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THREE

T his was exactly why she hadn’t wanted to come back here and why she needed to leave. Penny’s head pounded enough to tell her she wasn’t imagining things. She wasn’t dreaming. And it wasn’t a hallucination brought on by a head injury.

Bryce Crawford really had rescued her from a burning building. He stood at the foot of her cot looking way better than any man had a right to look when covered with soot and sweat under the glaring red and blue lights of the emergency vehicles.

The concern in those brown eyes was like a kick in the gut.

“Penny, what are you doing here?” he asked.

Good question. Where was she again? Her thoughts didn’t quite come together at first. Then everything crystallized. “My job.” Emma. She’d escaped with the mystery man.

But across the street behind Bryce, the red Nissan was still parked on the curb. Penny climbed off the cot.

The medic reached for her. Penny kind of recognized her but couldn’t come up with a name.

“Ma’am, please. You’re bleeding. You were knocked out. Let us examine?—”

“I have to search that car.” Her feet hit the ground, but everything swayed the second she stood. She didn’t want to be a jerk, but some things were more important than taking the time to make someone feel better.

Bryce caught her arm and righted her. “Whoa. You should?—”

“Don’t tell me what I should do. I lost her.”

“Lost who?”

“Emma Kemper. That’s her car.”

It took more strength than she’d ever want to admit in order to pull out of Bryce’s grip.

His brows furrowed as he looked down at her. “Penny, Kianna is right. You’re bleeding. You need to be checked out.”

Kianna. Right. She should’ve known that. But why waste time letting a paramedic tell her what she already knew. She had a raging headache. Probably a concussion.

“I need to figure out what she had. Her car.”

“Fine. I’ll help you over there. Then will you agree to let these guys take care of you?”

She didn’t need someone taking care of her. But if nodding meant he’d get out of her way, then fine. Emma had bombs. In Last Chance County. And Penny had let her get away. She had to fix this.

Every step sent a shock of pain through her skull. Her vision blurred for a moment and then cleared. She could do this. She had to do this. If she stayed focused on the job, she could forget all over again what it was like to be in Bryce’s arms.

She had to.

Okay, so she hadn’t been able to forget over the last year and a half, but still. It gave her something to cling to. She couldn’t let her emotions cloud her judgment again. It was too dangerous. She’d already lost so much.

She bit down hard on her molars as a wave of nausea rolled over her, but she made it to Emma’s car.

Penny pulled the sleeves over her fingers and yanked on the handle. It was unlocked. Thank goodness for some miracles. Jude would probably call it an answered prayer. She wasn’t sure about that, but she’d take what she could get.

She leaned on the frame of the car and opened the driver’s side door. Wrappers and loose papers littered the passenger side. Penny couldn’t touch anything, but a brief look over the mess found nothing helpful.

The trunk. That’s where she’d grabbed the duffel bag from. Penny looked for a lever or button to open it.

“What are you looking for? Can I help?”

Bryce was still there. Hovering.

Penny shook her head and immediately regretted it. Light flashed behind her eyes for a second. Bad idea, Pen. She collapsed into the driver’s seat. Hopefully it looked more graceful than it felt.

“Penny, seriously, let someone help you for once. What are you looking for?”

She leaned over again, just to catch her breath.

She needed Bryce to leave. In this state, she was bound to make more poor decisions based on feelings she had no business feeling. She needed to pull it together.

Her hand felt along the panel by the door. Aha. There. She pressed a button, and the trunk popped open.

Trying not to make it obvious she needed the car for support, she stood and made her way to the trunk.

Bryce followed.

“Come on, Penny. Let me help. You look awful.”

“Gee, thanks.”

She scanned the gray interior of the trunk.

“That’s not what I meant. You look like you’re going to pass out. Let me?—”

“There!”

“What?” He leaned over. Even masked in the scent of smoke, she caught a whiff of his aftershave, the clean beachy scent she hadn’t been able to get out of her head.

She didn’t let herself look at him. Instead, she focused on the small black object in the corner of the trunk. She took out her phone and snapped a picture of it.

“What’s that?” Bryce peered at it.

“Evidence.”

A police officer walked past.

“Excuse me, do you have gloves? And an evidence bag?”

“You can’t dig around in this car. It’s an active crime scene.” The police officer’s badge read Thomas.

“I’m a private investigator assigned by the ATF to follow this woman and find out what she’s doing. I’m trying to help.” She dug out her license to show him and gave him Ben Freeman’s number.

The officer studied her face, then the license. “I’ll make a call and be back.”

He wasn’t gone long before he came back with the items. “I’m Anthony Thomas. We’ll need your statement, Ms. Mitchell, when we’re done here. Sounds like you know the drill.” He handed her the gloves.

It took her longer than it should’ve to slide her fingers into them, but once she had, she picked up the object and looked at it under the streetlight.

This was bad. Really bad. “We have a problem.”

Bryce scowled. “Obviously. But I really think you should?—”

“She met someone here. She’s not alone.” Penny swung her head, searching the street for a sign of where Emma and her posse would’ve gone. A wave of nausea hit her. She held her breath, biting down hard until it passed.

“Do you think they’ll come after you?” Bryce actually looked concerned. Even with the way she’d left? How was that possible?

But his question hung, and the less concern—or anything—he felt for her, the better.

“That’s not the problem. They think I’m dead.”

“That’s how you ended up in the closet with a head injury?” Bryce asked.

“You were the woman they found in the fire?” Officer Thomas asked.

“Yes. My head hit the concrete floor, and during the explosion, something fell on me.” Not that the rest of her body hadn’t already been sore from trying to fight off the guys who’d thrown her in the closet. And yes, she’d been on the verge of an outright panic attack. But with Bryce and this other man, she needed to appear strong. Like she had everything together.

She needed to keep it professional.

“I’ll grab one of the medics.” The handsome officer jogged away.

Bryce, on the other hand, moved closer. He gently swept a lock of hair behind her ear. He sent her a flirty kind of smile. The typical Bryce life-of-the-party smile. “I still can’t believe you’re here.”

Oh boy. Pull it together. She dug for something to keep him back. She might need snark, or she’d resort to flirting back. And that only got her into trouble.

So much trouble.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be gone before you know it.”

He winced. “Could you at least stick around long enough to talk? I’d hoped you’d come to the wedding.”

Talk?

What was there to talk about?

She still remembered the scene in crystal-clear color. Even with a head injury.

The sight of Ashlee Featherwood in Bryce’s arms wasn’t one she would soon forget.

She should probably thank Ashlee at some point. It’d been the wake-up call Penny had needed. She never should’ve let it go so far with Bryce. So really…there was nothing they needed to “talk” about now.

“I was on a job. Couldn’t get back here in time.” Penny dropped the object into the evidence bag and sealed it.

“You need to be careful.” The smile faded. “You could’ve died in there.”

She looked back at the warehouse still engulfed in flames. She was keeping Bryce from his job. No need to focus on the fact that it’d included rescuing her tonight.

Why did it have to be him?

She had to get back to her own job too.

Keep it professional. She should make it her new mantra.

“I know you have to get back to it, and I—” She tried to take a step but everything buckled.

Bryce caught her around the waist. “Don’t tell me you’re fine. You’re coming with me.”

He swept her into his arms and carried her to the cot again. “You’re getting a ride to the hospital.”

She must’ve really rattled her brain. This time she didn’t fight it. And when the medic started assessing her vitals, she didn’t stop Bryce Crawford from walking away.

Back in Last Chance County, and in less than an hour she’d almost died, then run into her extremely handsome ex. She needed to get out of town fast.