Hold You Close: A Jay Halstead Story

CHAPTER THREE

Jay didn't return to the precinct until late that night after chasing Damien Johnson throughout all of Chicago. The team had finally caught him deep into the night and brought him back to the station for questioning. And by the time his interrogation had ended, the sun was rising to start the next day.

Once Jay finally had a reprieve from the paperwork and all of the debriefing with the other detectives, he escaped to the storage room and found Della's head buried in a cabinet, reaching far back into one of the shelves.

"Hey!" Jay greeted.

His unannounced presence must have startled the shit out of her, because she yelped and jumped, smacking the side of her head on the shelf above her. The sound of the impact immediately made Jay cringe.

"Aw shit, Della," Jay expressed as he rushed over to her.

"Jesus Christ," she cried as she slid out from the cabinet, clutching her head. She pulled back her hand to check for blood but saw none. "Am I bleeding?"

"Let me see," he instructed, tucking his thumb under her chin to tilt her head to the side. His fingers carefully brushed through the hair around the insulted part of her head to feel for any wounds on her scalp while his eyes scanned for any sign of red between the strands. "I don't see any blood. I feel a little knot forming already though."

"It feels like I split my damn head open," she groaned.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you like that," Jay promised as he brushed her hair away from her face.

He shouldn't have enjoyed the close contact as much as he did but her hair was so soft and she smelled so good. She's married, she's married, she's married, he repeated in his head like a mantra to keep him in line. She doesn't want you, Halstead, even if you think she does based on the gleam in her eyes.

She smiled at him. "Not your fault I'm the clumsiest human."

"Hey, my brother is a doctor – if you think you need to get it checked out," he offered, dropping his hands from her face before he let himself take it too far.

She shook her head, rubbing the bump beneath her hair. "It hurts, but I'm okay. Just gonna have a killer headache later."

Feeling responsible for her pain, he frowned.

"I didn't know you had a brother," she commented to change the subject.

"Yeah," he said softly, watching as she carefully reached back into the shelf and finished whatever she had been trying to do when he walked in and scared her. "Just the one."

He allowed his eyes to scan the length of her body. No pencil skirt today. Instead, she wore a form-fitted blue top that accentuated her waist over nice black pants that were delightfully tailored around her hips, hugging every mouthwatering curve. His theory was proving to be correct – her ass looked amazing.

She glanced back at him briefly. "Wow, a doctor and a detective. Your parents must be proud."

His eyes snapped up to her face. Not wanting to get into his complicated family matters, he just smiled and nodded. "Something like that."

"And did I hear Platt say the other day that you were an Army Ranger?" She wondered, her voice somewhat muffled by the cabinet she was still reaching into. "Was that before you became a cop?"

"Yeah," he answered.

She cautiously pulled back from the shelf and turned to face him again. He wasn't willingly giving up much information, so she decided to back off of the personal questions. "You don't have to talk about it."