Deegan stepped into the elevator, pressed the button for the garage level and the closing doors suddenly stopped and came back open. Kiersten stepped in. “Is this really the time to go on vacation?”
He shrugged. “News travels fast. I’m just taking a few weeks.” The doors closed and he pushed the button again.
“Didn’t you think the request would go through my desk?”
“I thought all the paperwork skipped you, but I guess I owe you a thank you for approving the request.” He inhaled and caught her scent, wishing he didn’t respond to her like a thirsty man.
She pressed the ‘stop’ button and the elevator came to a sudden halt. She shifted to stand in front of him, their gazes meeting and holding for three beats. “Is there a problem, Agent Cade?” He smiled.
“Where are you going, and don’t bullshit me because I’ll smell it a mile away.” Her gaze narrowed.
“A nice vacation,” he said.
“This is about the Steele case. Isn’t it?”
“I tracked down her roommate. RayAnn Mont moved back home to a small town here in Wyoming. Either way, who’d know Steele, and her habits, better than her roommate of three years?”
“You’re really dedicated to this case, aren’t you?”
He grinned. “Dedication is my middle name. And punctuality is my first. I’d like to be on the road soon.”
“Is that right? Were you hoping your little gift sent by messenger would persuade me to go too?” She tilted one hip and lifted her chin, her eyes turned a shade darker and she never looked sweeter.
“No. One thing you are, Agent Cade, is unwavering. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He leaned forward, brushing against her. Her bottom lip trembled and her lashes feathered across the tops of her cheeks. Did she think he was going to kiss her? Most importantly, why did she seem to want him too? Swallowing hard, he resisted the urge to oblige her and pressed the button. The elevator shook and moved, yet he didn’t. He was so close to her that he could feel her warmth permeating through his T-shirt. She didn’t even blink an eye, but the fact that her irises widened and that lovely bottom lip slightly quivered told him she was affected. Smiling, he took a step back.
The doors slid open and he left her stunned, but it wasn’t long before he heard her heels clicking on the marble floor following him as they crossed the lobby to the set of glass doors. “I called the detective working the case of the man shot in the alley. They have a—”
“Surveillance shot of the victim carrying a briefcase entering the alley but not coming out. There’s another grainy shot of a man entering and coming out carrying that briefcase. I’m one step ahead of you. So, I wonder what was in it?”
She smirked. “A dead body a few blocks from Steele’s apartment the same day doesn’t indicate they’re related. We have a victim dead that I suspect had stolen the briefcase and the man wanted it back as well as revenge for the crime.”
“That makes sense, but come on, you don’t really believe it’s that simple. You and I were trained that there’s never such a thing as coincidence.” She stared up at him, her chest rising and falling with each breath. “You’re standing right here because instinct is warning you something isn’t right. Come with me, Kiersten. I could use your skills.” And your company.
“I can’t just drop everything and go on some wild goose chase with you. You’re wanting to hunt down a woman who hasn’t done anything wrong except be the roommate to a woman who is said to have killed herself by overdose.”
“You can’t or won’t come? Figure it out because I’m going.” She just continued to stare at him and he shrugged. “See you in two weeks when I’ve found the answers.” He left her standing in the lobby as he headed for his truck parked in the garage. He’d already packed an overnight bag because he always liked to be prepared. Although the town where he was headed was small, even in a town of ten thousand people, someone could hide if they really wanted to. He wasn’t sure what he’d find out, if anything, but he was hopeful the ex-roommate could fill him in on some questions that he had.
*
What the hell was she doing? That was Kiersten’s thoughts as she pecked on the passenger window of Deegan’s truck. He gave her one of his appealing smiles and reached over to open the door for her. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?” he said in a thick tone.
She climbed in and sighed. “Is that you being charming?”
He laughed. “Not working?”
“Don’t be too cocky, Bronx. I’m just curious, that’s all.” She closed the door and dropped her shoulder bag at her feet on the floor. “This better not be a waste of my time.”
He steered the vehicle out of the garage. The sun was shining brightly although it was a bit cool out and she wished she’d grabbed a jacket.
“Cold?”
“Some.” She watched him flip on a switch. Warm air flowed from the vent and, within several minutes, she was no longer chilled. Sitting next to Deegan contributed to warming her blood.
“I won’t make any promises, but I have a feeling the roommate will tell us something useful.”
“Like what? How Annie liked her toast and if she was a messy roommate?”
He gave her a side glance across the bucket seat. “You really do enjoy busting my balls, don’t you?”
“I’m not a ball-buster. Just a realist. We have a few suspicions, but nothing concrete—especially nothing that should have us traipsing all over Wyoming.”
“Then why come along? I can drop you off at the corner here and you can be back in the office in fifteen minutes.”
Kiersten shifted in the leather seat to look at his profile. “I can’t tell you why I’m doing this because I have no clue.”
“Admit it, you sense the suspense in this case. You feel it in your bones.” He stopped at the red light and turned his chin to look at her.
She swallowed hard. Deegan Bronx might be her subordinate and that meant he was off limits, but he did something to her that she couldn’t quite understand. She wouldn’t fall for it, not this time. Her moment of weakness had passed and now he just infuriated her. He might be able to kill a man ten different ways, have the tracking skills of a human GPS, and look like a bad ass warrior, all things she admired, but he also had an ego the size of Mt. Rushmore. Nope. She wasn’t interested. “Do you have the video of the girl? The one you said proved she didn’t kill herself?”
He reached for his phone in the console, clicked a couple of buttons, then he handed her the cell. Kiersten watched the video, then replaced the phone in the cup holder. “Okay, I admit she said she was going to bed, but—.”
“Yeah, I know that there are holes.”
They crossed the city limits and everything became greener and spread further apart. She turned to look at the passing scenery as she cleared her mind. “Fill me in on where we’re going and what you know about the roommate.”
“Folklore is a small town about two hours from here. From what I can gather, RayAnn Mont grew up there and went back when she moved out of the apartment she shared with Annie.”
“Did she and Annie have a falling out?”
He shrugged and the arm of the T-shirt tightened on his bicep. Her eyes naturally fell to the toned, thick muscle and she quickly removed her gaze. “Could have been a falling out or could have been that Annie wanted her privacy.”
“This is ridiculous, you do know that, right?” Feeling a little unsettled, she reached into her bag for a stick of gum. The peppermint eased her queasiness. The doctor said the fertility drug could make her feel this way.
Deegan gave her what she gathered was his face of displeasure. His eyes were narrowed and his lips slanted. “It’s not and that’s why you came along. Have a little faith.”
“I was referring to it being ridiculous that both of us have other cases that need our attention, but here we are on a Monday morning heading away from the office and toward some town called Folklore. Let’s face it, you’re not doing this to find out if Annie overdosed. You’re doing this to help your friend.”
“Pfft. You don’t know me very well.”
She turned slightly to look at him. “Well, isn’t it?”
“Helping a friend out is offering him a place to stay or loaning him money. If I didn’t feel like this girl was murdered, I wouldn’t be investigating this case, and I certainly wouldn’t be searching for some roommate who probably won’t be the star witness to anything.”
“Sure, but Kline should be very grateful. From what I hear, he has his fans squirming.” Bracing her foot on the edge of the seat and propping her chin on her knee, she watched his profile. He had a nice face with high cheekbones, but the layer of whiskers that covered his jaw wasn’t regulatory, but a man like him didn’t follow rules.
The moment she met him she thought he was cocky.
And sexy.
She’d done her best to dodge him, but on those rare occasions that seeing him couldn’t be helped, she’d suffered through awkwardness and keeping her expression blank. Things had been extremely awkward between them, mostly because there was still a sexual chemistry that couldn’t be explained. She could handle this though. She’d reassured herself she could handle being near him, ignore him, and stay focused. They’d find this roommate chick, then head back home. Plain and simple.
“You don’t like Max, do you?”
“I don’t know Senator Kline.”
“If we’re going to work together, maybe we should clear the air.”
“Clear the air?” She picked at a loose thread on her shirt.
“Don’t beat around the bush, Kiersten. We slept together, but we can be mature adults about this,” Deegan said bluntly.
“Let’s not talk about this—”
“And ignore the elephant in the room?”
Kiersten swallowed, feeling her stomach in knots. This was a conversation she wasn’t prepared to have, and yet didn’t she expect that one day this would happen? She simply didn’t have a clue what to say that wasn’t obvious already. Reminding herself that she needed to stay cool, she sucked in a deep breath. He was right, they were mature adults. They fought the worst of the worst criminals, so talking about an impulsive night some two years ago should be a cake-walk. Yet why were her palms sweaty and her heartbeat racing?
Some of her concern must have shown in her expression because he shrugged and said, “Fine, but let’s at least agree to let the black cloud pass so that we can concentrate on solving the case.”
“You even saying that tells me you think it’s not possible for me to focus on the investigation,” she said a bit bitterly, but his words had caught her off guard.
He looked at her for a long beat, then turned back to stare at the road ahead. “Don’t take it personal but I’d like to think that every time we’re together you’d stop shooting me with invisible bullets.”
She laughed. “That’s not true. I think you’re imagining things.”
“Am I really?” was his simple response.
“We made a mistake and there’s no way I’ll allow any mistake to detour me from a case. If you had your feelings hurt…”
“My feelings aren’t hurt.” Deegan jerked the steering wheel and pulled over on the side of the highway. Cars buzzed by and all she could do was stare at him with curiosity.
“What are you doing? Let’s get back on the road,”’ she huffed.
“Not until you lose the attitude.”
“Me? I don’t have an attitude. Have you looked at yourself lately?” She snapped up a brow. He really was good looking. Dark hair and eyes that always stared at her as if he could see straight into her soul. The intensity made her want to take a cold shower.
“I don’t get it. You say that you want to forget that one night we shared, but then why can’t you get over it? Admit it, you still think about it,” he whispered.
And there was that same reaction. Her nipples tightened and her inner thighs quivered. How could he have such control over her body? She couldn’t remember ever being affected the same way by any other man, which angered her. Frustrated her. Interested her. “There’s that ego. You’re so full of yourself that you think that one night is something more than a blip in space. Rest assured, I don’t think about that night. If you think I’m awkward around you, it’s because I think you take too many risks and put other people’s lives in danger. So let’s not mix personal and professional, okay?”
He leaned in, so close that she caught his scent—sandalwood and leather—and could see a small white scar on his forehead. The brown freckle in his right eye. The thick, masculine curve of his bottom lip. Her breath caught in her lungs and her heart beat so fast and hard. Would he kiss her? Would he touch her? No, he couldn’t. They shouldn’t, but why did her stomach twist and turn? Why did she ache to be near him? Her eyes floated shut until she felt the strap of the seatbelt come around her body and she brought her eyes open at the same time he locked it into place. Her cheeks heated from embarrassment…and something far more dangerous.
One corner of his beautiful mouth danced with a smile. “Now that we have that worked out.” He sat up, shifted the truck into drive and weaved back onto the highway. “Safety first, that includes seatbelts. But again, you should know all about risks.”
Kiersten searched her brain for a snarky comeback, but her mind drew a blank so she stared through the window and concentrated on the scenery and not the sparks flying between them.
Two sticks of gum and an hour later, she was finally feeling the Deegan-effects calming some. If it was the last thing she did, she’d prove to him, and herself, that she didn’t want him…that much. She didn’t think he was the sexiest man that walked the earth or had incredibly strong hands and perfect lips. Or eyes that had the intensity of a laser. No…he was just a man with a badge who would be a lethal injection to her career.