Chapter Four

It was the wrong thing to say.

Ears back, she tiptoed and stretched as far as she could, grinning in triumph when her hand closed around her suitcase handle.

“Hah!” she grunted as she hefted the luggage high enough to clear the side of the truck. “One down, one to go.”

On her next pass, she found she was only grabbing air. Undeterred, she stepped around him to move to the tailgate, lowered it, and clambered up into the bed of the truck to retrieve Shannon’s suitcase.

“I would have helped you,” he said softly as he held out a hand to her to assist her descent.

“I can handle things just fine by myself, Agent Fuller,” she retorted, and ignored his hand and jumped.

“I have no doubt of that at all,” he replied sincerely, and caught her off guard.

Feeling oddly pleased by his comment, she grabbed one suitcase and let him take the other one, and they followed Pete and Shannon into the house.

They walked in just in time to hear Pete say he was taking Shannon upstairs so she could rest, and Leah immediately stopped him.

Leah barked, “Hold still for two seconds and let me ask her if she wants food or sleep first.”

When Shannon chose food, Pete gently set her down as Leah strode into the kitchen to make her something to eat. As she brought two plates of food to the table, Leah noticed the two men stepping outside, while Duffy, the agent that had been at the house when they arrived, moved into the living room.

The women started to write notes back and forth between them again as they ate, but Pete and Larry returned before they had a chance to delve into much of anything serious.

***

When Shannon and Pete went upstairs so he could show her to her room, Fuller sat down in the chair at the end of the table to Leah’s left. He reached out and pulled the bag of chips within reach, then grabbed himself a handful of them.

“So,” he began. “You think there’s any way I can get you to just call me Larry, not Agent Fuller?”

“You’re here on business, aren’t you?” she asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Yep.”

“Then no, Agent Fuller. I think we ought to keep it professional.”

He laughed, and the sound warmed her soul.

Leah fought very hard to keep her reaction to it out of her expression, but when she glanced at him, she lost the battle, and smiled.

Pete’s interruption to ask for a piece of paper was a relief, and Leah tore out a clean page for him to use before closing the notebook’s cover to prevent Fuller from seeing what had been said about him.

“So,” she pursed her lips. “How long have you been with the FBI?”

“Let’s see,” he began. “I spent six years in the Army and applied to the FBI right after I got out, so… four and a half years now that I’ve been an agent.”

“Have you always been in Chicago?”

“Nope, that’s a pretty new posting,” he told her. “I transferred to that office just under a year ago.”

“Why?” Leah propped her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand.

The moment she asked, she knew she’d struck a nerve. His blue eyes darkened with emotion, but what kind it was precisely, she couldn’t tell.

“I wanted a change of scenery,” he muttered. And his tone made clear that the current topic was closed to further discussion.

Interesting, Leah thought to herself. I wonder what that’s about?

She filed it away for a later time and started to steer the conversation back toward a more neutral topic, but he beat her to it.

“So, are you going to school, or working?”

“Both, actually,” she said. “I’ll be done with my Criminal Justice and Psychology degrees in the spring, and I work part-time.”

“Nice,” Larry answered.

Pete returning to the kitchen a short time later altered the trajectory of their conversation, and a screaming Shannon altered it again.

Leah was surprised at the speed with which Pete reacted.

He was upstairs and opening Shannon’s bedroom door before she, Larry and Duffy even made it to the base of the stairs.

The three skidded to a stop in the open doorway, watching, worried as Pete gathered Shannon up and tried to calm her.

“Is she okay?” Leah asked.

“Nightmare,” came the answer.

I was afraid of that, Leah thought to herself.

“Well,” she said to them, “I was gonna ply her with booze to help her sleep, but that’s a no-go. She can’t have any caffeine or alcohol for forty-eight hours due to the concussion.”

Shannon woke up at that moment.

“What’s going on?” she said, confused, and Leah could tell that everyone staring at her was making her uncomfortable.

Leah shooed the men out of the room and took point on making sure her best friend was okay.

***

Later, after Shannon went back to sleep, Leah wandered downstairs and into the living room. Pete was sitting on the couch, flipping through television channels.

Now’s my chance to sound him out, see what might be going on between him and Shannon, she realized.

She’d already had a similar conversation with her best friend as Shannon soaked in the tub, so Leah knew Shannon was interested in Pete but was trying her best not to focus on it.

Leah selected an intriguing title from the three-tier bookshelf, then parked herself in the recliner that sat at a right angle to Pete’s position.

“Did Agent Fuller leave already?” she asked.

“Yeah. He was anxious to get back, talk to his lab guys.”

He left without telling me goodbye. Really? That was rude…

“Huh,” she said, then casually began, “So…”, and proceeded to completely fluster Pete by talking about Shannon.

“Oh,” he said when Leah mentioned Shannon was from Texas, and Leah held back a grin.

I knew it. I knew he was doing some weird ‘this-can’t-work-we-live-too-far-apart’ thing in his head.

“Degrees?”

Huh. Leave it to him to seize on the least emotionally challenging thing I’ve said.

She answered his question, then swerved the topic firmly back over to him and Shannon.

“Fine,” he finally snapped. “So now, let’s look at you and Larry.”