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“You didn’t give me a choice. You sent me to Daniel, knowing he wouldn’t tell me the truth.”

“It got you off my back at the time, didn’t it?”

“Bailey, I’m a reporter. You should have known I would go further when Daniel jerked me around. That’s what reporters do.”

She took a step toward him, her eyes flaring with anger. “Well, here’s a news flash, Mr. Reporter. I’m not one of your stories.”

The truth hit him in the chest like an anvil dropped from the third floor. She was right. God, she was right. “I was trying to understand,” he said faintly.
 

Incredibly, tears brimmed in her eyes. “Understand what? That your friend is a liar? That I didn’t do the thing that you thought warranted the way you treated me? Am I supposed to be grateful that all your research has given you permission to like me?”

When she put it that way, it was cold. Brutally cold. And suddenly he feared he wouldn’t be able to fix this. That whatever they’d had, he’d destroyed in one reckless swipe.

He reached out to touch her cheek but dropped his hand when she flinched back. Damn. This was bad. Really bad. He tried to find the words anyway. “I was drawn to you from the moment I met you, Bailey. But I stayed away, and treated you unkindly, because of the lies my alleged friend told me. I can’t take any of it back, but I am truly sorry.”

She closed her eyes and swallowed, obviously fighting for emotional control. When she opened them, they swam with tears. “He hurt me, Cole. More than you can possibly imagine.”

His heart squeezed. “I know. And it makes me want to ram his head through a wall.”

She gave him a weary smile that didn’t go anywhere near her shadowed eyes. “I appreciate the sentiment, but this thing between you and me, whatever it is, it’s not going to work.”

“You’re not even giving it a shot.”

“Because I know it won’t work.”

“How can you know? You got a crystal ball in that locker behind you?”

“I’ll never trust you the way you’ll want to be trusted.”

He wanted to shake her, but he kept his hands down at his sides. “That’s really infuriating, you know. You’re going to throw away what we could have because you’re too scared to open yourself to the possibility of being hurt again. Do you realize how lame that is?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t try to spare my feelings.”

“You’d have to allow yourself to have them in order for me to try to spare them.”

Something that looked like real hurt flitted across her features. “Okay then. As long as we understand each other.”

She brushed by him, and he watched her walk out of the photo department, the old camera clutched in one hand.
 

He wanted to call her back, to ask her to start over. But he didn’t know what he could say to change anything. He was certain that “I think I’m falling in love with you” would not do the trick.

Chapter 28

After a stop at the one-hour photo lab, Bailey quickly crossed the asphalt parking lot to the
Sun
’s employee entrance. She hadn’t looked through the envelope of newly developed photos in Payne’s Town Car, preferring to be alone when she did.
 

Despite her anxiety about what she might find, her head was on Cole and his kiss. Cole and his snooping. Cole and his inexplicable interest in her past. Cole and … his reality-defying, knee-liquefying, breath-stealing kiss.

She hadn’t been kissed like that since … ever.

Why did he have to be so damn good at it?

Why did he have to be so damn interested in what had happened with Daniel?
 

She wanted to forget it. She’d moved on. That story had been filed, printed and archived. Besides, she had more important things to worry about right now. Like who was the man in the balaclava and what additional, possibly violent, lengths would he go to to get the pictures in her hand?
 

After using her key card to open the security door, she strode down the tiled hall toward the photo department. She wished she could talk to Austin. Hearing his voice would have reassured her that he was fine, safe. But A.J.’s father had said she wouldn’t be able to contact them, that they would contact her. All she knew, from A.J., was that Austin, his grandparents and A.J.’s father had all safely arrived in Orlando.

She hadn’t told James yet. He still thought Austin was staying with his in-laws here in Kendall Falls. Each time she’d started to call to tell him, she remembered what the intruder last night had said.
 

Killing you would be worth it just to see the look on your deadbeat brother’s face.

What was James messed up in? How did the intruder know her brother?
 

All she could hope was that the pictures she held answered the questions.
 

“Bailey. Hey, Bailey!”

Hearing A.J.’s voice several paces from the double doors that led to the photo department, Bailey stopped to greet her friend. She hoped her impatience didn’t show. “Hey.”

Curiosity was written all over A.J.’s features. “Cole is at his desk pounding his keyboard like it’s been bad. I asked him what’s up, and he told me to ask you. What’s going on?”

Bailey shrugged. “He’s just upset because I didn’t melt from his kiss.”
 

That was a lie. She had melted plenty. She’d been warm, pliable chocolate in search of a scoop of ice cream, whipped cream and a cherry on top. Don’t forget the nuts, she thought, and felt her face heat.

When A.J. finished looking stunned, she raised a hand. “Wait. Cole Goodman
kissed
you?”

Her friend’s incredulity struck a nerve. “You don’t have to be so shocked. I’m kissable.”

“Bailey, that guy is more celibate than a priest.”

“Funny you should compare him to a priest when he has such a big problem respecting other people’s privacy.” She continued down the hall. “Catch you later.”

A.J. caught her arm. “Not so fast, Ms. Kiss and Tell and Run Like Hell.”

Rolling her eyes, Bailey paused. “He’s just a guy.”

“
Just
a guy?” A.J. smacked her hand on the door leading into the photo department before Bailey could shove through it. “We’re not done here.”

Bailey pushed it open anyway and gave her friend a defiant look. “It’s a swinging door. You can’t stop it from opening by putting your hand on it like that.”

Unperturbed, A.J. followed her into the photo department. “Bailey.”

Bailey held up the packet of photos. “I need to deal with these pictures right now.”

“We’re not anywhere near deadline.”

“They’re not for work.”

“What are they?”

Bailey turned toward her friend. “I think they’re the reason my mugger friend has visited twice.”

A.J.’s eyebrows rose “Where did they come from?”

“Austin took them with my old camera.”

“The one you gave him for his birthday.”

“Right.”

“You don’t know what was on the film?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

A.J. plucked the envelope from Bailey’s fingers. “Let’s do it then.”

Bailey already regretted telling her. What had happened to her resolve to protect the people she cared about? “I shouldn’t have told you.”

“Like hell. You should have told me last night, but I’ll harass you about that later. Let’s look at some pictures now.”

* * *

“Austin likes trees,” A.J. said.

Bailey smiled as she studied the fifth picture in a row of the same grouping of squat royal palms. “He sure does. Trees and cars. That’s my boy.”

“What do you think’s going on here?” A.J. handed over a photo of three men, two in blue police uniforms, among a stand of pine trees.
 

“Can’t tell. I’ll scan it in and blow it up. Anything else look promising to you? All I see are more trees, cars and playground equipment. He didn’t even get any of the kids on the playground.”

A.J. flashed her a grin. “He’s not as fascinated about capturing the human condition on film as his aunt is. You must be crushed.”

“I think I’ll recover.” The truth was, Austin had an eye. He’d framed his photos well and hadn’t jerked the camera when he’d squeezed the shutter. Just like she’d instructed.
 

“What about those?” A.J. indicated a stack of photos that Bailey had set aside.
 

“Those were taken earlier in the day at my uncle’s. Mr. Mugger is after something that was taken at the park.” Bailey rose from her desk. “The scanner’s around the corner. Want to come?”

A.J. walked with her to the area where Bailey and the other photographers downloaded their digital photos into the newspaper’s network. Bailey positioned the suspect photo on the scanner bed, then sat down at the PC to click through the scanning process.
 

A.J. settled onto the chair beside her. “While you’re doing that, let’s talk about Cole.”

Bailey managed to suppress a groan. “Let’s not.”

“You get that he likes you, right?”

Thank God she could focus on the computer screen and not have to look at her friend now. “A.J., please.”

“I’m just saying. A man like him … well, it bothers me that I even have to point out how gorgeous he is.”

“Looks don’t mean anything.”

A.J. snorted. “Like hell they don’t. That man can make me wet just by walking into a room.”

“A.J.!”
 

“What? We’re among friends.”

“Still.”

A.J. shrugged. “I’m just saying.”

“If you’re so hot for him, why don’t you go for it? He’s obviously in the mood.”

“
How
in the mood?”

Bailey glanced sideways at her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, when he kissed you, how in the mood was he?”

Bailey felt herself flush so hot her cheeks must have been flaming. “I’m not going there.”

A.J. snickered. “You just went there in your head. Your face is beet red. In fact, you’ve been blushing a lot lately. Now that I think about it, it’s whenever we talk about Cole Goodman. I wonder why that is.”

Chapter 29

As he sat at his desk, glaring at the computer screen before him, Cole could think about only one topic.
 

Bailey Chase.
 

He was sure he’d blown it. He would be lucky if she ever even looked at him again. He imagined they were right back where they’d started. And it was because he’d been a thoughtless jerk.

But, damn it, he’d been on the scent of a story. He’d tracked down the facts just as he’d been trained to do. He’d wanted the truth, and he’d found it.

Unfortunately, he realized too late that on the journey to win over Bailey, he’d consulted the wrong map. He should have waited for her to unfold for him instead of taking a shortcut. Now, he couldn’t fathom a way to get back to where he wanted to be. He’d gotten hopelessly, irrevocably lost, with no place to make a U-turn.

Sitting there, going over it in his head again and again, he realized that letting her walk away from him was exactly the wrong thing to do. The woman was a bottle of expensive champagne that had been vigorously shaken, and the cork was denial. If the pressure wasn’t released, the bottle would shatter into tiny fragments. And he’d helped to increase the pressure by doing his own vigorous shaking of the bottle.

And how was he supposed to let her walk away after that kiss? Hadn’t she felt it?
 

He sure as hell had never experienced
anything
like that. It made him want more. No, not just more. He wanted
everything
.
 

He wanted her looking into his eyes and unable to tear her gaze away.

He wanted her breathless, speechless, mindless.

He wanted her thinking that
she
was falling in love with
him
.

“Damn it,” he said under his breath and shoved back from his desk. He wasn’t going to let her call all the shots. He was half of this equation, and he had some shots of his own to call.
 

In the photo department, he settled his hands on the back of Bailey’s empty chair. Except for some pictures of trees and cars scattered across the surface, he noted that her work area was the most organized in the department, which didn’t surprise him. She was far too focused on tidiness. Perhaps if she had a better tolerance for life’s messiness, she wouldn’t be so bottled up.

He was heading to the photo-editing area when he heard A.J.’s voice coming from that direction and paused. She rounded the corner talking.
 

“I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t take the film to the cops first. Which I would have suggested had you given me time to think about—” She broke off when she spotted Cole.
 

Bailey, studying a photo clasped in her hand, was right behind A.J. and didn’t notice that her friend had stopped in mid-sentence. “All they’re doing is standing there. It’s probably nothing.”