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chance.”
    “About working on the case—”
    “I’ll make sure Harper keeps you up to date. Then we’ll see. Right now, focus on getting the rest you need after last night and spending some time with Wendy.” Bing cleared his throat. Flashed Joe a pointed look. “She’s a nice young woman. Vulnerable right now. I don’t want her feelings hurt.”
    Not so subtle code for Don’t hit on her .
    Joe flinched. No worries there. His last encounter with Wendy…. Hell, she’d been the one to hurt his feelings.
    The best sex of his life, and she’d kicked him out as soon as it was over, told him not to bother with calling because it was strictly a one-time thing. Told him, actually, while he’d still been inside her.
    He groaned at the memory as he slipped behind the wheel, turning on the heat the second he had the engine started.
    His day was shaping up to be an ass kicker. Which was saying something, considering that the day before included his arrest, a concussion, and a near drowning.
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    The bitch had moved out on him again. Keith stood in the middle of Wendy’s apartment, dark rage gathering inside him. A vein throbbed at his temple.
    She definitely wasn’t just out shopping. All the baby shit was gone, the heat turned down. She didn’t plan on being back for a while.
    He would have to teach her respect. Again. His hands fisted as he walked through her living room.
    He never should have let her go. He had, after the baby was born, because the brat cried all night, and she was no good for sex anyway. He was a man. He had needs. If he had other women, it was her fault, nobody else’s.
    Her absence had been fine for those first few weeks. He’d expected her to beg him to let her back. She hadn’t. She always had some excuse for why she couldn’t return—the lease she’d signed here, whatever.
    He hated the damn place. He wanted to see it burn. And maybe he would. But not today.
    Did she think that she could outsmart him? That he wouldn’t find her?
    He paced the apartment, stopped in her bedroom door, then walked inside, opened her top dresser drawer, and stared at the jumbled mess of silk. He reached in, began folding and reorganizing.
    Who did she have but him?
    Not that many people. Her parents in Florida and her bitch friend, Sophie, in Broslin.
    Wendy needed a lesson.
    * * *
    “I don’t need a babysitter.” Wendy kept her voice down, since Justin was watching his favorite TV cartoon about three tap-dancing sheep, sitting on the couch in Sophie’s living room.
    She was rapidly regretting that she’d let Sophie know that she was having problems with Keith. “I don’t need Joe Kessler to come and take over. We barely know each other.”
    Her best friend stood by the door, ready to leave. She’d stopped in for a quick visit and to pick up a couple of old work files she’d left behind when she’d moved in with Bing. She was setting up a full office out at the farm, and she wanted to keep all her paperwork in one place.
    She put down the box to shrug into her coat. “Bing said Joe had a rough case yesterday. He’ll be taking the day off. He could hang out here. In case Keith shows up.”
    “There’s no way for Keith to know where I am.” Wendy chewed her bottom lip. “He’s going to be furious when he finds me gone. Maybe I could still go back before he realizes that I left.”
    Temporary safety was all well and good, but there’d be hell to pay when he caught up with them. “Maybe I’m making everything worse.”
    “No. If he won’t stay away from you, then you need to find a way to stay away from him,” Sophie said with full conviction.
    She was smart and right about most things, but maybe she was wrong about this. Wendy pushed back against her rising panic, but it wouldn’t go away. Letting Sophie talk her into moving out here yesterday afternoon had been a mistake. It wasn’t as if she could stay away from Keith forever. They had a son together. She