At Close Range (20 page)

“No way.” Seth floored the gas and aimed for a semilegal parking space, sending a trio of media types scurrying out of the way. “This could be a distraction, a plan to get you unprotected.”

“Seems pretty elaborate,” Cassie argued, but stayed put until he’d parked and moved around to cover her back.

“At this point, I wouldn’t put anything past our guy. He’s too smart. Likes the grand gesture too much. So far it’s been mostly small stuff. My gut tells me he’s planning something big. There has to be some reason he wanted us out of town for a few days. Maybe this was it.”

But when they pushed their way through the surging sea of reporters and found two beleaguered uniforms trying to clear the ambulance bays for actual emergencies, they quickly learned that the frenzy had nothing to do with the murders.

“Officer Cooper went after Wexton Henkes with her sidearm,” one of the uniforms told Seth, pitching his voice low so the crowding reporters wouldn’t hear.

“Something happened with his son and she snapped. Completely lost it.”

It took a moment for the words to register in Cassie’s brain, because they made no sense. Supercool, super-controlled Maya would never do something like that. She just wouldn’t.

Then the second half of the officer’s report penetrated. Something happened with his son. Cassie remembered Maya talking about the boy, Kiernan, remembered how she had taken the case so personally, how she had questioned the wisdom of sending him home to his family, even though there was no actual proof of abuse.

If something else had happened to the boy…

“Let me through.” She pushed past the officers, aware of Seth at her heels. Under other circumstances she might have found his presence soothing, strengthening.

But as she strode through the ER waiting room and headed for the main desk, his looming bulk itched along her nerve endings like an accusation.

She had been so focused on him, on trying to figure out what he wanted and how to get along with him, that she’d missed helping a friend.

“Cassie!” Alissa erupted from a nearby room. “Thank God you’re here!” She barely spared a glance for Seth as she grabbed Cassie’s arm and dragged her into the room.

Maya lay in a hospital bed, eyes closed, skin so pale it looked nearly translucent. Her chest rose and fell rhythmically.

Her wrists and ankles were bound with soft restraints.

“What happened?” Cassie asked tightly, afraid that if she let loose with all the questions at once she might explode. She wanted to reach for Seth’s hand for support. At the same time, she wanted to ask him to leave. He wasn’t part of this friendship.

Alissa touched Maya’s lax foot. “I’m not entirely sure. From what I’ve been able to piece together, Kiernan Henkes was admitted earlier today with severe injuries.”

She pressed her lips together, then continued. “Maya heard about it and she…hell, she went nuts. I wasn’t there, but I guess she drove out to Henkes’s mansion, used her badge to get inside, and then just…lost it. Wexton Henkes says she was screaming at him and accusing him of all sorts of terrible things. She had a weapon, and I guess he grabbed for it, they struggled and the gun discharged. Henkes had a slice carved out of his arm. He says Maya slipped and fell during the struggle. Hit her head on the corner of a marble table. She’s been out ever since, though the docs say she should’ve come around by now. They’re wondering if there’s something else going on.”

Nausea twisted Cassie’s stomach. Maya looked small in the hospital bed. Pale.

Fragile. Cassie had never noticed before just how thin Maya’s arms were, how narrow her wrist bones were. How had she never noticed that her friend was so delicate?

“Did the doctors have any suggestions?” Seth asked, his voice sounding too loud and masculine in the hushed hospital room.

Alissa glanced at him. “They think she took something—accidentally or on purpose—

that altered her mental state and now has her unconscious. They’re still waiting on the full tox screen. The alternative…” She paused, then said, “The alternative is that she’s had some sort of mental breakdown. Her mind may be keeping her from waking up.”

A chill skittered through Cassie. “That’s ridiculous.” But was it? Maya hadn’t been herself over the past few days. She’d been stressed and unhappy ever since returning from the conference. Cassie had attributed it to the murders, but what if it had been something else entirely?

Something she would have seen if she’d been paying better attention.

“Good, you’re all here” a new voice spoke from the doorway, startling all three of them. Chief Parry stood there, grim-faced. He glanced from Seth to Cassie and back. “You get anything useful from Fitz before the shooting?”

“A name,” Seth answered. “Anna Susie. Mean anything to you?”

“Not a damn thing,” the chief said bitterly. “And it sure as hell isn’t anything I can take to the media.” He cursed. “We’ve got two bodies, we just released our only solid suspect, and now this.” He gestured toward Maya’s motionless body. But though his motions were brusque, his eyes mirrored his concern. “Henkes is outside right now, playing the wounded martyr, telling the camera that although his son’s in critical condition and he has fifteen stitches in his arm, his heart goes out to Officer Cooper. That sort of thing.” Parry grimaced. “The higher-ups want me to make a statement. You three got any ideas?”

Cassie had some ideas, all right, but she wasn’t about to share them with the media, so she stayed silent. When the others did the same, the chief scowled, but didn’t pursue the question. He gestured toward the door. “I need Varitek and someone from the forensics department at the task force meeting in a half hour. The other tech stays with her. I want her guarded until we have a better handle on what happened.”

“I’ll stay,” Alissa volunteered. She nodded to Cassie and Seth. “You two should be at the meeting.”

Cassie had to force herself out of the room, had to force herself not to look back at Maya. Nerves twisted in her stomach. What had happened? It didn’t seem to have anything to do with the murders, but still…

The timing seemed too coincidental.

She and Seth backtracked through the ER and out into the waiting room, but stopped just inside the doors at the sight of the mob outside. “Maybe we should go out another way.”

“Good idea.” Seth gestured for Cassie to lead.

As Cassie led Seth to a side exit, she couldn’t get Maya out of her mind. The psych specialist had looked so fragile. So breakable. So she said, “Once we’ve got this case closed, I hope you’ll be able to stick around for a few days. I could probably use your help with Henkes.”

Seth paused on the stairs and turned to her. Standing two steps below her, he was just shy of her height, so she had the strange sensation of looking down at him. The serious intensity of his eyes brought her up short and sent a chill skittering through her gut.

“I won’t be staying after the case is closed.” His expression was guarded, his voice laced with a thread of regret.

Cassie felt like she’d been gut-punched, not by his seemingly harmless words, but by the sudden suspicion that entered her soul. “What are you saying?”

The strong muscles of his throat moved as he swallowed. “I’m just making sure we understand each other. Things got…intense last night. I don’t want either of us to make more of it than we should.”

“You mean you don’t want me to make more of it,” she countered, feeling an icy wash of embarrassment and clutching disappointment spread through her body. “Wow.

That’s insulting. Just because I’m a woman, you assume I’m going to equate good sex with love, is that it?” Her voice sharpened because maybe some small part of her had begun to think past tomorrow, had begun to wonder whether they might have a future.

“No, that’s not it.” But the protest lacked force. “I’m just trying to be fair here.”

He lifted his hands to her hips and held her in place as though he had the right to touch her. “Look, this could get out of hand if we let it.”

A fluttering, panicked feeling pressed in Cassie’s chest. She knew this wasn’t the time or the place for this conversation, but couldn’t bring herself to end it, couldn’t force herself to step away from his hands and agree that yes, he was right.

Instead, she gripped his wrists where they braced her. “And why would that be a bad thing? Explain it to me, because I’m sure as hell confused right now.” She continued before he could answer, as the feelings built up inside her and spilled over in a torrent of words. “We like each other. We’re good in bed together. Hell, we’re even in the same field, so there isn’t any problem with the hours or the expectations. Why not give it a try? We might surprise you.”

The word we shimmered in the air between them like a promise. A plea.

But he shook his head. “I don’t want what you want.”

“Which is?”

“Kids. Family. Marriage. Any of it.” When she didn’t answer right away, he sighed heavily. “Look, I was the best husband I knew how to be, and it didn’t sit easy with me. I wasn’t good at compromise.”

“You still aren’t,” Cassie countered, “and for some reason that doesn’t bother me.”

She took a deep breath, trying to react with logic rather than emotion. She felt as though they were teetering atop a precipice, ready to slide down one side or the other, and her next words could tip the balance. “Look, I’ll admit that little Eden has me thinking I’ll want a baby eventually, but that’s the key. Eventually. I’m not looking for a husband right now and I’m not looking to start a family right now. Why not give us a try for a while?”

He cocked his head. “You’d do that, even knowing nothing would ever come of it?”

“Sure,” she said, thinking she could change his mind over time, or adjust her needs to suit his. “We’re both grown-ups, we can compromise on—”

She stopped suddenly, hearing herself from a distance, as though she’d stepped outside her own skull for a moment.

What was she doing? This wasn’t a compromise. This was her agreeing to a nostrings, no-future relationship when she knew damn well she wanted a husband and a family.

“Never mind,” she said slowly. “You’re right. That’s not what I want and I’m not giving in this time.”

He nodded, eyes dark. “You deserve someone who can give you the world.”

“I don’t want the world, I want you.” She stared at him, anger stirring in her stomach. “But you’re not willing to take that risk, are you? You’re afraid you might make another mistake, and then where would you be?”

He scowled. “I’m more worried about you. I don’t want to hurt another woman I—”

He stalled before saying the word. “Another woman I care about.”

“No,” she countered, “you’re afraid of hurting yourself.” Disappointment and the screaming, howling unfairness of it roared through her. She wanted to shout at him for being craven, to beg him to give her a chance. But rather than say anything more, she leaned forward on the stairs, leaned into the hands that still gripped her hips as though she were his lifeline—

And she kissed him.

She felt him stiffen in shock. His forearms flexed beneath her hands and his fingers dug into her hips for an instant before he muttered something deep and dark, and opened his lips beneath hers.

She tightened her grip and leaned into him, poured herself into the kiss, trying to imprint herself on his soul. The heat rose between them, tangled with the wild ache for sex. For completion. The need was sharper now, made more intense by the fact that she knew what he tasted like, what he felt like surrounding her. Inside her.

It was that very knowledge that gave her the strength to pull away from him, even as her heart split in two. Damn him for doing this now.

Damn him for doing it at all.

She stared down at him while both their lungs worked, both their hearts pounded in the rhythm of sex. Of love.

He pressed his lips together, but left his hands hanging at his sides, as though he lacked the strength to shove them into his pockets. “What was that for?”

“So you’ll remember what you’re missing. You win. It’s over.” She tossed her hair and hoped she looked mad rather than desperate when she said, “But if you ever decide you want another chance, make sure you leave your dead wife out of it. I’m tired of having three-way conversations with her sitting smack in the middle. You come to me alone or don’t come at all.”

She pushed past him on the stairs and forced herself not to lift her fingertips to her lips, which felt warm and swollen. Instead, she lifted her chin and stalked toward the exit.

She slammed the door behind her.

And tried to will the tears away.

Cassie’s words echoed in the strained silence as Seth drove them both to the police department. A three-way conversation.

Why had that struck a chord?

It wasn’t just because she had a point—he knew he’d let Robyn’s memory hover near them on more than one occasion. It was something else.

Something about the case.

He cursed under his breath as he pulled into the back parking lot of the Bear Claw Police Department. He was aware of Cassie’s stony, hurt silence and his own mixed emotions. Regardless of CeeCee’s opinions on marriage and second chances, he knew he’d done the right thing to nip his and Cassie’s affair in the bud before emotions were involved.

That logic rang false as he jumped down out of the truck and felt a hollow ache within, but he pushed it aside and focused on the case, trying to ignore the tense set of Cassie’s shoulders and his own desire to pull her close and apologize until her lips softened and she kissed him again.

Which would only put them back at square one.