Page 3 of Day of the Storm

“Staring and glaring. I know I piss you off by existing, but even here? I would think you’d put aside your feelings for me?—”

“What feelings?” The fact that her face slipped into his dreams at night and that still confused the hell out of him? That he wished she would come right out and tell him she didn’t think he was the jerk she’d always called him? His fault, and he knew it.

Now he was paying the consequences for his younger self’s actions.

She had never once looked at him as anything more than her brother’s partner and friend. Hell, as far as he could tell, she hadn’t even seen him as amanin the nine years since she’d graduated high school.

She had a habit of slamming his ego straight to the floor, time and time again.

Autumn Jane didn’t even realize it. So much for his skills with women.

Not that he’d ever even think about touching her in actuality.

She was his best buddy’s kid sister. There were rules against that. A guy just didn’t do that.

He waited while she went through the tedious evidence-check process for the box he’d carried.

He wasn’t in any hurry. His shift had ended at six, but he knew the truth—he was sneaking in a few minutes with Autumn Jane before he had two days off.

He needed to see her. He was being honest with himself—he wasn’t there just to get evidence. The cases they’d pulled recently were weighing on him. And he just needed to see her shooting snarky little glances at him, that perfect mouth snickering at him just right. The world always felt a bit brighter when he was with her.

It was getting worse. He was starting to stalk the forensics lab for any sight of her. He felt like a fifteen-year-old with his first crush.

On the science nerd who sat next to him or something.

People were going to figure it out eventually. It was just a matter of time.

And that would change everything between them.

The Everses were just about all the family he had.

He didn’t want to lose that by doing something stupid with the baby of the family.

No matter how he burned to touch her. To just hold her.

He’d been in love with the woman for years.

3

There wasa look in his eyes she hadn’t seen before. A. J. couldn’t figure out what it was, but it was there. She leaned a little closer, just to see if she was imagining something. “What is it?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” A shutter fell over his expression, effectively closing her out. She hated when he did that.

It was so…so Sean. He was seriously good at shutting people out.

She fought her irritation as she spread the evidence out across the table in the one conference room that had survived the bombing all those weeks ago.

She’d been one floor down in the basement that day. She’d gotten really, really lucky not to have been killed. The man who’d set the bomb had messed up—his third device hadn’t functioned properly.

The destruction had trapped her in a small pocket of space near a window.

After the entire annex had caved in at the front of the building, she’d been trapped in that pocket right where the old building had met the annex.

Detective Naylor and his partner, Detective Miller, had pulled her out of there that day. She still had scars from the broken glass.

A. J. was still leery about this part of the building. She probably always would be.

That room should have collapsed with the rest, but it hadn’t. She wasn’t superstitious by nature.

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