Tess thought of the way he cornered her, grabbed her, questioned her about spending her time with another man. She thought of the pain in her wrist, and his assertion that they would go out tomorrow night when he never asked, but only demanded.
And she thought of the way he treated her like he owned her, how the support he gave her following the shock of her husband’s death and the help he offered when she found that threatening note somehow put her in his debt.
She worried how he would react the next time she somehow managed to set him off. She didn’t know him well enough to predict him and, after this little chat, she was quite sure she didn’t want to.
“Yeah.” She swallowed weakly. No matter what, Tess refused to trade one overbearing man for another. “Harmless.”
After he tagged Caitlin on the radio, Lucas figured that he’d see her within a couple of hours. She’d been on her way out of town to meet with her counterpart the next county over when he buzzed her. The courthouse was forty minutes from Hamlet. Adding the time of the meet, he didn’t expect to see her anytime soon.
He had to keep himself busy. Idle hands and all that. His thoughts kept straying back to Tessa’s pale face and the fear that glazed her pretty golden eyes. It was bad enough that her husband was killed and she found his body. Now someone was terrorizing her. He promised Tess she would be safe in Ophelia. He damn well needed to make sure that Maria was safe.
It had been too, too easy for someone to slip that threatening note under Tess’s door. Lucas couldn’t stop thinking about that.
So he found something to do. Remembering Sally’s request at the coffeehouse that morning, he turned the closed sign on his office door to open before picking up his radio. There were plenty of patients he could tend to and finally time to do so.
Caitlin ended up surprising him. About a half hour after their conversation, the telltale clack-clack of her boots echoed in the corridor outside of his examination room. It never ceased to amaze him how she always seemed to zero right in on his location. He would put money down that the exam room was the first place she checked for him. It was one of her quirks.
It drove him nuts when they were married. One time, he had to ask if she had a tracker on him. She laughed him off. All these years later, he still wondered.
“What do you got there?” Caitlin rarely wasted time on pleasantries when she was wrapped up in work. Marching into the office, she came over to where Lucas was working with Phil’s samples. “Something for my case?”
“Not right now. I’m still the doc. I’ve had to turn away a few of my patients to focus on the Sullivan case. Autopsies take time, and so does all the paperwork. I’m trying to catch up with some of my regulars now that that’s done.” He finished labeling the first vial, started on the second. “You can wait in my office. I’ll be right there.”
“Why don’t I keep you company here instead?” Her breath tickled the back of his neck. He hadn’t realized she’d gotten so close. Before he could ask her to give him space to work, she placed her hand on his shoulder. “What are you doing anyway?”
Lucas fought the urge to shake her off. “Phil from the post office came in for some bloodwork. I’m prepping his samples to send out to the lab.”
“Mm-hmm.” It was a noncommittal sound as Caitlin trailed her hand down his side. Lucas stiffened at the first brush of her fingers. That didn’t dissuade her. She walked behind him, letting her hand make its own path as she ran her palm across his ass.
When she made the move to cross over to the front, he grabbed her hand. He gave it a warning squeeze and then didn’t let go. Who knows what she’d make a grab for next if he did?
“Sheriff. Don’t.”
“Why not?” she purred. “Come on, baby. Can't we ever just take a minute for us? Do we always have to be on the job?”
“I can’t let myself forget you’re the sheriff,” he told her honestly.
“Sure you can. It’s easy.”
“I can’t. And you don't want me to.”
“Yes, I do.”
“If I forget you’re the sheriff, I’m only gonna remember that you’re my ex.”
“Wow.” She recoiled as if he’d slapped her. The warm touch of his palm suddenly seared her. Yanking her hand back, she stormed away. She needed the exam table between them. “I guess that settles that, then.”
Maybe he’d been too harsh. “Caity—”
“Forget it. Moment’s passed.” She waved him off. “If you didn’t call me here because you wanted to see me, what was it? I’m busy, Luc. I won’t always drop everything I’m doing just because you buzzed me.”
He sincerely doubted that. In the years since the divorce, Caitlin had shown him on countless occasions that she would take him back in a heartbeat. She never could grasp the concept of it’s over and move on the way that Lucas did. If their respective professions didn’t keep them in contact, he’d be more than happy to keep his distance. After all, she was his ex for a reason. He accepted that, even if Caitlin never would.
Lucas finished handling Phil’s bloodwork. Once the samples were properly labeled and stored in the refrigerator, he returned to his place on his side of the exam table. Then, as clearly and concisely as he could, he told Caitlin about his visit to Ophelia last night.
It was obvious that this was the first she heard about the threatening note left for Tessa Sullivan. Halfway through his story, she pulled her notepad out and started jotting down everything Lucas said. Her thin lips pulled down in a nasty frown, the only sign that she was aggravated that no one told her this before. Other than that, she was strictly professional.
“Do you have the note?” she asked. “I’d like to see it.”