Recipe for Love (Entangled Select Suspense) (13 page)

“Oh, gag.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I hope that’s not your most successful pickup line.” Her attention returned to the menu. “That has got to be one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever heard.”

Well, hell.

He pressed his lips together. Shot down in flames with a single salvo. This would never do if he were to keep the detective from making headway with her.

There were no other opportunities to grab her attention before Jericho pulled up a chair at their table. She glanced up at the detective with a dazzling smile.

Jordan burned with a mixture of jealousy and frustration. His mind raced to figure out his next gambit while he pretended to give the menu his undivided attention. He heard the scraping of metal on ceramic tile. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his rival scoot his chair closer to her.

“Hey, there.” Jericho leaned over and gave one of her auburn curls a tweak. “The flips were cute, but I like the curls better. Very becoming.”

Her cheeks pinked, her lashes fluttered down, but her smile was pure Southern belle. It held enough warmth to make a man’s blood boil with need. “Why thank you, kind sir.”

“You’re welcome. Have you ordered yet?”

“No. I’m still lookin’ at the menu.”

Jericho smiled at her. “I can’t stay long.”

Yes!

“Oh?” Jordan looked over the top of his menu. “I thought you wanted to talk to us about the email we received.”

“I do. I’ve got a team following up on the email just in case there’s something to it.” He looked at his watch with a slight frown. “They’re just a few minutes away across the skywalk. I told them to call if they found anything.”

“I don’t know what more we can tell you about the emails.”

“CSI will want to check your computers.”

“That’s not a problem.” She smiled at Jericho and glanced over at Jordan. “Is it?” She narrowed her eyes as if to ask if he had anything incriminating on his computer—unless food porn was out of bounds. If purses were her addiction of choice, his was cupcakes.

Jordan raised his hand to summon the waitress. She came to the table and gave Jericho a big grin.

“Why hi there, Tyler.” The waitress only had eyes for the cop. She practically shimmied with delight.

“Katie.” The detective nodded a greeting. “When did you start working here? I thought you were over at the Green Goddess Restaurant.”

“I was, but the hours are better here. This way I can go back to get my degree in hospitality management.”

He smiled up at the woman. “It’s good to see you. How’s Chrissy?”

“Much better.” A touch of color stained her café au lait cheeks. Katie’s dark brown eyes brimmed with tears. She blinked a couple of times to hold back the waterworks and gave them an apologetic smile. “It’s been a year now since the transplant. She keeps asking about you.”

Jericho’s face blushed at the blatant admiration. “I did what I could.”

Katie shook her head. “It’s not every day a stranger donates bone marrow.” She turned to them. “Chrissy was dying of leukemia and Tyler saved her life. He’s her hero and mine as well. Anything you want is on the house, my treat.”

“That’s not necessary.” Jericho shifted in his chair, clearly uncomfortable with being in the spotlight. He pulled a business card holder from inside his jacket and handed her one. “Write your address and phone number on the back of this, and we’ll set up a meeting.” He turned to them. “A donor has to wait a year to meet the recipient. It will be a year right around Christmas. Is there anything special she’d like?”

“She wants a kitten.” The tears welled up again. “The doctors said it wouldn’t be a good idea until we’re sure she’s in complete remission, and maybe not even then.”

The detective pursed his mouth in thought. “Tell you what. I’ll make sure to stop off at the toy store in Crown Center tomorrow. I have to be at the hotel for a news release, anyway. Maybe I can find something to take her mind off a cat.”

“Let me go with you.” Tilly’s eyes glowed with excitement. “I saw a white robotic kitten that has real fur, purrs, and rolls over to have its tummy rubbed. I was scopin’ out the shops before the competition. It was the cutest thing. I know it would be perfect.”

“Great.” Jericho wove his fingers through Tilly’s good hand and turned back to Katie. “How does that sound?”

“Chrissy would love it.” The waitress opened her order book. “Now, what can I get for you?”

Jordan fumed as Tilly leaned into Jericho while they discussed which pie to order.

Crap.

How could he fight a man who rode a white horse, saved children with a single bone marrow transplant, and wore a bulletproof vest? “I’ll just have coffee—black.” He pointed at the two with their heads together. “I’m off pie for a while.”

After the waitress took their orders, she gathered up the menus and left. Jericho’s gaze shifted from Tilly’s eyes to her injured hand. “I should’ve asked about your hand earlier. Are you doing all right?”

“It’s nothin’.”

“You sounded out of it on the phone. I was worried, but I knew you were in good hands with Kelly.”

There was nothing like being thrown a bone to make a man feel like shit. “I knew what to do. I was a medic in Iraq. It was clear she needed stitches, even if she fought me the whole way to the ER.”

Jericho nodded, his features filled with approval. “You were in Iraq? So was I.”

“Marines.”

There, eat that.

“Air Force. Flew Apaches.” The detective laughed and leaned back in his chair. “Crazy times.”

“Yeah, crazy. I patched up a lot of you guys.”

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for a medic. My chopper got shot down. I was lucky. Ended up with two broken ribs and some nasty cuts on my legs.” He nodded with approval. “I’m glad you knew what to do.” Jericho ran his thumb in tiny circles over the top of her good hand.

Damn, shot down in flames again. Jordan gritted his teeth at the small intimate caress. It said one thing loud and clear. Possession.

“Tilly?” The detective’s admonishment held a playful quality. “Why are you so stubborn?”

“I honestly didn’t think it was that bad.” She blushed like a girl on a first date. “Jordan was right. It took five stitches.”

“You should be in bed.”

“That’s what I told her.” He leaned back in his chair with a snort. “We took a long nap together after we got back to the hotel. I told her this would be too much, but she wanted to be here.”
There, let him chew on that one.
It was the truth—maybe pulled and stretched out of shape a bit, but it was the truth.

Jericho’s eyes widened with surprise, then narrowed. “You slept together?”

She blinked several times in rapid succession and caught her lower lip between her teeth. “It’s not what you think.”

“She was out of it from the pain-killer. I had to make her comfortable.” He separated the knife from the other utensils and gave it a spin on the tabletop. He whirled it with his finger when it began to slow and brought out the big guns. “By the way, in case you’re ever thinking of getting her a gift, she likes expensive lingerie. La Perla.”

The muscle in his rival’s jaw bunched and twitched.

That put a wrinkle in your tin star, didn’t it, fly-boy.
He wanted to jump up and do a victory dance. Instead, he rocked back on the legs of the chair.

“Jordan Kelly, you are just plain mean.” Her hissed words held a world of embarrassment. “I can’t believe you said that.”

Guilt gave him a nasty stab in the region of his heart. He had to tell himself it was for a greater good. He did the only thing he could do, he went on the offensive. “May lightning strike me if I’m lying.”

A loud thump and crash sounded behind the old-fashioned counter.

She jumped. Jericho twitched with speedy reflexes. His hand slid under his jacket.

Jordan slammed the chair back on all four legs and looked over his shoulder. He breathed a sigh of relief. “See, no lightning, just a cranky ice machine.”

“Don’t you believe a word of what he’s sayin’.” Her eyes narrowed, her gaze shifting to Jericho and then to him. “I know what you’re tryin’ to do. The pissin’ contest is gettin’ old. If I want to go on a date with Tyler, I will. I think he’s wonderful, so get over it.”

“Consider it done.” He held up his hands in surrender, but that didn’t mean he was about to let the detective get a foot into her bedroom door. No, but he’d honor a truce for as long as it took for her to eat her chocolate cream pie.

“I’m not perfect,” Jericho protested.

“Could’ve fooled me,” Jordan mumbled around a sip of hot coffee.

“I have an ex-wife who’d be glad to tell you every fault.” The detective’s face went still, his eyes closed off in spite of the smile. “She wanted to follow her dream of investigative journalism and I wanted to keep her tucked up safe at home. Didn’t work, and she’d be the first to tell you.”

The now familiar ring of the detective’s phone sounded from inside his jacket. “Detective Jericho.”

His eyes hardened, his nose twitched like a bloodhound on the trail of a scent. “I’ll be there in five minutes.” He ended the call with a tap of his thumbnail. “That was Officer Adams. They found a bloody knife just where
Tom
said it would be—in a trash can by the Information Center.”

He stood and threw a few bills on the table. “That should cover everything.”

…

Tilly jumped up. They’d come too far to be excluded from the investigation. “Please, let us come with you.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, besides, it’s almost one in the morning.” Tyler turned to Jordan. “Take her back to her room—make sure she gets some rest.” He started to leave, but turned back with a half smile. “You were right. They found a ten-inch chef’s knife. We still have to see if it’s the knife that killed both victims.”

“Wow, oh wow.” A thrill ran through her as she watched Tyler leave the coffee shop. “I did it. I was right!” She let out a girlish squeal and threw herself into Jordan’s arms, hugging him as hard as she could. “I was right.” It didn’t matter if her hand hurt, stabbing Porky had been worth a few stitches.

“Yes you did.” Jordan returned the hug. He tilted her face up and gave her a quick kiss. “Congratulations.”

She disengaged herself from his embrace. “How can you be so nice one minute and a jerk the next?”

“It’s a gift. Hero to jerk in sixty seconds.”

“Well, it’s confusin’.”

“And you aren’t?” He let out a soft laugh. “Matilda Jane Danes, you take the cake when it comes to confusion. Not only take the cake, but bake the damn thing, and win every prize in the book. You’ve given me a complex.”

“Inferiority?” She didn’t try to hold back a smirk. Pulling his chain was fun, especially when he got so worked up. He had to be the only man who could be so huffy and sexy at the same time.

“No, Don Juan complex. I didn’t know I had one until I met you.” He gave her a sour look.

“Don Juan complex?”

He shot her a sideways glance and jammed his hands into his pockets. “Yes, I thought I knew everything about women, then I find out I really don’t know squat.”

“I don’t believe you mean that.”

“Every word. I’ve developed a taste for shoe leather.” His mouth quirked to one side. “It comes in handy, considering my foot is in my mouth most of the time.”

“You’re pullin’ my leg.”

“Only if you give me the chance.” He grimaced and worked his tongue in and out of his mouth as if getting rid of a bad taste. “See, I can’t seem to stop it. I need a little salt and pepper to go with the soles of my running shoes. They may cost a mint, but they taste like crap.”

She laughed at the mental image of him using his Nikes for an appetizer. “A good Louisiana hot sauce would be my choice.”

His arm wrapped around her shoulder in a casual embrace. “Why don’t I get you back to your room? There are circles under those beautiful eyes.”

The simple compliment, even backhanded, made her heart stutter like Ruby’s old lawn mower. He didn’t make any moves to kiss her. She relaxed and enjoyed the feel of his arm around her as he held her closer against his side. She let herself indulge in the warmth and scent of his body. Her hormones cranked up, sputtered to life.

They had made it to the lobby and passed the bar when Austin Kenslo’s voice rang out.

“Kelly, Tilly. Hold up. I need to talk to you.”

She glanced around Jordan to see Kenslo hotfooting it in their direction. The man stopped and swayed on his feet before lurching forward.

“I’d say run, but it’s too late,” she murmured between her clenched teeth.

The ruddy glow on the man’s face said he’d been upside down in a bottle for the better part of the evening.

There was only one thing to do. Acknowledge him and get the hell out of Dodge. “Hello, Mr. Kenslo.”

“You two are out late.” He blinked and gave them a pie-eyed, drunken stare.

“And your point?” Jordan gave the agent his patented evil eye, but the man was too far gone for subtlety.

“No point.” Kenslo gave them a sloppy snap of his fingers and leaned closer. “Hey, I saw your detective friend heading toward the skywalk like his ass was on fire. Anything up?” Fumes roiled off his body in a tangible wave of whiskey, making the chocolate cream do a rousing polka in her stomach.

“No.” She took shallow breaths to avoid the smell of expensive cologne and booze. “Tyler wanted us to go over a few things, you know, legal stuff, before he gives a statement tomorrow.”

“At midnight?” Kenslo weaved closer until he was up in her face.

“Let’s go.” Jordan guided her through the lobby and toward the elevators. “We have an early start tomorrow.”

The agent tagged alongside, oblivious to the fact that he was unwelcome. She had no desire to get to know the man any better. “He looked like a—man—on,
hic
, a mission.”

“He’s basically on call until they get this murder solved. As a matter of fact he—”

Jordan’s sudden squeeze on her shoulder kept her from saying more. “Oow. What was that for?”

“It’s to remind you that Jericho told you to go to bed.” He gave her a smile and a chuck under the chin, but his intense gaze, and the slightest shake of his head, told her to be quiet. For once she listened. Everyone was suspect.