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head, finding it hard to reconcile the serious Mike Marsden he knew with a man who’d fool around in his office. Cole tipped his head at the other man’s pretty wife, not saying a word as he nodded to her before knocking on his old friend’s door.
    “Come on in,” Mike called.
    Cole decided to take the offensive for this initial hello. “So you’re married and settled in Serendipity. As chief,” Cole said as he stepped into the room.
    Mike had just finished straightening his tie.
    “And apparently getting laid is a perk of the job. Good for you, man.” Cole couldn’t stifle a chuckle.
    “That’s my wife you’re talking about,” Mike said, coming around his desk.
    He shoved his hand forward and Cole knew the other man wasn’t angry, merely possessive. Go figure.
    “Glad you could finally make time for an old friend.” Mike shook with a firm grip.
    “I had trial and prep in New York City, so I went back and forth for a while. Lately, I’ve been trying to decompress.”
    This, more than any job, had been particularly unpleasant. Maroni, the mob boss, had a clingy, needy wife who he ignored. In Cole’s effort to protect her while taking down the drug-dealing, murdering bastard, he’d gotten close to Victoria. And she to him. Too close. And when her husband had been arrested and Cole’s role was revealed, she’d revealed her true feelings. Her neediness bordered on delusional, and she’d convinced herself that Cole had feelings for her that extended beyond the job.
    Mike’s penetrating gaze settled hard. “Take it from someone who’s been there, and not as deep as you. It takes time to remember who you are.”
    Cole remembered. And when he didn’t, Jed reminded him.
    “How are you getting along with your father?” Mike asked, reading Cole’s mind.
    “Same. The man blames me for mom leaving him. He can’t see past the punk I once was.” And maybe the old man was right, Cole thought.
    The truth hurt, but Cole didn’t like the kid he’d been. The man he’d become after his mother remarried and Brody welcomed Cole in? That was a Cole he was coming to understand and maybe even respect. But even more than a decade later, it was hard to wipe away the vestiges of his father’s negative influence.
    “Hell, he blames me for breathing,” Cole muttered.
    “Jed always was a hard-ass. It’s what let him do his job for so long,” Mike said. “But that doesn’t make him right.”
    Cole waved him away. “Forget it.” Because if Mike ever found out about the one-night stand Cole had had with his sister, he’d be lining up against him with Jed.
    Just because Mike knew what Cole’s real job had been didn’t mean he’d think Cole was good enough for his sister. There was the danger, a reality that Mike knew only too well.
    Then there was Cole himself. Erin deserved a man who’d commit to being around. She’d grown up surrounded by love and with parents who cared, and no doubt she wanted the same. Cole’s job meant he was gone for extended periods of time. This last job had taken a year of his life, excluding the trial that came after. He’d never had much in the way of family or friends outside of work and wouldn’t know how to live that way, let alone blend the two.
    Nor did he want to. Jesus, what was with him, constantly rehashing this shit in his head, over a woman he knew was all wrong for him and vice versa.
    Before Mike could reply, a loud commotion sounded from the squad room. “Excuse me,” Mike said, heading for the door. “What’s going on out there?” he yelled out.
    “There was a shooting in the parking lot,” Cara said as she ran up to him and grabbed his hand. “You need to get out there
now
.”
    Apparently things weren’t as quiet in his small town as Cole remembered. He followed the direction of the chaos and stepped outside in time to see cops swarming the scene and an ambulance pulling up to the middle of the lot, and for Mike’s bellow to reverberate in Cole’s