Seeing Red Read online

  And in need of a doughnut.

  “Interesting and dangerous,” she said softly, drawing his eyes back to hers. “Asking me what I want.”

  It suddenly felt hot in the room. Was it hot in the room? He resisted the urge to tug at his collar. “I think it’s a simple enough question,” he managed evenly.

  “Sure. But to be honest, I want a lot of things.” She eyed him for a long time, then slowly sat in a chair. She crossed her mile-long legs, which left one sandal dangling playfully off her big toe. “Three cameras now?” She laughed and fingered a strap. “I still think of you when I see one of these.”

  Was she trying to destroy him? Her hair was loose around her shoulders today, and still could catch the light like wildfire. She had something glossy on her lips but no other makeup. There was a Band-Aid on a knuckle and a silver ring on her thumb but not her ring finger, and she sat there like some complicated mix of mischievous girl and sexy, earthy woman.

  His brain didn’t know what to do, but his body seemed to. And yet it felt odd to look at her, the one bright spot in his shitty childhood, the only reason he’d ever made it through high school, the first woman who’d ever held a piece of his heart.

  And then broken it.

  Jesus. If that wasn’t a mood wrecker, then the fact that she was looking good enough to lap up like a bowl of cream should do it. Lusting after her was apparently never going to change, which made his gut clench hard. “Just tell me why you’re here.”

  “Is seeing me that bad?”

  “I have a meeting in ten minutes, and my chief is breathing down my neck about it.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” She stood up. “Do you still do those breathing exercises I once showed you for releasing stress? Because maybe I can—”

  “Summer.”

  She let out a soft laugh. “Right.” She nodded, looking as if she felt a little foolish. “We’re not exactly still in each other’s back pocket, are we?” She backed to the door, that incredibly arousing belly ring glinting. But that wasn’t what got to him.

  Her deeply troubled expression did.

  Damn it. Damn her. “Summer—”

  “Look, I get it. You’re busy.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I didn’t mean to intrude.” She reached for the door handle.

  “Stop. Red—”

  At the use of her old nickname, she glanced back, startled.

  “I have a minute,” he admitted.

  “Or ten.” She smiled but it faded quickly. “Okay, listen, I’m sorry for the interruption, but it’s my mom. She’s not doing well. The fire really got to her, you know?”

  “I can imagine.”

  “She asked me for help.” She sounded bowled over by that. “Me.” She lifted her hands. “I’m going to handle all the paperwork for her.”

  “There’s going to be a lot,” he warned.

  “Yeah.”

  There was something deeply disconcerting in her tone. He alone knew the phantoms she must face being back in O.B., and he wondered how long she’d be able to handle being here at all. “You’re unhappy to be back.”

  He hadn’t meant to say anything personal, and she looked just as surprised as he that he had. “I guess I am,” she admitted, and paced the length of the room. “I’d rather be on a mountain. On a river. Anywhere else, really.”

  “Why?”

  She lifted a shoulder but didn’t meet his eyes now that they were talking about her. “I don’t know. It’s closed in here. Crowded. It’s not the same.”

  Well, there was a news bulletin.

  She turned and faced him. “Uncle Bill wants to get my mother and Tina into the warehouse to see the damage but they’re still being held out.”

  “I can get them in but after they look around, the scene will be sealed again. It’s a safety issue.”

  She sank back to the chair. “And?”

  “And…what?”

  “There’s an investigation.”

  “There usually is.”

  “Yes, but do you think it’s arson?”

  “Don’t know yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “These things take time,” he said. “You know we found an accelerant.”

  “Gasoline. Which is crazy.”

  “Exactly. That’s what makes it suspicious.”

  That was clearly not the answer she’d expected. Again she got to her feet. “What reason would there be for arson?”

  “Insurance fraud, revenge, blackmail—” He broke off at her wide-eyed look of horror.

  “You think that my mom and aunt—”

  “No, I don’t think,” he said. “I don’t think anything until the evidence tells me what happened. There could be any number of possibilities, accidental or otherwise. Employees, acquaintances, the vagrant…” She still looked horrified. “Summer, it’s nothing yet. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  She turned to look at the plaques and pictures he had scattered around, stopping at the corner wall behind the door to look at one in particular. It was a shot of him and his squad, drenched, filthy, and dirty, arms slung around each other as they celebrated the end of the horrifying and tragic San Diego County fires two years ago.

  “You asked me why I’m not happy to be here,” she said, staring at the picture. “But you are. You’re happy here.”

  When he didn’t say anything, didn’t know what to say, she turned and looked at him. “I always wanted you to be.”

  He absorbed that for a moment, but before he could respond, the door to his office opened again. Cindy, dressed to kill in a siren red business suit, still wearing her name tag from her position at an executive headhunter agency in town, came in and smiled at him, clearly not seeing Summer behind the door. “Since you don’t have time to come to me, I’ve come to you,” she said. “I’ve brought the lunch special. It’s called Sex On Your Desk.” She shut the door behind her, put her fingers to the buttons on her blazer, then executed a comical double take when she saw Summer standing there. “Oops.”

  Summer lifted her hands. “Oh, no, that’s okay. I, um…” She glanced at Joe with an indescribable look on her face. “Gotta go.”

  Joe himself sat rooted, morbidly fascinated by the differences between the two women, one so fully made-up and blatantly sexual, the other’s appeal more natural, somehow more genuine. Both women were looking at him curiously, probably wondering why he’d gone speechless, and he thought that tonight, for once, he’d have a new nightmare.

  Summer moved first, around Cindy and toward the door.

  Ah, hell. “Red.”

  Her hand on the doorknob, she glanced back at him.

  What could he say? And he couldn’t help but wonder, is this how she’d felt that long ago day, standing between him and Danny? Did she appreciate the irony? “I’ll contact you as soon as I have any answers on the fire,” he promised.

  “Yeah. Thanks.” She offered a small smile and glanced at Cindy.

  “I’m Cindy Swenson by the way,” Cindy said, thrusting out her hand to Summer. “And I interrupted your business meeting. I’m sorry.”

  “No problem.”

  “Cindy, this is Summer Abrams,” Joe said. “We’re…”

  Summer locked her eyes on his.

  “Old friends.” Which felt like both an understatement and an overstatement at the same time. “From school.”

  “Oh, that’s so sweet,” Cindy said to Summer. “I’m so sorry for my abrupt appearance, but Joe and I don’t get much time together, as he lives and breathes his work.” She flashed him the look that for two months had been giving him an instant hard-on, but now acted like a shriveling agent.

  Summer reached for the door again. “Okay, well, I’ll just let you two get to your, um…” She gestured to his desk. “Lunch.”

  He grimaced. “Red—”

  But she was gone.

  When the door shut, Cindy perched a hip on the corner of his desk and waggled her brows. “Ready to eat?”

  “Can’t.