“Janice probably recognized you from old news stories. She’s one of our trainers. She’s married to our kennel manager.”

There was no reason to feel better. My relationship with Teo had ended years ago. Of course logic and emotion don’t always cross paths.

“I don’t know how many ways I can say I’m sorry,” I told him. “I haven’t thought of any new ones since you told me to get out of your life.”

He raised a brow. “It helps that on my last day on the job, I made sure Quayle would never terrorize another woman anywhere.”

The scene was still fresh in my mind, especially after last night’s nightmares. Quayle turning away as Teo’s patrol car approached, my futile kick to his hand, hoping he would drop the gun. Quayle turning angrily back toward me, gun still clutched firmly, a shot flying past my head. The slam of a car door, Bismarck’s frantic barking. Then a streak of canine fury coming right at us. More gunshots, then Bismarck, who was hit twice, falling to the ground as Teo launched himself at Quayle to separate me from my attacker.

Quayle managed to get off one more shot, the one that had, in the end, been responsible for the loss of Teo’s leg. But Teo had already drawn his gun. Cops shoot to kill. Teo had taken the lesson to heart.

When the events of that evening became public knowledge, very few people mourned Quayle. A year later, after an anonymous tip, cadaver dogs searched his mother’s property. The bodies of two women were discovered in a pit behind the house. To my knowledge neither was ever identified.

“Back then, I really didn’t want you to leave,” Teo said quietly. “But I knew you didn’t want to be here.”

I started to protest, but I stopped. Because Teo was at least partly right. Torn between guilt, sorrow and a bone-deep aversion to the kind of anger that had shaken him, I’d floundered badly, so badly that when he’d pushed me away, I had let him.

I said the one thing guaranteed to prove he wasn’t completely right. “I’ve missed you.”

Something flickered in his eyes. “Four years is a long time to miss somebody.”

“I’d like to take all the blame, but my phone number never changed. You knew how to find me.”

“I wasn’t the man you’d known.”

“Which man was that, Teo? The one who saved my life and nearly lost his own? The man who did what was right instead of what I insisted I wanted?”

“The one who still knew who he was.”

I let out a long breath and my heart seemed to twist in my chest. “We could have shared that. I didn’t know who I was, either. Maybe I still don’t. But I guess sharing feelings isn’t something I’m good at.”

“No kidding.” He softened that with the hint of a smile.

“We’re talking.” It was the most I had hoped for.

“We seem to be.”