And she was determined to do that. For her, it was like walking by a puppy in pain. There was no way she could ignore that puppy. It was no more in her to do that than it was to ignore a cry for help—even a silent one.

  Shayla made up her mind. Detective Gabriel Cortland was going to get her help whether he wanted it or not.

  Because, at bottom, she was certain that the former LA detective really wanted that help.

  * * *

  Fifteen minutes later found Shayla summoning her courage and going to her uncle’s office.

  There was a time when her uncle Andrew had been the chief of police, but then his wife had suddenly gone missing, leaving him with five children to raise. Andrew Cavanaugh never thought twice about his course of action. He retired early from the Aurora police force and devoted himself to raising his children, as well as conducting a search for his wife whenever time permitted.

  However his younger brother Brian never had to make that sort of life-altering decision, and eventually his dedication got him placed as Aurora’s chief of detectives. A levelheaded man who always kept his priorities straight, Brian Cavanaugh never allowed his position to go to his head.

  By everyone’s account, Chief Brian Cavanaugh was one of the fairest, as well as the most honest, chiefs of detectives the Aurora police department had ever had. He treated everyone the same, taking their merit, not their last name, into account.

  The entire family, Shayla thought as she stood in front of the outer door, was exceptionally proud of the work Brian Cavanaugh had done, proud of the man’s instincts that always had him running the most efficient police department in the entire state.

  He had done all this while raising a combined family of eight—four of his own children, as well as the four offspring that Lila, his former partner, brought into the union when he married her years after his first wife passed away.

  Shayla stood there staring at the door that led into her uncle’s office, trying to come up with the right words to say, when suddenly she saw a hand reaching up around her and then knocking on that door.

  Startled, she swung around and found herself looking up at her uncle.

  “The door usually doesn’t open unless you knock on it,” Brian informed her with a cheerful smile. Opening the door all the way, he glanced down at Shayla. “Would you like to come in?” he asked, even though it was a foregone conclusion.

  “Yes, sir,” she answered quietly.

  The chief of detectives gestured into his office. “Then do that,” he coaxed.

  Shayla noticed that the desk where her uncle’s secretary usually sat, making sure that no one entered the inner sanctum without her say-so, was empty.

  Once the newest member of his family to become a detective was in his office, Brian gestured for her to take a chair on the other side of his desk. “And what can I do for you, Detective Cavanaugh?” he asked, his mouth curving ever so slightly as he addressed her formally.

  The right words still hadn’t come to her. “I’m not sure how to start this, Chief,” Shayla admitted nervously.

  “The beginning is always a good place to start. That way, you won’t lose me,” the chief of detectives told her with a wink.

  She sincerely doubted that anyone could possibly come remotely close to losing the chief. He was one of the smartest men she knew.

  “I might be out of line, sir,” Shayla began slowly.

  “I’ll let you know if you are,” he promised in such a friendly tone, they might have been discussing their reaction to one of Andrew Cavanaugh’s new dishes, which the family patriarch enjoyed trying out on the family during his far-from-rare get-togethers. It was a well-known fact that the older man used any excuse to throw a party.

  Okay. It’s now or never, Shayla thought. “Was that the new transfer here to see you earlier? The detective who just transferred from the Los Angeles Police Department,” she added in case the chief didn’t know whom she was referring to.

  “Are you asking about Detective Gabriel Cortland?” her uncle asked.

  “Yes, I am,” Shayla answered a bit nervously. “Detective Gabriel Cortland,” she repeated. “You saw him earlier, right?”

  “I did. Shayla.” Given the nature of the conversation and her obvious discomfort—an unusual state for her—Brian decided that perhaps it would be better to address the young detective by her first name. “What is this all about?”

  “I was wondering, have you assigned him to a partner yet?” she asked, her words pouring out quickly.

  “No, I haven’t,” he replied.

  During their meeting, Cortland had specifically said that he wasn’t looking to be partnered with anyone. What he was looking for was to be assigned to a specific kind of case. He had said he was rather confident that the serial killer who had been haunting the streets of LA was about to change his hunting grounds.

  Brian looked at her with interest. “Why do you ask?”

  “Well, if you haven’t already assigned him to a partner, I would like to respectfully request that I be the one partnered with Detective Cortland,” Shayla told the chief.

  To her credit, she thought, she didn’t fidget, and she made sure to look him directly in the eye.

  Brian nodded his head slowly. “Interesting. May I ask why you’re making this request?”

  Shayla was confident that the chief of detectives didn’t view her as an airhead, or think she was making this request because Gabriel Cortland was an incredibly handsome man by anyone’s standards.

  She also knew that Brian Cavanaugh wasn’t going to laugh at her once she explained. Along with the rest of the family, she and the chief had shared more than a few meals together. Enough meals, she thought, for the chief to believe that she was being serious when she told him why she was making this request.

  Still, it took her a moment to try to get her wording just right.

  “Because I think he needs me.”

  Brian looked at her mildly surprised. “Detective Cortland didn’t say anything about you,” the chief replied, trying to understand just where his niece was going with this.

  “That’s because he doesn’t know who I am,” she told him, then realized how she had to sound. “Chief, that man has the saddest eyes I have ever seen. Someone or something hurt Detective Cortland. Hurt him very badly beyond all reason. He needs help in finding his way back among the living.” She took a breath. “I know you probably think that I’m crazy—”

  “No,” he assured her. “I’m intrigued. Continue.”

  “Those were the eyes of someone who doesn’t care if he lives or dies,” she told him. “Consequently, he will wind up forging ahead without any hesitation, taking chances the rest of us wouldn’t. I would like to be partnered with Cortland so I can watch over him. Possibly convince him that no matter what happened, he needs to go on living. To work his way past whatever put that darkness into his eyes and find something worth living for, no matter how small a thing that might be.”

  Finished, Shayla looked at the chief of detectives hopefully, waiting for the man’s decision.

  Chapter 2

  When the chief of detectives finally spoke, Brian Cavanaugh did so kindly and chose his words carefully.

  “And you believe that you’re the one who can help Detective Cortland step back from this abyss that you fear is threatening to swallow him up?” he asked the newest detective in his family.

  Shayla never hesitated. It wasn’t that she thought so much of herself—she just honestly thought that she could help the man who was so troubled he didn’t even realize that he needed help.

  “Yes, sir,” she answered the chief. “I really believe that I can help Detective Cortland.”

  She saw the chief smile at her.

  It was a known fact, a given, that all the Cavanaughs were good, decent people, but Brian had come to view Shayla as practically goodness personified in the way she went out of her way to try to help people, especially the victims of crimes. If he were to place a bet on the one person who could help the newly transferred detective to step back from the edge of the abyss, it would most definitely be her.

  Long ago Brian had made it a point to read the history of anyone who transferred into his police department. Cortland was no different. And while there were glowing things cited about Cortland’s abilities to track down murderers, capturing killers who had heretofore managed to elude being caught and bringing them in, there was also a disturbing footnote in his file that would back up Shayla’s observation.

  Which was why, although she was newly promoted to the position of detective as well as new to the homicide division itself, Brian felt fairly comfortable assigning her to be Cortland’s partner.

  If things didn’t work out, Brian theorized, he could always reassign Shayla to someone else. Heaven knew they didn’t lack for personnel when it came to any of the departments.

  “Well,” Brian replied, “luckily, I think you can, too.”

  Unconsciously clutching the armrests, Shayla stared at the chief of detectives. “Does that mean you’re going to assign me to be Cortland’s partner?” she asked, hardly able to believe that she had managed to convince the chief so easily. Family member or not, it usually took her a lot more words than this to get someone to agree with her.

  “For now, yes,” Brian qualified. It was always a good idea to leave himself a way out if it became necessary.

  The careful wording was not lost on Shayla. “And for later?” she couldn’t help asking.

  “Why don’t we just see how this goes first?” he advised.

  “Yes, of course,” Shayla quickly agreed. She definitely didn’t want to seem like she was offending the chief in any way. “Do you want me to find Cortland and tell him about this newest development?” she asked, ready and eager to volunteer for the assignment. The sooner this became a reality, the better.

  Brian leaned back in his chair and could only laugh. “Lord, I don’t remember any of the others being as eager as you,” he told her, the others being the sum total of detectives he had dealt with ever since he had taken over his current position. According to everything he knew, Cortland and Shayla had never actually met. “Why don’t you just stay here and leave the introductions to me? I just sent Cortland back down to the homicide division. Lieutenant Hollandale promised that he’d give Cortland a desk where he could set up.”

  “There aren’t any,” Shayla felt obligated to point out to the chief. “I got the last one last week.”

  Listening, the chief nodded, appearing unfazed. “I had another desk sent in just before you came in to request being partnered with Cortland.” Anticipating Shayla’s next question, he explained why an extra desk had just fortuitously turned up. “Detective Al Chapman retired from Missing Persons the other day. He took a security job position in the private sector,” Brian explained and then smiled. “Seems his father-in-law owns the company. You know how it is, working for the family,” the chief told her with a knowing wink. His father, Seamus Cavanaugh, onetime chief of police, just like Andrew had been, now ran his own security firm.

  “Yes, sir, I am well acquainted with that sort of situation,” Shayla answered, not bothering to suppress her smile.

  Brian laughed softly to himself. All the Cavanaughs had dealt with snide remarks about privileged behavior because of their last name, but not a one of them had ever been known to actually capitalize on that, a fact that all the senior Cavanaughs were quite proud of.

  The chief now nodded his head. “I thought you might be.” Turning his chair slightly, he reached over to press a button on the phone on his desk. “Virginia, please call Lieutenant Hollandale for me. Ask him to send Detective Cortland back up to my office.”

  “What reason shall I give him, sir?” a disembodied, melodious voice asked. “In case he asks,” his assistant added.

  “Just that I would like to see him again,” the chief said. His people didn’t usually question why he wanted something to be done, and he was not in the habit of having to explain himself. His people had come to know that there were always good reasons behind anything he asked for.

  “Consider it done, Chief,” Virginia replied cheerfully.

  Brian nodded to himself. He and his assistant had had a good working relationship that spanned over the last decade. “I always do, Virginia,” the chief answered.

  Releasing the button on his phone, Brian looked over at the other occupant in his office. “When Cortland gets here, Shayla, I’d appreciate it if you let me make the introductions and do the talking to begin with. Cortland needs to know that the decision to team the two of you up came from me. As you might already suspect,” he told her, “the new detective isn’t overly keen on being partnered up with anyone. As a matter of fact, he specifically told me that he would rather not be assigned a partner.”

  “Did he give you any reason why?” she asked the chief.

  “The usual one expressed by every loner I’ve ever met—he feels he works best alone,” the chief replied. “So, if you want to change your mind—” Brian began.

  She never gave the man the opportunity to finish. “I don’t,” Shayla replied emphatically.

  Brian was not finished. “However, if for whatever reason, you come to the conclusion that this just isn’t working for you—” the chief began again.

  “I won’t,” she promised with feeling. “I’m determined to give this more than a day or two—or thirty,” Shayla informed the chief with a wide smile.

  Brian nodded. “Ah yes, I forgot how stubborn they told me you could be.”

  “‘They’?” Shayla questioned. The man was exceptionally busy. When would he even have the time to discuss her with anyone?

  “I believe that single word would encompass the entire family,” he told her.

  Just then, Virginia’s voice came over the intercom. “He’s here, Chief.”

  The chief briefly glanced in Shayla’s direction before he told his assistant, “Send Detective Cortland in, please.”

  The next moment, there was just the slightest knock on the door. Shayla expected to see the door open and the detective who had been the topic of discussion come walking in.

  But the door remained closed. Apparently, Detective Cortland was waiting to be told to come in.

  The chief obliged. “Come on in, Detective Cortland.”

  The door opened, and the newest member of the Aurora detective squad walked into the chief’s office.

  Shayla couldn’t pull her eyes away.

  My Lord, she thought, the man looks even handsomer close up than he did earlier at a distance.

  If nothing else, Cortland’s presence was going to create a stir amid a great many of the detectives as well as the regular officers, she couldn’t help thinking. Men and women—for different reasons.

  Cortland looked exceedingly solemn. “Is there something you neglected to tell me, sir?” he asked, obviously at a loss as to why he had been called back.

  Gabriel was aware that there was another person in the room, but since he assumed that she was just another member of the force and had nothing to do with him, he didn’t spare her a glance or direct even a smattering of his attention toward her.

  He was here because the chief had sent for him, no other reason.

  Never an overly friendly man, he had completely withdrawn into himself after his wife, Natalie, had been killed. He had absolutely no interest in playing nice with any of the police personnel at large. He wasn’t here to play nice. He was here to resume his pursuit of the Moonlight Killer. The serial killer who had exacted the ultimate payment from his wife.

  “I wouldn’t exactly say that I neglected to tell you something, Detective,” Brian told the young man in response to Cortland’s question. “But I have made a decision.”

  Shayla had been right, he caught himself thinking. Looking at the detective more closely now, it struck Brian that he had never seen such abject sadness in anyone’s eyes before. Having Shayla around the detective might really do Cortland some good.

  Gabriel waited for the chief to tell him what this decision he had made was all about. The detective had a very uneasy feeling that he knew, but given his pessimistic way of viewing things, he could be wrong, he thought.

  He sincerely hoped so.

  “I’ve decided to partner you up with another detective,” Brian informed the newly transferred young man.

  Surprise, displeasure and disbelief all briefly registered across Gabriel’s ruggedly handsome face before fading away again just as quickly.

  Gabriel cleared his voice. “I believe we already discussed that, sir,” he politely told the chief, adding stiffly, “I don’t do well with a partner.”

  Cortland briefly thought of the last man he had been partnered with. Jon Wakefield had been a decent enough partner in the beginning, but once Gabriel’s world suddenly exploded and he sought relief at the bottom of a bottle, Wakefield had requested a different partner. Rather than realize what he was going through, Wakefield only focused on the way his drinking was interfering with their working relationship.

  Angry, hurt, abandoned, Gabriel eventually resolved to drag himself back out of the tailspin that had sent him to a bottle for solace as well as relief from his pain.

  Neither solace nor relief happened, but he was determined to stop drinking, so he went cold turkey and never looked back.

  No one offered to help him achieve his goal of hunting down the man who had killed his wife—not that he would have listened to anyone had they tried. But it had just taught him that he couldn’t count on anyone being there for him. The only one who ever had had been Natalie, and she had been cruelly taken from him.

  A year ago, Gabriel had even been on the path to mellowing. Recently married, he was looking forward to becoming a father, becoming part of a real family. Abandoned by a mother who preferred partying to caring for her son, he’d been a loner for most of his life.