Cold Case Recruit by Jennifer Morey

forward. He should take lessons in that. From her vantage point, he spent too much time looking back.
    Something banged against the side of the cabin, on the outside wall of the kitchen area. Drury jumped and Brycen pulled out his gun. What had made the noise? It was too loud to be the structure settling with nightfall. When Brycen moved toward the back door, she trailed him at a cautious distance. Peering outside, he didn’t seem to see anything.
    As he opened the door, Drury checked her son. He watched Brycen, but looked at her. She held up her hand to indicate for him to stay put. Then she went to the door and cautiously looked out. All appeared calm.
    Brycen inched his way along the back, gun raised, head turned toward the direction of the sound. Cool air breezed in through the open double French doors. She stepped out onto the patio, waiting for something or someone to leap out of the shadows and attack. Her heart slammed. Brycen moved like a stealthy soldier, focused on the corner of the house.
    Something moved then. Sliding down from the side of the cabin, a tree crashed the rest of the way to the ground. A scream lodged in her throat—until it registered what had caused the noise. A dead tree had fallen from the edge of the forest.
    Brycen lowered his pistol and turned as he tucked it back into the waist holster.
    He wore a wry lift to his mouth. Both on high alert, they held an outward appearance of safety, but lurking deep down, the expectance of the unexpected.
    She smiled with a breathy laugh.
    His wry grin changed to matching humor and he moved toward her.
    “The bogeyman isn’t here,” he said.
    Rubbing her arms against the chill, she didn’t go back inside. His strong, confident strides and solid thighs held her riveted, and then his eyes when he stopped before her.
    “Th-that’s reassuring,” she said, her voice low and revealing her reaction. “Unless you consider a tree a bogeyman.”
    He grinned and stepped closer. “I might have as a kid.”
    “Were you afraid of things like that when you were a kid?” He didn’t strike her as someone who feared anything, as a kid or an adult.
    “Scary movies, but they had to be real movies, not your typical horror film. Thrillers.”
    “A born detective.” She shivered but didn’t want to go back inside. Being alone with him did that to her. Made her irrational.
    “You’re not the first person who’s said that to me.” He put his hand on her arm and started to say, “Let’s...” but something stopped him from finishing. Would he have said, Let’s go back inside?
    The cold faded to the background as she met his eyes and the intensity in them. She moved a step closer, until she could feel his warmth. His head came closer.
    And then something hit his biceps.
    She saw a remote control tumble to the stone patio and looked inside. Junior stood in the kitchen, chest heaving, lips pressed tight.
     

Chapter 5
    B reaking apart from Brycen, Drury stared in shock at her son. Junior had just thrown something at them. No. At Brycen. He’d seemed so awed by him—a man he likely saw as a hero, a superhero, one of his characters in a game. What had caused him to change so abruptly to this? Losing his father left him struggling with how to cope, but...throwing something after seeing Brycen almost kiss her? His little body stood with feet planted apart and fists clamped at his sides, stormy eyes fiery and pursed lips nearly white.
    “Noah Jr....you can’t throw things at people!”
    He had never behaved like this.
    Junior pivoted and ran through the living room toward the stairs. Drury ran after him. At the first bedroom door, he saw his bag inside and would have slammed the door shut if she hadn’t put her hand on the wood.
    “This isn’t our cabin and you don’t throw things at people. Do you hear me? What’s the matter with you?” She stepped inside the room.
    Without answering, he went to the bed and plopped down with a bent head, going into his