Free The Puppeteer by Tamsen Schultz

him.
    “A leather jacket?” he prompted. “We'll take my bike.”
    “Of course I have a leather jacket,” she replied.
    “Fine,” he answered. And waited, holding her gaze.
    “Fine,” she said, pulling her eyes from his. “I need a few minutes to finish something and then I'll go grab it. I'll meet you downstairs in five minutes.” She had dismissed him. And with one last glance at Drew, Ty complied and disappeared down the stairs.
    “Jesus, Dani. What the hell is up with you and the detective? He looks like he wants to kick my ass when he sees the two of us together.” Drew took a pair of shoes from his bag and set them in a line in the closet.
    “You could take him,” she interjected with a nonchalant shrug.
    Drew raised a brow. “I'd suspect something happened between the two of you, but you just met this morning—so what the hell is going on?”
    She was silent.
    “Shit,” he said on a breath, acknowledging her unspoken confession.
    She'd never been able to hide anything from Drew. And until now, it had never bothered her. “It's nothing.”
    “Like hell, it's nothing, Dani.”
    “I went out last night to blow off some steam and happened to meet him.” She sounded blasé, even to her own ears. But he knew her better.
    Drew stared at her for a long time.
    “What?” she demanded, on the defense. “I'm a grown woman.”
    “Who is stupid enough to go home with some guy she just met. Jesus, Dani what were you thinking? You weren't,” he answered himself. “He could have been a psychopath. And even though heturned out not to be, didn't you at least talk enough to find out he was a cop?”
    Dani opened her mouth to answer but Drew interrupted. “Never mind, I don't want to know.”
    “The bartender is a friend of Sammy's. I know her from a few years back. She vouched for him.” Even to her ears, this logic sounded lame. It was stupid to go home with a guy after meeting him at a bar, but even knowing that, she was hard pressed to feel bad about it. Whatever it was that sparked between them last night was stronger than anything she'd ever felt before.
    “Great,” Drew grunted. “I'm glad you had your fun. The Mack Truck strikes again. I'm surprised he could walk this morning.”
    Dani felt like she'd been slapped in the face. Why did everyone insist on likening her relationships with men to them being flattened by a truck? As far as she knew, everyone walked away unscarred and unscathed. Her relationships never included any emotion deep enough that would warrant that kind of analogy. On that point, Ty had been spot on. As far as she was concerned, every man she'd ever been with knew the score.
    Didn't they?
    The little niggling doubt that had been lingering since earlier in the day crept back into her brain and settled uncomfortably.
    “Maybe you should be surprised that I can walk this morning,” she tried to joke, but it fell flat when Drew leveled his gaze on her.
    “That's the problem, Dani. You can always walk. No matter what happens, what you ignore or leave behind, you can always walk. For as smart as you are, Dani, sometimes you don't have a clue.” She opened her mouth to protest but Drew stopped her with his next question. “What happens, Dani, when you find him?”
    She didn't need to clarify who ‘him’ was, but the abrupt shift caught her off guard.
    “What do you mean what happens?” She was confused. Was Drew asking or was he trying to tell her something?
    “I mean just that, Dani. When we find this man—the man who killed your parents—what will you do? And I don't mean at that moment, or even a week later. I mean with your life .”
    Her heart rate kicked up at the question. She took a deep breath and willed the rising panic to subside. Panic because, truth be told,she hadn't ever thought beyond tracking and catching the man responsible for her parents' murders. It had been her singular goal since the day the fog cleared from her mind after their deaths. She'd been