He took her hand and brought it to his lips, a move that would’ve made her swoon two days ago. “I never had anything with her. I’ve had everything with you. There’s no comparison.”

Okay, that was a good thing for him to say. He was charming. She’d give him that.

“And before you think I’m saying what you need to hear, ask yourself why I’d do that if I didn’t want to protect what I have with you? If I wasn’t invested, why would I bother to try to fix this?” As he spoke, he gently stroked her cheek with his index finger.

Electrified by his touch, Shelby looked up to find his golden eyes looking at her with everything she’d hoped to one day find in a partner. “I guess you wouldn’t bother.”

“No, I wouldn’t, and yet all I thought about during a sleepless night was how I could fix it. I thought about how lonely I’d be without you and your pink perfection, and I didn’t like how that felt. I didn’t like it at all. So you see, Shelby, you have to forgive me because you wouldn’t want me to be lonely and sad without you, would you?”

Laughing as she wiped away tears, she said, “You’re fighting dirty, Agent Hill.”

“I’m fighting for you, Shelby Faircloth. Will you please find it in your heart to forgive me for keeping something from you that I absolutely should’ve told you a long time ago? Will you try to put this in the past where it belongs so we can focus together on the future?”

The sweet Southern cadence of his speech was enough on its own to make her want to beg him for forgiveness. “I’ll try because I want very much to focus on the future with you. But I need a little time to process it all. And I need to talk to Sam in particular and possibly Nick too.”

“You do whatever you need to do, sweetheart. I’ll be right here waiting for you to tell me we’re okay again.” With his finger on her chin, he tipped her face up to receive his kiss.

Shelby loved kissing him. She loved everything with him. More than anything, she loved that he’d apologized and took responsibility for causing her pain. That, right there, made him different from any other man she’d ever spent time with.

He took the tea from her and put it back on the table.

Shelby put her arms around his neck and drew him close to her, breathing in the sexy masculine scent that she’d become addicted to.

When he nuzzled her neck, she turned her head ever so slightly, putting her lips in line with his. He gazed into her eyes for a long, breathless moment before he took her mouth in a desperate kiss.

Shelby gave in to the desire he stirred in her every time he held her and kissed her this way. As always, she was powerless to resist him, even knowing she probably should.

Chapter Seventeen

“What’ve we got?” Sam asked when she walked into Bill Springer’s Georgetown office.

Officer Peterson, a patrolman, consulted his notes. “Bill Springer, age sixty-three, was found by his assistant, Pamela Desjardens, when she arrived for work at seven thirty-five. The office lights were on, Mr. Springer was on the floor and there was no sign of a struggle.”

The result of a struggle could be cleaned up in the aftermath, Sam thought. “Forced entry?”

“Not that we were able to ascertain.”

“Have you touched him?”

“Only to check for a pulse.”

Sam squatted to take a closer look at the body. Like Lori Phillips, he had ligature marks around his neck that were indicative of manual strangling.

“Where’s the admin?”

“Across the hall at one of the other offices. She was freaking out, and she has a friend over there. I thought it would be okay for her to wait there to speak to you.”

“Good call, Peterson.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“Let’s get Crime Scene here and do a canvas of the other offices in the building to see if anyone heard anything. You’ve called the ME?”

“On her way.”

Sam turned to the chief, who stood in the hallway looking down at the man who’d caused him endless grief in the last few weeks. Farnsworth’s face had taken on that grayish hue again after hearing the news about Bill Springer. Beside him, Deputy Chief Conklin took in the scene.

“What’re you thinking, Lieutenant?” Conklin asked.

“That someone is trying to make trouble for the MPD. Big trouble.” She went over to Springer’s desk, where a planner sat open. She pulled on a pair of gloves and flipped through the last few days, noting the lack of anything written on the most recent pages. Either he’d stopped writing down his appointments or he’d stopped taking them. “I’d like to talk to the admin.”

“Sure, right this way.” Peterson led them across the hall to where a young blonde sat on a sofa, being comforted by another woman. “Ms. Desjardens, this is Lieutenant Holland, Chief Farnsworth and Deputy Chief Conklin. They’d like to talk to you about what happened this morning.”

She nodded and wiped tears from her face. “I...I got to work early and...and Bill...he was on the floor. I went to him, and he was cold. So cold.”

“Ms. Desjardens, do you know of anyone who might’ve wanted to harm Mr. Springer?”

She shook her head. “He hadn’t been working much lately. After everything with his sons...”

“How long have you worked for him?”

“About two years now?”

“And were you only his employee?” Sam asked, playing a hunch.

She looked up at Sam, her tear-ravaged face red and swollen. “What?”

“Were you involved with Mr. Springer in any other way than professionally?”

“We were friends, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“It’s not what I’m asking, as we all know.”

“You don’t have to answer that, Pam,” the other woman said with a scowl for Sam.

“Um, yeah, she does have to answer.”

The air around them vibrated with anticipation.

“He’d been through a lot lately. It was a really upsetting time.”

“Uh-huh,” Sam said as her patience ran out. “Were you sleeping with him, Pam?”

She dropped her head into her hands, her shoulders heaving with sobs.

The other woman rubbed her back while continuing to glare at Sam. “Don’t you have any compassion?”

“Lots of it, but I’ve also got a dead body across the hall, and I’m trying to figure out what happened to him.”

“You should ask your chief. He had a good reason to see Mr. Springer dead.”

“Except he didn’t kill him, so you might want to watch out for lobbing baseless accusations at innocent people. Pamela, I need you to answer the question, or we’ll have to transport you to HQ to discuss this further.”

“You’re going to arrest me?”

“Only if you don’t cooperate.”

“Yes! I slept with him. Are you happy now?”

“Not particularly. Lot of paperwork involved with dead bodies. Makes for a complicated day. How long had you been banging him?”

“Awhile,” she said through gritted teeth.

“How long?”

“I don’t know.”

“Every woman knows the exact date she first had sex with the guy in her life. So how long are we talking? A week? A month? A year?”

“A year,” she said softly, so softly Sam almost didn’t hear her.

“That’s a long time. So this was about more than comforting him after his tragic losses then, huh?”

“I loved him! He loved me! He was going to leave his wife, and then Hugo was killed and Billy.”

“Anyone in your life unhappy that you were getting busy with a guy old enough to be your father? Like your own father? An ex-boyfriend or a protective older brother?”

She shook her head. “No one knew.”

“No one at all? You didn’t tell a girlfriend or the woman who worked across the hall from you?” She eyed the friend. “No one?”

“I didn’t tell anyone. Bill said... He said we had to keep it quiet until he got divorced or she’d take him for everything he had. We were going to move to Florida.” All at once it seemed to dawn on her that she wouldn’t be moving to Florida or anywhere else with Bill Springer. She broke down into heartbroken sobs, leaning into her friend, who kept an arm around her.