Steve’s tone made her realize it wasn’t the first time he’d said her name. She finally forced herself to focus on what he was saying.
“I don’t need to have your gift to see that you’re panicking. What the hell is going on in that brain of yours?” She could feel waves of concern flowing from him, and it was easily readable on his face.
She rubbed her skirt again. “Steve, I understand if you need to let me go. I’ve always known that was a possibility—”
“Andrea, I’m not firing you.”
“But you said this may be difficult.”
“And it probably will be, but why don’t you let me finish before you jump to conclusions.”
Now Andrea felt the reprimand. She sank back a little in her chair. “Yes, sir.”
“I need you for a case.”
He really wasn’t firing her. “Okay.”
“It involves a serial killer. He’s been striking in the Phoenix area, with the last woman found dead just outside of Buckeye.”
Her hometown. Now his concern made sense.
“And you want me to go there.” It wasn’t a question.
“I think your ability as a behavioral analyst, plus your knowledge of and history with the area, makes you one of our best chances of stopping this guy as quickly as possible.”
She was glad she wasn’t being fired, but Steve was right—this was hard. She didn’t want to go back to Buckeye. When she’d left there that night with Steve and Grace, she’d never returned. She’d gone back inside Jaguar’s to collect her personal belongings and her tips and had told Harry she wasn’t coming back.
She’d been glad to have Grace, obviously a cop and obviously carrying a weapon, standing behind her as she did it, because she didn’t think Harry would’ve taken it so well otherwise. As it was, his face had turned a molten red, small eyes narrowed even further. But he hadn’t stopped her.
She’d never really explained it all to Steve, but Jaguar’s was really just the tip of her iceberg of bad memories when it came to Buckeye. The situation she’d lived through the years before she’d run away from her aunt and uncle’s home had been much worse. She still bore a few scars to prove that.
“I know this is hard for you.” Steve was studying her carefully from behind his desk.
“Buckeye is not somewhere I’d choose to visit.” The understatement of the century.
Steve came around to sit on his desk, closer to her. “Andrea, you’re not the same person Grace and I met in Buckeye four years ago. You’re stronger, more confident, able to handle the stress of this job, which isn’t a light matter.”
“Yeah, but—”
“I know you feel like you don’t have the same educational background or experience of most of the people actively working cases at Omega. But you have a natural talent at reading people that continues to be honed.”
“But—”
Steve wasn’t really interested in her arguments. “I can think of a dozen cases, just off the top of my head, where your assistance provided the primary components needed to allow us to make an arrest.”
Andrea took a breath. She knew that. Intellectually, she knew all that Steve spoke was the truth. But it was so hard.
“You’ve got to stop thinking I’m about to fire you every time I call you to my office. I’m not, trust me. I can’t afford to lose such a valuable member of the Omega team.”
Steve radiated sincerity. Of course, he always had. And she did believe she was part of the team. A noneducated, ex-stripper part of the team, but part of the team.
Okay, she could handle this. She could handle going back to Buckeye.
“Of course, we won’t be sending you alone. You and Brandon Han will be working together.”
Andrea smiled through gritted teeth, glad that Steve wasn’t as skilled at reading people as she was. Brandon Han, as in Dr. Brandon Han, with something like two PhDs and an IQ higher than Einstein. They called him “the machine.” He was considered the best and most brilliant profiler at Omega.
Not to mention he was hotter than sin. Tall, black hair, with a prominent Asian heritage.
“Do you know Brandon?”
Besides when she’d fantasized about him? “Um, I’ve never worked any cases with him, but I’ve met him a couple of times, briefly.”
She wasn’t sure he would even remember meeting her.
“Great. He’ll be here any minute. Then we can go over details and get you guys going today.”
* * *
BRANDON HAN WAS running a little late for his meeting with Steve but knew his boss would understand. Brandon had just come from visiting the widow and kids of his ex-partner.
Brandon didn’t get by to see them as much as he liked, but he knew there were other Omega people checking in on them, also. David Vickars had been a well-liked and respected member of the team. He’d had the backs of many agents over the years, and the Omega family didn’t forget their own.
David had died a year ago from a foe even Omega couldn’t fight: cancer. He’d worked active duty until a month before he died from an inoperable tumor, then spent his last weeks with his wife and kids.
Brandon and David had been partners for seven years and had been friends for long before that. Brandon hadn’t been interested in working with a partner since David died.
But he knew the minute he walked into Steve Drackett’s office and saw beautiful, blonde Andrea Gordon sitting in a chair, body language screaming nervousness, that he was about to get partnered again.
Damn it.
Brandon had become quite adept at working alone. He liked the quiet. He liked being able to work at his own pace, which—no conceit intended—was often quite a bit faster than everyone else’s.
“Hey, Steve,” he greeted his boss. He nodded at Andrea, but she’d looked away. Par for the course for her. She’d looked away every time he’d ever been in the same room with her.
Drackett stood from behind his desk and shook Brandon’s hand. “Let’s go over to the conference table to talk about a case.”
Steve was moving them to neutral ground, not wanting to pull rank from behind his desk if he didn’t have to. He wanted Brandon to agree to whatever was about to be asked without having to force him. If Brandon wasn’t mistaken, his boss’s friendliness had to do with Andrea. A protectiveness maybe.
“Sure,” Brandon agreed amicably. He might as well let this play out.
Andrea stood and joined them. Brandon held out a chair for her, waiting to
