“As I’ll ever be.”

They cut through the lobby and out the front doors. The ticket takers and ushers stared as they passed and Lindsey felt her face get warm. She felt like an idiot, like she was some sort of bad-juju magnet.

How could she not have known someone was up there with her? And who was it? Was it one of these people? They had all been in the lobby when she went into the balcony to look for the headpiece. The thought sent a shiver of fear down her back.

Sully pushed open the door for her and she stepped back out into the brisk evening air. They crossed the courtyard to the sidewalk and then turned left toward the police station.

“Didn’t we just get here?” she asked. “It feels like we just arrived and now we’re leaving.”

“I disagree,” Sully said. “In fact, I think I’ve aged five years since I saw you clinging to the edge of the balcony.”

“There is that,” she said. They passed under a streetlight. “I really thought I was going to go splat.”

He leaned close so that his mouth was near her ear and he said, “I would never let that happen.”

Lindsey glanced at him and gave him a small smile. “You saved my life—again.”

They were both silent. The last time Sully had saved her life, he had also saved her ex-fiancé. It had caused the end of their brief relationship because Sully believed there was unfinished business between Lindsey and her ex. There wasn’t, but he had refused to believe her when she told him that.

“It is becoming a habit,” he said. His tone was light but there was so much unsaid between them that Lindsey felt as if each of his words was weighted with the heft of their unspoken expectations.

She pressed her arm against his as they walked. There was so much she wished she could say, but she didn’t know how.

“‘Thank you’ seems awfully unsubstantial,” she said.

They were in front of the police station now and she paused. She turned to face him. The desire to throw herself at him and plant a kiss of gratitude on him that would make his knees buckle was almost more temptation than she could resist.

“Well, what did you have in mind?” he asked. As if he was reading her thoughts, Sully raised his eyebrows at her.

Lindsey was pretty sure he was offering up a dare. The only question now was whether she was brave enough to take it. She took a half step toward him and he hit her with his patent-worthy grin. Oh, how she had missed this man!

She took another half step toward him and was just about to grab him by the front of his jacket and pull him close when the front door to the police station banged open and out stormed Dylan Peet. He looked furious.