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Took one to know one

The badge had attracted her Her father had died, and she’d been lost and alone Afraid She wasn’t a badge bunny, looking for a quick lay She’d needed a irl had needed his protection And he’d gladly given it, and his love

Regrets swirled, fluttering like buzzing bees Maybe he’d held on too tightly Maybe he’d worried too much about where she went or whom she befriended He’d always asked, pushed for answers, never satisfied and never noticing how she’d chaffed under his love

Her abandoner had receded to desperation and, immediately, he’d set out to prove his love Flowers, letters, phone calls, visits to her new apartns of his love But the harder he held on, the harder she’d pulled away

Regardless of how long they’d been separated, there’d be no surrender He would never give up on her Ever

“Until death do us part, babe”

Yeah, he’d made mistakes, but the vows they’d spoken had been clear

“Until death”

Chapter Three

Saturday, January 14, 9:15 PM

No should have been the operative word No, thank you Thanks, but no thanks Maybe another tiht Leah Carson off guard when he’d asked her out With no excuses in her back pocket, she’d fallen into a yes before she could think twice

Leah had sworn she’d never date a cop again, and here she was on the brink She’d recognized the signs that he was a cop when he’d first entered the vet hospital The way he aze, always assessing A cop through and through She had known Should have run

His visits to the clinic allup on his cop brother’s retired canine cop dog that was boarding for a couple of days According to the clinic staff, the Morgan siblings were all cops A sister worked forensics Two brothers worked Nashville hoent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

She inhaled and exhaled This was a date Not a relationship Shouldn’t be a big deal to go on a date with a cop Once But it was a big deal Everyone assuht? Sometimes Most times But not always

“Coed “It’ll be fun”

Fun The word hadn’t fit Alex Morgan Straitlaced His sharp, assessing gaze devoured details and nuances And his even, controlled voice gave away nothing He wasn’t a guy who did fun

She’d been reaching for a quick no when he’d tossed in a very disar smile, and for a split second, she’d been charh a tiny crack in her carefully constructed barriers

“Stupid” She curled her fingers over her scarred pallanced around the noisy restaurant He’d offered to drive her to the bar, but she’d insisted on driving herself Knohere she worked was one thing Knohere she lived, another

The energy of the bar, the loud taped lasses swirled Freezing temperatures had not chased away Rudy’s customers Wall-to-wallwestern garb, but the -sleeved shirts, and orn jeans Most had beers and lanced toward the s and doors The ones who sat had their backs to the walls Made sense that a cop would invite her to a cop function

When she’d moved back to Nashville, her first stop had been Broadway and a cowboy boot store She’d bought a h boot with a pointed tip, tassels, and a heel tipped in silver Oddly, she’d not worn the boots until tonight, and only impulse had made her put them on Now the choice bothered her The boots had a pay-attention-tome vibe, made her stick out just a little too much

A long tio, in another life, the boots wouldn’t have been a concern A long tio, she’d been a different person who didn’t worry about boots or cop dates Now, doubts, like the bright neon signs on the strip, flashed Tootoo hard?

Twenty-nine-year-old women should knohat normal people did on dates They were comfortable with men and enjoyed their company

They Had Fun

Index fingers absently traced the scars on her paleon had done his best to , but palms were a tricky stitch job The wounds had reopened twice and had to be restitched Never fully fading, the scars alarned that sometimes smiles, even the best ones, hid evil

Clutching her purse close, she glanced out the front ard Broadway The door was opened by a couple and the cold air cut like a whip If this had been July, the streets would have been teeht, the sidewalks produced only the occasional group of partygoers burrowed in thick coats and wooly scarves No one lingered or strolled All hurried in and out of doorways

Crowds or near desolation both offered advantages and disadvantages Crowds offered cover Eave her room to run

A aze, but hers quickly flittered away Before her ex-husband, a stranger’s passing glance or a hter cahts didn’t have to be assessed and reassessed

Philip had changed all that when he’d entered her life Now, as she had a thousand times before, she wondered how she could have loved hi tide of suffocating attention and control? Exactly one year after they spoke their e vows, his final attack had left her with twenty-three knife wounds, nightmares, and unpredictable panic attacks

The beat of the honky-tonkheart Twenty feet separated her froetaway

So easy, fear whispered Leave while you can