“She’s more prickly than ever.”

“Her house reeks of kerosene.” Dash went back to scrutinizing the lieutenant’s every breath. “I’d say she has reason.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think that’s it.” Again, Rowdy stroked the cat, this time using two fingers. He wanted the animal to warm up to him, but he recognized the signs of wariness. “I think it’s you.”

“Me?”

“You scared her.”

Dash frowned.

“She’s used to running into hostile situations. To seeing Logan and Reese and all those boys in blue confront danger. But she’s not involved with any of them.”

“Like she’s involved with me.”

“Right.”

As if Dash had already concluded as much himself, he grumbled, “I’m a man, damn it. Not a kid. Not a—”

“Woman?” Rowdy gave him a grim smile. “Don’t let the lieutenant hear that sexist comment.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Not in question. My point is that she hasn’t had to deal with that before.”

“With what?”

“Seeing someone she really cares about caught in the middle of danger.” Unfortunately, Rowdy had plenty of experience with it. He understood the sickening feeling all too well. “You get this clench in your gut, a cold sweat and a brain-numbing fear when you realize someone important to you could have been lost.”

Dash stared toward her. He still frowned, but his voice softened. “I was never in danger.”

“You’re not that dumb, Dash. A man with a gun, kerosene and bad intent is a threat to everyone.”

Dash chewed on that idea. “It did seem like something was off. I figured she was pissed at me for interfering.”

“Yeah, you probably have that coming yet.” He watched two officers pull on clear rain slickers in preparation for leaving. “But you know women as well as I do.”

That had Dash coughing.

Rowdy didn’t take the bait. “You specifically know her better.”

“Yeah.”

“So figure it out.”

Dash started to speak, and Margo’s voice drew both their gazes.

“Run him through the system,” she commanded. “See what pops.” And then, more disgruntled, she barked, “Who the hell called the press?”

They both turned to see a lady reporter and a cameraman trying to get in the front door. A uniformed officer held them back.

“Seriously?” Dash complained.

Rowdy frowned. “This feels like a fucking setup to me.”

“I don’t like it, either.”

It was another ten minutes before Margaret finished up, and by then, the reporter had taken a fair share of notes.

Things were quickly getting complicated, and it wasn’t just the complexities of Dash’s intimate relationship with a top-notch, well-known lieutenant.

There was more at work than what met the eye.

Rowdy knew it, and because Margaret was so sharp, he was pretty damned certain she had figured it out, as well.

* * *

EVEN WITH SO MANY jumbled thoughts and emotions plaguing his mind, Dash enjoyed seeing Margo like this. There was something innately sexy about a confident, take-charge woman. Given the attentive way Rowdy watched her, he agreed.

Icy fingers knotted in his gut. True, he knew Rowdy was in love with Avery, that he was honorable and would never cheat.

But knowing it only helped a little.

With her right hand fisted and her brow pinched, Margo approached. She stared at the cat instead of Dash. “How’s Oliver?”

“Nervous.” Like you. Dash shifted the cat to the other arm. “I had to wash him twice to get all of the kerosene off him. He didn’t like his baths, and he’s still pretty shaken up.”

Uncertainty had her nibbling on her soft bottom lip. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there helping—”

“You had your hands full with other things. Oliver and I managed just fine.”

“Maybe I should take him to the vet.”

Dash switched so that now it was Margo he petted—her jaw, her neck, her shoulder. It helped that she didn’t seem to mind, even leaned into his touch a little. “It’s not quite seven. They won’t open for appointments for a couple more hours and by then Oliver will have calmed down.” And hopefully the time would also give Margo a chance to come to grips with his intrusion. “Besides, the vet said as long as he didn’t ingest the kerosene, it wasn’t a worry. You already had the dish liquid she recommended for cleaning, so he’ll be fine.”

She surprised Rowdy by cooing to the cat, kissing its wet head and in general babying it.

Dash smiled. Eventually everyone would know what a warm, sweet and caring woman she was. There was so much more to Margo than her innate ability to lead.

Suddenly her eyes narrowed on Rowdy. “Why, exactly, are you here?”

Rowdy seemed to have difficulty taking her rude tone to heart when she looked so...feminine. “Pepper called me after Logan took off. She knew I was helping out with things and that I’d want to know.”

“So she informed you. I would have done that myself. But it doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“To see your intruder.” Rowdy had no problem with her knowing his motives. “There’s always the chance I would have recognized him.”

“But you didn’t?”

“Nope.” He leaned in, his voice lowered—because while he didn’t have reason to hide anything from the lieutenant, Logan or Reese, he clearly didn’t feel the same about the rest of the cops in attendance. “I’ll ask around, though. Show his picture to my snitches—specifically the snitch that knew about the garage fire, the same snitch that I told about our fictitious evidence. Someone, somewhere, will know him.”

Her dark eyes widened marginally. “You photographed him?”

Damn. The sneaky bastard. Dash hadn’t noticed Rowdy taking any pictures, but then, he’d been consumed with watching Margo. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” Rowdy said. “It isn’t.”

Logan and Reese approached as the last of the cops filed out. The intruder had already been put in the back of a squad car. The reporter had reluctantly retreated.

Thankfully, the storm had mostly blown over and dawn approached with only a gentle rain.

Logan looked beat, and that concerned Dash. “You okay?”

“What? Oh, yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Fine.”

Reese threw an arm around Logan’s shoulders. “I think Pepper awoke him extra early, and then forced him through a workout.” Reese raised a suggestive eyebrow. “Before he could recover, he got called here, so—”

Logan and Rowdy said together, “Shut up, Reese,” making Dash grin.

Yeah, right here, right now, with the cat shivering in his arms, the stench of spilled kerosene burning his nostrils, there wasn’t much to laugh about. But Logan had been a cop a long time so Dash knew well how morbid humor often covered darker emotions.

Of course, Reese didn’t dial it down. If anything, he ramped it up now that he’d gotten a rise. But this time he aimed his sarcasm at Margo. “You sure threw everyone for a loop. Those poor guys, they kept tripping over their own tongues.”

Dash started to say something, but Margo beat him to it. “You’re so disgustingly chipper, Detective, how would you like some extra paperwork?”

Reese just smiled at her.

Indignation stiffened her spine. “You think that’s funny?”

“’Course not.” But the smile turned into a grin.

Rowdy shook his head, then laughed. Wagging a finger around the circle of people, he included them all, but spoke specifically to Margo. “Things have changed, you know.” He tugged at her lapel. “Thanks to you and Dash hooking up, these two clowns now feel free to drop in on you, and to make jokes, and to treat you—”

“Like family,” Logan said defensively.

Whoa. Dash would have said only “more familiar.” But family? Yeah. That covered it as far as he was concerned. Nice that his brother understood it, as well.

He just hoped the teasing didn’t scare Margo off. At the moment, she looked a little frozen.

“I sympathize,” Rowdy told her. “I felt the same way at first myself. But you might as well get used to it.”

Dash pulled her closer, pleased that the guys all understood what Margo hadn’t yet accepted. “And as long as you’re adjusting to that...I’m sorry if I worried you.”

She sucked in an angry breath, ready to blast them all...but deflated. “It’s difficult.”

Reese laughed at her. “Lighten up, Margaret. He’s a big boy. He can handle himself.”

“You—”

Logan cut in. “You have to admit, the dynamics are different now.”

Instead, she shifted her gaze from Logan to Reese and back again—and changed the subject. “We need to know if Cannon leaked our story about evidence, and to whom. Same with you, Rowdy.”

“Sorry, but I already checked. This doesn’t connect back to me. In fact, I’m not convinced it’s even related.”

Dash wasn’t surprised when Margo agreed.

“Our visitor is no more than a local yahoo, a dime-store thug who someone paid to come to my house—specifically, my house—to set a kerosene fire. He claims he doesn’t know or care why.”

“Who hired him?” Rowdy asked.

Logan filled him in. “A man in a dark car gave him the kerosene and twenty bucks and told him he’d give him two hundred more after he caused the vandalism. He never got a name.”

“Vandalism, huh?” What a schmuck, Dash thought. “Is that what he called it?”

“Yes.”

“He said he thought the house was supposed to be empty.” Rubbing her forehead, Margo drew a steadying breath that every one of the men noticed.

Dash bristled again.

“The thing is,” she continued, “Oliver startled him, and once he’d run through the kerosene, our intruder didn’t want to light it.”