ToServeAndProtect (12 page)

“I’m fine, but I can’t sleep.”

He sighed. God, she could picture him in her mind. All
those hard delicious muscles stretched out on the bed. In her imaginings, he
was on
her bed
, in this room—gloriously naked. The serve in
To Serve
and Protect
, didn’t mean her sexual appetite. Yet, he was what she craved.
Her pussy twitched and she ached deep in her core.

“There was something else I needed to tell you.
Elliot’s bank accounts are empty. I don’t have any details, but I have a
meeting with his accountant.”

“Good. Let me know what you find out.”

“I will.” The line was quiet. “I should’ve waited
until morning. It’s late and you were sleeping.”

“Yep, so what’s really going on here?” He growled, and
she closed her eyes, remembering the way his biceps flexed when he stretched.

“I’m alone,” she whispered, slipping down into the
sheets. “And I guess, with all that’s happened, my overactive imagination is
working overtime.”

“Is the alarm set?” His words sent shivers over her
flesh.

“Yes.” She lowered her voice. “But maybe I should go
to a hotel.”

“Would it make you feel safer?”

“I don’t know.”

Each breath he exhaled brought him into her room—into
her bed. “What would make you feel safer?”

Could she tell him? “I’d feel safe if you were here.”

“I’m not sure you should.” His rough, seductive
chuckle sent heat between her legs. “If I were there, your safety wouldn’t be
on my mind.”

Her heart tripped on a beat. “Is that a confession?”

“Do you want one?”

Fire
licked
her clit and her pussy clenched. She reached a hand
between her legs, slipped her fingers into her panties, and touched her damp
curls. “Yes,” she whispered and clamped her legs together.

“Our situation could become precarious.”

“I still want to know.” She slid her finger between
her pussy lips and grazed the hot knot of her clit.

“You want to know what? Whether or not I find you
attractive?”

She wet her suddenly dry lips with her tongue. “Yes,”
she hissed. “Do you?”

“You’re a beautiful woman. You call me in the middle
of the night and say you need me to make you feel safe. And you wonder if I
want to come over and fuck you?”

She inhaled sharply, a tide of desire swamping her.

“I do.” He groaned. “Shit, I shouldn’t have said
that.”

“Why? I want to hear it.”

“Because I’m the detective assigned to the Porter
investigation. Getting involved would be dangerous in an entirely different
way. You need me to solve this case.”

Pressure tightened her chest and churned in her
stomach. She pulled her fingers out of her panties. “I guess I should let you
get some sleep.”

“Call me whenever you need me.”

“Thank you. Good night, Detective.” Fatigue finally
weighted her body. At 2:17 a.m., the glowing red numbers on her alarm clock
finally faded behind closed eyes.

Chapter
Nine

A few days later, McKenna stood in the shadowed
shelter of the garage and peered out to the street before going to the curb for
the mail. The last thing she needed after a long day was a lengthy inquisition
from one of the neighbors. She knew they meant well, but the refrigerator was
starting to smell with all the hospitality plates of food she couldn’t eat.

One by one, she flipped through credit card
applications, grocery store door busters, and bills addressed to Mr. Elliot
Porter. She tossed the store advertisements in the garbage, walked down the
hall into the office, and sat down behind the desk. The message indicator light
on the answering machine caught her attention.

The first message was from Dawn. Although she needed a
reprieve from worrying, an evening out didn’t sound appealing. And whoever the
last caller was hung up before leaving a message.

Today she had sold her father’s car. At least now she
had money in the bank, hopefully enough to stretch until she located Elliot’s
assets.

McKenna booted up the computer and logged into the
Internet. The mail icon flashed. She clicked and waited while her account
uploaded.

The phone on the corner of the desk rang. Dustin
Pearce appeared on the caller ID. McKenna smiled, her pulse fluttering, and
picked up the handset. “Hi.”

“I thought I’d come over and tool around on the
computer.”

“It so happens that is precisely what I’m doing.”
Cradling the phone with her shoulder, her fingers clicked across the keyboard.

“I’m out front. Open the door.”

McKenna hung up the phone and went to the door.

He came up the walk, smiling. “Did you just get home?
I’ve tried calling a couple of times.”

“Next time leave a message instead of hanging up on
the answering machine.” That way she wouldn’t worry that some maniac waited to
pounce from the shadows. “I take it it’s your day off?”

Wearing cargo shorts, a short sleeve pullover, and
running shoes, he entered the house and headed toward the kitchen with a
Wal-Mart bag. “Yep.”

Dustin wasn’t nearly as large and sculpted as Tyson.
That didn’t make him any less intimidating…or less appealing. He had the lean
torso of a swimmer with strong shoulders tapering to a trim waist and calves
that could have been chiseled from stone. Definitely too good-looking. She
wiped her damp palms on her thighs.

He took a six-pack of micro-brewed stout from the bag,
grabbed one, twisted off the cap and handed it to McKenna. Then he opened one
for himself. “Look,” he said and leaned against the counter. “My job is to find
out what happened to Dr. Porter. I’m not going to lie to you. Everyone working
with the investigation believes you’re involved.”

“Except you?”

“Except me.” He took a drink of beer. “Mickey—” It was
the first time he used the name reserved for friends and family. It sounded
altogether different than simple friendship on his lips. “You need my help. I’m
here so let’s go see what we can find in the computer.”

“Okay.” They went back to the office. Dustin pushed
the high-backed, leather desk chair into the hallway and pulled the small couch
over to the desk. McKenna nervously licked her lips. If Elliot weren’t already
dead, it would kill him to see Dustin pull the antique couch with carved wood
Queen Anne legs and a decorative scrolled edge backrest across the floor.

Dustin sat down and patted the seat beside him. “Do
you have a cd-r, travel drive, or external hard drive? We should back up the
system first.”

She glanced over to see him staring at her.
Butterflies filled her stomach. Maybe she could sit next to him and not want to
jump his bones if he looked like the intimidating detective she’d met in the
hospital. This man, sitting on the small sofa, clouded her thinking and
liquefied her melting core. She sat down next to him. Whether Mr. Good-looking
or Mr. Intimidation, she needed his help.

McKenna had to lean over Dustin to put a writable cd
into the disc drive. Her breast brushed his arm. The contact tightened her
nipple. She froze. Awareness streaked down her spine, sending heat to her
pussy. Now wasn’t a good time to be aroused by the detective. Convince her body
of that. She shifted on the seat attempting to quell her arousal. Her breath
caught as her panties slid into her damp folds and rasped against her clit.

Oh, god. He noticed. His fingers momentarily paused
before continuing to dance along the keys of the computer. Windows opened on
the monitor. With a few keystrokes, he deleted insignificant clutter from the
hard drive.

McKenna didn’t understand the series of numbers and
letters scrolling down the monitor.

“How many e-mail accounts does one person need?”
Dustin asked.

“How many are there?” She slid in closer until they
were sitting hip to hip.

“Four.”

“One is mine,” she said glancing at his face. To cover
the lust simmering at the surface, she brought the bottle of beer to her lips
and put distance between their faces.

“I’ll need his password.”

McKenna’s lips sealed the rim of the bottle as she
drank her beer. Erotic images of her mouth doing far different things filled
his mind, causing a more personal problem. If he didn’t stay focused, the
problem
would become quite apparent. Not exactly a condition he was prepared to explain.

A battle raged between his head and his gut. He
teetered on the edge of protocol. There were two ways to approach the situation--carry
out his duties according to police procedure or make a choice his conscience
could live with. In the last couple of days, he’d proven he couldn’t follow
protocol. And he couldn’t be close to her and not want to touch her, kiss her,
and damn, but he wanted to fuck her.

“I wouldn’t know his password.” McKenna’s voice took
his focus from her soft kissable lips. “I assumed but didn’t know for sure that
he even had a personal e-mail account.”

Dustin leaned back and looked at the computer screen.
He knew he could get into the accounts, but it would take time. Technically, he
wasn’t on duty. The Porter case, McKenna, had become personal and he had to
keep Tyson and the department from discovering his conflict.

Perhaps skirting the issue of propriety, but he
considered himself an invited friend helping with a problem. He didn’t need a
warrant, right? However without one, he couldn’t remove the computer and take
it to the station.

And right now, sitting with McKenna, he didn’t want
to. Remaining physically close to her was important. For the investigation. At
the very least, for her safety. Not because he wanted in her bed. Yeah right,
he couldn’t lie any better than she could.

He clicked through a few more files. “Get another
disc,” he said when he came across information relating to Dr. Porter’s
research. “This is probably what his colleagues were looking for.” He tapped a
few more keys. “Nothing unusual in the recycle bin.”

“Are there any personal files?” She took a long drink
of her beer. “Lauren was my mother’s name. Grace is my middle name. Perhaps he
kept a file on us.”

“Dawn told Tyson about your childhood. It wasn’t much
fun for you.” He held his beer between his index and middle finger and let the
near empty bottle teeter.

“Dawn talks a lot for someone always telling me to
shut up.” Nervously, McKenna stood up and walked to the window, looking
outside. “You know how to read people, Detective.”

“Today I’m just Dustin.”

She glanced over her shoulder to him and smiled. “Do
you think he knew I wasn’t his daughter? Is that why he never cared for me?”
Crossing her arms in front of her stomach, her hands held opposite elbows. “If
he did, it explained why he wouldn’t let me call him ‘dad’.”

Dustin leaned back and stared at her back. “I didn’t
know Dr. Porter. I couldn’t say.”

“I look like my mother. So I know I wasn’t adopted. I
have a baby book with pictures. A curl from my first hair cut.” She turned
around and met his gaze. “There isn’t a single family photo since my mother’s
death. It’s thanks to Dawn’s parents that I had school pictures taken.”

“How did she pass?”

“Breast cancer.” She took a steadying breath. “At
least, that’s what he told me. But he’s lied about so much. I don’t know what
to believe. All my life I thought my mother’s death was too painful for him.
That he saw her when he looked at me. Maybe what he really saw was that I
wasn’t his.” She pulled back the curtain.

“There’s an old proverb that says you don’t blame the
child for the sins of the father.”

“The proverb may be true, but it doesn’t make me feel
any better.”

Fabric crunched beneath her hand. McKenna looked
closer at the material. Something had turned the fabric hard. “Detective?”

“Dustin. I’m off duty.”

Her brows furrowed as she scraped the hardened area
with her fingernail. A fleck of red drifted into the dust, visibly floating in
the rays of the sun streaming through the window. “Go back on duty. This looks like
blood.” She held out the curtain for his inspection.

Dustin went to her side. “I have to take this to
forensics.”

McKenna grabbed hold of the drapes and nearly dropped
to the ground as she pulled the entire curtain rod from the wall. Plaster
cracked and chunks of wall crumbled away. “Take it!” she cried.

“Easy.” He pulled McKenna into his arms. Tears shook
her body. Soothing and gentle, his hand went up the ladder of her spine.

She locked her arms around his middle, clinging to his
torso. “Help me find who killed Elliot.” Shivers broke across her flesh and she
trembled.

“I’m going to.”

“We’re wasting time.” She pulled back, wiped tears
from beneath her eyes, and walked back to the computer.