The Heat Is On by Jill Shalvis Page B

just.
    Seeing right through him, Ethan laughed softly. “Look, I get it. You wanted it to be casual because women end up dumping us for the job. It’s a damn fact, man. But if it’s more, it’s more.”
    Again, Jacob didn’t answer. Didn’t know how to answer.
    â€œFine. Be the big, strong, silent type.” Ethan rose lithely to his feet. “But if she’s nothing to you, maybe when this is all over, she’ll go out with me.”
    Jacob slid him a long look.
    â€œYou know, since you’re not into her or anything.”
    And though Ethan was an ass, he wasn’t stupid. He was quickly out the door, a wide, obnoxious grin in place.
    Probably if Jacob had consumed any caffeine yet, he’d have caught up with him and pounded him into dust. Probably he could have done it even without the caffeine, except for one thing.
    Ethan was right.
    Jacob was into Bella.
    Luckily, his workload was off the charts, and hemanaged to keep busy the entire day. First he was called out as backup on a domestic violence case. They had to pull the wife off her husband, and were listening to the man’s side of the story when the wife hit the guy over the head with a flowerpot, right in front of Jacob and his partner. A few minutes later, Jacob was reading the woman her rights, the husband standing there dripping blood, potting soil and daisies.
    Boggled the mind.
    In the afternoon, he sat in a hot car for two hours staking out a corner near Fourth Street with binoculars, hoping to catch sight of a known identity thief he’d been trying to pull in. By six o’clock, he’d seen a handful of public sex acts, one or two of which had surprised even him, but not a single sign of his man. By the time he got back to his desk, it was far past dinnertime.
    But his paperwork had piled up, threatening to topple over. It took him two more hours to make even a dent, and by then, he was starving. He shut down his computer and was nearly to his motorcycle, when a call came in. Another shooting.
    Instead of going home, he met Ethan on scene. “Male, shot once with a through-and-through hit to the thigh,” Ethan told him.
    â€œConnected to the first shooting at Bella’s place?”
    â€œDon’t know. Going to guess yes, since bullet typematches. The guy was just coming home from being out all day. He had ducked to tie his shoe or he’d have taken the hit to the torso and we’d be calling the coroner about now.”
    â€œHis lucky day,” Jacob said. “ID?”
    â€œBanning Jefferson. Ring a bell?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œHe lives in the building. His neighbor reported seeing an unidentified male running from the scene.”
    â€œAnything else?”
    â€œPerp’s around six feet and Caucasian.”
    Much preferable to five foot seven and female.
    â€œNow, get out of here,” Ethan said. “I’m going to nail his ass and I don’t want any technicalities holding me up.”
    â€œAnd I’m a technicality?”
    â€œIf these shootings are connected, you could be.”
    Jacob got back on his bike. He needed to go home, eat and sleep.
    But first he wanted to make sure Bella was okay. He’d just follow up, he assured himself, and it had nothing to do with their obvious sexual chemistry.
    Nothing at all…
    Ten minutes later, he was in front of her building. There were no parking spots. With no qualms whatsoever, he parked illegally, telling himself that the salary raise the city hadn’t been able to afford togive him for three years running could be paid back in special parking privileges.
    He got off his bike, removed his helmet and was at the bottom of her steps, just outside the pastry shop’s back door when he heard a scream.

6
    The man standing in front of her was faceless. He had a huge bullet hole where his forehead should have been, and he was reaching for her with a hand that held a bouquet of wildflowers.