“Don’t bother calling her. She’s with me now. We’ll be right there.” He snapped the phone shut, terminating the call.
She couldn’t read the expression on his face. “What is it?”
“That was Peter Kellerman from Homicide.”
“Why’s Homicide calling you?” She knew he’d transferred from Homicide, but he wasn’t the type to stay in touch with anyone from his past.
Wrong. What about Jocko?
It occurred to her that there was nothing about Jack Hawkins that was a sure thing, except that he was a good cop. And a damn fine-looking man, that same annoying voice in her head whispered.
Hawk dug into his jacket pocket for his wallet and took out several bills. Looking around, he raised his hand for the waitress. “Kellerman found a couple of bodies they thought we might be interested in.”
“I don’t—” And then it hit her just as the waitress approached. “The two guys we caught the other day. They made bail today.”
“Check, please,” he said to the young woman, who nodded and retreated. He looked back at Teri. “Guess we won’t have to worry about them jumping it.” He gave her the particulars as Kellerman had given them to him. “They were both found knifed in an alley behind a bar on Alton Road.”
It was too much of a coincidence to think it was just a random act, Teri thought. Someone was afraid that they would talk.
Any appetite she might have still had was gone.
It was a grim scene.
Both men had been eliminated by the same kind of quick slit to the throat. There was blood everywhere as it had gone shooting out. Looking at the chalk-outlined bodies, Teri stifled the shiver that threatened to shimmy up and down her spine.
“Someone really didn’t want them to talk,” she murmured to Hawk.
She moved out of the way as one of the crime scene investigators snapped photographs of the bodies. The CSI unit, comprised of three people, had arrived minutes before she and Hawk had reached the scene. They appeared to be in a world of their own, taking in every bit of evidence, no matter how minor or insignificant looking, and logging it in.
The dead men were both young. Too young to die this way. For the first time, she saw them as people rather than perpetrators or invaders. She wondered about their families and who was going to be grieving at their funerals.
Maybe the job was getting to her.
Or maybe her emotions were still too shaken up for her to make any sense out of anything that was going on.
Teri ran her hands up and down her arms. Despite her jacket, she felt cold.
“Tough break,” Kellerman, a tall, easygoing gray-haired man in his late fifties, said.
“Maybe for them,” Teri allowed. “But not for us.” She thought of the day’s work they’d just put in. Although the robbery victims used a variety of different valet services, they had all made use of that kind of service. Which meant they had a tie-in. “We’ve got other leads.”
Kellerman looked at Hawk after giving Teri an appreciative once-over. “She always this cheerful?”
“This is when she’s down.” Hawk put his hand out to the other man. Kellerman shook it. “Thanks for letting us know. I want to see the M.E.’s report on them when it’s done.”
“Please,” Teri added with a wide smile as she looked at Kellerman.
Kellerman laughed. “I’ll make sure you get a copy,” he promised.
Hawk walked back to his car. Teri had parked right behind him. Despite the commotion in the background coming from both the police and the handful of onlookers who had piled out of the bar to take in what was going on, he could hear her heels as they rhythmically hit the concrete.
He nodded toward the scene they’d just left. “You seem back in form.”
She wouldn’t exactly say she was back to normal, but she was feeling a lot better now than she had earlier. And she had him to thank for that. She stopped beside her car.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Thanks to my partner, I think I’m going to be okay now. I owe you.”
He waved away the supposed debt. He didn’t even want her thanks, much less have her feel as if she owed him something. “Forget it.”
Rounding her trunk, she crossed to him. “No, I won’t.”
Hawk sighed. The line about no good deed going unpunished echoed in his head. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” He opened his door, ready to call it a night. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He noticed that she wasn’t getting into her car. That usually meant trouble.
“I’ll have that drink now.”
“What?”
“You asked me out for a drink earlier, remember?” she reminded him. “I took a rain check.” And she wanted to collect. For some reason she wasn’t about to explore, she didn’t want the evening to be over. Didn’t want to say good night to him.
Hawk turned his palm up toward the starless sky as if checking for drops. “I don’t see any rain. Besides, you exchanged it for dinner.”
“Okay—” she leaned on the edge of his car door “—then I’ll buy the drink.”
Hawk got in behind the steering wheel and pulled the door shut. “I’m going home.”
Glancing in his rearview mirror, he saw that she was still standing where he’d left her. Watching him.
He turned his eyes onto the road.
The edginess that had been steadily creeping over him all day continued to intensify. He’d thought that once he was away from her, it would go away.
But it didn’t.
It lingered on, clinging to him like smoke. Damn it, what was going on? Why now? It didn’t make any sense. The only answer he had was that her effect on him had to be cumulative.
What he needed, he thought heading to his refrigerator, was a stiff drink. Maybe two. Followed by a good night’s sleep.
He doubted it would go away, but it was worth a shot.
Unbuttoning his shirt, he pulled the end out of his waistband. His service revolver and holster were on the counter by the door where he placed them every night. He paused to turn the radio on. It was set to a jazz station. A slow melody softly filled the air.
He did his best to unwind.
The knock on the door negated any progress he made. Instantly alert, he reached for his weapon before turning toward the door.
“Who is it?”
“Your partner.”
What the hell was she doing here? Served him right for letting her get to him like that. He should have just ignored the anguish he’d seen on her face.
Muttering under his breath, he unlocked the door and pulled it open.
The first thing she saw was the gun. Teri raised her brows in mild surprise. “Expecting trouble?”
He put the safety back on. “It looks as if it just walked in.” Placing the gun back in the holster, he turned around to look at her. “Why can’t I get rid of you tonight?”
She held a brown bag up. It was tightly wrapped around a bottle. “I just came by with this to say thank you.”
He took the bottle she handed him, removing the wrapper. She’d brought him Scotch.
“I heard a rumor that you liked having Scotch once in a while.”
He was aware of no such rumor. Hawk placed the bottle on the counter next to his weapon. “You didn’t have to do this.”
He lived like a Spartan, she thought, looking around. It didn’t come as a surprise. What did surprise her was that he had music on.
“And you didn’t have to try to talk me down from that emotional ledge I was standing on.”
“I thought you came from a family of cops, not drama queens.”
In response, she merely gave him a smile. A crooked smile that went straight to his gut. This was a bad idea, he thought, letting her come in here. He should have stood his ground by the door.
Too late now.
Hands in her pockets, Teri slowly scanned the small space, all of which could have been nestled into any one of the rooms in her father’s house. Except that thi
s represented Hawk’s entire apartment. A bed, a table and chair, a combination refrigerator/stove/sink, a television set sharing space with a pile of books and one love seat because there was no room for a sofa. For a big man, he didn’t seem to need much space.
She turned around to face him again. “So this is where you live.”
He leaned against the counter, watching her. “You already knew that or you wouldn’t be here.”
“From the outside,” she corrected. “I knew your address, not what the place looked like.” She flashed a smile at him. “So, want to give me the grand tour?”
With a resigned, less-than-patient sigh, Hawk swung his hand from one end of the room to the other. “There, you’ve had the grand tour.”
She slid her hands into her pockets. “It’s kind of small.”
Hawk shrugged. He’d never needed anything fancy. And it was his, which was all that mattered. Growing up, he would have killed to have something like this. “It’s got everything I need.”
In this day and age of excess, it was unusual to meet someone who was satisfied with so little. The home invaders would have turned right around at the door had they targeted his place. “Don’t need much, do you?”
“Nope.” He pinned her with a long, penetrating look. Wanting her to leave before he made a misstep they were both going to regret. “What are you really doing here, Cavanaugh?”
So it was Cavanaugh again, not Teri, she thought. He was retreating. “Hanging out with my partner?” she offered cheerfully.
He wasn’t the kind to kick back with in front of the TV with a couple of beers and they both knew it. The longer she stayed, the more dangerous the situation became. “What does it take to get rid of you?”
“I don’t know.” She drew closer to him. “A silver bullet?” Her eyes teased him as she lifted her chin up in an unconscious show of defiance. “What have you got?”
What he had was an overwhelming craving to kiss her. To have her.
It was all wrong and he knew it.
She was crowding him, just by standing there, by breathing. He wanted her to go before he asked her to stay. What was it that he’d once heard her say? “You’re messing with the universe.”
She grinned. Broadly. And he had this urge to wipe the grin from her mouth with his own. “You do listen to me when I talk,” she said.
He did, a lot more than he wanted to, but he didn’t want her making a big deal of it. By now, he knew her. She could make bouquets out of a single daisy. “It’s like water on tile. A little of it always manages to seep through eventually no matter how good the seal is.”
“Poetic and utilitarian,” she observed. “There’re no end to your talents, is there?”
When she breathed, he could almost feel her breasts brushing against his rib cage. “There’s an end, all right, and it should be here.”
Should be, but wasn’t.
She was getting to him again, getting to him with the force of a ten-ton bomb. Maybe it was the small space. She seemed to fill it just as she did the inside of the car at times. Filled it with her exuberance, with the zest that seemed to vibrate all around her.
He could feel the pull between them, drawing him in. Tempting him to cross over a line that shouldn’t be crossed. He tried again. “Look, maybe you’d better go.”
She made no move. “I just got here.” Her voice was innocent. Tempting. “Your hosting skills need a little polishing.”
“I’m not playing host.” He moved a lock of her hair back, exposing her neck. Wondering what it would be like to taste the skin there. “Maybe I’m still playing your protector.”
She could feel her heart hammering again, far harder than when she’d raced after the home invaders the other day. “What are you protecting me from?”
“Me.”
His breath danced along her face. She felt her body tightening. Waiting. “I don’t think I need any protection from you.”
“Think again,” he advised. He took her chin in his hand, framing her face. Desire moved in, setting up homesteading.
There was little space between them. So little space that a speck would have trouble passing through.
He knew he should step back.
One of them should hang on to good sense and it looked as if the mantle fell to him. She wasn’t the kind to be warned off. But she could be frightened off.
He pulled her to him and brought his mouth down to hers—hard. For one moment, he unchained his desire. Kissed her as savagely as he could, hoping to scare her away before he wouldn’t let her go.
He succeeded in scaring himself instead. Scaring himself by the way his head seemed to spin when he kissed her, by the way his blood warmed in his veins, roared in his ears.
The hunger he felt threw him. He had all the normal male urges, but this, this was different. This was something he wasn’t sure if he could control.
With effort, Hawk drew his head away. She looked dazed, as if she were shell-shocked.
Run.
He didn’t know if the thought applied to her, or to him.
Teri pressed her lips together, tasting him. Her heart wouldn’t stop hammering.
Bewilderment filled her eyes as she looked at him. “Why did you stop?” she wanted to know. “You were just getting to the good part.”
For just a moment longer, he held himself in check. “Last chance.”
He was warning her. But she didn’t want to be warned. Her emotions were all over the chart and she wanted to focus them. To give them a place to gather. The tension between them felt as if it would erupt at any minute and she didn’t want to wait any longer.
The sides of his shirt hung open, inviting her. She didn’t turn a deaf ear. Teri spread her fingers along his chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He laced his fingers through her hair. She felt fragile, as if he could break her into pieces if he tried. If she knew what was good for her, she’d run out of here and keep on running.
“Maybe you should.”
Teri raised her chin. “You don’t scare me, Jack Hawkins.” Her feet were firmly planted on the floor, her body language all but daring him to make her leave. “I’m not afraid of you.”
The ache inside of him was growing. “Maybe you should be.”
And then he brought his mouth down on hers again.
Chapter Eleven
I t was a full-scale attack.
There was no other way to regard it. Hawk was assaulting her senses, her mind, her body, just by the very act of kissing her. There was no avenue of escape.
She didn’t want one.
Her body heated. It was like a fever, brought on by some small, almost undetectable source, infecting her. Spreading until it raged throughout her entire being. Raged through her until she couldn’t even recognize herself.
She was like a woman possessed.
Possessed by him. Obsessed by this feeling he was creating within her.
She enjoyed life, enjoyed what it had to offer, enjoyed, when the timing was right, the intimacies that were available between a man and a woman. Those were all undertaken with an understanding. There were to be no strings. No regrets.
But there was never this storm, this passion that began almost at the very starting line, making her want to race toward the finish banner before it vanished from view. From her grasp.
Urgently, she pulled the shirt from Hawk’s shoulders, bunching it down his arms as she struggled to free him from its confines. Her heart hammered harder as she felt his hands delve beneath her shirt, coming in contact with her bare skin.
Chills alternating with waves of heat shimmied up and down her spine. She felt his fingers probing, brushing against the bottom swell of her breasts.
Everything within her went on full-scale alert, even as that small shred of brain that was still clinging to logic told her to back off. To leave the liquor and take her sanity while it was still available and run. Run as fast as she could for the door and escape. Run because this time, it was
different.
This time, she was in danger. In danger not just of screwing up her partnership, but her life as she knew it. As she wanted it to be.
This force had to be what her father had felt when he’d fallen for her mother. It had driven him all those years he tried to find her, even as everyone else told him to give it up. Love made him continue.
Love, she’d felt, that had almost destroyed him.
And yet, her father had found her mother. Love had given him the will, the stamina, the courage to keep on against all odds. Love had been his beacon.
What was she thinking? Love? What love? What was happening here wasn’t love, it was sex, attraction to the nth degree, desire run amok, nothing else, nothing more.
It was enough. For now.
She wanted Hawk with a craving she hadn’t thought possible. Each touch, each kiss drew her in, blotting out all reason. She wanted him.
“You won’t be needing this,” Hawk murmured against her mouth.
Needing what? My mind? Too late. It’s already gone.
The next moment, Hawk was backing away from her, unbuckling her holster. For the first time in her life, she saw his hands look unsteady. Or was that just her trembling? No, it couldn’t be that, she didn’t tremble. She wasn’t afraid.
And yet…
She was more afraid than she’d ever been in her whole life.
His arm brushed against her breasts as he finished removing her weapon and holster. Everything tightened inside of her, like a string across a violin bow, drawn so tightly she thought she was going to snap in half.
Anticipation hummed so loudly in her ears, she was afraid he would hear it.
Teri watched him set the weapon aside on the counter, beside his.
Just like at home.
The thought came out of nowhere, blossoming. Making her warm.
And then there was no more time to revel in tenderness.
Hawk dragged her shirt from her body, wasting little time on her bra. The hook opened, the material slid and he drew her to him in a hot embrace. Skin against naked, heated skin.
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