Perfect Fit (Serendipity's Finest 1)

Mike’s stomach churned, his gut firing on all cylinders. Cara wasn’t on duty last night, but if she was involved in something, there was only one other person who could’ve been there too.

“Was the woman’s name Daniella?” Mike asked.

Sam nodded. “Cara was off duty when she got a call. She met Daniella at McDonald’s and her boyfriend showed up. Abusive asshole,” Sam added, and Ella didn’t reprimand him for his choice of words. “We defused the situation without bloodshed.”

Mike nodded, not surprised. He hadn’t been worried about Cara handling herself or being in a difficult situation. Hell, he’d trust her to have his back any time. What did shock him was the fact that she’d heard from Daniella and yet she hadn’t called him last night and she hadn’t mentioned it this morning.

“Who is this Daniella?” Simon asked.

“A young woman who Cara took under her wing at Havensbridge. She left a couple of weeks ago and nobody’s heard from her since. I knew how worried Cara was, so I spent some time calling a couple of neighboring area hospitals. Just in case,” Mike said. Yet Cara hadn’t let him know that Daniella had surfaced.

“Daniella agreed to press charges and testify. She even took out a restraining order, which took guts.”

“That poor girl,” his mother said softly. Ella shook her head, her eyes filled with sadness. “Nobody should have to go through something like that.”

“What about Cara?” he asked. “She was okay afterward?”

Sam nodded. “I’m sorry, man. I really thought you knew.”

“It’s okay.” Mike appreciated that his brother cared, and he knew that Sam had finally accepted Mike’s relationship with Cara.

“She was fine. She gave her statement, made sure Daniella was taken care of, and went home.”

Alone, Mike thought. She’d gone through her own form of emotional hell, one that probably brought back all sorts of painful memories and fear for her mother, and she still hadn’t called him at any time afterward. Damn stubborn, independent woman, he thought, rising from his seat.

“Mike? What’s wrong?” his mother asked.

Simon put a hand over Ella’s to calm her. “It’s fine. Let him go. He has a lady to talk to.”

Leave it to his father to understand. Mike smiled at the old man. “Thanks for dinner, it was delicious.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do all the cleanup,” Erin said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand and a grin that let him know he owed her.

“Hey, take it easy on her,” his brother warned him about Cara.

He supposed some things would never change, and he stopped short of telling Sam that how Mike treated his woman was none of his damned business. That would only cause more trouble than he had the time or patience to deal with.

The only person he wanted to shake sense into was Cara.

Thirteen

Cara had a massive headache. By the time she’d gotten home last night, she’d fallen into bed exhausted but had trouble sleeping. Normally the adrenaline of a situation at work would lead to a crash and a good night’s sleep, but this wasn’t work. Everything about Daniella felt personal to her.

She had flashbacks of Daniella cringing when Bob yelled, slinking down in her seat as if trying to become invisible, taking the slap as if it were normal. It all reminded Cara of her mother’s body language and behavior, hence the nearly debilitating headache.

She took a couple of Advil and was about to lie back down on the couch, a place she’d been most of the day, when her doorbell r

ang.

She padded across the room in her bare feet and peeked out. Catching a glimpse of Mike, her heart fluttered faster.

She swung the door open wide. “Hi!” she said, surprised but not unhappy to see him.

He stood in his leather jacket, a serious expression on his handsome face. “Hi.” He stepped inside and immediately turned to face her, stepping into her personal space.

His brows furrowed tight, and she curled her fingers to prevent herself from smoothing out the wrinkles. She needed to know what was going on in that head of his first.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.