Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,1

enough to be off the entire weekend, then his name was first up for whatever tragedy brought on by human greed, jealousy, evil or stupidity resulted in a dead body.

Fridays weren’t any better. While the rest of the working world was busy getting excited about their weekend off—planning family activities, get-togethers, sporting events and parties—the detectives were trying to close up cases and praying that the phone didn’t ring before they could get out of the office if they had the weekend off. And if they had the weekend on call, that was a whole other problem.

Actually, any day could suck when you worked homicide. Wednesdays held a bright spot for Aaron for a totally different reason.

He looked up as the front door to the restaurant opened and in walked the reason, Brianna Matthews. As the tall, statuesque blonde hurried through the lunch crowd to their usual table almost every male head in the place turned to admire her beauty and the soft sway of her hips. Not that she paid them any attention. In the three years he’d known her, she not only ignored the unwanted attention, she tried hard not to elicit it—jeans, and a loose turtleneck sweater, that didn’t quite fit her form, but hinted at all the lush curves underneath; the messy pony tail meant to hide its natural curls, instead gave the illusion of having just climbed out of bed; the lack of makeup couldn’t quite hide the lovely complexion and small freckles scattered across her cheeks and pert nose.

As she reached the table, he stood and took her hand for a second of hello. No hug, not fake kisses on the sides of the cheek. The brief hand holding was all the touching she’d allow him. It was all she allowed anyone.

“Sorry I’m a little late,” she said after she’d draped her wool coat over the back of her chair and they were seated, scooping the big dark sunglasses off her face and leveling her deep blue eyes at him. The small scars around her left eye were barely visible these days and most people would think them early wrinkles. But he knew the truth of how she’d gotten them. “I’ve had a bit of a bad morning over at the shelter.”

“Something happen?” he asked, fighting the tension in his voice. Right before they’d first met, she’d been kidnapped and tortured in the state-wide sex trafficking scandal. In fact, the night they met, he was the one who carried her out of the ringleader’s mansion. He knew she’d been seeing a counselor since the incident, and he suspected she had some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder going on. Who wouldn’t? The last thing he wanted to do was trigger her anxiety with his natural tendency to see danger in anything that strayed from the status quo.

She gave a little shrug then smiled at the waitress and gave her order for a tea with lemon and a side glass of water. Once they were alone, Brianna glanced around the room before answering him.

“Nothing unusual, except one of our regular workers didn’t show up and we had a woman with two children arrive in pretty bad shape.”

She paused, nibbling on her lower lip and he could see the moisture in the corner of her eyes before she blinked hard to gain some control of her emotions. Aaron didn’t have to ask in what she meant by bad shape. If the woman’s situation disturbed Brianna, she must’ve had signs of being beaten or worse. Possibly the kids, too. The shelter she worked at was for women escaping a highly violent situation. Its location was kept secret except for a few law enforcement personnel. Only those women whose lives were in immediate danger were accepted. Once the threat was dealt with, the women could remain or move on to other shelters out of the district.

“It just took a while longer to get them processed into the system without Paula.”

“Paula is the employee?”

“Paula Nowak.” Brianna nodded. “She’s very good with computers and data entry. When she first came to the shelter, the only thing that would get her out of her room was time on the computer. We only have a few so all the residents have to take turns. It also keeps them from connecting with their abusers, since anyone can get on them. There is no privacy.”

“You keep them safe and the whole place secure by not giving them private internet?” He couldn’t help the surprise in