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still feel drawn to Helen?
    Maybe it was because everyone she loved had left her all at once. Helen had dumped her for another woman a week after Alex’s parents were killed in the crash of their private company plane. She felt orphaned and abandoned, and she knew that made her vulnerable. She didn’t trust herself right now and she certainly couldn’t trust other people. Self-pleasuring and anonymous sexual liaisons satisfied her physical needs. Intimacy was an indulgence she couldn’t allow.
    Alex picked up the phone and ordered a pizza. As she waited for the delivery, she agonized again over the same old questions. How could she have trusted Helen so completely?When did her judgment go so off track? Her heart ached with the loneliness of too much control and too little hope. Maybe it could be different. I may be bruised, but I’m not broken . Perhaps it was time to find out. She allowed the thought to sit with her for a moment before common sense reasserted itself. No, the only true safety was in maintaining distance and not getting involved.

Chapter Three

    Alex was about to check off when she heard the hostage situation call. She’d attended two afternoon lineups and three night-shift assemblies and had been running calls for the past three hours. She wanted to find the other candidate for the task force ASAP, and seeing officers in action was a good start. She fought the urge to respond directly to the scene. The field was not her command, and male egos were fragile.
    “Dispatch, this is Lieutenant Troy. I’m in the vicinity. I’ll be at the staging area.”
    She pulled into the Quick Stop parking lot at Cypress and Fourth, threw her jacket in the backseat, and took a ballistic vest from the trunk. She pulled it over her shirt as she approached officers already at the staging area.
    Great, Keri thought, that’s all I need, Lieutenant Hard-Ass looking over my shoulder again. As if one hostage taker isn’t enough. She crouched at the corner of the residence behind a row of dense pampas grass, her pulse pounding as she awaited further instructions. She could hear the television next door, a barking dog, and even crickets in the grass with pinpoint clarity. Worst-case scenarios flashed through her mind and she played each out to its logical conclusion. Her skin tingled with sensitivity as the seconds crawled.
    “All units on the scene…” The dispatcher’s voice had gone up an octave. “We just received a call from a relative of the reported victim that the male subject at this address is holding a female hostage and threatening to kill her if anyone interferes. They say he’s hooked on meth and sounded high. For information only, our original call came from the victim. She advised he has a gun.”
    Sergeant Barnes arrived at the command post as Alex was reviewing a sketch of the street with the zone officer. “Lieutenant, I didn’t realize you’d be here.” His clipped tone made it clear her presence was neither necessary nor welcome.
    “You didn’t realize we’d have a hostage situation, either.”
    Barnes hitched up his utility belt. “I checked on the way over and the Special Response Team is out on another situation. It could take two hours to get back. We need viable intel ASAP, and Morgan’s in a perfect position to serve as forward point.”
    A tinge of something unfamiliar sneaked into Alex’s usually flawless, operational mind. “Do I detect some reservation about sending her in?” She wasn’t sure if she was asking herself or Barnes.
    Barnes’s lips tightened as he offered the explanation. “Morgan always volunteers for these types of assignments. She can get emotional. I don’t think she’ll act unless she has to, though.”
    Alex questioned his motives. Would he make that comment about a male officer? “What kind of assignments?” Prickling hairs on the back of her neck indicated she knew the answer.
    “Anything dangerous. If you ask me, she’s got something to