Lethal Attraction: Against the Rules\Fatal Affair Read online

  “I want to take apart that bill he was sponsoring, line by line,” Sam said. “Maybe I’ve totally missed the boat on this. I’ve been thinking jilted lover, but they don’t tend to plant bombs.”

  “No,” Malone agreed. “They tend to dismember.”

  “Which is why I’ve focused most of my attention on his love life.” Sam got up to pace. “We’ve uncovered a slew of recent ex-lovers, a few with complaints about some of his, um, fetishes.” She sent a sympathetic glance to Nick since he was hearing this for the first time. “But maybe Cruz is right. Maybe the Lorena Bobbitt was intended to throw us off.”

  “He was dismembered?” Higgins squeaked, his baby face gone pale.

  “A detail we’ve managed to keep out of the press,” Farnsworth said with a pointed look at his detective.

  “Yes, sir.” Higgins got up to leave. “I need to get back to the lab where it’s safe.”

  Sam rolled her eyes. “Run back to your cave, Higgins, and leave the dirty work to those of us in the field.”

  “You can have it. I’ll send you details on the EDs when I have more, but I can tell you they were crude and you got lucky, Sergeant. Damned lucky.”

  “Yeah,” Sam said. “I know.” She saw him out and turned to find every man in the room focused on her.

  No doubt sensing a battle royal in the making, Celia stepped into the kitchen.

  “Before you all get going,” Sam said, “I have something I want to say, and I want you to listen to me without interrupting.”

  When they agreed with their silence, she pushed her fist into her aching gut and took a second to look each of them in the eye—Dad, her hero and her rock; Chief Farnsworth, beloved friend and respected leader; Captain Malone, boss and mentor; and Nick, quickly becoming more important than anyone. All of them cared about her. She had no doubt about that, just as she had no doubt they’d go to any lengths to keep her safe.

  “I’m sure you two have cooked up a plan to toss me into a safe house for the weekend,” she said to her father and the chief, “but that’s not going to happen.” Before they could protest, she held up a hand to stop them. “I’m going to continue to work this case until I close it, and I’m not going to let punks or terrorists or whoever strapped an ED to my car and Nick’s take me off the streets. The minute they think they have that kind of power over me, I’m done on this job and you know it.”

  Pausing, she made eye contact with each of them again. “I know you’re worried, and I know you care. But if you care about me at all, don’t ask me to be a coward. I won’t deny that bomb scared the shit out of me.” She let her gaze fall on Nick. “When I saw your face covered with blood, my heart almost stopped. So I’m going to get them. If for no other reason than they hurt you, and that’s simply unacceptable to me.”

  Nick’s hard expression softened into a smile that engaged his eyes and filled her heart with emotions she had never experienced quite so strongly before.

  To Farnsworth, she said, “Let me do my job. I’ll take every precaution I can. I’ll run things from here, stay as close to home as I can, but I won’t hide out. I dare any of you to tell me you wouldn’t rather go down in the line than run scared from scum who think they can take us out like yesterday’s garbage.”

  A full minute of silence ensued, during which she noticed Farnsworth and Malone watching her dad and understood they were going to take their cues from him.

  “I’d like to see that immigration bill,” Skip finally said. He glanced at Nick. “I’m a political junky in my spare time. I might catch something in there we can use.”

  “I’ll get it for you.” Nick checked his watch as he stood up. “My staff should be back from Richmond by now, so let me make a call. What format do you prefer?”

  “A fax would work. We can pop it right into my reading device. I can see two pages at once that way.” Skip rattled off the number and followed Nick into the kitchen.

  “I’m going to go lean on the lab to speed things up with the boomer,” Malone said as he pulled on his coat.

  Sam was left alone with the chief. “I know what you’re going to say.”

  “Do you?”

  She squirmed under the heat of his stare. In a rush of words, she said, “I’m sorry I lied to you about Nick. But I was so afraid you’d take me off the case, and after Johnson I needed it. You know I did. I tried to fight what was happening between us, but he was just there for me, every step of the way and I, um…Why are you smiling?”

  “In some ways, you’re exactly the same as you were at twelve, you know that?” He took a step closer to her, the smile fading. “But if you ever, ever lie to me again, Sergeant, I’ll have your badge. Are we clear?”

  “Crystal,” she said, swallowing hard. “Sir.”

  “Get O’Connor cleaned up—and fast. I don’t want any more bad publicity for you or the department.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He called out his goodbyes to Skip and Celia before donning his coat.

  “Chief? Thank you for understanding why I have to do this.”

  “I would’ve done the same thing myself. In fact, your dad predicted your little speech almost down to the last vowel. We were ready for you.”

  “Well, sheesh,” she huffed. “Here I was thinking I’d handled you, and I’m the one being handled?”

  “You gotta get up a lot earlier in the morning to get one past a couple of crusty old vets like us. Truth is, we would’ve been disappointed if you’d done it any other way. You’re a chip off the old block, Holland.”

  “Thank you, sir. You couldn’t pay me a higher compliment.”

  “I know.” He glanced toward the kitchen. “You think about what it would do to him if something happens to you. It’d be the end of him. You think about that.”

  “Yes, sir,” she whispered as she watched him go down the ramp.

  CHAPTER 23

  With Nick outside on the phone, Sam went into the kitchen where her dad was reading the bill.

  She bent to kiss his cheek. “Thanks for the help. I hate feeling like I’ve totally missed the point on this one.”

  “Don’t know for sure yet that you have. Just because it’s taken a few twists and turns doesn’t mean you aren’t on the right path.”

  “That’s true.”

  “Seems like a nice kid.”

  “Who? Higgins?”

  “No,” he said grinning. “Nick.”

  “Oh, right.” She wasn’t ready to go down that path with him just yet. “So, hey, I hear you’ve been keeping secrets.”

  “You’re one to talk, and which secrets are you referring to?”

  Sam raised an eyebrow as she slipped into a kitchen chair.

  “Oh. Celia.”

  “Uh huh,” Sam said, delighted by the faint blush that appeared on his ruddy cheeks.

  “Well, I was going to tell you.”

  “Except you were too chicken so you got her to tell me.”

  “Something like that.”

  Sam laughed. “I’m happy for you.”

  “Really? You are?” His relief was almost as comical as his embarrassment.

  “Of course I am. She’s terrific. What would we have done without her the last couple of years?”

  “No kidding. Thing I can’t understand is why she’d want to shackle herself to this?” With his eyes, he took in his useless body, the chair, the whole situation.

  “She loves you. I think it’s that simple.”

  “She’s not in it for the house or the pension, in case you wondered.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Sure you did, because I’ve trained you to be as cynical as I am.”

  “Well, maybe it crossed my mind for an instant, but listening to her talk about you…she’s genuine.”

  “I think she is,” he said, seeming incredulous. “In fact, she wants to sign something that says she gets nothing, you know, after…”

  “Which says to me she should get it.”

  “See? That’s