Chapter 7

7

Haldyn was out of surgery. Thank God that woman he loved and adored was going to be okay. Daniel McKellen, commander of the Finley Creek TSP Major Crimes division, stayed where he was as he listened to Dr. Jacobson saying Haldyn was going to be just fine.

No one had come out to say anything about Hope Coleson yet. Daniel had met Hope a dozen times now. Every time, she had just looked at him like she was trying to puzzle him out. To decide whether she could trust him or not. She was adorable and feisty and fiery, and she'd made him want to smile every time.

She was twenty-four. Had her entire life ahead of her.

Until tonight.

She hadn't deserved this. He was still trying to make sense of it.

Hope's sister was right there.

Heather .

In the corner where she had stayed since they'd run Stillman out. Miguel had finally stopped growling, now that he had his own baby girl in his arms. Miguel Rodriguez…Miguel was damned intimidating on a good day. When he was smiling. When he was pissed, smart men backed away.

Even stupid ones took a step back when Miguel looked like that.

Stillman hadn't gotten to his position as second-in-command by being stupid. Arrogant and pandering and well-connected. That was how he had done it.

Daniel should know. He'd seen it for himself. His father and good old Melvin Stillman, pals for life.

Heather wasn't going to be a victim of Stillman's dirt ever again.

Daniel looked up, studied Heather while her head was down. She held her baby now. She was slightly turned away. He'd known his newest detective on the Major Crimes roster had children. He'd just never had a personal conversation with her where it had come up.

She tended not to speak to him much when they were alone. And he hadn't pushed. He didn't really know how to interact with Lieutenant Heather Coleson yet. He just didn't.

But he had wanted to.

Something about her had gotten beneath his skin from day one. No denying that.

As he watched, one of her sisters held up a blanket. Heather did something. The baby's feet switched sides. It took him a moment, but it sank in eventually.

Heather was nursing the baby now. That was what she was doing. Nursing her baby. Something about that struck him hard. So damned hard.

He'd spent weeks trying to figure that woman out.

There were little kids sleeping in the waiting room, wherever someone could put them. The sister from Oklahoma had arrived, panic on her face, and her own youngest in her arms, two teenagers and a boy trailing after them. Her husband stood over her now, arms crossed across his massive chest, glaring at everyone.

Guarding.

Heather's name had been paired with more than a dozen men in the TSP in the month and a half she'd worked there. Including Miguel Rodriguez's. Miguel had been shot by Heather's ex. Steve Wilson. There had been rumors.

She was gossiped about more than any other woman in the post had ever been. Daniel still wasn't certain why.

Or what about it felt so off .

Of course, she was also the most beautiful woman to cross the threshold into the TSP post in Daniel's fifteen years with the TSP. That had always stood out to him.

Steve Wilson had thought he owned Heather.

Sol Kimball had said that's where they would find the answers.

Steve Wilson . Find those connections. Daniel was going to do that.

Heather looked up. There was a blankness in her gaze he hated to see. To know men like him had put it there.

Heather looked away. Or maybe Daniel did first. He didn't know.

It hurt to look at Heather Coleson right now.

It seemed like the Coleson family—even those not Colesons by name—had had more than their fair share of bad luck around Finley Creek.

Tonight, he had almost lost Haldyn. The one woman he had ever come close to loving. He was so damned tired of the vulnerable and the defenseless paying the cost of other men's sins.

When was it all going to end?

Heather stood abruptly. She stepped over the young girls sleeping in front of her. The rest of her family rose to their feet. Crowded behind her.

"Dr. Macomber? My daughter?" Bonnie asked from right at Heather's left. "My Hope? How is she?"

"She's in recovery now." But the doctor didn't have a relieved look on his face. Daniel tensed. The entire room was holding their breath. He could feel it. "But it was close. She did have a mild heart attack on the table."

He listened as the doctor explained how a surgery she'd had when she was younger didn't appear to have been effective. That the strain from her injury tonight had caused a rapid decline. And he heard the other man say that Hope should be okay. Eventually. Daniel breathed a sigh of relief.

Hope was going to pull through. Haldyn was going to be okay.

Now he had to head over to County Gen. Be there when they found out about Brett Naylor.

Sometimes he hated this damned job. More than words could ever say.

The TSP—it just always cost so much.