers. Jason’s behavior vacillated between relief and concern, odd emotional extremes for the consummate professional. She kept her thoughts to herself, not wanting to give him any excuses to grab her again. Especially, since she found herself tempted to give in and grab him back.

  “Yeah…first…” He let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry about last night. Nothing turned out the way I’d intended. Especially the part about you being attacked.”

  She smoothed her hands over the tabletop and tilted her head. “It wasn’t fair of me to leave you like that. None of those things was your fault. I just couldn’t handle any more.”

  The manager hovered at the outskirts of their conversation with two cups. Having recognized Jason from the burn incident, he kept him stocked with free drinks every time he stepped foot in the establishment. Jason leaned back so the man could put down the cups and then forced the manager to take payment.

  Free again to speak, he didn’t seem to know where to start. “The police were here this morning about a car accident that took place last night.”

  She frowned, but waited.

  “The driver was unrecognizable but they traced the vehicle to one of our people.”

  “But why—” She’d stopped at the change in him. Jason looked ill. A pale wash lightened his skin tone and tense lines pinched around his mouth and eyes. She’d never seen him so upset.

  “It was your car, Briet. They thought it was you in that car.”

  The haunted look in his eyes said everything about his state of mind. He’d thought she’d died. As hectic and hurtful as the night before had been, she never wanted to see him suffer. She’d once witnessed one of her Guardian brethren lose a mate. The look on Xavier’s face at the death of his beloved and child was ingrained in a horrible effigy in her memory. To see the mirror image on Jason’s face brought her immediately to how much they both had to lose.

  Reaching out, she covered his hand with hers. “I don’t even—” Oh, no. “Sheri.” The name came through her lips in a whisper. She closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands, as if not seeing would somehow make her conclusion go away.

  “She needed a car. I lent her mine.” The pity reflected on Jason’s face made her look away. “Maybe they made a mistake.”

  “They’ve already made one today.” But Jason didn’t look convinced.

  A call—Sheri always answered her cell phone. A quick shuffle through her purse for her cell phone ended in frustration. Her phone was still on her kitchen counter. Logic to remain calm overrode her emotional desperation for an answer and she stopped. Covering her mouth with her fingers, she blinked at Jason as the next ugly thought crept in.

  “Was there something wrong with the car? Something broken—something I should have had repaired?”

  “I didn’t get the feeling this was about negligence.” Jason shook his head and took her hand between his. She sat unmoving, letting the small gesture and warmth of his touch cushion her sorrow. “I’m sorry this happened to your friend. She was an excellent doctor and a nice person.”

  Briet nodded absently and then looked back at him. “Why did the police come to you?”

  “The detective called the security guard for a Welson contact. I happened to arrive when he took the call.”

  “Bad timing.”

  “You have no idea.”

  Yet she did. She could feel the fear still emanating from him.

  “They said it was you.” His fingers flexed over her skin and gripped her harder than he was probably aware. She made no comment, only twisted her fingers around to link their hands. “I am sorry it was your friend but I’ve got to be honest with you. I’m relieved it wasn’t you.”

  When she’d come across him outside he’d been desperate. He’d wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on hers, physically erasing his pain. The strength of that contact, faded the image in her head of the cold-hearted businessman, the one she’d previously believed him to be. Life would be so much easier if she could categorize Jason as self-interested and egotistical. She’d been harsh in her judgment, rigid in her expectations to save herself the pain of having to work through whatever issues stood in their way—of having to commit herself to a change in her life.

  “I’m here and okay.” She reminded him quietly. “We should probably let someone know about Sheri.”

  “I’ll call the detective and go speak with Thurmont. She was one of his direct reports too.”

  He opened his mouth and closed it again as if coming to some decision. His gaze locked on her, intense and determined. “Last night was not good. Then this morning I felt like you were gone before I ever got a chance to know you. I really don’t want that.”

  She inhaled, uncertain how to wade through their issues. “Between the protocol and—”

  He shook his head and slashed his hand through the air. “Could we agree to just drop work? I would very much like to take you out to dinner, to talk, to leave work totally out of us. If you don’t feel the same, just say the word and I won’t bother you. I promise I won’t hold it against you. For me, there’s something here worth pursuing.”

  She smiled in response to his earnest plea. He was so charming. An easy reason to think everything he said was a come on. But he was her mate, even if he didn’t know it yet, and perhaps this was her day for clarity. Jason wasn’t charming because of subterfuge. His charm stemmed from his underlying layer of honesty. She’d spent too long waiting for the other shoe to drop. She’d convicted him before he’d even had a chance. Perhaps Ansgar had rubbed off on her too much. Distrust wasn’t an acceptable way to approach relationships. It wasn’t her way of dealing with anyone.

  “I would really like that.”

  “You don’t have to trust me with your secrets. We won’t even talk about work.”

  He had no idea as to the depth of her secrets. Briet blew on her tea deciding to tease him. “You sure you can do that, Mr. Ballard? Jason?”

  He crossed two of his fingers in a secret promise and smiled. The lift of his mouth and brightness in his eyes swept away the pain that lined his features moments before. She was glad to be the reason.

  “Let’s see how the rest of this day runs and I’ll set something up.” He stood up and waited for her to gather her things.

  They left the coffee shop, his hand gently rested on the small of her back. A reassurance for her, she wondered, or one for him?

  ***

  Fifteen minutes later, and two minutes into his call with Detective Frost, Jason heard Briet’s voice behind him in the third floor hallway.

  “Why has my access been disabled?” She stood with her hands fisted on her hips and a scowl locked on her face—two feet from Dr. Sanyu’s shocked face.

  “We were told you were, were—”

  Jason missed the rest. “Excuse me, Detective. Can I call you right back? Thanks.” He snapped the phone shut and moved behind Sanyu.

  “I got bumped off the system so quickly for what reason? Is someone concerned that my dead body might try to access patient results? I’m obviously alive, fit, and need my access back immediately.”

  “Dr. Hyden, be reasonable.” Sanyu ducked his head. Jason suspected he was making plans for escape.

  “Reasonable is expecting a day before my work accesses are rescinded, not an hour after the police call. I need access restored just as quickly.”

  “I will see what I can do. But it’s standard procedure when we are informed of a death.”

  Briet glanced to Jason. He gave a quick shake of his head. Fortunately, she didn’t bring him into the conversation.

  Sanyu turned and seeing him, considered he had an ally. He gave him a pained look, which Jason didn’t reciprocate any more than he had Briet�
�s plea.

  “If you’ll excuse me, Dr. Hyden, I have a meeting.” Sanyu bailed toward the stairwell, evidently not risking the chance of Briet stalling him again in the elevator.

  “The police must have contacted several people,” she said in a huff.

  “That’s not what they led me to believe. I was just on the phone with the detective.”

  Briet's brow furrowed. “Then how did Sanyu know?”

  Jason considered for a moment then forged ahead. “I don’t have an answer for you and you’re not going to like what I suggest, but people rarely tell you what you want when you attack them for information.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t attack him.”

  “Listen to what I’m saying, not what you think you hear.”

  She pursed her lips and waited. Not patiently, but he tried not to laugh because it was as patient as she got when she was riled. “You’ll find out more if you sit back and let a man like Sanyu talk himself into circles. I agree something’s odd. Keeping your eyes open will provide you with more information than confrontation.”

  She looked to the stairwell again and back at him. With an exaggerated gesture, she stretched her neck and closed her eyes. “All right. But I still need my access back.”

  He leaned close enough to whisper in her ear. “Now, that I can fix.”

  She met his gaze. A wide, wholesome smile broke across her face, combined with bright eyes and sweet lips.

  Oh, so worth it. Jason opened his phone and punched the number for the computer admin on the Welson team.

  ***

  Briet folded in to the Sanctum’s council room. The tiered rows of seats were all empty—not a soul to be seen. She let out a frustrated breath only to hear it reverberate back to her from the high stone walls.

  One quick turn on the balls of her feet, and she headed into the wide hallway. Her shoes echoed softly on the slate tile floor. The plateaus of rooms and suites, composites of stone, wood, and now newer technological additions, were the work of centuries. The original base structure, now housing the current council chamber, had been built by the first of the Guardians after their creation in Eden.