Hard As Steel: A Hard Ink/Raven Riders Crossover (1001 Dark Nights) by Laura Kaye

know.
    “Better, actually.” His gaze slid from her to the oven to the table. “Smells good.”
    “Think you can eat? I made the lasagna.”
    He nodded. “I’m actually kinda starving.”
    “That’s how I was, too.” She waved him closer. “Let’s feel that forehead.”
    He eyeballed her like he was suspicious of her intentions. Soooo glad things were totally normal. Jess just barely refrained from rolling her eyes. Finally, he closed the distance between them.
    She pressed her hand to his face. Much cooler than it had been. Relief flooded through her, easing some of the tension in her shoulders. “I think it’s gone. At least for now.”
    “Yeah,” he said, taking a step back. Away—from her. “Good news, huh?”
    “Yup.” She turned and peeked in the oven. The cheese was bubbling and brown. Perfect. Look at her being all domestic. She lowered the door and grabbed two hand towels, and then she lifted the pan with the lasagna out of the oven and rested it on top the stove’s burners. “Aw, look at that.”
    He came up next to her, but not so close that they were touching. “I’m going to demolish that.”
    Jess chuckled. “Good.”
    “Lemme go get cleaned up while it cools,” he said, already heading to the bathroom.
    “Okay,” she said, grabbing a diet Coke from the fridge.
    The minute he closed himself in the bathroom, Jess sagged against the kitchen counter. Was that awkward or was that awkward? Or did it just feel awkward to her because she felt all different around him now?
    Jess wanted to bang her head against a wall.
    Instead, she finished taking everything to the table, grabbed a drink for Ike, and then sat her butt down to try to chill the fuck out.
    He came out seconds later and joined her at the table. “Thanks for doing all this.”
    “No worries. Neither of us have eaten much this week so I thought we could use a real meal.”
    Nodding, he scooped her a big portion, then gave himself an even bigger one.
    “I don’t mean to be nosy, but was your call news from back home?” she asked.
    He cut a piece of lasagna with his fork. “Yeah. The team confirmed that their former base commanding officer lied about why he was in Baltimore, and a tracking device they put on his car showed that he went to a location known to be part of their enemy’s business. They also found a tracking device in Becca’s purse after she met with the guy, and the Ravens had to provide a diversion to keep her from being followed.”
    “Oh, my God,” Jess said. “Is everyone okay?”
    He nodded. “The team also got their hands on some new incriminating documents, so things are coming to a head.”
    “Well, I guess that’s good news.” She took a bite of food that she barely tasted.
    “It is. But this Army officer is a highly decorated general with all kinds of political connections. Who the hell knows what kind of resources someone like that might have. Shit’s about to get real.”
    God, if it wasn’t real already, Jess didn’t want to know what real looked like. After all, two Ravens died when the roof at Hard Ink collapsed last weekend. And it didn’t get any more real than that.
    “You know,” she said, the words getting all tangled in her mouth. She rarely talked about her dad to anyone because his memory was all caught up in the worst mistake of her life. But this whole crisis had her thinking about him more and more recently.
    “What?” Ike said, studying her.
    She shrugged. “Was just thinking that I wish my dad was still around. He would’ve been able to help Jeremy and Nick. I know he would. And then they would’ve had someone in the police department they could trust for sure.” Early in the team’s investigation, they’d found solid evidence that the people they were fighting had at least some BPD in their pockets. “Dad is probably rolling in his grave knowing there are dirty cops working in the department he loved.”
    “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about your