Janie Crouch - Man Of Action

No one said hello to her as she walked through the corridors and Andrea didn’t engage anyone. She’d utilized this keep-to-herself plan ever since she had realized exactly how important Omega was and the caliber of people they had working here in the Critical Response Division. Ever since Steve and Grace had officially offered her a job four years ago after six weeks of testing.

She may have a gift of reading people, but Andrea didn’t think for one minute that she was the sort of person Omega normally hired.

She’d known from the beginning she needed to keep her past a secret. Announcing to her colleagues that she was a runaway, dyslexic high school dropout who—oh yeah—used to be an exotic dancer would not inspire much confidence in her. So she’d made it a point not to tell anyone. Not to ever discuss her past or personal life at all. If it didn’t involve a case, Andrea didn’t talk about it.

Her plan hadn’t won her any friends, but it had successfully worked at keeping her secrets. She could live without friends.

Andrea pushed on the door that led to the outer realm where Steve’s assistants worked. One of them stood, welcoming and walking her to Steve’s office door and opening it. The clicks of Andrea’s three-inch heels on the tiled floor sounded more like clanging chimes of doom in her head as she stepped through.

“Hey, Andrea, good to see you,” Steve said from behind his desk, looking up from a stack of papers.

She supposed he was handsome, with his brown hair graying slightly at the temples and his sharp blue eyes, but since he was nearly twenty years older than her, she’d never even thought of him in that way. She respected him with every fiber of her being. Not only for getting her out of a dead-end life back at Jaguar’s in Buckeye, Arizona, but because of how fair and respectful he acted toward all the people who worked at Omega.

But he was tired. Andrea could tell. “You need a vacation, boss. Some time away from this circus.”

Steve put his elbows on his desk and bridged his fingers together, grimacing just the slightest bit. “You know why I don’t invite you in here very often? Because you see too much.” But his words held no fire. He knew what she said was right.

Andrea nodded.

“Sit down, Andrea. I’m afraid what I have to say might be a little difficult to hear.”

Oh my God, he is going to fire me.

Andrea took a breath through her nose and tried not to let her panic show. She had known this was a possibility from the beginning. Not just a possibility, a probability.

She tried to mentally regroup. Okay, she wasn’t the same girl who had left with Steve and Grace from Buckeye. She had managed to successfully complete her high school equivalency degree and even had two years of college under her belt. Yes, her dyslexia made some classes difficult, and she had to take them at a slower pace than most people, but she was making progress.

She could get some other job now. She had money in savings. She didn’t have to go back to Jaguar’s and let those people paw at her again.

“Andrea.”

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.