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weeks, but she looks…good.”
    “She’s meeting with Stevens in the morning. She’s got a shot at
her first serial case. No way is she going to let it slip away.”
    Forgetting to feign casualness, Jase straightened. “She’s
getting the lead on the big one? Damn it, I told Mac I wanted that.” And he’d
thought he’d made his request early enough for it to make a difference. Serial
cases were far more rare than people thought, but they were generally
high-profile enough that solving one could do wonders for one’s career. Besides,
the connection between the recent victim and two cold-case victims, the same
connection that had prompted the higher-ups to transfer the case to SIG, had
only been made less than forty-eight hours ago. When had Mac and Commander
Stevens made their decision?
    “It’s her turn. And after what she’s been through—hell, after
how hard she’s worked—she deserves it.”
    Instantly, Jase recalled how pale she’d looked the only time
he’d stopped by to see her at the hospital. She’d been groggy and trying to hide
the pain she was in, but he’d seen it. Hell, yeah, she deserved it. She was a
good cop. But so was he, and he’d wanted the lead on the case. He’d wanted the
accolades closing it would win him.
    But Carrie wanted them, too.
    He swiped a hand across his jaw. “Yeah, I suppose.” But he
still didn’t like it. His own ambition aside, Jase didn’t like the idea of her
working a case with a perp that was obviously as fucked up as this one. Which,
considering what Jase and Carrie both did for a living, was a joke. Carrie would
be the last woman to play it safe or let herself be coddled by a man. If she
knew he felt the slightest bit protective of her, she’d kick his ass, then jump
right back into the fray without a backward glance. And that was just reason
number two to stay away from her.
    Reason number one was what she made him feel. Too much. He’d
spent his childhood witnessing exactly what kind of misery two strong-willed,
passionate people could bring each other. Plus, his job was intense enough. He
wanted a personal life that was indulgent and mellow. And if he followed Mac’s
lead and actually married someday? Well, he wanted a woman who was indulgent and
mellow, too.
    Jase glanced at DeMarco and, for the first time, noticed the
dark circles under the man’s eyes. DeMarco needed some mellowness of his own.
He’d been working one difficult case after another. While he seemed social at
the moment, he was moodily silent at work. Word around the department was the
stress might be finally getting to him. “What about that witness in your Alvarez
case? You get anything on that?”
    “The neighbor with the rap sheet a mile long? She’s recanted
everything. Says the officer misunderstood and that of course that nice little
boy from across the street would never have done something so horrible. Never
mind that the little boy has gang tattoos on his face and packs more heat than a
SWAT officer.” He shrugged and, despite his obvious exhaustion and frustration,
showed no signs of an imminent breakdown. As usual, “the word” was likely all
bullshit. “So,” DeMarco said, looking at Jase askance. “Ward is a no-go?”
    Jase automatically glanced up to see if she was still talking
to the bartender. Instead, she was looking around her while holding a beer. She
took a swallow before looking directly at Jase again. This time, he felt the
fire in her wide-eyed gaze ignite sparks from his chest down to his toes. Color
climbed her cheeks, suggesting that she felt the heat, as well. He told himself
to look away, but he couldn’t. His vision became so clear that he could see the
flutter of her pulse in her throat as well as the slight chafing of her pouty
lips, as if they’d recently been kissed raw.
    In reality, they probably only looked at each other for a few
seconds. Five at most. In that moment, he felt the world around him disappear.
The pull between them was so