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case, Maya looked over at Hannah, who sat nearby with
tears drying on her face.
     
    Thorne
crouched down near the girl. “And who is this?”
     
    “She’s
Hannah,” Maya answered. She bent down, picked up the girl—thankful that she was
small for her age—and balanced the child on her hip, needing the contact
perhaps more than Hannah did. “And she’ll need to spend some time with Alissa.”
     
    Thorne’s
strange eyes sharpened. “Why?”
     
    Maya took
a breath and tried to figure out how to summarize the situation without
upsetting the traumatized girl further. “Let’s just say she wasn’t in the
petting zoo by accident. She had help getting there, and my guess is that she
was intended to draw more cops into the park before the stampede.” She paused
and fussed with Hannah’s shirt so she wouldn’t have to look at Thorne. “I
assume you’re on loan for the Master—” She broke off as the obvious conclusion
clicked in her brain.
     
    Oh, hell.
     
    She spun
and glared at him, as anger, frustration and a strange sort of betrayal flooded
her system. “Tell me you’re not my replacement.”
     
     
     
    BUT HE
DIDN’T TELL HER that. He couldn’t. Instead, Thorne looked away, down to where a
half dozen mounted ranch hands were driving the exhausted bison into a far
pasture, while cops crawled over a section of downed fence, no doubt looking
for clues that the stampede had been rigged.
     
    When he
spoke, his voice was low. “It’s only a temporary thing.”
     
    She
narrowed her eyes, making him wonder what she saw in him, what she was
thinking. But she merely said, “Seriously? You’re just here to fill in until
Internal Affairs clears me to get my badge back?”
     
    “I’m here
to help bring down the bastard who set you up today,” Thorne said. He hadn’t
answered her question, but the chief had urged him to keep quiet about the
possibility of taking over the psych specialist’s role in the Bear Claw
Forensics Department. The evasion burned, letting him know that even though
he’d saved her life, he still owed her.
     
    Because
the irony was that she’d saved his life five years earlier, and she didn’t even
know it.
     
    He jammed
his hands in his pockets. “Look, Maya. I—”
     
    “You two
okay up there?” a voice shouted from below. The top rungs of an aluminum
extension ladder banged against the lip of the roof, and shook with ascending footsteps.
     
    “We’re
fine,” Thorne yelled back, louder than he’d meant to. He glanced at Maya.
“Let’s talk about it later.”
     
    Her eyes
grew wary, her expression shuttered. “There’s no need.”
     
    Maya’s
friends were the first two up the ladder. Alissa and Cassie shot Thorne nearly
identical looks of distrust, then rushed to assure themselves that Maya was
fine. Homicide detective Tucker McDermott was next to gain the roof. After
speaking with Maya for a moment, he took Hannah and carried her down the
ladder.
     
    Moments
later, the sounds of a tearful mother-daughter reunion rose up from below.
     
    “The
chief wants to see you back at the PD,” Cassie told Maya. She had her back to
Thorne, but her words carried.
     
    Aware
that their conversation remained unfinished, that their reunion had none of the
joyful ring of Hannah’s return to her mother, Thorne stepped forward. “I’ll
drive her. We have things to discuss.”
     
    Maya
didn’t make eye contact when she said, “I’ve got my own wheels. I’ll drive
myself.”
     
    Realizing
that he was the one without the wheels, Thorne grimaced. “Then I’ll ride with
you. I came in with the chief.”
     
    “Then you
can leave with him, too,” Cassie said. She stepped forward, leading with her
chin as though daring him to throw a punch. “Isn’t it enough that you’re using
her desk and you’ve got all her notes on the Mastermind case?”
     
    Maya
surprised him by stepping forward and laying a hand on her friend’s arm. “I’ve
got it.” She gestured