Closer Than You Think by Karen Rose Page A

chill. She wondered what he’d do if she tried.
    Not that it mattered. She hadn’t leaned on a man in four years and she wasn’t going to start now. Especially with a cop. No matter how mesmerizing his eyes.
    ‘On her throat to take her pulse and around the wound on her leg. She was bleeding from what looked like a bullet wound and I used my scarf to staunch the flow, but I was careful not to directly touch the open wound.’ She shrugged. ‘You can never tell who’s clean these days. Better safe than sorry.’
    Still holding her left hand, he reached for her right, turning both palms up. ‘But your hands are covered in her blood.’
    ‘Not hers,’ Faith said. ‘It’s mine. I cut my hands when I crawled up the embankment.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘There were sharp rocks in the dirt. Or broken glass, maybe from the Jeep’s windows.’
    ‘No, I mean why did you crawl up the embankment?’
    She frowned at him. ‘Because she was hurt. I couldn’t leave her there, lying in the road.’
    He was studying her with an intensity that made her feel . . . exposed. A part of her wanted to close her eyes again, to hide from his scrutiny, but another, bolder, nearly forgotten part of her didn’t back down. She locked on to those amazing eyes and didn’t look away.
    Novak rose abruptly. ‘Sergeant Tanaka! Come here, please. Bring your collection kit.’
    A forty-something man of Asian descent hurried over, carrying a tackle box. ‘What is it?’
    ‘Miss Corcoran, this is Sergeant Tanaka. He leads our crime-scene unit. This is Miss Corcoran. She has refused medical attention because she touched the victim and wanted to protect any evidence. Can you process her hands so that the EMT can take care of her wounds?’
    Tanaka regarded her curiously. ‘Of course.’ He transferred the grime from her hands to evidence bags, swabbing the blood and scraping under her nails. Apologizing when she winced.
    Novak stepped back far enough to give Tanaka room to work. Far enough that Faith could see him without having to crane her neck to look up.
    Far enough that he was no longer crowding her space, allowing her to breathe normally again. He’d dropped his gaze to his phone, leaving her free to study his face without the distraction of his eyes staring back. He was a handsome man in a stark, startling, action-hero kind of way. He’d never be ignored, that was for sure. If his white hair and remarkable eyes didn’t do enough to set him apart, the black leather coat and the sci-fi wraparound sunglasses he’d worn earlier would certainly do the trick.
    Which made Faith wonder why he would make himself so instantly recognizable. So completely unforgettable. So visible.
    The thought of being so visible bothered Faith more than she wanted to admit. She’d spent most of her life trying to be in visible, but Novak was as far from invisible as a person could be.
    ‘Thanks,’ he said to Tanaka when the sergeant had finished with her hands. ‘I’ll interview Miss Corcoran so that she can get the medical care she needs, then catch up with Kimble.’ When Tanaka was gone, Novak dropped into a low crouch so that Faith could look down at him. ‘I’ll make this as quick as I can. You said you were driving home?’
    ‘Yes. To what will be my home.’
    His brows bunched slightly. ‘On this road?’
    He continued to use the soothing voice, but his eyes had gone sharp, setting off an alarm in Faith’s head. ‘Yes, on this road.’
    ‘I just checked the map on my phone and this road dead-ends about a mile from here. There are no houses between here and there. Just a cemetery. Are you planning to build?’
    Huh . Now there was a suggestion she hadn’t considered. She’d inherited fifty acres of land along with the house. She could sell forty-nine of those acres and build one hell of a house on the acre she kept. Except that building a new house seemed a poor use of the money the sale of the acreage would bring. Her dad might need that