“I could go—how did you used to phrase it?—‘all Neanderthal’ on you right now.”

She groaned. “Oh, God, and what? Show me who’s boss? Save me.”

“As I said, you can keep Bo tonight, but”—he sent the dog a warning glare—“he still belongs at the ranch.”

“Sure. If you say so,” she said, her eyes belying her words.

“And as for tomorrow, I think we should go to St. Elsinore’s when the place is open.”

“ ‘We’?” she repeated.

“Yeah, ‘we.’ Like it or not, I’m here and involved.”

“You don’t have to be.”

“I know, but I want to be.”

She hesitated. “Look, Slade, you don’t have to feel obligated, okay? Just because we’re still married doesn’t mean that you have to jump in or be my advocate or protector or whatever might be in your head. I can handle myself. I was a cop. A detective. Remember?”

“One with nightmares.”

“Everyone has them. Comes with the territory.”

Slade wasn’t so sure. Val’s dreams, though infrequent, terrorized her. He knew. He’d woken up to her screams, to her night sweats, to her body trembling in fear. He’d tried to give her comfort, to hold her, to whisper that everything would be all right, but she’d always insisted upon rolling off the bed and going into the living room where she’d curl up on the couch with an old afghan and stare at the dying embers of the fire with Bo beside her.

She’d never objected to him joining her and the dog, but she’d needed a few minutes to compose herself first. She’d refused to tell him what the dreams were about and dismissed them as “stress from the job.”

He’d come to suspect she’d been lying, placating him. He thought her night terrors might have been triggered by a horror she’d witnessed while performing her duties, but they ran much deeper than what she’d admitted.

Now she was so close he could reach out and touch her, brush the wayward lock of auburn curls from her cheek, wrap his fingers around her nape and draw her closer. But he resisted. Instead he asked, “So are we on for tomorrow?” Of course, he thought they should leave the investigation to the police, to try and keep their emotions out of it, but he knew Val wouldn’t be able to back off. With her temperament and experience tracking killers, she wouldn’t just let her sister’s murderer get away without a fight. He figured together they might be able to find out something that might help the authorities, though he knew that if he said so much to the detectives in charge, they would not only laugh but also tell Val and Slade to back off in no uncertain terms.

Tough.

This was the way Val was determined to play it.