by Geri Krotow
“Sure, no problem.” It wasn’t something she wanted to discuss with anyone. “I’m telling you, the criminal never saw me or my van. Even if he made out the van down the drive, it was too dark and too far away to see the logo. I’m not concerned.”
“It’s not your decision whether or not we’re concerned about your safety, Kayla. That’s up to SVPD and we keep the people of Silver Valley safe.”
“Tell that to Meredith Houseman.”
His nostrils flared and in another place or situation she might have giggled. Instead immediate remorse made her angry at herself.
“I’m sorry, Rio. That was horrible of me to say. I know you would have done anything to save her.” She knew that was true.
Rio said nothing as he yanked open the door.
“Officer Ogden, show Ms. Paruso out.” His order was sharp and she didn’t expect him to say another word to her.
But he turned back to her and nodded.
“We’re not done, Kayla. Expect to see more of me.”
CHAPTER 5
Kayla opened the shop at five thirty the next morning. Sleep had been a losing proposition and after a few hours of tossing she got up and left for work.
The scent of hyacinths and Easter lilies permeated the air and she tried to allow the uplifting scents to raise her spirits. It didn’t seem right to be putting together so many celebration arrangements while she still had the image of Meredith in her mind.
She sipped her coffee and winced at the bitter brew her stale beans had produced. She’d had no choice but to bring it from home as the local coffee shops weren’t open for another thirty minutes. Her cupboards were bare; flower season left little time to get groceries. She could always run out later or have Jenny pick some up on the way in.
A solitary light over the workbench illuminated the long list of customers who required fresh flowers for their Passover and Easter celebrations, beginning with the Silver Valley Community Church. The historically significant edifice had almost burned to the ground at Christmas, with Zora and the man who was now her fiancé, Bryce, in the midst of the fire. Keith had been on scene with the SVFD and they’d gotten everyone out and had saved the historic building.
As Kayla snipped stems and stuck them into damp floral foam for a series of six matching arrangements, she allowed her mind to wander. Anywhere but to last night, which was still too scary to replay.
Of course Rio’s dark brown eyes were the first image that appeared. Damn him. It would help to talk to someone about her feelings, but her sister, Melody, lived too far away, and Zora was in the midst of planning her wedding. Although even a bride-to-be needed a break, and Zora knew her best of anyone around.
Zora had been posing as a minister to help ferret out the serial killer who was after female preachers. Why Zora was involved in law enforcement, since she was a therapist, Kayla had never asked. Keith had told her not to, since it could compromise Zora if she was some kind of undercover agent. She’d been in the navy before, so Kayla wouldn’t be surprised to find out Zora led two lives.
Together Zora and Bryce had brought down the serial killer who had used Kayla to take flowers, and a message, to Zora’s college friend while she was acting as the congregation’s interim pastor. Of course, it turned out that the “college friend” was really Zora, working undercover with SVPD.
Somehow during the case Zora had found love with Bryce, SVPD’s other detective. Unlike Kayla, Zora seemed to have no issue with dating a cop.
A scraping noise alerted Kayla to the back door opening—the loading area for the van and incoming shipments. She fought back panic. It might not be an intruder, but she wasn’t expecting Jenny for another two hours.
She grabbed for the largest pair of shears they kept at the workbench and held them in front of her with her right hand while her left reached for her phone.
“Kayla?” The familiar baritone washed away her anxiety with relief, followed by a quick, hot surge of anger.
“What are you doing here so early, Rio?”
He presented a paper bag and two cups of take-out coffee in a cardboard holder. “I knew you had an early start and wanted to make sure you’re doing all right.”
“You gave me coffee last night. That was enough.”
“Still not a morning person, I see.” He set the tray onto the counter and offered her one of the cups. “You can put the scissors down. You’re safe. But I give you points for quick thinking.”
She grudgingly lowered the makeshift weapon and accepted her second cup of coffee from Rio in less than twelve hours. Biting into the soft almond croissant she’d taken from the bag, she looked at him.
“These shears are no joke. They’d kill you as quick as a bullet if need be.” He didn’t react to her attempt at humor. She shifted her weight from foot to foot. “This is delicious, thank you. You couldn’t have gotten much sleep, either.” She remembered that he’d said he never slept much once he got into a case.
“I don’t need a lot. You remember that, I’m sure.”
The heat that had never disappeared between them suddenly scorched her insides and she wished she had more sense. That she had the wherewithal to tell him to get out of the shop and let the door hit him right on his sexy butt.
“Hmm.”
“Hmm, indeed.” His eyes took in everything. With a start she realized she missed this. The quiet morning time together, the intimacy of sharing the day’s first cup of coffee as they woke up.
It was only three weeks. Get over it.
“I’m safe, Rio. As you can see, no one’s here to bother me.” Almost as if last night never happened.
“You’re safe, my ass. I walked right in here. You didn’t even have the back door locked!” His voice was quiet, low, but powered by the ferocity of his concern.
“I imagine it would be awful for you to lose your only witness.”
“I’m not going to leave you high and dry, Kayla. You’re not alone in this. We will catch this killer. And I know you’re worried about Keith, and I assure you I’m working on that, too. Not every case takes as long as his has.”
She didn’t reply. She’d like to believe him that this case wouldn’t languish as Keith’s case continued to do.
Rio leaned against the bench and took a good long perusal of the work area. “I don’t think I ever got back here when we dated.”
“No, you didn’t.” He’d come in the first time to order flowers for a colleague who was in the hospital. The next few times had been to pick her up after she closed shop and he’d waited in his car out front until she joined him. They hadn’t wanted to spend time here—there was little room to do what they both wanted. What she had needed from him—his touch—was best experienced in a bedroom.
“You never answered my calls, Kayla.”
So they were back to that.
“There was nothing to say. We’d agreed to stop seeing each other.”
“And we’d agreed to stay friends. Friends keep in touch.”
“Yeah, well, it’s been busy.”
* * *
Rio chugged his hot coffee as his mind replayed the hundreds of replies he could toss at Kayla in the morning quiet of the shop. They were both tired and on edge. She was probably still scared out of her wits, even though she’d never admit it to him.
But he saw it anyway, in the fine lines around her eyes, the slightly wild look she’d cast his way as he walked into the shop. If he hadn’t called her name first, those ridiculously large scissors may have been lodged in his chest.
“It has. I’m glad for you, Kayla. I know how much the shop means to you.” Busy meant that she’d increased her revenue and that the gossip about the serial killer ordering flowers from her hadn’t tainted her business. It was hard to tell sometimes which way the whisper mill would turn in Silver Valley. Like the rumors around Kayla’s brother’s case. Rio still couldn’t bring the case to closure, months after Keith Paruso had been accused of improper fire-inspection techniques and endangering
public safety. Just when he thought he had Keith off the hook, another loophole was presented by the prosecuting attorney, in the shape of a couple Rio believed were being put up to do the dirty business of the cult. The former cult members had arrived just before all the political chaos began, but he had no definitive evidence they were connected to Keith’s case. Yet.
“Thank you, and thanks for the coffee. It’s a nice treat. With that in mind, I do need to keep working.”
“Mind if I stay a bit and talk to you while you work?”
“Not at all.”
He fought not to laugh. Her words were in direct opposition to the sour look on her face. He was the last person she wanted to spend time with.
“You know, Kayla, it seems a little silly to me that two people like us are allowing the past to control whether or not we have a cordial relationship until your brother’s case is closed. We’re intelligent adults.” He watched her fingers move with equal parts grace and speed, stabbing pink flowers next to white in some kind of a green foam brick.
“Well, Rio—” God he loved how she said his name, and the images that refreshed for him “—I find it silly that you are standing here so early in the morning after a very long night in the police station, trying to pick up where we most definitely left off. I told you that it had nothing to do with you, personally. We agreed that we couldn’t date, that it’s a conflict of interest, remember? And I think being friends falls under that category, too.”
“If I’d been a doctor and not told you what I did for that long, would you have been as upset?” She’d been angry that he hadn’t been open about the fact that he worked undercover at times, and he’d been angry at himself for not putting it together that she was the fireman’s sister.
Truth be told, he hadn’t wanted to make the connection. All he’d wanted was to be with Kayla.
Two long spikes of green, maybe palm leaves, went into the middle of each of the arrangements. He wondered how she knew exactly where to place each stem so that the final product looked so perfect.
“Yes, I would have wondered why you hadn’t told me what exactly you did.”
“I told you I was a cop. And as soon as I was assigned directly to Keith’s case, I should have asked to have it given to someone else.”
“It doesn’t matter now, does it?” She shook her head as she selected more blooms from a large plastic bin in the professional-grade refrigerator at the far back of the workroom. She shut the heavy door with her hip and the latch automatically clicked shut. “Stop watching my hips, Rio. It’s distracting.”
“Yes, ma’am. And for the record, it does matter. Because we still obviously have some chemistry between us.”
“Chemistry isn’t enough to make something work when one partner is always gone. You disappeared in the middle of our, our...” She pursed her lips as she clipped away at unwanted leaves on the stems of some kind of purple flower.
“Our affair?”
He loved watching the color rise from her chest, bared by her crewneck, up her neck and across her cheekbones. It reminded him of the other ways, one in particular, that he’d made her blush so profusely.
“Whatever you want to call it.”
He laughed. “Kayla, you are hands-down the most complicated woman I’ve ever known.”
“Thank you, I think?” She put her gloved fists on her hips. “Rio, I understand that you’re here because you’ve probably been assigned to keep an eye on me. You and I know I’m nothing more than a witness—I wasn’t involved in the murder. Do what you need to do to get your job done. But don’t think you have to sugarcoat it with fancy coffee and polite conversation. We’re not supposed to be talking to each other, remember?”
“We can’t discuss your brother’s case, that’s all. And I’m not a sugarcoating kind of guy, Kayla. You know that. I’m here because I want to be. You can have SVPD cops checking in on you, but the regular presence of uniformed police in your shop probably isn’t the best thing for business, is it?”
“My customers aren’t afraid of the police, if that’s what you’re asking. Your colleagues crawled all over my shop at Christmas, after I delivered the flowers to Zora from the Female Preacher Killer. It didn’t hurt business then.”
He had to level with her.
“We’re watching the new mayor closely.” He watched her as he explained. “You mentioned that his wife frequents your shop. And now, with the wedding this weekend, it’s a good opportunity to try to learn more about them.”
“You’re using my business as your cover?”
“Not exactly. We need you to help us out.”
“I already told you, I’ll keep my eyes and ears open.”
“That’s good, Kayla, but I need you to be careful. If the mayor is who we think he is, associated with the kinds of people we suspect, he’s a dangerous man.”
“Which is why his assistant is dead, I presume?”
“Maybe.” He hesitated, knowing he shouldn’t share everything with her, but somehow needing to. “Kayla, I suspect that whoever is behind your brother’s civil suit may be tied to the mayor, as well. I can’t say much more, but trust me when I tell you there’s a chance that as we delve into this murder investigation we may uncover some ugly facts.”
“Any chance the facts could clear Keith?”
“Yes, that’s what I’m hoping for, but again, I can’t promise you anything. You know that if Keith’s case goes to trial I’ll be stating that I don’t believe the charges against him are valid. And I shouldn’t say any more.” She looked so damn hopeful and he hated putting the encouragement out there when he, more than anyone, knew it could end up being a long haul. “I can’t say anything else about Keith, Kayla. And trust me when I tell you that the people on the other end of this, the persons I suspect the mayor may have ties to, are wily and loaded. It’s an uphill battle. Their coffers run deep and money keeps otherwise nonsensical claims alive in court.”
She snorted as she clipped the stems of several daisy-type flowers.
He watched as her tongue darted out to moisten her lower lip. “Kayla?”
“You think Keith’s innocent, too. Don’t you?”
He looked at her. Knew he shouldn’t do what he was going to do, what he’d wanted to do since he’d walked into her shop. Since he saw her last night, shivering in shock at the barn. Since he’d last made love to her, four months ago.
Her eyes were tired; she’d been up most of the night, as had he. But they reflected the same spark of attraction that he felt, the combustible chemistry that was making him hard. He reached out and cupped her jaw. “You’re beautiful, Kayla.” He didn’t have to pull her to him—she leaned in for the kiss.
When their lips met there was no pretense of it being a first kiss again, or a simple affectionate gesture. Her mouth pressed against his with equal force and when he slid his tongue between her lips she met it with hers. Rio stopped thinking and let Kayla’s moist breath, her soft gasps, her urgent caresses against his upper arms, take him away from the gravity of the case.
Her arms went up around his neck and he took the opportunity to cup her breasts as they kissed, then moved his hands to her firm butt and gently pressed her against his erection. Her work counter was up against his back and he used the support to take most of her weight, forcing her onto her tiptoes.
“I want you, Kayla. I’ve never stopped wanting you.”
Her reply was a quick nip to his lower lip before he felt cool air against his face. He reluctantly opened his eyes and found her stare unnerving.
“We aren’t supposed to be doing this, Rio.”
“I know.” He stroked the distinctly feminine curve of her lower back and watched as she bit her lower lip, trying to hold back the moan he wanted to hear.
“Stop, Rio.”
He lowered his arms and she took a step back. Her face was as bright pink as the tulips on the worktable and he couldn’t miss her hard nipples as they pushed against her shirt.
“I’
m sorry, Kayla. When I’m around you my dick does the thinking.”
“That’s all it is, Rio?” Her tone cooled as quickly as he’d heated up during their kiss.
“We never lasted long enough to find out if it could be more.”
“Your career is your first priority.” She sniffed and picked up a bunch of green stems with fluffy leaves.
“And you don’t want to date a cop. And you can’t trust me, right? We’re back to square one.”
“Not exactly.” Challenge lit her expression. “We both want my brother’s name cleared. And I want to see this mayor get his due if he’s a bad guy. So do you. Let me help out as much as I can with the Charbonneaus.”
“No heroic measures, Kayla.”
“Fine, but if I get a chance to dig up dirt, I won’t stop.” They both grinned at her unintended pun.
Rio held out his hand. “Friends? For now?”
She grasped his hand and shook, nodding. “For now. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get these bastards, whoever they are. My brother is a gifted firefighter and law-enforcement officer. He needs to be doing his job.”
“Trust me, Silver Valley needs him to be doing his job.” He let her hand go only when he had to. Otherwise he would have tugged her back for another kiss.
CHAPTER 6
“You’ve done a lot this morning.” Jenny stared at the dozens of arrangements placed strategically across every spare inch of floor, counter and shelf space in the workroom. Kayla followed her gaze, realizing she hadn’t stopped since Rio had left over an hour ago.
“I couldn’t sleep. I—” She stopped herself. She couldn’t mention last night. “I, um, guess it’s catching up to me.”
“Want me to start putting them in the van?”
“Yes, thanks. The list is over there.” She motioned to the bulletin board, where she had each day’s deliveries tacked in neat piles.
