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“So you think this was a random act of vandalism?” he asked doubtfully.

“What else could it be?”

Damn. That was what he’d feared. He heard evasion in her voice. She had some idea of who’d done this but wasn’t planning to share her suspicions with him. He pressed to test a little bit. “Let’s not touch anything more and call the police. If nothing else, they can lift prints and make a report for your insurance company.”

A stubborn expression flashed through her eyes and she opened her mouth, obviously to protest. Closed it again. Took a deep breath. And finally, said merely, “Okay.”

He leaned toward her and placed a light hand on her shoulder. “I can’t help you if you won’t let me, and I can’t protect you if I don’t know who to protect you from.”

She surged up off the couch. He got the impression she would have paced if she hadn’t been impeded by World War Three all over her floor. “I don’t need your protection!” she burst out.

“That doesn’t mean I’m not going to offer it to you,” he replied evenly.

“Gah!”

What was her problem?

Given that the question was unanswerable in the absence of more information, he pushed it aside and fished out his cell phone. He found a non-emergency local police number andcalled it. He reported the break-in and that the place was secure and the occupant safe. The dispatcher said she’d have a unit there in a half-hour.

Which worked out perfectly. His pants and shirt were still warm out of the dryer and back on his body when a cop knocked on her door. The pictures and statement the officer took were routine except for the part where the guy flirted with Piper the entire damned time.

The cop finally left and Ian closed the door after him in relief, grousing, “Jeez. Ballsy dude to act like that with me here the whole time.”

Piper waved a breezy hand. “He asked me about ten seconds after I took him into the bedroom if you and I are dating.”

“And you said no. Which he took for permission to do his damnedest to get in your pants,” Ian replied sourly.

Now why did that irritate him so much? They both were free agents, after all. Khartoum had been…well, Khartoum. Nothing was ops normal in that place. What went on there stayed there as far as he was concerned.

They’d both been under huge stress, isolated and alone. Yeah, that was it. Two ships crossing in the night. Nothing more. If she wanted to sleep with some bonehead cop, more power to her.

“He only wanted my phone number,” Piper commented mildly.

“Did you give it to him?” Fuck. He had no business asking that. The question had just popped out of his mouth before he could stop it.

Her right eyebrow arched. “As a matter of fact, I didn’t. I told him I was leaving town for a few weeks, and he told me I could stop by the police department and pick up a copy of my report when I get back. And then he gave me his phone number.”

Ian clenched his teeth shut and bit back the sarcastic response that jumped to his tongue. Her social life. Her decision. “Let’s get out of here. Is anything left here for you to pack for our op?”

She sighed. “I doubt it. Let’s just go.”

He waited for her to close and lock the door on the wreck of her life. They turned to climb the stairs to street level, and he reached out to cup her elbow supportively.

“I can go up a staircase by myself,” she snapped.

He frowned. “I was just being polite. My mother would shoot me if she caught me not exercising the manners she taught us boys.”

“Yeah, well, you can keep your manners to yourself.”

He shrugged. “You’ve had a rough day. I thought you could use a show of support.”

“I’ve got things under control,” she declared.

Right. And that was why she sounded on the verge of angry tears. She reminded him of his baby sister when Katie used to stomp her foot and insist that her big brothers let her go along on their adventures. They never had, of course. She was too little to tag along on their junkets through the woods behind their family home. She’d have gotten lost or hurt?—

His attention lurched back to the present as Piper snapped, “And I can open my own car door.”

“Sheesh.” He let go of the door handle and threw his hands up in surrender. “Get your own door then if it’s that big a deal to you.”