Page 69 of Hot Pursuit

Jo slid her flash drive into the laptop.

Later. Later, when there’s time, I’ll read it all.

I won’t turn a blind eye.

I won’t ignore.

And then I’ll make a decision. When I have all the facts.

Right now, she needed to help her family. Because that image of her father dying alone in a jail cell was too raw, too ripe. She wasn’t ready to turn it into a reality, not yet, not even for Nate.

Jo sifted through the FBI research, all the data, illegally dragging and dropping everything she found into her drive. Before the information downloaded, a window popped up, requiring fingerprint approval of the exchange. Jo winced, but stood and walked over to the bed. Ever so carefully, she slid the trackpad beneath Nate’s open palm, studying his face for any sign of alertness as the print was confirmed. And then just as carefully, she retreated, pulling her drive free, slipping the laptop back into the hotel safe, and shutting the closet door.

Jo knelt, grabbing her dress and her purse, and then paused.

Everything within her screamed to press a soft kiss to his forehead, to say goodbye when she still had the chance, but it was too risky. Even for her. Especially for her. One glance into those baby-blue eyes and she’d drop it all and crawl back into bed, into the safety of his arms, wrapped up in the dreams he spun. Nate couldn’t wake. Because she couldn’t bear it.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into the night, somehow hoping that in his sleep he would hear, he would understand. “I thought I could, but I can’t. I can’t. I’m sorry.”

Then she turned and slipped out the door.

Gone.

- 24 -

Nate

Goddammit, Jo.Nate waited for the door to click closed before he threw the covers off and launched from the bed.

Goddammit.

Goddammit.

Goddammit!

He knew she would do that.

Heknew.

And yet, a small part of him hoped she wouldn’t. That she’d chosen him, the way he’d chosen her. But that was too much to ask, too much to dream. And in the end, maybe Nate had been prepared for the alternative all along. Why else had he changed the password to his hotel safe earlier that day, to something so easy to guess it was almost embarrassing? And why else had he rearranged his files so they were effortless to access and simple to find? Why else had he overridden most of the FBI safeguards on his laptop, leaving only the fingerprint verification in place?

Because he’d known.

All day. All week, even.

He’d known the night would somehow lead here.

To them being together.

To Jo tearing them apart.

He’d counted on it.

Nate rubbed the sleep from his eyes and fumbled around the room in the dark, grabbing a shirt from the closet, pants from the drawer, his badge from the tux, and his gun from the ground. Then he turned on his phone and waited for the inevitable rush of vibrations as all the text messages he was sure he’d missed came through. He opened the ones from his partner first.

Parker, your comm went dark. All good?

Parker. Boss is pissed. Do you copy?