Internal Affair

by Samantha Cayto

  “I won’t tell her,” he vowed.

  Ronan played with the cuff of his pants. “Yeah, but without that stuff, what chance does she have of figuring anything out? I mean, what has she uncovered?”

  “Not much,” Daire admitted. “The best we have to go on is that the cop who found Mom and Dad seems to be tied to Mahurin’s dirty deals.”

  Ronan frowned. “You mean Warren?”

  “Now Forrester, but yeah, her. She’s either part of the problem, or Mahurin had hidden talents with women.”

  Ronan made a gagging noise. “No way.”

  “I agree, and Li does, too.”

  “So, where does that leave us?”

  “I’m not sure. I’m trying to convince Li to let me tag along when she goes to lean some more on Forrester.”

  Ronan grunted. “I bet she gave you the old ‘conflict of interest’ song and dance when you brought it up.”

  “You would be correct.” It had rankled him when she’d said it, and yet he knew she was right. He had no business inserting himself into an investigation that wasn’t in his district and didn’t involve any of his squad. Plus, he did have a conflict of interest given how it all tied back to his parents’ murders. Like many of her ilk, Li stuck to the book of rules. It was, after all, the whole raison d’etre of internal affairs.

  Although Daire figured this chat had to be over, Ronan gave no signs of leaving. Instead, he stared at Daire with a certain gleam in his eyes.

  “What?” Daire demanded, knowing he sounded defensive.

  “Finn says she’s a knockout.”

  Daire groaned inwardly. He so didn’t want to have this conversation with his brother, or anyone, for that matter. “How would he know?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he winced. Not cool.

  “You think because he’s gay he doesn’t appreciate a beautiful woman when he sees her?”

  “No, of course not.” And now he definitely sounded defensive because, Christ, he was. When would this ungodly conversation end? He wondered how the bullpen would react if he threw his brother bodily out of his office.

  “So, she’s hot.” Ronan’s delight in this topic showed easily in his expression, which only increased Daire’s desire to clean his clock.

  Drawing himself upright as much as he could in a seated position, he glared back at his brother. “What she looks like is irrelevant. She’s a fellow officer, so you’ll show the proper respect. If you need another copy of the department’s policy on sexual harassment, I’m sure I can locate one for you.”

  They sat staring at each other for a few seconds before Ronan’s lips curved up in a smile. “Oh, it’s like that is it?”

  Before Daire could formulate a reply to that smug comment, Ronan sprung from his chair, slapping his thighs. “Okay, I guess you’ve got this covered for now. But,” he added with his hand on the doorknob. “If things start to get hairy, you know, with respect to the investigation, let me know. Otherwise, carry on.”

  Daire chose to ignore the dig thrown at him and take the words at face, and most innocent, value. He gave his brother an encouraging smile. “Of course.” Which proved he was still good at lying to either of his brothers.

  With Ronan’s departure, Daire turned back to his never ending paperwork. Only a few minutes passed, however, before his mobile rang. His heart did a short, rapid tattoo when he saw the caller ID. He and Li had exchanged numbers Friday before she left just in case, although neither of them articulated just what the “in case” might be.

  He forced a large amount of breath in his lungs and let it out slowly again before answering. “What’s up, Li?”

  His tone sounded forced to his own ears, especially as he had a hard time not thinking of her by her first name. Parker hardly constituted an obvious girl’s name, yet it suited her. Everything about her screamed no-nonsense and straight arrow, from her blunt cut hair to her pant suits to her sensible shoes. A man might be dissuaded from looking any deeper, and that was likely the whole point of her style. But Daire saw the underneath, the wholly sexy femininity of her core. It gave him ideas, bad ones, ones that had plagued him all weekend.

  Ones that plagued him right now if the sudden tightness of his pants was any indication. He tried to take a second to give his cock the same lecture he'd tossed moments ago at his brother, but it wasn’t listening to him, either.

  “There’s been a development, Lieutenant.” The strain in her voice came through loud and clear over the phone.

  Daire jumped to his feet. “What’s wrong? Are you all right?” Now his heart pounded wildly. He was past his desk and reaching for his coat even before she allayed his fears.

  “I’m fine, sir. I can’t say the same for Forrester.”

  Daire wrestled his coat on as he sailed through the bullpen, ignoring the stares of surprise and inquiry of his subordinates. “What’s going on with her?”

  “She’s dead.”

  ****

  Parker stared at the bloody thing that used to be Forrester’s head and grimaced. “A suicide, apparently.”

  “Bullshit!” Callaghan sounded winded, as if he were on the move.

  “I’m inclined to agree with you. I have the coroner and CSI on the way, but I thought you would want to know.”

  What she didn’t tell him, because she could barely admit it to herself, was that he was the first person she thought to call. Stupid and not according to the rules, but nevertheless, when she’d seen Forrester sitting in a chair with half her head gone, Parker’s gut told her to call Daire. Why bother to think of him as anything other than his first name after allowing him to star in her fantasies all weekend? She shouldn’t be talking to him. He wasn’t her commanding officer, had something of a weird conflict of interest, sort of, and he made her heart race even faster than finding a corpse did.

  “I’m on my way. Text me the address as soon as we hang up.”

  “Sir, you really don’t…” She was talking to dead air, so she did as he asked and started working on what she’d tell her boss when he found out she’d called the wrong lieutenant into the case.

  She left Forrester’s house the same way she’d come in, through a sliding door in the back that she’d broken in order to enter. After trying unsuccessfully to get a hold of the woman by phone, Parker had taken the chance of making a trip over.

  Her first clue that something was off had been a copy of the Sunday Globe sitting on the front steps. Seriously, who got the paper delivered anymore? Still, it meant no one had picked it up, which led to a concern that Forrester had rabbited. Parker hadn’t expected to find anything other than an empty house when she’d poked around the back. With the drapes partially open, however, she’d gotten an eyeful, and she’d gone in with her gun at the ready in case it turned out to be murder with the murderer still inside.

  She’d breezed through the Academy the way she had all of her schooling, not just academically, but physically as well. She took pride in her ability to do a cop’s job with steely nerves and more muscle than she’d have expected from herself. Internal affairs had always been her goal, however, so it had been a while since she’d done the kind of cop stuff that sent your adrenaline pumping. The ripe smell of the body had told her immediately that no one lurked about. She’d done the necessary walk-through anyway because that’s what a cop needed to do. Even so, she was happy to get out of that house of death and into the brisk clean air. Happier still when the proverbial cavalry arrived.

  She flashed her badge at a young officer and told her to establish a secure perimeter. The coroner caught her attention, so she approached the pretty woman with the blond ponytail. She was greeted by a wide smile.

  “I’m Li, internal affairs. I found the body.”

  “Cassidy Barnes.” That named rang a bell. “I hear it’s a head shot?”

  “Yes.” Parker imitated putting a gun into her mouth and pulling the trigger. “I’m thinking that’s how it went down, but you’ll be the judge.”

  Barnes nodded. “Y
es, I will.” Then the woman did something unexpected. She leaned in and patted Parker on the upper arm. “It couldn’t have been easy finding her.” Genuine sympathy shined through those bright eyes.

  Parker swallowed hard, uncomfortable with the depth of emotion pulled out of her so suddenly. She took a half-step back, too, because she’d been raised with a larger personal bubble when it came to strangers.

  “It was,” she allowed.

  Before the coroner could say anything more, another car screamed up to the curb. Daire jumped out and jogged over to them. The sight of him eased her tension, at least the kind she’d been feeling since finding Forrester. His presence increased an entirely different kind of tension, though. The kind best ignored. He must have broken some kind of land speed record to have arrived so soon after the others. With his hair tousled and his face flushed, it looked as if he’d run the whole way. He stuttered to a halt when Barnes turned in his direction.

  “Hi, Daire,” the coroner said, and it clicked in Parker’s mind where she’d heard the name before. This was the woman involved with Ronan Callaghan and, his partner, Nieves, in some kind of three-way relationship that had the higher-ups in fits, according to the scuttlebutt, yet didn’t violate any of the regulations as currently written.

  Someone undoubtedly was revising them at that very moment.

  “Cassidy, hi,” Daire replied, although his gaze stayed on Parker. “What’s going on?”

  It wasn’t clear to whom his question was directed, but Barnes elected to answer it before Parker could. “That’s what I’m about to find out.” With that, the woman hustled into the house.

  Daire’s gaze didn’t waver. “You’re okay?” The direction of his question couldn’t be doubted this time.

  “I’m fine, sir.” The formality came naturally to her, although with the heat of Daire’s eyes washing over her, it felt as if they were alone in some private place. His physical closeness didn’t bother her at all, or rather it did in a more enticing way. She cleared her throat and stood up straighter to remind herself she was on duty and far more important matters needed her attention than the growing attraction she felt for this man.

  “I had hoped to question Forrester as we’d discussed, but I couldn’t get her to answer my calls all weekend or this morning. I came here because I feared she’d run.” She shrugged. “She didn’t, at least not in the classic sense of the word.”

  Daire’s scrutiny of her became more intense, if that were possible. “You said suicide when you called.”

  “It looks like she ate her gun.” A disgusting euphemism, although having seen the aftermath up close, she understood how it got coined.

  “Convenient,” was Daire’s terse reply.

  “Very.”

  “Li!” The loud voice hailed her before she could respond further. Her boss, Lieutenant Benson, barreled up to them. The big, beefy man scowled at Daire. “Callaghan, what are you doing here?”

  Damn, Parker hadn’t had a chance to come up with a suitable reply to this predictable question. She’d been raised to be truthful and take responsibility for her own actions, however, so she intended to tell her boss what she’d done.

  Daire took the chance and the heat away from her. “I caught wind of this and came over. I’m sure you won’t be surprised I’ve been keeping tabs on this case because of its possible connection to my parents’ murders.” He took a moment to flash a look at Parker that clearly meant don’t say anything. With only a modicum of guilt, she elected to accede to his wishes.

  Hitching up his pants in typical overweight, yet still macho style, Benson grumbled a second before saying, “I get why you feel the need to stick your nose in, Callaghan, but this is an IA matter. You’ve got no jurisdiction here, and your presence is a distraction.”

  “That’s one man’s opinion,” Daire retorted. He managed to say it without much anger in his tone, yet the look he gave Benson was pure murder, if one could excuse the expression. Part of her wanted to see Daire go alpha male on Benson’s ass because Benson could be a real ass when he put his mind to it. Which was often in her experience. She wasn’t going to get the satisfaction.

  With squinty eyes, Benson turned to her. “Li, meet me inside.”

  “Yes, sir.” Her parents had also taught her the importance of acknowledging the power of superiors and following the rules. She’d gladly leave this pissing contest to the higher paygrades.

  As she walked up to the house, her phone pinged. She pulled it out of her pocket and glanced at the text.

  Call me later.

  Shoving the phone away, she wondered how Daire had managed to text her while he still duked it out verbally with her boss. He was a man of many talents, apparently, and the stupid part of her hoped she’d learn every one of them.

  Chapter Four

  “I’m an absolute fucking moron.” Daire stood looking at the take-out meal he’d placed on the dining table and couldn’t believe what he’d done. There were something like a gazillion choices of food in Boston and yet he’d picked up Chinese. Riding on pure autopilot from the long and stressful day, he’d gone to his favorite place for take-out without thinking it through.

  Now he was about to serve Americanized Chinese food to an actual Chinese American. She was going to think he was either an idiot or a clueless form of racist. He hoped she’d be kind and think he fit the former category because, Jesus, the truth was her race had barely registered with him. When he looked at her, he only saw beauty and temptation.

  Rubbing his forehead, he calculated how long he had before she’d be over. Maybe he had time to toss this stuff in the refrigerator and order a pizza to be delivered. Yeah, that would do it. The doorbell pealed. Or maybe not.

  As his cock came to life, he realized the upside of his stupidity could be to turn her off enough that he’d give up any idea of a more personal relationship. Otherwise, they were both in trouble because the more time he spent with her, the more he wanted her. Worse—way, way worse—earlier, as they stood outside Forrester’s house, he’d seen some glimmer of emotion in her eyes toward him.

  Relief, that’s what he’d seen. And appreciation. On the ride back to his office, he’d also realized she’d called him when there’d been no reason to. It had been a stupid thing to do, in fact, pissing off her boss and calling attention to herself and the investigation in a way that wouldn’t do her any good. Almost as stupid as his ordering Chinese food.

  The primitive part of his male mind, however, loved the idea she thought of him in her time of need. He wanted to be there for her, had clenched his hands into fists to keep from reaching for her and pulling her into a consoling hug. And when Benson had turned his ire on her, even for a few seconds, he’d wanted to pound the man into the ground.

  Man, his long stretch of celibacy had broken in a major and totally inappropriate manner.

  When he opened the door and saw the look in Parker’s eyes, though, he knew he wasn’t alone in his poor judgment. She wanted him as well. He could see it right there only for a few seconds before she drew down the mental blinds again. But he had seen it and his dick had, too. It pulsed in an effort to do the vertical Snoopy dance of happiness.

  The sensation robbed him of his breath and sent enough adrenaline coursing through his body to chase his fatigue away. Itchy palms wanted to reach out and touch anything they could get a hold of. As he had earlier in the day, he curled his fingers in tight. His grip on the doorknob threatened to bust the thing right off.

  When his lungs finally managed to take in some air, it wheezed out of him again. He coughed in a pathetic attempt to hide his own reaction to seeing her and stepped aside. “Come on in.”

  He automatically helped her take off her coat, his fingers brushing the back of her neck by accident. She twitched in a shiver that ran down her spine. She whirled out of the coat and his reach so quickly he knew she was trying to hide her response to his simple touch. The way she practically raced to the dining table confirmed his suspicions. He sho
uld have been appalled at the confirmation that the attraction constituted a two-way street. But this was the first time that part of him he’d frozen up since his parents’ deaths had started to thaw. The yearning welling up inside him overwhelmed his rational side.

  Of course, now the object of his desire stared down at dinner. He’d taken everything out of the cartons and plated them because his mother hadn’t raised barbarians. That was something he supposed. He hustled to the other side of the table and grimaced.

  “Sorry, I kind of suffered a brain fa—” He cut himself off, remembering he wasn’t living in the land of rude boys anymore. “I mean I just picked up what I like without thinking through…anything,” he finished lamely.

  Parker’s face lit up in an impish grin. There was really no other way to describe her expression. “You think I don’t like Chinese food?” She cocked her head at him with raised eyebrows.

  He sighed. “I’m sure you like authentic Chinese food, but I bet your mother never puts any of this on her table.”

  “That’s true.” She reached over and plucked up a spring roll. “It just so happens I like this Americanized version, too.” So saying, she bit into the roll with an audible crunch. When parts of the crispy wrap fell down, as they inevitably do, she lifted her palm to catch them, then licked them back up.

  Daire stood mesmerized by her actions. Her prim façade faded as she popped the second half of the roll in her mouth. She licked the grease off her fingers with delicate swipes of her pink tongue. He couldn’t stop staring, couldn’t stop yearning as she then took a seat and dished portions of General Gau’s chicken and brown rice on one of the plates he’d set out. Two crab Rangoon rounded out the serving.

  She twisted open one of the bottles of soda he’d ordered with the meal and glanced up at him. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

  He had to bite his tongue to keep from saying something ridiculous like feasting on the sight of her was enough. God, lack of sex with another person had turned his brain to mush. Pulling out a chair, he sat across from her and grabbed the plate of beef and broccoli. “I’m glad you’re not offended by my food choice.”