“You were perfect.” He whispered the words in her ear.
She was the perfect sub? Or the perfect bait?
She didn’t ask, but wondered all the while who had been watching them.
Chapter Eight
Derek shook his head as he refused a second cup of coffee. Maia frowned at him, her eyes widening.
“Are you sure? You’ve only had one. You usually drink four or five cups before noon. Are you on some weird cleanse?” She kept the coffee for herself, but stared at him, suspicion plain in her eyes.
“I don’t need it. I only drink that crap for the caffeine.” He actually didn’t love the taste, but he needed to wake up usually. He turned back to the door, hoping Karina would waltz back in and save him. No such luck. He’d been left alone in the McKay-Taggart conference room with his ex-wife, the two Texas Rangers, and their insanely obnoxious forensics guy who apparently had exciting news about old e-mails.
He didn’t need coffee. He needed a beer.
Maia sank into her seat, her perfect nails drumming along the tabletop. “I know. You don’t sleep well. Did you finally give in and get a prescription?”
He felt a slow smile slide across his face. He didn’t need a pill. He had Karina. A week in Karina’s crappy bed had his back aching, but it had oddly given him a more peaceful sleep than he’d had in years. He’d had the dream once more since that first night, but Karina had flipped him over and gotten him in a nice nelson hold. When he’d woken up, she’d been cool and collected and had calmly told him to go back to sleep.
Yeah, he’d turned the tables on her and had her screaming out his name in about five minutes. And then he had happily gone back to sleep. Fucking Karina was way better than a sleeping pill.
“I don’t want to know what that’s about,” Clayton Hill said, sitting back in his chair. “Is there anything to report, Lieutenant?”
Now it was Derek’s turn to frown. While he’d settled into a weirdly comfortable domesticity with Karina, they had gotten nowhere on the case front. “We went to the club four of the five nights it was open. She wasn’t even accosted by anyone but a drunk kid outside the building. I even left her alone for an hour on the last night.”
“Did you?” Harris asked. “Because I’m betting you simply took a step back and then loomed over her like a predatory hawk. I saw the tapes from the feed. Your version of letting her be on her own is to walk a step behind her.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to totally walk away,” he grumbled under his breath because there was some truth to Harris’s words. He and Karina had a long argument when she realized he’d never really walked away. What had she expected him to do? Take a break while there was a killer stalking her?
Hill shook his head. “I can’t blame you for that.”
“I can,” Maia said, her temper obviously on a short leash, but there was nothing new in that. “You’re letting this asshole get away because you want to get laid, Derek. She’s not fragile. She’s a tough bitch. She can handle this guy. Look, I let you put O’Donnell and Taggart the Lesser Ass on this. Use them or I’ll pull you from this case.”
“I don’t think that’s really in your purview,” Hill said laconically. He yawned as though the whole argument bored him.
Watts rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I think your part comes later, Ms. Brighton.”
God, he wished she’d changed her damn name.
“My part comes never if Derek doesn’t do his job,” she shot back.
“I’m with the Ice Queen,” Harris said. “The lieutenant is thinking with his dick. That would be fine if his dick had a high IQ. We’re going to lose this guy if we don’t dangle the bait a little harder.”
“I don’t know about that,” Eve said as she walked in the room, following her husband. She was the reason they were meeting at McKay-Taggart rather than in his office or the Grand Prairie Ranger office. Eve sat down when Alex held her chair out and immediately got to the point. “I don’t think having a male around is going to scare this killer off. He’s not swayed by opportunity. He’s goal oriented. He won’t give up because she’s suddenly got a boyfriend. I actually think it will make him work harder.”
Hill sat up, giving Eve his full attention. “You don’t think we should make Ms. Mills a bigger target?”
“I think he’s picked his target and he won’t be swayed,” Eve said.
Alex sat down beside his wife. He was dressed in a suit, an odd sight since Alex McKay tended to be a bit more casual. He and his wife were both dressed for some sort of business meeting. “The worry is that he’ll be patient. The longer he waits, the more you and Karina will tend to let your guard down. I want you to really think about this. How does this work if he waits a month? Two months? Six months?”