Free Deep Autumn Heat by Elisabeth Barrett

left was sitting right next to her. “I wasn’t enjoying myself,” she said diplomatically. Seb shifted almost imperceptibly in his chair.
    “So you got up and walked away from the crowd,” Cole prodded.
    “Right. I was heading back to the Kitchen.”
    “Let’s step back a minute. Who was with you at the movie?”
    “I went with Buster, but I ran into Val and Seb. They sat behind us.”
    “I see.” Cole stared at Seb, who stared back with the same intensity. “Did any of them offer to walk you back to the restaurant?”
    “Yes—well, no—er, not exactly,” Lexie stammered.
    “Why don’t you take it slow and tell me what you remember?” Cole said smoothly. “Take as much time as you need.”
    Lexie took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll try. Buster wanted to walk me back to the restaurant, but I told him to stay and enjoy the movie. I was about thirty yards away from the crowd when I heard someone rushing up behind me.” Lexie stopped, then continued. “Honestly, I thought it was Sebastian.” She shook her head, ignoring Cole’s slight frown. “But it wasn’t. It was a guy in a ski mask. I’m sure it was a guy because when he ran into me, his body felt really solid. Not like a woman at all. Anyway, he knocked me down and got on top of me. He grabbed me by the shoulders and started to reach for my throat. But before he could do anything bad, I heard Seb calling out, telling him to get off.”
    “Seb, did you get a good look at the guy?”
    “Nope,” Seb responded. “He was too far away from me. Maybe about thirty feet. It was hard to gauge in the dark.”
    Cole frowned again. “Okay, Lexie, please continue.”
    “So, after Seb called out, the guy leapt off me and it seemed like he was debating whether to stay or run.”
    “Why do you think that?” Cole interjected, looking up from the notes he’d been taking.
    “Because he shifted his weight back and forth between his feet. Like he couldn’t decide what he was going to do.”
    “But he ran?”
    “Yes. Seb was coming up on us pretty fast. I think the guy was scared of him. And by that time, some of the other people on the Green had noticed that something was going on.”
    Cole glanced at Seb for confirmation. Seb nodded, his lips tight.
    “Is there anything else you can remember about him?” Cole continued. “I know you couldn’t see his face, but did you see his hands?”
    “No, he was wearing gloves. And I didn’t notice anything unusual about him because it was so dark and I was taken by surprise.”
    “What about any other identifying factors. Did he say anything? Did he smell any particular way?”
    “Smell.” Lexie stiffened, remembering the musky waft she’d gotten when the man tackled her. In all the furor, it had honestly slipped her mind, but now that she remembered, a sick feeling washed over her. “I hadn’t even thought about it until just now, but yes. He smelled like sandalwood.” She felt the blood drain from her face.
    “You know someone who smells like that,” Cole said. It was a statement, not a question.
    “I used to,” Lexie whispered, pushing back the nausea that rose in her throat.
    “Who?”
    “My ex-boyfriend, Frank Doherty.”
    “And who is that?”
    “He is—was—a man I was seeing in Berkeley.”
The one who made my life a living hell
. Subtly, she felt Seb shift beside her.
    “Does he know you live here?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I moved without telling him, and my parents know not to say anything to him.”
    Cole’s gaze bored down into her. “Why?” he asked.
    “We ended on a bad note. I took out a restraining order against him,” Lexie said, coming to the unpleasant realization that this might be a significant piece of information.
    Seb coughed slightly and Lexie turned. He was staring at her, his gaze hard and direct, but there was something else behind his eyes that she couldn’t quite place.
    Cole cleared his throat. “I’m sorry you didn’t