She stuffed the broken shoe in the trash along with the blouse and came back out, fol owing an officer’s direction to Sergeant Kel er’s area. He rose at the sight of her, gestured her to his guest chair. “You look better. Hot compresses and a good bath should help, a few aspirin.” He touched her face, tilting it away from him, and his jaw hardened. The way he touched her, so easy and confident, made her go stil . Desperately, she told herself it was a police thing, the female perception of safety, protection. Believing anything else meant that she was going to have to tear out her mind, because it seemed the only way to stop it from going down this path over and over again. While she believed in Fate, karma and the forces that drove destiny, she couldn’t possibly believe that suddenly Doms were everywhere, like a damn convention was in town. She’d gone years without meeting a single one outside of the Internet, after al . It was far more likely she was starting to hal ucinate, like a crack addict snorting up everything from salt to talcum powder, or ground glass.
