Ashton grabbed her hand, pulled her a little closer.“What?Tell me.”
“I wish you could stay with me.”
He pulled her all the way into his arms and kissed the top of her head.“I want to.Believe me.If I didn’t think I would be one of the most useful tools in catching Curtis Harper, I would stay.”
A plan was already formulating in his mind about a trap, using himself as bait.If Harper wanted him so badly, Ashton would be glad to set that up for him.
With the help of his SWAT buddies, of course.
But to do that, he had to know Summer was safe.She would be, here.
“I know,” she whispered.“I’m being selfish.”
He wrapped his hands around both her cheeks, threading his fingers into her beautiful auburn hair and tilting her head back.“You’re not selfish.Or if you are, I am, too.Because I’d much rather be here with you and Chloe.”He kissed her.Gently.Briefly.He wanted more, but this wasn’t the time.
“But your team needs you.”
He shrugged.“I’m sure they’d do okay without me, but yes, we’re most effective as a team.”
“I know you have to go, and this probably isn’t the best time, but can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“It’s about something Lillian mentioned when we were talking at Omega headquarters.”
“Okay.”He smiled.“Unless it involved something I’ve done at any of the multiple bachelor parties that have been held for Omega agents in the last year.Then I have no recollection of any of those events.”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.Actually, Summer had been pretty quiet most of the day.He’d chalked it up to exhaustion and stress—both definitely plausible—but maybe something more was bothering her.
“Summer, what?Just ask me okay?”
“She mentioned that you sometimes overthink things.”
“Sometimes, sure.I think maybe all law enforcement officers do.”
“Like things in the past.Situations that had gone wrong.Playing them over and over in your head.”
Ashton could feel dread pooling in his stomach.
“Yes.”He nodded slowly.“When things go wrong.You want to figure out what you could’ve done differently.What could’ve resulted in a better outcome.”
“She mentioned that you tended to overthink the situation that had to do with me.About how that could’ve gone better.She said you did that even though you’d been completely cleared.”
“Summer.”He stepped back from her slightly.This was not the time or place he wanted to do this, but he wasn’t going to be able to get around it.He damned himself for not telling her before now.
Her eyebrows furrowed.“I thought she meant when I was kidnapped by Bailey Heath a few months ago.But then I realized that situation ended successfully.There would be no reason for you to pore over that mentally.She meant something else.She said something about a shot.”
Ashton tried to prepare himself, but he still flinched at her next question.
“Were you on the scene the day Tyler was killed?”
“Yes.”
She stepped all the way back so they weren’t touching.“So you knew who I was not only before I first thought you were the handyman, but before you carried me out of that burning warehouse seven months ago.”
“Yes.I knew of you, but I didn’t know you personally.”
She nodded slowly as if she were trying to process everything, to make sure she hadn’t missed important details.
