But in my head, even with all that was happening, all I could see was my pale face in the mirror.

God, was that really me?

The door to the room opened, my head came up, and Agent Calhoun was standing there.

“You’re free to go, Ms. O’Hara,” he said quietly. “I’m afraid we’ll be working with your computers for a little while longer and we’ll need to ask you not to leave town in case we have follow-up questions but you can go home now.”

I stared at him a moment before I stood. Grabbing my purse, the only thing they’d let me bring with me, I walked his way but he didn’t move out of the door so I stopped two feet away.

“We’ll contact you when we’re done with the computers and arrange a time to return them. It shouldn’t be more than a day or two.” He was still talking quietly and I nodded. “You want me to call you a taxi, or do you have a friend who’ll come pick you up?”

No way I was phoning any of my friends. Not about this. Not when it had to do with Damian. Not when questions could be asked and answers would be expected and lies might need to be told.

No way.

“I’ll call a taxi,” I told him. “Thank you, Agent Calhoun.”

He didn’t move. Therefore, I didn’t either.

Then he offered, “I know it’s been a long night, Tess, but you give me twenty minutes, I can get away. Take you home.”

I studied him and really saw him for the first time. A little salt in his pepper hair, not much. Tall. Broad shoulders. A bit of a belly. Nice wrinkles by his eyes, saying he either needed to wear protective eyewear in the sun more often or he laughed a lot. Older than me by maybe five years, maybe more and he was good at hiding it, maybe less and he didn’t take great care of himself. No wedding band.

This was the kind of man for me. This was the kind of man who might take on that pale-faced woman in the mirror and handle her with care.

Not Jake Knox.

Never Jake Knox.

Agent Calhoun was a decent-looking man, probably a good man, maybe a safe man and, above all, I needed a man who made me feel safe.

But not being a bitch or anything, he was no dream man.

I’d fucked up once, gravitating toward a man who blinded me with his charisma if not his looks.

But if that night taught me nothing else, it taught me I needed to learn to play it safe in order to get safe.