by Julie Miller
“I’ll have them for you by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Pick them up at your office?”
“Fine.”
“Be sure you take care of those knees.” It was a statement of polite concern and served as a good-bye. Eli headed to the SUV she assumed was his, and she exhaled a silent sigh of relief tinged with regret. But Shauna barely had her door open when he strode back to her car. “You didn’t even have your cell phone on to call for backup if you needed it. I had to call Deputy Commissioner Garner to find out where you were. You need to be more careful.”
Just like that, fatigue vanished and the verbal battle was on again. “The executive committee is aware of Yours Truly’s threats to KCPD.”
“What about your own safety?”
“I suppose Captain Chang has reprimanded you about taking liberties with a person’s privacy?”
Eli pointed to the windshield. “Hey, the note was right there in plain sight.”
Shauna shook her head. “What am I going to do with you?”
The question landed like a loaded grenade in the still air, filled with all the sexual overtones that had awakened her dormant hormones and simmered between them. But Eli was smart enough to keep any innuendo to himself. “Let me do my job. I can handle whatever crap the task force gives me. I’ll try to keep it an I.A. affair and keep you out of it as much as I can. But…you have to report the personal threats.”
“No.”
“Tomorrow, Shauna.”
“You can’t give me an order.”
“Maybe not, but I can try to drill some sense into you.” He raked his fingers through his hair, knocking that independent strand out of place. She curled her fingers into tight fists to keep from reaching up to straighten it. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a partner. But I’m pretty sure that anything that’s a danger to you is a danger to me and to our investigation.”
She glared at him. “I don’t want an armed guard watching over me, and I don’t want my movements restricted. I can’t do my job that way. Being a woman is already a strike against me in a lot of people’s books. I can’t afford to show any weakness, or it will completely undermine my authority with both the public and the department.”
“If another cop had been threatened, you’d do something about it,” he argued.
“There isn’t another cop in charge of the whole show.” She was done. Despite her personal, mixed-up craving to get closer to Eli, as commissioner, she couldn’t stand here debating the issue. “Goodnight.”
She thanked him perfunctorily when he held the car door open for her, and pretended the small chivalry didn’t please her. He waited for her to lock her car and start the engine before he climbed into his own vehicle.
When she reached the second stoplight and he pulled up behind her for a second time, Shauna turned on her cell phone and called him. She watched him pick up in her rearview mirror. “What are you doing, Eli?”
“Making sure you get home.”
“That’s not the job I asked you to do.”
“I’m off duty.” The light changed and he trailed her through the Plaza onto Brush Creek Boulevard. “Following pretty women in snazzy cars is a hobby of mine.”
“You can’t call me pretty. Read your sexual harassment handbook.”
“Just stating a fact, ma’am. You wouldn’t catch me making a pass at the boss.”
Shauna wanted to laugh at his gentle teasing. Even couched in sarcasm, she hadn’t been flirted with in a long time. Or maybe it was his relentless concern that made her feel a little less frightened and alone tonight. Hmm. Maybe she should reread the harassment handbook. “Go home, Eli. This guy hasn’t had the guts to show his face yet. He won’t show it now.”
“Trust me. He will. His threats have gone from departmental to personal. He says he’s already watching. The next step is to make contact. You might not even know it, but he’ll be there. And the moment you drop your guard is when he’ll make his move.”
The truth was a chilling thing. But she didn’t want Eli to know how much hearing it out loud rattled her. “Hang up or I’ll have to pull you over and cite you for using your cell phone while driving.”
“Do that.” Warmth filtered in at the wicked smile in his tone. The presumptuous SOB was still on her tail as she turned toward home. “I’ll just file a complaint with the commissioner’s office.”
“HEY, MOM! Sadie alert!” Sarah Cartwright popped out the front door a step behind the long-legged Lab who bounded across the yard to greet his mama.
Shauna willingly braced for the excited welcome home from the spoiled-rotten puppy with the big brown eyes and loving tongue. “How’s my good girl? How’s my very best good girl?” Sadie leaped at the praise, allowed herself to be scratched behind the ears and petted on the flanks. Then she loped off to inspect the black Chevy Blazer that had pulled up to the curb behind Shauna’s Lexus.
For the moment, Shauna ignored Eli’s SUV and asked about the unexpected but welcome sight of the familiar car and truck parked in her driveway. “I know I didn’t miss anyone’s birthday. What are you and Seth doing here tonight?”
Sarah reminded Shauna of the woman she’d been twenty years ago. Not just in the slender build and blond ponytail, but in the bright eyes and easy smile that declared she was ready to take on the world—and aimed to do so. As always, Shauna prayed that her daughter’s journey through life would be easier than her own had been.
Slipping off her shoes and carrying them by the heels, Shauna hurried to the front porch to trade hugs. “Hey, sweetie. Is everything okay?”
“As far as I know. What happened to you? You look like one of my fourth-graders on the playground.” Sarah glanced beyond the circle of light shining from the front porch to where Sadie was greeting Eli. “And who’s the guy?”
So much for guarding the place. Sadie barked in delight when Eli ruffled her fur, and gleefully gave chase when he tossed a stick. The fact that Sadie had taken a shine to grumpy Mr. Masterson shouldn’t mean anything. Sadie liked anybody who’d play with or pet her.
“She’s shedding like a big bear before she gets her winter coat,” Shauna tried to warn Eli in an attempt to discourage him from hanging around any longer than necessary. “You’ll get gold hair all over your suit.”
Eli strolled up the hill and Sadie lumbered up beside him, begging to chase the stick again. Eli obliged and Sadie took off. “I don’t mind. We used to have dogs growing up. I miss them.”
Seth opened the screen door and joined them on the porch. “Hey, Mom.” He kissed her cheek and hugged her tightly.
Shauna hugged him right back. “What’s going on with you two?”
“What’s he doing here?” Seth drilled Eli with a warning look.
“Mom has a friend.” Sarah extended her hand and a smile. “I’m Sarah Cartwright.”
“Eli Masterson.” So…Mr. Sarcasm could manage a friendly grin if he wanted to. “Good to meet you.”
But Shauna was just as interested in Seth’s bristling reaction. “You know Detective Masterson?” she asked.
“By reputation.” Seth stepped down to Eli’s level. Seth was short by Cartwright standards, a good six inches shorter than Eli, but his brawny wrestler’s build could intimidate if he chose to. So why was he choosing now to play tough guy? “You were in the break room yesterday.”
But Eli didn’t intimidate. “Did I give Detective Banning a fair enough deal to suit you?”
Seth reluctantly conceded to an issue that would remain a mystery to Shauna. “Banning had no complaints. So I can’t, either.” But agreement didn’t mean welcome. “What brings you to the house?”
“My house, junior.” Shauna chided him with a stern but loving look. “My guest. I had a bit of an accident in the parking garage,” she vaguely explained. “Detective Masterson followed me to make sure I got here safely, that’s all.”
“Accident?” Seth shifted his worry to her. “Are you hurt? Is the car all right?”
&nb
sp; “Fine on both counts,” she reassured him, squeezing his arm. She turned to Eli to shake his hand as any two professionals would do, to thank him and send him on his way.
But making contact proved to be a tactical error. Apparently, even something as innocuous as a handshake between them charged her pulse with that forbidden sizzle which disrupted her good intentions. Eli’s long fingers folded around hers. The callused pads of his fingers brushed across her knuckles like a caress, and she couldn’t help but recall how gentle those strong hands had felt on her face.
Get it together, Shauna! She quickly pulled away, remembering where she was, whom she was with and how she was supposed to act. She didn’t want her children questioning why an Internal Affairs officer had followed her home. And considering Sarah’s wink-wink notice of their tall, dark and cynically handsome guest, Shauna didn’t want them questioning anything else, either.
“As you can see, the troops are here. I’m in good hands,” Shauna said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Keep it professional, she silently begged. Eli delivered. “Ma’am.”
“Good night, Detective.”
“’Night, boss lady.”
Shauna didn’t know whether to grin or protest at the sly use of the irreverent nickname that was beginning to feel like a coded…endearment?
No, no, no! Her rusty signals were getting crossed. She needed to call him on it.
But he was already striding to his car, the dog trailing behind him with her stick.
“Sadie! Here, girl.” Seth’s shrill whistle prevented Shauna from saying anything. By the time Sadie had launched herself back into the house, Eli was in his Blazer, and the black vehicle had disappeared into the blacker night.
Shauna should be feeling relief. But the tension that left with Eli was replaced by a different kind. One where she was alone again, and unseen eyes were watching.
“Mom?”
But she wasn’t alone.
“Long day.” That was all the explanation it took to erase the frown on Sarah’s face. With Seth’s mood still curiously dark, Shauna linked arms with her son and daughter and urged them after Sadie. Inside the privacy of her newly built Tudor home on the southeast edge of Kansas City, Shauna could shed the rules and regs that governed her professional life and simply relax and be a mom. “So—tell me what this is about. You two don’t both show up in the middle of the week unless there’s something going on.”
“I wanted to have a family meeting.” Seth tempered the seriousness of that announcement by adding, “I missed dinner tonight, and I figured your leftovers would taste better than Sarah’s—”
“Hey!”
“—so she agreed to meet me here so I could talk to both of you at once.”
“Family meeting, huh?” Shauna led them to the kitchen table where they’d sat together and shared meals and conversations on and off for the twenty-six years she’d been blessed with her twins. The table was one of the few things that hadn’t been pawned or repossessed or auctioned off during her marriage to Austin, and it remained the heart of any Cartwright gathering. “Make yourselves at home. Let me change out of these clothes and then we’ll see what falls out of the fridge.”
Two hours later, the family mood was much grimmer by the time the three of them, along with Sadie, were washing up the dishes.
“I might not be able to check in as often as I’d like,” Seth explained, setting the last plate in the cabinet. “But I’ll bow out of the assignment if you guys need me.”
He was referring to her accident at the garage, to Eli’s visit, to the strains and demands of her job as commissioner. She couldn’t let Seth’s overdeveloped sense of being the man of the family, in place of his absent father, keep him from doing his job. She’d known this day was coming, that undercover work had been a goal of Seth’s from the day he’d walked through the police academy doors.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she reassured him with a conviction the mother in her couldn’t quite feel. “We’ll be fine. Why does Captain Taylor think you’re the man for this undercover assignment?”
“Coop and I volunteered. We’re vice squad now, Mom.”
Sarah gathered the damp towels and hung them on the stove handle. “What does that mean, exactly? Vice. Are you going to be going after prostitutes? Drug dealers?”
“I’ll be working down at one of the casinos on the river.”
Shauna sank into a chair. Even Sarah’s sisterly teasing stopped.
“Gambling?” Shauna whispered. She could quote statistics on the exponential rise in crime since the casinos had opened. Burglaries and muggings. Scams. Illegal gaming. Murder. But it was a vice that had touched her family much more personally. The addiction had destroyed her marriage and turned her children’s lives upside down.
“Right now, I just got hired on as a bouncer for one of the clubs.” He took her hand and sat in the chair across from her. “Would it make you feel any better if I told you we’re investigating possible underworld connections? I may never have to get close to the tables at all.” Shauna rolled her eyes. He knew that motherly glare. “I didn’t think so.”
“I knew I hated you becoming a cop.” Sarah walked up and gave her brother a hug.
He pulled her onto his knee and squeezed her tight. “Hey. I’ll be all right. Coop and I have been training for this. And you know I know my way around the casino—as many times as I’ve been in there to pull Dad out.”
Shauna’s heart squeezed with guilt. It was bad enough when her ex hit their children up for money. But if Austin Cartwright had done anything to jeopardize Seth’s safety… “Does this assignment have anything to do with your father?”
“You know I can’t go into detail, Mom. The less you know, the safer you and Sarah will be.”
There was something more. But Seth couldn’t say. And she couldn’t ask. She couldn’t even call Mitch Taylor and demand what danger he’d placed her son in. It would be a terrible abuse of her power and an even worse embarrassment to Seth.
When Seth was ready to leave, Shauna sucked it up and told him how proud she was of him and how she trusted his ability to think on his feet and do his job well.
“My reputation’s gonna go to hell pretty fast, but that’s part of the plan.” At the front door, Seth hugged his mother and sister both, and gave them each a kiss. “I’ll check in when I can. And just remember, no matter what you see or hear, I love you. You three girls…” he included Sadie with a rub along her muzzle, “keep out of trouble and stay safe while I’m gone.”
“We should be saying that to you.”
“So say it.”
Shauna wrapped her arms around Seth and hugged him tight. The tears that stung her eyes were gone before she finally released him. As director of the police department, she wrestled with the knowledge that the men and women who worked for her put their lives on the line every day. She cared about their safety, felt responsible for the risks they took. But this time she was sending her own son into battle. “Keep your eyes open and stay safe. Watch your back. I love you.”
ELEVEN O’CLOCK was a long time coming.
After Seth and Sarah had gone on their way, and Sadie had paid the backyard one last visit, Shauna locked up the house, set the security grid and headed up the stairs to bed. Tired as she was, her achy body protested the thought of just lying down and waking up stiff and sore. So she put on a Josh Groban CD, turned on the hot water and poured bubbles and spearmint oil in the tub so she could have a good soak.
She had plenty of good reasons to pamper herself. Her son was going undercover on an open-ended assignment. That meant something deep, something long-term, something dangerous—more than enough to give a mother nightmares. Yours Truly had sent her another threat. Eli Masterson had discovered those threats. His disregard for the chain of command was getting under her skin. Eli Masterson was getting under her skin, period. Each touch, each verbal sparring match, kindled something closer to desire than annoyance.
&nbs
p; With the minty steam filling her nose and taking the edge off her anxiety, Shauna stripped off her silk robe and stepped into the luxurious bath. Her ouchy knees protested as she sank in up to her shoulders, but then the warmth gradually began to soothe the scrapes and bruises, and Shauna gave herself permission to close her eyes and relax.
Her day couldn’t get any worse.
She almost laughed when the phone rang.
Served her right for dropping her guard, for pretending the stress could go away.
By the third ring, she was done debating whether or not to let it go to the machine. If it was Eli or Michael Garner, they’d only show up in person if she didn’t answer. Shauna climbed out into the cold shock of air as bubbles and water slicked off her steamy skin. If it was Seth… No, she wouldn’t go there. Besides, he hadn’t been gone long enough to get himself into trouble. She hoped. Bypassing the towel, she pulled on her robe and hurried into the bedroom.
And if it was him…
Shauna paused and stared at the caller ID. Out of area. The wet silk was sticky on her skin as she tugged it together at her neck and tried to ward off a sudden chill.
No way. Yours Truly clung to the anonymity of a piece of paper. He lived in the shadows of her world, neither seen nor heard. He wouldn’t have the guts to call.
With that thought wavering inside her head, she picked up the phone beside her bed. “Commissioner Cartwright.”
“Shauna, sweetheart.”
Faulty deduction. Her day could get worse. She should have ducked under the bubbles and let the dog answer.
“Austin. It’s late.”
“I know, babe.” Her ex-husband sounded pleased that she could still recognize the sound of his voice. “But this is too important. I need to see you. Tonight.”
Chapter Five
Shauna couldn’t believe she was standing at her front door in her nightgown and robe, hanging on to the dog so she wouldn’t bolt out into the night, having this discussion with her ex-husband. “I asked you not to come over.”
