Cole’s eyes narrowed sharply as his partner began a familiar recital. He listened, cataloging the events that Rick was sharing that related to one of their ongoing investigations. He filed it in his memory along with the way Debbie’s hips swayed beneath her shorts as she stepped from table to cabinet and back again and the way her breasts tilted upward as she stretched, replacing the salt and pepper shakers and condiments in the upper cabinet shelves. He could tell by the way she was ignoring him that she knew he wasn’t ignoring her.

“Can you come pick me up?” Cole asked.

His question definitely got Debbie’s attention. She turned around, eyes wide and nervous, a dish towel dangling limply from her fingers as she stared at the serious expression on his face.

“I’ll be ready,” he said, and hung up.

He looked long and hard at the near panic lurking in Debbie’s eyes. It was the single reason he’d sworn to stay unmarried. This fear was something a cop’s wife had to live with. It wasn’t something he was ready to share.

“I’ll be back late,” Cole explained. “And, it’s just as well. Whatever you thought was about to happen here, girl, didn’t. It’s not going to either, so you may as well wipe that look off your face.”

“What look?” Debbie asked, tilting her chin mutinously.

“That one,” Cole said. His guttural growl sent waves of nervous tension dancing up her backbone as he gripped her shoulders and turned her to face a mirror hanging over the dining table.

They stared at each other, silently assessing the reflections of a tall, dark-haired man and the small, curly haired imp at his shoulder.

“I know what I see, Cole Brownfield,” Debbie said quietly. “Or are you blind to that, too?”

She left him standing before the mirror to face the devils within himself that he stubbornly refused to acknowledge.

Cole stared, long and hard. He shuddered. “No!” he said. “No!” He headed for his room.

*  *  *

Three a.m. Debbie gasped and jerked upright, rolled over on her side, and stared at the clock by the bed, trying to decide what had yanked her awake. There! She heard it again, only now she was not lost in sleep.