Not Without Risk by Sarah Grimm

couldn’t afford to raise any red flags or attract
     too much attention. He needed to back off. Concentrate on what needed to be done to
     discover the identity of a killer. He needed to consider his career first and his
     uncommonly strong attraction to Paige second. He needed to be smart.
    “Say good-bye to her, Justin.”
    * * * * *
    Paige stood just outside of the yellow crime scene tape and studied the after effects
     of her violent morning. Glass from her shattered front window, and other miscellaneous
     debris, littered the ground directly in front of her building. She did her best to
     remain emotionless as crime scene technicians photographed and gathered what appeared
     to be the contents of her trunk. She failed immensely.
    Exhausted defeat pulled at her. Tears burned the back of her eyes. Her head spun—the
     injury and the stench of burned rubber a lethal combination. Turning away from the
     destruction, she fought back a wave of dizziness.
    What had she done? What could she possibly have done to make someone want to hurt
     her? What crime, real or imagined, had she committed against someone to make them
     turn against her this way? Why her? Why now?
    Her head began to pound as the questions circled her mind. Too many questions without
     any answers. The answers, she feared, had died in that hotel room yesterday morning
     along with Leroy. Whatever had brought him across the country to see her, whatever
     he had to tell her face-to-face, had been enough of a threat to someone that they’d
     killed to keep him quiet.
    Now, that someone wanted her dead, too.
    She crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her upper arms when a chill moved through
     her. Her gaze sought out and located Sergeant Harrison as he walked alongside his
     partner, surveying the scene behind the police tape.
    She was scared, she admitted to herself. Really scared. Of the threat to her safety,
     as well as her growing desire for the man before her. Just looking at him now, her
     heart rate skipped, jumped a few beats before taking off in a race that had nothing
     to do with fear and everything to do with memory. He’d touched her today, in more
     ways than one. She had no business wanting him, but she did. To be held, stroked,
     comforted. It had been a long time.
    In an unconscious move, Paige touched the tips of her fingers to her lips as she recalled
     the feeling of being in his arms, the heat of his body and the gentle strength of
     his hand upon her neck. Beneath the warmth of the pre-summer sun, she took a moment
     to wonder, had his lips met hers, would his kiss have been soft and searching, or
     hot and passionate?
    Her breath shallowed as she studied his strong, clean-shaven profile. The sharp, masculine
     cut of his jaw. The pulse-altering way he filled out his button-fly jeans and brown
     leather bomber jacket. She had vowed years ago to stay away from men like him, to
     never again make the same mistake with a man so obviously all wrong for her. But that
     didn’t stop her admiring gaze from lingering, or her thoughts from scattering when
     he turned and caught her staring.
    The dimple in his left cheek winked as his lips curled in an intimate smile.
    It was a good thing he didn’t use that smile very often. The quick curving of his
     lips and flash of dimple was a powerful package that triggered an even more powerful
     punch. Heat flooded her limbs. Her heart beat wildly against her ribs.
    “Ms. Conroy.” The man who’d identified himself as Tom Sullivan a few hours previously,
     ducked under the stretch of tape and moved to stand at her side. “I see you’ve received
     medical attention. What’s the verdict?”
    She didn’t react for a full minute. His words were clear, she heard every one. Trapped
     as she was in the web of sexual electricity that sparked between her and Sergeant
     Harrison, she just couldn’t seem to form her response. “Five stitches…and a concussion.”
    If he realized the reason for her