Not that he would ever soften for her.
She could stare at him for hours and it was all right because he avoided her.
Except this time his eyes came up. Brown eyes that always seemed so cold now heated as he stopped and stared at her, his eyes going from hers to her breasts and hips in a bold assessment and then right back to lock stares with her.
A challenge. She felt a little huff of breath leave her and then she averted her eyes out of habit. He was staring at her the way a Dom would when sizing up a sub, and she’d been trained on how to act. She caught the hint of a smirk hit his face and then turned from him.
She didn’t have to take that from him. He wasn’t her Dom and he never would be.
“Hey, guys. What’s up?” She asked the question casually, but suspicion was creeping into her brain. Why had she been brought to the police station if Big Tag wanted a meeting? He typically just called her private cell and told her to get her ass to a place of his choosing and then he bitched that she overcharged him and asked when she was going to implement a coupon program.
Would he send in Alex McKay to let her know he wouldn’t do business with her anymore? Tag always seemed like a man who would do his own dirty work.
Eve walked straight up to her and threw her arms around her, hugging her tight.
Karina understood the value of a hug. She immediately opened her arms, not questioning her friend. Eve was tense, her whole body shaking slightly. Karina’s heart opened. She put a soothing hand in Eve’s perfect hair. “It’s all right, honey.” Eve was good people. “Whatever happened, I’ll help you. I promise.”
Alex came up, his green eyes kind. “Amanda King was murdered last night.”
Karina was the one holding on to Eve now. Amanda had been a sub at Sanctum. She’d been the troublesome one, attempting to be a Queen Bee. She’d had a hard outer shell Karina had never been able to crack, but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel the loss. She’d known the woman.
“You could have been a little gentler, Alex,” Derek complained.
But Karina knew there was no gentle way to deal with death. And she had a sudden suspicion of why she’d really been called in. How did he know? How the hell had the detective figured out she was working a case that involved a dead sub? Tanya Wilson’s mother had begged her to find her baby girl. Unfortunately, Karina had found the police report that led her to Jane Doe, who turned out to be Tanya. Sweet kid. Twenty-fucking-two years old. She’d been beaten and raped and her body had been dumped in an alley like she didn’t matter. Like she’d never mattered. Like she hadn’t hugged her momma before she went to sleep and led her high school debate team to a regional championship. Her life had been taken and pared down to nothing.
And Karina couldn’t accept that. Tanya Wilson’s great crime seemed to have been experimenting sexually in the D/s arts. A monster had lured her in and then made perverse something that should have been sacred. Karina had a five hundred dollar retainer with the promise of absolutely nothing else and she was on the case. She would find whoever had left Tanya Wilson’s mother in perpetual mourning for the child she’d lost.
She’d been very quiet about it, not wanting to tip anyone off. It had occurred to her to ask Simon Weston to work with her, but he’d been called away to London on another case and she’d lost her shot. She couldn’t ask the others. They were all married and she loved their wives. She couldn’t pull the husbands away. And she sure as hell wouldn’t ask the lieutenant. He would just as likely toss her ass in jail as work with her.
Was he going to do that now?
A man she’d never met before walked into the room, and Karina’s eyes widened. Stetson hat. Pressed blue jeans. Bolo tie over a dress shirt.
Damn. The Rangers were involved. If they were involved, it meant she’d been on the right track all along.
“It’s a serial case. Shit.” She flushed a little, stepping to Eve’s side. “I’m sorry to have cursed, sir.”
Derek Brighton’s eyes flared. “You’ve never been sorry before.”
Had he thought she was talking to him? She hadn’t meant Sir, but rather had simply meant to be polite to the baddest ass in the room. If there was one thing she’d learned since she’d moved to Texas, it was to respect the highest authority in law enforcement. “I was talking to the Ranger.”
The big guy tipped his head her way. He was a glorious specimen of masculinity. She put his age at forty and it looked good on him. “Ma’am. I’m Clayton Hill with the Texas Rangers. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Mills. I’m sorry it’s under such tragic circumstances. You knew the victim?”