He tossed the gauze back on the tray then opened the sealed package
containing the suture needle and blue thread. Using the tissue forceps, he picked up the needle with the needle driver and began his first stitch. “Any serious relationships?”
She snorted a laugh. “Serious relationships happen when you trust people. I don’t trust anyone but Ryder.”
At that comment, he looked her right in the eye. She trusted him to a point, and they both knew it. “Professional hazard?”
She shrugged. “Something like that.”
Most times, he’d let her dodge him. For some reason, tonight, he couldn’t. “Explain that.”
“What’s to explain?” she asked. “I don’t do serious.”
He knew why—her past. He also didn’t feel the need to question her about that either. He understood her hang-ups. “A personal hazard, then?”
She gave a small smile and repeated, “Something like that too.”
Yeah, he got it, all right. Hard to want or trust a relationship when the only relationships you saw were held together with drugs and alcohol and abuse. Though as they stayed silent while he finished the four stitches then tied the knot and cut the remaining thread, he wondered if he could change her mind about that.
When he placed the scissors back on the tray, her hand came down on his arm, and her voice softened. “It was complicated.”
His gaze flicked to hers. “What was complicated?”
“Paris.” A beat passed between them, her eyes searching his. Until she finally spoke again. “We couldn’t have made it work. So many things stood in our way. Things that were unchangeable.”
He swallowed the tightness back in his throat, letting him breathe easier. Then he spoke the words on his mind since he realized again how great she was, and how incredible they were together. “Yeah, it was complicated then. Now I’m not sure it is.”
“I don’t—”
“You do trust me,” he interjected.
Emotion rose in her expression, softening Alex in ways Rowan had never seen. Her brows drew together and her lips parted, but a beep cut off whatever she was planning to say. She reached into her back pocket and drew out her phone.
In an instant, Rowan saw the color drain from her face. “What is it?”
She slowly glanced up, meeting his gaze. “Ryder wanted to give us a heads-up. Another body has been found.”
The room spun slightly before Rowan gripped the exam table, pressing his feet hard against the floor to ground himself. He knew it should register that apparently Ryder was working the case now, but nothing mattered beyond the dark thoughts racing through Rowan’s mind. He shut his eyes and breathed deep before meeting Alex’s gaze again. “Is it Mia?”
Her fingers tightened around his arms. “Ryder doesn’t know.”
Rowan dropped his head, controlling the rage, sadness, and fear that invaded every crevice of his mind.
“I’m so sorry, Rowan,” Alex whispered.
He lifted his head, staring deeply at the woman he never could forget. “You know this pain.”
Her eyes saddened. “I do.” She cupped his face. “Ryder can get us any information we need.”
“We don’t need him,” Rowan said, moving away to quickly but efficiently clean the wound then put a bandage over top.
“How, then?”
He tossed the tray in the garbage can before taking Alex’s hand. “I’ll get us on the scene.”
CHAPTER 12
A QUARTER OF an hour later, Alex waited by the side of the road, next to a farmer’s hayfield. The dark night surrounded her, minus the numerous cop cars with their lights flashing and the spotlights beaming down on the roped-off crime scene out in the famer’s field. Rowan stood just outside the yellow tape with a lanky, tall man with dark brown hair and even darker eyes that hadn’t showed much emotion when she’d met him a handful of minutes ago before her nonstop ringing cell phone had her turning away from them.