Page 29 of Justice for Samara

His eyes widened. “You’re right. There has been.”

“What if it’s him? What if he’s doing it? What if he did it to another police officer and I just don’t know about it? What if we can catch him that way?”

“Honey, I worked some of those cases. None of them reported it until it was too late to collect evidence. In every instance, someone else called, a mother, a sister, someone who’d realized something wasn’t right. And every one of them?”

“Wouldn’t say anything.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Like they were afraid.”

“Exactly.”

He sat there for a minute, and she couldn’t imagine what was going through his mind. Finally, he said, “Could you look at a picture of him? Would it trigger you?”

“I have no idea. What are you thinking?”

“If you can stand it, I’m thinking that you should go back to every one of those rape victims. Take a picture of him with you and when you show it to them, watch their response. You’ll be able to tell.”

He was right. That was the most basic of detective work. She’d intended to look the cases over to see if there was any pattern, but his idea was better. “Yeah. You’re right. Oh, and I decided maybe I’d better check with some of the other counties around here, see if they’ve had the same thing happening. I’ll ask around the counties in Post1, then I’ll move on to the Post2 region. If there are none there, we’ll know it’s confined to Post1.”

“Good thinking.” He took her hand, and that simple action released a flood of relief flowing through her soul. “But to answer your unspoken question, no. It doesn’t matter to me at all. Your history is yours, and mine is mine. But this is the here and now, and none of that stuff should matter.”

“It doesn’t matter to you that the same man… both of the women you’ve…” She couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“No. It does not. Besides, it’s one thing to be Glenna and be stupid enough to stay with him. It’s totally another to have no say in the matter. Baby, you know that. Glenna messing around with him? That was sex. What he did to you, that’s not about sex at all. You know that too. It’s about power and intimidation, and a lack of self-control. It’s about inflicting pain on another human being because it gives him a power trip to do so. Totally different. Totally.”

She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed hers back. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what happened a few minutes ago, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

The smile he gave her put her heart at ease. “Well, first off, that wasn’t your fault. And I can work with that. Second, quite frankly, I would’ve been surprised if you’d told me the first time we had a meal together, ‘Oh, and by the way…’ That would’ve been rather unusual.”

“That’s a good term for it. Besides, the first time we had a meal together was in a restaurant. That would’ve been super awkward.”

Michael laughed, and the tension in the room disappeared like smoke. “Yeah, super awkward. But there is one thing I think we need to do.”

She hung her head. That would be hard. “Tell Carter.”

“Yes. He needs to know. He would want to know. And I can tell you that he’ll support you in anything you try to do to make this better, babe. That’s just Carter. It’s how he operates. But I’ll tell you now, if you want to work through this and try to put Stadler away, you’ve landed with the absolute best team in the area, and maybe even in the state. Every one of these guys will support you, believe me.”

“Even Watson?”

He snickered. “Yeah. Even Watson. He may be mad about my position, but he won’t take that out on you. Justin’s kinda stuck on himself, but he’s not a bad guy. You need him, he’ll be there. Carter would accept no less from any of his officers. Now, come here.” Michael opened his arms.

Samara fell into them and let him pull her against him as they sat there on the bed. Everything he’d said to her was reinforced by his touch. He was the man she’d been looking for, the one who’d give her shelter and help her find justice.

And she had every intention of doing just that.

* * *

The pain had beenlike a knife in his chest, but he thought he’d hidden it pretty well. She didn’t need him coming unhinged. She needed him to be strong for her, and he wanted to be that guy, the one she could lean on.

At least he knew what he was dealing with. It was going to be a balancing act between being careful and gentle with her while also not treating her like she was breakable or defective. That would be a hard line to walk, but he could do it. He knew he could.

She’d finally quieted, but he kept holding her, hoping she’d say something, anything, that would let him know she was still interested in being with him. When she did finally speak, he was stunned. “I haven’t felt this safe in three years.”

Her hair tickled his nose as he kissed the top of her head. “Good. I’ll keep you safe. That’s my job.”

“I’m a police officer too.”

“Yes, I know that, but you know what I mean. You may know how to keep yourself safe on the job, but if you’ll let me, I’ll keep your heart safe.”

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