Page 34 of Final Inning

Interrupting everything.

Ian stepped back. Gave Dani a look. “I’ll be back.”

Dani just nodded again. Like an idiot here.

The man…just confused her in so many ways.

Ian stopped right in front of Michael. “Cause her any more problems, and you and I will be talking when I get back, too. Remember that.”

He sounded terrifying, menacing, and so beyond hot Dani just about melted right where she was.

That man…she was just so confused.

She needed to breathe here.

No. What she needed to do—get back to work. That was exactly what she did.

Chapter 24

Miranda was the one who met their favorite pretty boy Ian at the diner in Helery County when he made it to Oklahoma. Knight was busy arguing with who she thought was Seth Lorcan on the phone, about a previous case from six years ago that Seth was still digging into. It could have been Sebastian, though. He went by Seb, at times. But Knight wasn’t a nickname kind of man.

Except…well…Sunny. He called her Sunny, after all.

Hard to miss that. He called her that a lot—especially when his guard was down.

She was still trying to decide if she liked it or not. He hadn’t started calling her that in a good way. But…now…it just sort of slipped out when the man really wasn’t paying that much attention.

The Lorcans were really getting on Knight’s nerves right now, apparently.

Knight was one hundred percent convinced that previous case did not tie into whatever had happened with Andy Anderson, a colleague who had been murdered by the same monster who had targeted Jac and her sister back in November. It was not going well—voices had actually been raised.

Well, voices coming through Knight’s phone. Knight had been as coldly Knight as always. No doubt the Lorcan on the other end of the line was a bit heated now.

It probably was Seth, considering. He was the most hotheaded. Or…Sin…Sin supposedly had a dark temper when riled. Having identical brothers working for PAVAD could be confusing at times. That was for sure. That they’d all married women from PAVAD, too—well…Lorcan was a popular name at PAVAD, no denying that.

Still, Seth was good at digging. If there was something Knight missed, he’d find it. But…Knight very rarely missed things. Which was good for the Bureau, if not somewhat annoying for Miranda. Considering.

Ian was talking with the waitress when she walked in. Miranda studied him for a moment before he noticed her. He was so pretty, with rich black hair, eyes of intense blue, and that sleek, sexy aura—she could so see him as the cover model on a vampire romance novel, honestly. Too beautiful. Too mysterious. Shiver-worthy, that man.

All the ladies loved Ian Ward. Including just looking at Ian Ward. Miranda had noticed—and looked—a time or fifty herself.

He knew it, too. But…well, Ian cared more about intellectual pursuits than physical. She was almost certain of it. If she got him talking about his pet projects, he would go on for hours. And hours and hours and hours.

He was so adorable at times.

That man was very uniquely wired. He might be off reading over cold case files, or researching serval cats or tiger sharks or beetles or electric circuits or anything else that caught his attention just for the hell of it. The man loved information—of any kind.

Undiagnosed autism was her honest opinion—she was very familiar with the signs, considering she had been raised by a man just like him, and her sister had been diagnosed at age two or so. Ian never spoke about his background, but she thought a grandparent had raised him from around the age of four. She hadn’t pried.

He’d never come right out and said he was on the spectrum, but…well…Miranda was certain he was. She was just certain he was undiagnosed.

Miranda was ninety-nine percent convinced he had a thing for a certain computer analyst who had absolutely no idea how the man felt about her. It was something about the way Ian looked at Dani sometimes when no one else was watching…

And Dani turned…intense…when Ian was in her orbit. That girl was very aware of the beautiful Ian Ward, too. Dani just wouldn’t admit it yet.

Still, Miranda had a romantic heart. She was probably just seeing things. Maybe.

She thought the two of them would be really good together. At heart, they were both very much alike in how they viewed things. And they were both total nerds, too. They could nerd out together as much as they wanted. They would be good for each other. She so wanted that for her friends.