“Who forgot you?” he murmured.
“Not me.” Tasha felt exposed. Why would he ask that? What did he know? Her past was dead and gone, buried behind her and forgotten. She didn’t want to talk about it. “I just don’t think it’s fair that these women fall through the cracks because either the cops are dirty, or it’s just too much trouble to keep looking. That’s all.”
“All right.” His voice was unbelievably soft. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“There’s nothing to tell!”
YATES WASN’T ABOUT to believe her when she was being so incredibly defensive, but now was not the time. She didn’t know him from Adam. They were strangers. Maybe someday they would be—friends. Yes, they would be friends, and she would explain what drove her to keep after this case long after most people would have given up.
The front door lock turned just then, and Tasha spun around to face it as though she were expecting a threat. Yates held up a hand, hoping to calm her down. “My friend Romero has a key. It’s all right.”
“Right,” Tasha said. She still sounded suspicious.
Romero and Cassidy came through the door laughing like a couple of teenagers. Yates marveled once again—for about the millionth time, actually—at the change in dour Romero since he’d met Cassidy. The man had smiled more in the last two weeks than Yates had seen in the previous ten years.
“Hey!” Romero said with a smile. “So is this the infamous Tasha Campbell?”
“Infamous?” Tasha raised a brow. She looked from Romero, to Cassidy, and back to Yates, obviously not sure how to respond.
“Yeah,” Romero continued. “You’re the one that has essentially broken into the police station multiple times to try and get a look at their records, right?”
“I suppose so.” She sounded so very careful. “But that’s only because they’re not being honest about the records that they actually have.”
“Believe me,” Romero told her, “I have no quarrel with the notion of keeping cops honest.” Romero was lifting his hands, as if in surrender. “I was just complimenting your initiative.”
Yates watched Tasha with amusement. The expression on her face was one of confusion, mingled with something he might describe as cautious appreciation. It was like she wanted to believe they were all being genuine with her, but wasn’t sure if she could or not.
“You’re a military guy, right?” Tasha said slowly. “Usually you guys and cops stick pretty close together. How come you’re not siding with the boys in blue?”
Yates wondered if Romero would actually tell her. To Yates’s surprise, he did. “Let’s just say I didn’t start my life on the right side of the law.”
Tasha raised her brows. “Juvenile delinquent who winds up a SEAL? You’re like a unicorn.”
It was Cassidy’s turn to snort with sarcasm. “Yeah, he’s a regular unicorn all right. A kind, sensitive guy who also knows how to kick ass.”
“I resent that you call me sensitive,” Romero said, his tone flat. “That’s insulting.”
“It was a compliment,” Cassidy insisted, wrinkling her nose. She made a ridiculous face. “What? Is my sweetie pie just so embarrassed that he’s just so cute I want to eat him up?”
“Kill me now!” Romero moaned, Cassidy’s exaggerated baby talk making even Yates laugh.
Then Cassidy gave Tasha what might have actually been considered a cool look. “Let’s just say that Romero here has no liking for cops who don’t do their duty, and bouncers that do. Or, I suppose we could just say that he has problems with authority figures.”
Yates realized suddenly that this was probably something that they all had in common. It was a tenuous bond for sure, but it was still something.
Chapter Five
Tasha stared at Cassidy. The four of them were all crowded around Yates’s computer setup. They were currently arguing about the best way to approach an undercover cop when they were nearly certain he was dealing either under the radar, or worse—with the department’s blessing.
Cassidy was enthusiastically proposing a ridiculous scheme in which she wanted to approach the guy and ask to buy some weed. Tasha was wondering how the woman had managed to stay alive this long. Tasha didn’t know why, but she didn’t like Cassidy. Maybe it had something to do with the way she seemed to look so pretty and so approachable without appearing to make any effort at all. The woman had waist length black curls and cobalt blue eyes that fairly sparkled when she was excited, and she was athletic and curvy without being clunky about it like Tasha often felt. In short, Cassidy was the sort of woman Tasha had been hating since grade school.
“I’m serious!” Cassidy insisted. “It will work. I swear. I’ll just specifically ask if he’s got any stuff with a lot of THC in it. I bet people do that all the time. They want the good stuff, right?”
“No,” Tasha said with a derisive frown. “People don’t walk up and ask a dealer, ‘Oh, excuse me, but can I buy some high THC marijuana from you?’”
“How do you know?” Cassidy sounded miffed. Her brow furrowed, and her lips turned down in a distinctive pout.
“Because I used to date him.” Tasha might have relished saying that a little too much. This Cassidy chick didn’t belong on any investigation. She looked—and acted—like a freaking kindergarten teacher or something. “He would sniff you out so fast you’d be dead before you finished asking your idiot question.”
Tasha realized she’d gone too far when Romero whipped around and pegged her with a hard glare. Oddly enough, Cassidy was the one who didn’t seem surprised. There was an actual smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
Romero pointed his finger in Tasha’s face. “You better understand something,” he began.
“No.” Cassidy put her hand on his and forced him to lower that accusing index finger. “It’s okay. It’s not like Romero didn’t spend the first week of our acquaintance constantly predicting that I was going to screw things up.”
“Yeah, but that was before I knew you,” Romero grunted.
Cassidy shrugged. “She doesn’t know me.”
Tasha shrugged right back. “I know you got yourself abducted while trying to get intel. Seems ridiculous from my perspective.”
“Really?” Cassidy cocked her head, still not even looking pissed that Tasha was rattling her cage. “So after you had exhausted every other avenue of gaining information, you wouldn’t have done something like that just to see if you could find a new lead?”
Tasha suddenly recalled her half-assed thought about getting arrested just to see if she could get access to the back of the police station. Perhaps she was being a little too hard on Cassidy. With a very unladylike grunt, Tasha nodded her head. “I probably would have been willing to sell myself up the river if I had no other leads.”
YATES COULD NOT imagine what Tasha’s problem was with Cassidy. Women were so odd like that. They postured and hissed at each other worse than men did. He glanced at Romero.
Check that.
Romero was acting as if he were offended as well. Great. That was just what Yates needed. “Hey.” He nudged Romero. “Go see if you can find this building. Scout it out and see if it would be feasible to try and break in tonight after dark to get a look at their files. If we can determine where the stuff is being shipped to, we might be able to find the threads of the money trail and follow it right to the Broker’s accountant.”
“So that’s the next step?” Tasha seemed very interested in their plans. Considering her recent attitude, Yates was beginning to wonder if she had a hidden agenda all her own.
He gave a noncommittal shrug. “It’s as good a place as any to start.” Then Yates looked directly at Tasha. “You and I are going in search of our not-so-friendly undercover cop. You think you can coax info out of him? Fine. Let’s go see what you can get.”
Cassidy and Romero left the apartment, still quietly bickering between themselves. Their exit left Yates and Tasha standing alone in the middle of his miniscule living room
. He stared at her. She stared at him.
Finally Yates pointed at Tasha. “You asked me before—let’s see, how did you put it—what is my deal? So now I’m going to ask you. What is your deal?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She said it stiffly, as if she really didn’t want to talk about this. He didn’t care.
“Yeah. You do. You were a complete bitch to Cassidy. Why?” Yates wasn’t particularly angry about Tasha’s attitude. He just wanted to understand why.
“She’s useless!” Tasha finally burst out. “Listen to her! She keeps babbling on about these ridiculous, overly elaborate plans that would just get her caught. You really think she’s helpful? Well I don’t. I think she’s a silly piece of fluff. Exactly the sort of woman I don’t want to be.”
Yates cocked his head to one side, trying to read her body language. There was outrage in every single line, but there was also envy. She was obviously jealous of Cassidy. Yates just couldn’t decide why. Cassidy was great. Sure. But Tasha had her own brand of spunk that had worked for her so far.
“Okay.” Yates held up one hand. “I don’t want to hear another word about Cassidy. Is that understood?”
“Yes, but…”
“No buts,” he insisted. “Let’s just get walking, and hopefully we can track down our dealer.”
Yates had almost referred to the guy as her ex, but for some reason the words just wouldn’t come out. He found the idea of Tasha being with another man to be truly distasteful. Why? She was a woman. It was likely that she’d been with plenty of guys over the years.
Odd, but his gut got tight thinking about that too. He needed to have his head checked. He was losing his perspective. Or something. Maybe he was just losing his mind.
*
Tasha indicated a dim alleyway between two industrial buildings. “That’s where Roddy usually hangs out. He’s got a”—she used air quotes—“‘job’ at an industrial laundry corporation in that building there. So he deals his product out the back door.”
Yates pulled his nondescript pickup truck over to the curb and shut off the engine. He gazed out at the buildings and tried to get a feel for the layout. It was going to take a bit of wandering around out there in the dark before he felt comfortable enough to just go pounding on the back door and asking questions. They needed to know whether or not this Roddy guy had backup, or if his department had him under surveillance.
Tasha started to get out. He threw his arm out, preventing her from opening the door and making the dome light come on inside the truck. There was no need to be in a hurry, although he got the distinct feeling that she was a woman who was almost always in a hurry.
She looked over at him. What he could see of her expression in the dim light appeared to be annoyed. “What are you doing? I need to go talk to him.”
“No. You need to be patient. We don’t know anything about this guy’s situation right now.”
“I know him,” she insisted.
Yates wondered if she always rushed in, and suspected that it was just part of her personality. “When was the last time you talked to this guy?”
There was a very long pause. “I don’t know? Last year maybe?”
“Exactly.” Yates gestured to the building. “So when you go waltzing up to the back door, he’s already going to be tipped off just by your presence. Let’s just hang out for a minute and see what’s going on around here. We should find out if he’s got backup nearby, or if there’s surveillance.”
“How can you know that?” Her skepticism should have wounded him. So why did he feel amused instead?
“Well, for starters, I can sit here and watch. Usually if there is surveillance going on, there will be signals of some kind. Or I can use this nifty little thing”—he gestured to the scanner on his dashboard—“to monitor the channels and see if there’s any chatter happening that applies to our location.”
“So you do this before you go into any situation?” She was obviously dumbfounded.
He snorted. “You don’t?”
“No.”
“Sometimes I’m astounded that you manage to stay alive. You know that?”
Yates wondered why he cared so very much about her safety. It was odd having her that close to him in the cab of the truck. There wasn’t a lot of space in there. The narrow bench seat put them close enough that he could sense her body heat. His mind wandered to thoughts of what it might feel like to stroke her skin. Was it as soft as it looked? Would she give a delicate little shudder if he gently touched the inside of her thigh? Ugh! Why was he already contemplating what it would be like to spread her thighs?
THERE WAS SOMETHING different inside the cab of the truck, but Tasha couldn’t put her finger on exactly what. The atmosphere had shifted. In fact, it felt like the temperature had started to rise. She felt hot. No. She felt achy. What was that about?
She squirmed in her seat, trying to focus on the back door of the warehouse where Roddy worked. Roddy. He was such an ass. Tasha would happily bet a month’s revenue that Yates would never treat a woman the way Roddy did.
From the corner of her eye she watched Yates lean casually against his door. With one forearm resting on top of the steering wheel, he seemed utterly focused on their task. She tried not to notice the tight, muscled length of his body, but she couldn’t stop staring. He was just so—virile. The guy was the best argument for a woman lusting after the best provider available that Tasha had ever seen. This was not a man who was too weak or ineffectual to protect his woman. He would never back away and leave her on her own.
If there had been a man like Yates around, I would have never… No. I don’t want to think about that.
She shivered.
“Are you cold?” he murmured.
She wrapped her arms around her body. “A little.”
Before she could get a protest out, he had grabbed her and pulled her across the bench seat. He put one arm around her, and hauled her up next to his body. The warmth of his heat was utterly intoxicating. The man was a like a furnace. It felt so good!
“Better?” he asked, his voice a tickle in her ear.
She swallowed. “I should say no.”
“But?”
“But yeah. It feels good.”
She wondered if he would read into that and wasn’t even certain if she wanted him to or not. It was so unwise to foster anything but a professional relationship with this man. There was no future in it. Tasha had no future with any man. Not really. She was damaged goods. The best thing to do would be to push him away and retreat back to her little corner of the cab. So why did she feel the need to snuggle just a little closer and soak up the glorious warmth that was seeping from his body to hers?
There was only one answer. Tasha had completely lost her senses.
Chapter Six
Tasha glanced at the display on her phone. It had only been ten minutes? Ugh! This was ridiculous. She was bored. Or rather, she had far too much time to think right now, and that wasn’t really a good thing as far as she was concerned.
She’d just opened her mouth to inform Yates that she was getting out of the truck to go in search of Roddy when she noticed a fairly familiar man striding down the street just up the block.
Yates had already spotted the character. “Is that him?”
“Yes.”
There was no mistaking the distinctive figure. Roddy was as thin and reedy as Yates was broad and muscular. In fact, Roddy looked a lot worse for the wear since the last time she’d seen him. She was puzzling that out in her head when she heard Yates curse in a low voice.
“What?” Trisha asked, frowning.
“He’s spotted the truck.”
Before she could even process that notion, Yates had cupped her face in his hands and slammed his mouth down on hers.
Trisha’s brain stopped altogether. She reflexively lifted her hands and placed them on Yates’s scalp. His shorn hair felt softer than she would have imagined. It tickled her fingertips and sent a thrill th
rough her body. He tasted incredible, like man and the outdoors, and something spicy she couldn’t even define.
His lips were so soft. He moved them against hers in the lightest of caresses. Then his tongue slid gently against the seam of her mouth. She opened for him, reveling in the sensation of his tongue exploring and teasing her in such an intimate way.
She had been leaning against Yates before. Now he was cradling her against his chest. His whole body seemed to contour around hers as though he intended to keep her as close as possible. The sensation was strange, as if he felt somehow protective of her. As though he cherished this moment instead of acknowledging it as a freak occurrence.
Finally he ended the kiss, pulled away slowly, tugging on her lower lip as he did. Tasha opened her eyes. She felt loose. Strangely relaxed and confused certainly topped her list of sensations at the moment. What had happened? Why had he kissed her?
“Sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t want your Roddy guy realizing that we were watching the place.”
Right. Roddy. Tasha had entirely forgotten the man who had walked down the street only moments ago. Or had it been hours? She’d completely lost track of time while Yates had been kissing her. Nothing had ever felt so intense. And yet she needed to be steering in the opposite direction. Getting involved with Yates was bad news. In fact, it would be bad for both of them.
Tasha forced herself to focus on the situation and the moment. “Did he go inside?”
“Yes.”
“Have you picked up anything on your scanner?”
He pursed his lips. She couldn’t stop staring at them. They were so soft and pliant, and she wanted so badly for him to kiss her again. Ugh! She was a horrible weakling! Nope. He was not what she wanted. She wanted to be left alone to do her job. She just wanted to find those women. That was it.
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