Page 72 of Shadow Sabotage
He was pissed that we had confronted him. When he’d told Claire to stay behind so he could speak to her privately, I’d expected him to chew her out. But Claire was strong—wicked strong. She would have handled that and probably walked out rolling her eyes about the whole thing. Instead, she’d walked out and almost collapsed in the hallway.
It had terrified me.
Whatever had happened had shaken her to the core. Ineededto find out what it was for the sake of the case.
Iwantedto find out so that I knew exactly how to make Sheriff McGrath regret ever putting that look on her face.
When she emerged from my bedroom in faded skinny jeans and a long teal sweater, pulling her gorgeous hair out of the bunshe kept it in for work, I was struck with relief that the color had finally come back into her face.
The relief was joined by a surprising truth: I was crazy about Claire Hawkins.
The realization made me drop the fork I was holding.
Claire didn’t seem to notice. “What are we eating?” she asked, sniffing the air.
“Chinese takeout,” I said, recovering. “I didn’t know what you like, so I got an assortment of things and figured we could eat family style.”
“Yum. Does Chinese food go with scotch?” She plucked an eggroll out of a box and bit off the end of it before sitting cross-legged in the chair at the head of the table.
I shrugged. “Who cares?”
She gave me that twisted smile that let me know a playful jab was coming. “I figured growing up all fancy inSeal Harbormeant that you know all the right pairings.”
“Oh, I do,” I said, grinning. “But in my opinion, scotch goes with everything.”
“I guess we both agree on that,” she said, holding her glass up in a mock cheer before taking a sip. “Whoa.” The look on her face was pure pleasure as she held the scotch in her mouth. She closed her eyes and swallowed it slowly, savoring it like she’d never tasted anything so magnificent.
I dropped my fork again.
Those green eyes popped open and narrowed at me. “You’re awfully clumsy today.”
“Must be hungry,” I muttered. I reached for the Mongolian beef and started plating it.
She leaned forward and grabbed the container of sesame chicken, then spooned out a heap of it onto her plate. “I owe you an explanation,” she said quietly, the teasing gone from her voice.
“You don’toweme anything. But if you’re ready to talk about it, I’m here.”
Her eyes filled with unshed tears.
It wrecked me.
“Talk to me,” I coaxed. “What’s going on?”
She swallowed hard. “I’m scared to tell you. Partly because I don’t want it to be true. Because I don’t want to face it. And partly because I don’t want to get him in trouble if I’m wrong, if I … misunderstood.” She dropped her gaze, her cheeks flushing with shame. “I do that sometimes.”
Rage bloomed in my chest. “Did he hurt you?”
If he’d hurt Claire, taking his badge wouldn’t be enough.
“No.” She shook her head and closed her eyes. “Not like that, anyway.”
“Then how?” I was quiet for a moment.
She opened her eyes and gave me an unreadable look. “It’s hard for me to trust my gut. Cheyenne has intuition that’s always dead-on. It’s amazing. But I’ve always felt like mine got wired wrong. I jump headfirst into too many situations that turn out to be bad ideas. I think taking the job as a deputy was probably one of those things.”
I gave her a look of empathy but stayed quiet, giving her room to speak.
“Sheriff McGrath said he saw something in me. That I would be good at this job.” She put her elbows on the table, hiding her face in her hands. “God, I’m so embarrassed.”
