“Absolutely not. I’m staying in my apartment with my cat. Just me and him. Are we clear?”
He laughed. “Do you want to stay on this case or not?”
“Of course I do.” In her mind there had to be a middle ground somewhere.
“Then, I hate to tell you, but you’re stuck with me. Brodie ran this all the way up the chain to the special agent in charge of our office, Ford Cox. He’s the ultimate boss in Miami, and he was very clear that we had to take an aggressive approach with your personal security.”
She blew out a breath. “I don’t think this is going to work.”
Zach’s phone rang, and he looked down. “Sorry, I have to get this.”
She sat patiently while he took the phone call. Judging by the frown on his face and the serious tone in his voice, it appeared to be bad news. He ended the call and looked up at her.
“We have a problem,” he said.
“What?”
“Do you know a Denise Landers?”
“Yes, she’s my star witness.”
“Not anymore, Jessica. She’s dead.”
Zach glanced over at Jessica, who was standing on the sandy beach with her gray high heels in her hand. The crime scene was currently being secured, and he wanted to get a good look at things for himself.
Jessica had refused to wait in the car, and given the circumstances he felt better having her right there close to his side. After all, that was the agreement he’d made with his boss. Zach had to commit not to let the blonde powerhouse rookie prosecutor out of his sight. Most importantly to protect her from the Hernandez family, but also because Brodie wanted to make sure Zach was tuned in to any information that she had that could help the FBI investigations.
As her wavy mane blew away from her face, he took a minute to really study her. He’d have to be oblivious not to notice how pretty she was. Not to mention that she was also bright, witty, and driven. She was the kind of woman he’d be looking for—if he were looking. But he had a job to do, and romance was the last item on his list of priorities.
Just then she turned her face toward him.
“Sorry, I know you aren’t exactly dressed for a walk on the beach,” he said.
She wore a gray skirt suit, but, given the blistering Miami heat, she’d taken off the jacket and removed her heels to be able to navigate the sand.
“Don’t you worry about me, Zach. You’re going to come to find out very soon that I’m highly adaptable.”
Was there a backstory that had given Jessica such a tough exterior? He could tell from his own life experience that she was probably hiding some hurt underneath. He watched as she took a few steps closer to the water.
Detective Will Lang was on the scene and headed his way.
“What do you have?” Zach asked him.
The tall blond detective frowned. “The body washed up onto the shore and was called in by someone on the beach. But it doesn’t appear that it was dumped too far out.”
“Which means they wanted us to find the victim’s body quickly,” Zach said. It helped to verbalize his thoughts as he tried to piece together this puzzle.
“Exactly, and I don’t like it one bit,” Will said. “FBI is taking lead, but we’re providing support in any way we can.” Will’s eyes shifted over to Jessica. “What’s up with her?”
“It’s a long story, but for now she’s under FBI protection because of the threat against her.”
Will chuckled. “Well, maybe you need to go back to Quantico to get a lesson on protective detail.”
“Why do you say that?” Zach asked.
“Because your girl’s on the move.”
Zach turned around and saw Jessica taking long strides down to where the body was lying near the edge of the water. They’d covered it out of respect. He took off in a jog to catch up to her.
“Jessica,” he yelled. “Wait up.”
She turned around and looked at him and then kept walking. It only took him a moment to catch up to her. “What do you think you’re doing? We agreed that you’d stay back until the team got done with their initial work.”
She shifted her weight. “No, Zach. You told me that was what I was going to do. I never said that I’d just follow along with your bidding.” She smiled at him and kept walking.
Seriously? She should know his directions were intended to protect her in any situation, but she wasn’t going to take to his command easily. This woman was going to be a challenge. He grabbed on to her arm before she got too far and pulled her back, noticing once again that she flinched when he touched her.
“You can’t go any further. We can’t risk any more contamination to the crime scene.”
“This is a public beach. The damage has already been done with all the hundreds of onlookers about before the police even made it to the scene.”
“Regardless, what is it you hope to gain by getting closer?”
“I just want to get a better feel for what happened here.”
He ushered her away from the body and back up the beach. “What happened here is that the Hernandez family killed Denise Landers and purposely put her body where they knew it would wash up onshore sooner rather than later.”
“They had to know that Denise was the star witness for the prosecution. As the accountant for the family, she was a treasure trove of information. They take her out, and it’s a much different case I’ll be making. A much harder one.” Jessica paused and looked up at him. “I think they also did this to send a message.”
“You aren’t really fazed by much, are you?” He appreciated her tenacity, but he thought she was still a bit too cavalier about her security and their investigation.
“I’d rather get to the bottom of this and then get back to work.” She pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. “The Hernandez family needs to answer for this senseless murder. The taking of a completely innocent life. Denise was doing the right thing, and it got her killed.”
He watched Jessica bite her bottom lip. While she was trying to keep up a strong face, he could tell this murder impacted her. And he wanted to reassure her that law enforcement was on it.
“That’s why the police are here now,” he said. “They will help build a case.”
“But nothing will bring her back. She’s gone and that’s a reality I know I have to deal with but I really don’t want to face right now.”
* * *
Later that evening in her office, Jessica took a deep breath as she looked into Zach’s eyes filled with a bit of wariness. But she wanted to see things for herself and make her own assessments. That’s why she’d tried to get a closer look at the crime scene. But with the body covered up, she hadn’t been able to garner much information.
“I understand we both have a job to do here,” she said.
“I agree, and that’s why I think it’s important for us to work together and not against each other. I get that you don’t want me to be your shadow, but given you want to stay on this case and I have no alternative, we need to call a truce.”
She couldn’t help but smile. He did have a disarming quality about him. “Let’s talk about what happened to Denise.”
“This has the Hernandez