Loe raamatut: «Baby Jane Doe»

“I’m sorry.” She breathed against the middle button of his shirt. “I never fall apart like this.”

“You just need to get some sleep,” he murmured gently. He rubbed soothing circles across her back, trying to ignore her sweet, inviting curves. His attraction to her was completely wrong, and yet, holding her like this felt completely right.

Her fingertips stroked his spine, as if trying to placate him. But at her gentle touch, a deep, illicit longing surged inside him. Man, he wanted to kiss her. He wanted to do other things, too. But he’d be content if he could just keep her in his arms throughout the night. If he could touch her and know she was safe, know she was with him.

“If you tell anyone that Shauna Cartwright is…”

What? Beautiful? Tough? Sexy? “Human?”

Her nod was a caress against his chest. “I’ll put a reprimand in your file if you let that one slip.”

Eli grinned. “Your secret’s safe with me, boss lady.”

Baby Jane Doe
Julie Miller

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Precious Doe (aka Erica Michelle Marie Green), whose tragic story inspired a police force and an entire city. And for the good, kind citizens of Kansas City, Missouri, who loved a little girl enough to create a lasting memorial to a precious angel. While inspired by a real event, the details and characters of this story are entirely the results of the author’s imagination.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julie Miller attributes her passion for writing romance to all those fairy tales she read growing up and shyness. Encouragement from her family to write down all those feelings she couldn’t express became a love for the written word. She gets continued support from her fellow members of the Prairieland Romance Writers, where she serves as the resident “grammar goddess.” This award-winning author and teacher has published several paranormal romances. Inspired by the likes of Agatha Christie and Encyclopedia Brown, Ms. Miller believes the only thing better than a good mystery is a good romance.

Born and raised in Missouri, she now lives in Nebraska with her husband, son and smiling guard dog, Maxie. Write to Julie at P.O. Box 5162, Grand Island, NE 68802-5162.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Shauna Cartwright—KCPD’s most public face. The acting commissioner has her hands full with an unsolved murder, an anxious city and a possible saboteur on the force.

Eli Masterson—Kansas City’s most private cop. An Internal Affairs detective still living down the sullied reputation of his corrupt partner. After saving his boss’s life, a forbidden attraction develops.

Seth Cartwright—Shauna’s son, a vice cop at KCPD.

Sarah Cartwright—Shauna’s daughter. Unlike her overprotective twin brother, she likes the new man in her mom’s life.

Austin Cartwright—Shauna’s ex just won’t stay away.

Michael Garner—Shauna’s right hand in the commissioner’s office.

Rebecca Page—Crime beat reporter. Just who is her inside source?

Yours Truly—Is his vendetta against the commish personal or professional?

Baby Jane Doe—Her unsolved case united an entire police force. But new evidence at her suspected killer’s trial can rip the city apart.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter One

Nice.

Three customers ahead of him, one window over in the lobby of the Cattlemen’s Bank in the heart of downtown Kansas City.

Detective Eli Masterson didn’t need the eye for detail he possessed to notice an attractive woman when he saw one. Her mocha-colored suit, a few shades darker than her short blond hair, hugged some prime feminine curves. The light wool skirt stopped just short of hiding the dimple at the back of her right knee. The sensible brown pumps that matched her leather shoulder bag didn’t detract from the long arch of her calves. Even in heels, Ms. Tailored Professional Lady barely topped Eli’s shoulder, putting her at average height. But he’d bet a good part of her was legs.

Long, fit, curvy legs, capped by that sweet butt.

Very nice.

Eli breathed deeply, savoring the quickening rhythm of his pulse. A good, lustful look was about all he had time for these days. So he waited patiently and enjoyed his wayward private thoughts before he had to move to the front of the line and deal with reality again.

He’d taken the morning off because he had Jillian’s hearing at ten o’clock. Today he was transferring what was left of his parents’ insurance money into his checking account. His baby sister might be fined for possession, or more likely, she’d be sent straight to rehab again. Eli intended to be able to sign on the dotted line and drive her there himself. Maybe this time they could get her off her cocaine habit and make it stick. Lord knew he’d run out of ideas about how to keep her safe from herself.

He moved forward in line as the skinny kid at the front thanked the teller and turned. Despite the sunglasses and hooded sweatshirt, a passing glance revealed that the man at the front of the line wasn’t a kid so much as a thirty-something who needed to lose the saggy pants and accept that gangsta was a look few people over sixteen could pull off without drawing undue attention to themselves. Of course, that was probably the point.

Eli’s gaze slid back to the blond chick. He’d much rather pay attention to her more subtle charms.

She didn’t seem to mind the early-morning crush of customers, hurrying in to take care of business before they had to report to work themselves. She stood out from the others in line the way a froth of cream cooled his morning coffee.

He liked a woman who was calm and sophisticated, and buttoned up tight like her conservative suit. Women like that played relationships the way they conducted business. There were always rules to follow, barriers to respect. A man couldn’t get in too deep with her, which suited him fine.

Intelligent conversation was good. Shared interests even better. Mutual lust was a bonus. But Eli knew enough about getting burned by emotional connections that once he detected any hints of personal commitment going on beneath the suit of a pin-striped pinup, he walked away from them as fast as his size thirteens could carry him.

Hmm. Not just a nice bod. She was observant, too. Blondie had noticed the over-the-hill rapper wannabe as well. She hesitated as she approached the teller window and turned her head ever so slightly to watch his departure.

Eli caught a glimpse of her profile and a spark of recognition tried to catch hold inside him. But she smiled and turned away at the teller’s greeting before a name could click into place.

What did register was that she was older than he’d suspected from the rear view. But she wore it well. The fringe of hair that framed her face had blended into the clean contours of her jaw and cheek. And the hints beside her eye and mouth that she might be closer to fifty than forty hadn’t appeared until they’d crinkled into view with her smile. Pretty as she was, Blondie probably had a successful husband, two-point-three kids and a house in the suburbs to go home to.

Ah, yes. Reality. Though certainly not his.

Time to tone his interest down a notch.

Another teller reported for early-morning duty at a third window, and Eli used the shifting of the waiting patrons to adjust his silk tie and find something new to study. The man with the gangsta look slipped into the elevator instead of exiting through the brass-trimmed glass doors. Maybe there was a problem with his account, and he’d been told to take it to one of the offices upstairs.

Eli rolled his neck against his crisp white collar. That scenario didn’t sit right. The guy had been too friendly with the teller. A man with a problem would have raised a stink.

A second man, who stood out from the suit-and-tie crowd as much as over-the-hill gangsta had, swooped into Eli’s peripheral vision at the new window. The tension in Eli’s neck crept out across his shoulders. This guy wore a regulation business suit like almost everyone else, but he’d topped it with a long black trench coat. The calendar might say autumn, but it was still early enough in the season that the air hadn’t crisped yet. There was certainly no chill to chase away on a sunny morning like this one.

Trench coat man wore a pair of mirrored Ray•Bans that he left on as he struck up a flirty conversation with the young woman who was still setting up her cash drawer. An internal sensor, borne of fourteen years on the force and a lifetime of cleaning up other people’s messes, blitzed across Eli’s nerve endings, warning him that something was wrong with this picture. Two men in sunglasses early in the morning? Eli shook his fists loose down at his sides and squeezed his left arm against the Glock holstered inside his jacket.

He slid his gaze back to the front door to the uniformed guard who had checked his badge and cleared his gun before allowing him to enter the bank. The young black man was focused on something out on the front sidewalk rather than on the six, seven—Eli silently counted them off—make that ten customers and staff here on the first floor. A second guard, as close to retirement as the other was to his rookie year, strolled through the lobby, chatting with customers and staff.

Blondie was curiously assessing her surroundings, too. Her movements slowed as she stuffed a bankbook into her purse and angled her head toward Mr. Trench Coat, watching him stride across the geometric designs of the carpet and disappear into the public restroom.

Eli was more suspicious than most cops. And those suspicions were eating at him now, making him fidgety inside his skin, though he allowed no trace of his thoughts to show. His instincts were to follow Mr. Trench Coat and verify that he knew something about the weather forecast that the rest of them did not. Though he prayed the man’s unusual appearance had such a benign explanation, Eli’s suspicions warned him otherwise. He tried to catch the guard’s eye again to find out if the younger man had taken note of the two out-of-place customers.

“Good morning, sir. May I help you?” The teller’s bright blue eyes smiled a greeting as she drew Eli’s attention back to the teller’s station. But Eli zeroed in on the three-piece-suited man behind her who shuffled out from the vault area with an expanding folder tucked under his arm. He stuffed his hand into his pocket, pulled out a white handkerchief and mopped at the perspiration dotting the top of his balding head. Then he nearly jumped out of his oxfords when the older guard greeted him from across the room.

Baldy managed a nod and a vague response. But the guy was sweating. In the air conditioning. The pasty skin from forehead to pate indicated the man was either having a heart attack or…

Damn. Eli’s growing tension clenched through every muscle, then dissipated, leaving an icy chill of certainty in its wake.

Do not rob this place this morning.

He had to get to court. He had to be there for Jillian.

He didn’t have time to be right about this.

Eli jerked his head from side to side. Elevator to the north. Bathroom to the south. Baldy behind the counter. A perfect triangle surrounding the customers, the guards and the money inside the tellers’ drawers.

Glancing over his shoulder, Eli tried to catch the guard’s eye at the front door.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

“Sir?” The teller’s voice demanded action.

Eli leaned across the counter, pulling open the front of his jacket to flash his badge and whisper into the startled girl’s ear. “Hit your silent alarm. Now.”

“What?”

“Do it.”

He didn’t want to start a panic if he was wrong, but his gut told him he was right. Something was going down.

Blondie sensed it, too. She’d pulled her cell phone from her purse and was walking straight toward the older security guard. She touched the man’s arm, urging him to mask his stunned expression. Blondie turned and faced Eli full-on, but she was pointing past him toward the public john.

What the hell?

Eli wasn’t the only cop in the building.

Recognition did him little good now. There was no time to identify himself. No time to do more than to warn the teller to get off her stool and seek shelter down behind the counter. “Hit the ground. Now!”

The bathroom door swung open. The elevator dinged. Guns came out of billowing coats and saggy jeans. A thunderclap exploded outside and a blast of shattered glass and flying metal rained down inside the lobby. The young guard went down. A deadly staccato of semiautomatic gunfire erupted over their heads.

The older guard’s hand never reached his gun. With a startled gape, he grabbed his chest and sank to the floor, taking Blondie with him. Eli glimpsed the red blooming beneath her hands as she crouched over the fallen guard and tried to staunch his wound.

“Take cover!” Eli shouted over the screams and chaos, grabbing the startled black man beside him and shoving him to the carpet. Others ducked behind the counter. In one fluid movement, Eli dove and rolled toward Blondie. He rose up on his knees, slung his arm around her shoulders and dragged her to the floor, tucking her beneath his long body as bits of ceiling and light fixtures and bullets crashed down around them. “Eli Masterson.” He ground the words against her ear. “Detective. KCPD.”

“GET OFF ME!” Shauna Cartwright ordered between tightly clenched teeth. She didn’t know which angered her more—the senseless violence that left a man bleeding to death just beyond her reach, or the tall, muscular detective who’d wrapped himself so thoroughly around her that she could feel his holster jammed against her shoulder blade and smell his love for coffee on his breath.

His broad shoulders masked her view of the scene and absorbed the brunt of the debris raining down on top of them. Masterson had gone all macho to protect the perceived “little woman” while innocent bystanders cowered unguarded beneath the hail of intimidation shots. As though she couldn’t take care of herself!

She’d spotted the body armor beneath the trench coat of the man who’d disappeared into the john. She’d alerted the guard, paged 911 and kept her head low when the bullets started flying.

Shauna squirmed beneath the immovable weight of the determined detective and repeated the command. “Get. Off.”

But she went still beneath his surrounding warmth when the bullets abruptly stopped. She recognized the sound of the thieves switching out their ammo. Would they fire again? Choose more living targets this time? Could she reach her gun in her purse? Where was her purse? Was there any way to get to the two wounded guards and help them? The eerie silence after the deafening barrage of gunfire made her thoughts seem loud inside her head.

“Shh.”

At the whisper against her ear, Shauna caught her breath, thinking for one crazy moment that she’d uttered her thoughts out loud and given herself away. She might have trembled as fear found a chink in the adrenaline charging through her system. And Detective Masterson’s arm might have tightened imperceptibly around her, offering reassurance as well as protection.

For one deep, controlled breath, Shauna allowed herself to accept Eli Masterson’s comfort. A man’s personalized warmth and strength were a rare treat in her life, and for that one breath, she let herself be a woman who was sheltered and cared for.

But that wasn’t who she was. With the next inhale, she became a cop again. And not just any cop.

An acrid cloud of gunpowder, plaster dust and fear stung her nose. But the only thing she reacted to was the shift of hard muscles against her back and bottom.

The instant she felt Masterson move, Shauna snatched at his arm, silently warning him to stay put. The detective could play cowboy on his own time. But not when there were hostages present. Not when the perps’ intent remained unclear.

“Easy,” she breathed against the dusty wool of his sleeve. Though he stopped moving, the tension in his body never relaxed. “Assess the situation before we act.”

“Everybody stay put and no one else gets hurt!” The man in the trench coat took charge. The movement of his voice indicated that he’d gone behind the counter. “Get the documents and whatever cash you can grab.”

Documents? Shauna frowned. So this wasn’t a straight-out robbery. She should have guessed as much from an assault that had started with a precisely timed explosion.

As the voices moved farther away, the detective began a succinct report in her ear. “The situation is you’ve got two armed men, possibly three—”

“—the sweaty banker behind the counter?”

“Sharp eye.” So Masterson had been suspicious of a possible setup, too. “Those guns were stashed so they could get past the guard. And who knows what’s waiting outside? That could have been an unmanned bomb, a projectile shot—”

“These guys will have a getaway car waiting. This robbery’s too well planned not to.”

Masterson nodded agreement. “Early-morning strike. Minimal hostage risk.”

Shauna wriggled a few inches of freedom from beneath him. “Those hostages should be our first concern. I need to get out and help the guard.”

She had both arms free and was pushing up before the detective cinched his arm around her waist and pulled her back into the heated curve of his body. “Look who they took out first. I don’t think these men would be too impressed to find out we’re cops.”

Turning her cheek into the carpet, Shauna looked into Eli Masterson’s cool brown eyes. “You know who I am?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She supposed that was the curse of having such a public face. Detective Masterson thought he was earning brownie points. Fat chance. On a more charitable note, maybe he was just being a team player. If that was the case, she wasn’t cutting him any slack. He should be obeying the chain of command.

Shauna pried his arm from her waist. “Then chances are, they do, too. Keep your sidearm holstered and don’t try to be a hero.” She got her knees beneath her and wrenched free before Masterson could nab her again. “I’m a trained negotiator. I’ve dealt with situations exactly like this one. I’ve already paged—”

“Backup’s already on the way,” he informed her. His hard exhale matched her own. “Stay put. Let these guys take what they want and walk out of here. They won’t get far.”

“You two. Shut up.” The antsy thirtysomething, whose street-tough look lacked the bulk of his partner’s Kevlar vest, leveled his Smith & Wesson at Shauna’s forehead, silencing the debate. “Get behind the counter with the others.”

But Shauna was insistent. She looked up along the gun barrel to his nervous, darting eyes. “That guard needs medical assistance before he bleeds out. I have first-aid training. You don’t want this to turn into a murder scene. Let me help.”

Without waiting for an answer, Shauna slowly rose to her feet, keeping her eyes on his the entire time.

“Okay. Hey! Not you, big guy.” Shauna froze as he swung his gun toward Masterson, who deliberately ignored the order and stood up beside her. “Don’t move!”

Though he held his hands up in surrender, Masterson towered a good four or five inches over the armed man, and the cold mask of his expression didn’t so much as blink at the gun pointed his way. “I can help the other guard,” he offered.

The man with the gun contradicted his own order and jabbed the gun into Masterson’s chest, knocking him back a step. “Get behind the counter.”

“Get him back here. Now!” The man in the trench coat appeared to be in charge of the robbery. He left the banker to cram what stacks of bills would fit into a briefcase already stuffed with files. He pointed his snub-nosed rifle at them as he whirled around the corner. “Do what we say and live. Okay, lady—help the cop.” He shoved aside the other thief to personally back Masterson behind the counter. “You? Move!”

Though he’d mistakenly referred to the fallen guard as a member of KCPD, Shauna wasn’t about to correct him. She hurried over to the wounded man, peeled off her jacket and pressed it against the hole in his chest, murmuring soothing words when he groaned in pain.

The guard’s gun was still in his holster, within arm’s reach—unlike her own weapon, which was ten feet away inside her purse. Of course, she shouldn’t try to play hero, either. Not with hostages involved. Not when they were up against a semiautomatic rifle and a handgun with a fresh clip of fifteen bullets. And if they robbed the patrons, went through pockets and purses and discovered badges and guns…

She prayed KCPD’s response time was as good as she’d claimed it to be in her last television interview.

“Is he gonna be okay?”

Shauna started at the perp’s voice beside her. But the sniff of gunpowder residue clinging to him and his gun kept her from feeling any compassion at his remorseful tone. She didn’t mince words. “He needs an ambulance.” She tipped her head to the side, indicating the guard lying by the shattered front door. “I need to check him, too.”

“He’s moanin’. Breathin’ normal. So he can’t be hurt that bad.”

“Internal injuries are hard to evaluate just by looking at a man.” She let the shooter see her bloody hand before she wiped it on her skirt and smoothed the guard’s white hair off his forehead. “Please let me call the paramedics.”

“No can do.” She could smell the sweat, fueled by fear, on him. “We’re almost done. We’ll be out in a minute and then you can call whoever the hell you want.” He turned and shouted over his shoulder. “You got all the papers the boss wanted?”

“Shut up, bozo!” the man in the trench coat yelled. “Why don’t you give them our names, too, while you’re at it?”

Shauna could make out Detective Masterson’s feet sticking out from the end of the counter. He’d cooperated by obeying the command to lie facedown on the floor. Thank God he wasn’t stirring up any more trouble. She also caught a glimpse of movement outside. A uniformed officer moving some curious onlookers who’d gathered across the street. She hoped his silent arrival had escaped the thieves’ notice. And that he wasn’t alone.

The man in the trench coat stepped over Masterson’s prone body and leveled the gun at the banker who closed and locked the briefcase. “Is that everything?”

“Just like we…discussed.” He stuttered when he got an eyeful of the gun barrel. “What are you doing?”

“Following orders.” He pulled the trigger.

The banker slumped. Hostages shrieked in panic and cursed.

“Hell, man, are you crazy?” The man with the gun next to Shauna didn’t seem to know where to point his gun now. “You said we were just gonna scare the crap out of ’em and nobody would get hurt.”

“I lied.” The other man turned his rifle and fired.

Shauna ducked as the shot hit the man square in the chest and knocked him off his feet. She didn’t bother checking to see if she could help him. She knew a dead man when she saw one.

And she knew she was next.

Though she was already moving, the sinking certainty slowed her reaction time. When Shauna lifted her head to locate the dead man’s weapon, she looked up into the glint of fluorescent light reflecting off the shooter’s sunglasses. She didn’t need to see the eyes behind the lenses. They were focused on her.

Just like his gun.

Nanoseconds ticked off like eons.

He smiled.

Shauna dove for the floor.

He squeezed the trigger.

A gust of steel-tipped wind rushed past her ear.

But the bullet never hit her.

“KCPD!” With the clean precision of a surgical blade, Eli Masterson put a bullet center-mass in the shooter’s chest, knocking him off balance. The shooter stumbled backward but didn’t fall. “Drop your weapon!”

But the man ignored the order and swung his gun toward the unexpected attack.

“Cease fire!” Staying low to the floor, Shauna picked up her cell phone and threw herself against the counter, keeping her back to the only protection the lobby offered her. “Dammit, Masterson, we’ve got hostages. Cease fire!”

“Negative!”

She redialed her 911 call and snagged her purse to retrieve her service weapon. From the low angle of the fire, Detective Masterson was down. Was he hit or had he taken cover?

“Masterson? Report!”

Shauna crawled to the end of the counter for a visual. The gunman lunged toward the elevator doors, chased by a hail of bullets, unable to return fire. Two more rounds hit the back of his trench coat. The man jerked, but stayed on his feet. The elevator doors opened. He jumped inside. Swung around. Raised his gun and grinned in triumph. “You’re out of ammo.”

Idiot!

She could kick herself for forgetting. “He’s wearing a Kevlar!”

Before she could get her own gun aimed, Masterson rolled. As the doors drifted shut, he snatched up the dead thief’s discarded Smith & Wesson and put a bullet in the killer’s knee, taking him down.

The man in the elevator screamed in agony as Shauna and Masterson scrambled to their feet and approached, guns drawn.

“KCPD,” Shauna announced in a clear, firm voice. “Drop your weapon and come out.”

“Like I could, you bitch.” Several more obscenities tainted the air, condemning KCPD and her own parentage, as well as promised retribution against the man who’d crippled him.

“Shut up.” Detective Masterson’s big brown shoe blocked the doors before they could close. With his gun trained on the wounded man, he pushed the doors open and picked up the rifle. He handed it to Shauna before stepping inside to lock the doors open and drag the man out into the lobby. “The lady said to move.”

With the man’s curses abruptly silenced by something whispered in his ear, Detective Masterson pinned him to the floor, patted him down for other weapons and cuffed him. “He’s got no ID on him.” He tossed aside the sunglasses and jerked the perp’s chin up toward Shauna. “You recognize him?”

Icy gray eyes like that she would remember. “No. But we’ll run his prints if he doesn’t cooperate.”

“Like I’m gonna—”

Masterson ground the man’s face into the carpet, silencing him.

By the time the detective was on his feet again and holstering his gun, Shauna had retrieved the briefcase and given the dispatcher instructions for police and paramedics to move in.

Maintaining his protective stance over the perp, Detective Masterson glanced down over the jut of his shoulder at her. “You all right?”

Other than some bruises and rug burns she wouldn’t complain about, Shauna was in one piece. She nodded. “You?”

“He had you in his sights.”

Shauna pretended his deep-pitched admonition didn’t send an ominous chill through her veins. “I’m fine.”

She took note of the two-inch cut oozing blood along the edge of his short, coffee-colored hair. But, for the moment, she ignored his forehead and watched the piercing intensity of his dark eyes cool to golden brown detachment. More than his 20/20 aim with the gun, they hadn’t missed a detail of all that had transpired here. Not even the personal threat to her life.

Which Shauna refused to comment on. It was all part of the job, right?

She tucked her phone and the gun in the waistband of her tweed skirt and stuck out her hand for an official introduction. “I’m Shauna Cartwright.”

“I know.”

She waited until he took her hand. His grip was as strong and firm as the rest of him had proved to be. And though an often-ignored part of her wished she was meeting such a seasoned, attractive man under different circumstances, she knew succumbing to her feminine longings was out of the question.

“Eli, was it?” He nodded. “May I see your badge, Detective?”

A scoffing sound marred his smile as he let her hand go to reach inside his jacket. “I heard you were a tough one for rules and regs. Are this morning’s events going into my file?”

Shauna ignored the taunt and quickly read the ID beside his badge. Eli Masterson. Thirty-six years old. Fourteen years on the force, the majority of them having filled a necessary but difficult role.

“Internal Affairs?” She glanced down at the man moaning at their feet. “And you made that shot?” She indicated the small gold star on his ID before handing it back. “Why would an I.A. detective maintain his sharpshooter’s badge? You planning to transfer to S.W.A.T.?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Does Captain Chang,” she referred to the chief of the I.A. division, “have this much trouble getting you to cooperate with your fellow officers?”

“Yes, ma’am, he does.”

She almost laughed at his dry delivery of the truth, and though she appreciated a man with a smart wit, she never allowed the humor to soften the taut curve of her own lips. “Well…, thank you for saving my life, Eli. You saved all our lives today.”

He seemed hesitant to accept her praise. “No problem.”

Leaning in, she caught him off guard as she nabbed his handkerchief from the pocket where he’d stuffed his wallet. She surprised him further by pressing the cotton to the wound on his forehead. “Make sure one of the medics clears you before you leave. I can’t tell if that’s a shrapnel cut or a bullet graze, but it looks like you could use a stitch or two.”

It felt almost intimate, like a woman caring for her man, to stand there in the midst of the bustling recovery team, gently tending Eli’s wound. She felt herself warming beneath the scrutiny of his gaze as he tried to figure out whether her kindness was genuine or a ploy he should guard against. His fingers brushed against hers as he took over staunching the wound and retreated a step. “I’ll do that, ma’am.”