Page 18 of The Secrets She Keeps

Keith was good at being unobtrusive. Powell liked him. And Gunnar had approved of him too.

Gunnar Erickson. She hadn’t seen that man in days. Their paths had last crossed when he had arrived to drive Haldyn—and Jarrod, Haldyn’s new love-sick Major Crimes baboon—home from the hospital six days after Haldyn had been hurt. The day after Gunnar had been called back to Major Crimes.

Gunnar had looked ragged and exhausted. She’d immediately wanted to just cuddle up against him and tell him everything would be okay. She had never felt that way for a man in her life.

Jarrod had mentioned that everyone in Major Crimes was working double time now. Zoey had said the same when she’d been there to check on Haldyn a few hours later. Zoey had hinted that there wassomethingfoul in Wichita Falls Internal Affairs. Where Heather had been last assigned.

Powell had heard that Daniel had tried to interview Heather about everything that had happened a few days after the shooting—just Daniel, no one else in the room—and Heather had erupted. At Daniel.

Zoey had said Murdoch was still snarling mad—at Daniel.

Shelby’s husband Jake, was just as angry. At Daniel.

Something had been said about skewering Daniel with a million toothpicks and then barbecuing him in Shelby and Jake’s rather impressive outdoor kitchen, Powell had heard. Powell had been afraid to ask for details after that.

Powell was going to check on her brother, call her mother, and text Gunnar. Just to check on him too.

That man was hurting. It had been hard to miss. She wanted to know he wasokay. He was the father of her baby, after all. And she cared about him. So much.

Even if that was a secret she was going to keep to herself.

She was going to have to tell him about what they haddonehere in Masterson County in December. The results he was going to find out eventually. But with everything he had going on right now—Powell didn’t want to add to the man’s burdens now. She just didn’t.

Powell stepped into the inn after telling her brothers to behave. Mac and Alex could be total buttheads when they were onquests.They’d always thought they had to protect Brandt since he was the youngest of the three. That hadn’t ever stopped, even though Brandt was six foot six and outweighed Mac by thirty pounds now. Brandt had always gotten a kick out of growing bigger than Mac. It was only one inch and thirty pounds, but it had counted. He had more than two inches and forty pounds on Alex. They’d compared like it was a contest or something.

Brothers were so weird sometimes.

Powell had told her twin multiple times that the only reason he had gotten so big was because he’d stolen a few ofherinches in the womb. Brandt always just patted her on the head and told her she was beyond adorable. Cute in every way.

Brothers could be so annoying.

But she was ready to find Brandt and make sure he wasokay.Tears hit her eyes. She wouldneverforget how it had felt when he had been shot before. Here. In Masterson County.

She shivered.

Masterson County was becoming as dangerous as Finley Creek. Filled with monsters. And that terrified her. When would fighting the monsters ever end?

13

Gunnar hada massive headache and was beyond angry. At Daniel. He did not know what game that man was playing right now. Everyone was still on edge.

Things had just gotten even tenser since the shooting.Danielwasn’t helping in that regard. Everyone was pissed at him, still.

Over Heather.

That woman had shaken all of Major Crimes to the damned core. Destroyed the fabric of who the unit even thought they were somehow. Gunnar was still trying to figure it all out. She’d only worked for the unit for seven weeks or so. Yet she had changed everything.

Gunnar and Jake had finally gotten Daniel to relent—the suspension was at least paid now. Daniel hadn’t wanted it to be. He’d said he wanted it to be obvious that there was adistancebetween Major Crimes and Heather.

That appearances mattered. That he was doing it for the benefit of Major Crimes.

Well, screw that, in Gunnar’s opinion. Heather needed, deserved, to know that Major Crimes had her back right now. That woman had been fighting the TSP for four years. Mostlyalone, with just the baby sister who had nearly died to help her. It still infuriated Gunnar to even imagine how Heather would have felt. Abandoned, betrayed, terrified by the very ones who should have had her back. Alone.

What Steve Wilson had done to Heather was beyond unforgivable.

Heatherdeservedto know that the men who she worked with now understood that. Would never do anything to hurt her. That they trusted andrespectedher. And would have her back, no matter what.

Including that ass Daniel. She deserved to know Daniel was behind her more than any of the rest of them.

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