by Rita Herron
Bailey glanced around nervously. “I wanted to make sure she was alone, that I didn’t barge in on company.”
Raul reached for his cuffs. “Right. Turn around and spread them.”
Bailey puffed up his scrawny chest. “Ask her, you jerk! Jenny will tell you.”
He wasn’t about to open the door until this guy was subdued. “Big mistake calling a cop names.” Raul spun him around, then snapped the cuffs on his wrists.
Bailey jerked against the restraints and yelled an obscenity. “Jenny!”
The back door suddenly eased open, and Jenny Madden poked her head out.
Bailey stamped his foot. “Jenny, tell this SOB who I am.”
Her expression registered concern but also irritation as she stepped outside. “You can release him, Detective Cortez. That’s my brother, Bailey.”
Raul growled. “You’re kidding?”
She shook her head, her lips pressing together in a thin line. “No, it’s true. He’s harmless, really.”
Raul hesitated. He wanted to run the guy in for being an a-hole, but he was already skating on thin ice with the doctor and his captain, so he uncuffed him. “Don’t let me catch you sneaking around anyone’s house again, even if it is your sister’s.”
Bailey gave him a murderous look, but he was obviously shaken. He started to say something, but Dr. Madden held up a warning hand. “That’s enough, Bailey. Go inside. Now.”
Her tone brooked no argument and her brother showed his first sign of intelligence by ducking inside.
“Sorry about that,” Raul said. “With a killer on the loose, and him sneaking around—”
“Understandable,” she said quietly.
He nodded, and they stared at each for a long moment, his pulse pounding at the way the moonlight glowed off her silky hair. She looked tired and vulnerable and for a moment as if she needed comfort. And those lips…kissable pink lips if he’d ever seen any.
Damn it. He did not like this woman, and he sure as hell didn’t want to be attracted to her.
Yanking himself back in control, he cleared his throat. “I stopped by to drop off those files. I’ll get them.” Without another word, he rushed to his car and retrieved the files. She was still waiting on the stoop when he returned, a slight breeze tossing the strands of her hair in disarray.
“Thanks.” She ran a hand over her forehead as if she had a headache. Probably due to that smart-assed little brother.
Not that he gave a damn about Jenny Madden’s private life or problems. “Well, I’ll let you go visit with your brother.” Still, he didn’t move to leave. Wondered suddenly why her eyes looked red as if she’d been crying.
“I’ll study the files tonight,” she said, “and try to get back with you tomorrow.”
He nodded, waiting to see if she offered anything more, but tension hung in the air between them.
Finally she arched a brow. “Is there something else, Detective Cortez?”
He had no idea why he hadn’t left yet, but that smarmy little brother of hers disturbed him.
A second later disgust filled him. She was a shrink, for God’s sake. And her brother was none of his business,
Schooling his thoughts, he handed her his business card. “Call me when you’re ready to talk.”
An odd look flickered across her face, then she gave him a clipped nod and shut the door in his face.
But as he strode back to the car, an uneasy feeling gripped his stomach. Bailey Madden was young, a smart-mouth, but surely he wasn’t dangerous, was he?
Yet Jenny Madden had looked tense, worried, shaken.
Was she afraid of her brother?
Chapter Four
Humiliation stung Jenny’s cheeks as Detective Cortez strode to his car, and she spun around, hands on hips to face her brother. Today had been hell, and now he had been skulking around her backyard like a thief in the night. No wonder the detective had handcuffed him.
She tried to keep her private life separate from her business yet Bailey was the thorn in her side. As soon as the thought came, guilt suffused her. He was her little brother, had suffered more than she had when their father had walked out. He’d desperately needed a man in his life.
“What do you want, Bailey?”
He shrugged, his black T-shirt emblazoned with a crude comment about women, stretching across his chest. “What makes you think I want something? Maybe I just came to visit my big sister.”
“Yeah, and you have some great property to sell me, too.” Impatience sharpened her words. “Come on, Bailey. Spill it. Are you in trouble again?”
A sheepish look he’d used on her all her life graced his face. She’d vowed not to fall for it again. “Don’t play coy. What happened? Did you get arrested? Have you been gambling? Doing drugs again?”
“I just need a loan, Jenny.” He jammed his hands in his pockets and turned them inside out. “See, just some cash to get me by.”
“I’m not giving you money to buy drugs.”
“But I need food.”
“Get a job like everyone else.” She paced to the bar in the den and poured herself a glass of wine. “I need repairs done. If you’re interested, I’ll pay you for work.”
“Dammit, Jenny.” He slumped onto the sofa. “I got an offer back in Charleston. It’s warehouse work but it pays well.”
As long as it was legitimate work, she didn’t care what he did. “But if you worked here, you could see Mom.”
He vaulted off the sofa, bouncing on the heels of his sneakers. “Why should I visit her? She doesn’t even recognize me when I do, much less hear what I say.”
“She does hear you,” Jenny insisted. “I know she’s trapped inside, listening and trying to cry out. We just have to keep reaching out to her.”
He threw up his hands, nostrils flaring. “How fair is that? You help her but not me.”
“I’ve helped you before, Bailey, but it’s time you help yourself.” She sipped the glass of wine. “I’ve had a hell of a day, and work to do. Now if you won’t visit Mom, then you should leave.”
“You bitch!” He stalked toward her and grabbed her wrist, twisting it painfully. “You can’t leave me hanging like this. I…owe some people.”
She wrenched her arm free. Bailey had never gotten violent before, but his behavior seemed to be growing more erratic. “Get out, Bailey. And come back when you can act like a human.”
Bailey shot her a murderous look, but a knock sounded at the door and he jumped back. Jenny froze, and inhaled a deep breath. Who was here now? She hadn’t been in Savannah long, didn’t know many people.
Trembling, she glanced through the sheers. Detective Cortez stood at the door, feet braced apart, body rigid.
That photo of him at his wife’s grave flashed back, and compassion mushroomed in her chest. On the heels of compassion something dangerously akin to attraction zinged through her.
No…she didn’t want to be attracted to this man. Not when he had so much baggage. Not when she had problems of her own.
Not when he hated her job and everything she stood for.
RAUL FISTED HIS HANDS by his sides, his temper racing as he waited on Jenny Madden to answer. He’d had a bad feeling about her brother, so he’d sat in his car for a few minutes deciding to make sure everything was all right.
Through the sheer curtain, he’d seen Bailey grab Jenny Madden, and he’d shot out of the car without thinking. No one abused a woman when Raul Cortez was around.
She opened the door, arms folded across her chest, her eyes wary. “Detective Cortez, what are you doing here?”
“I never left,” he said curtly.
Her eyes widened. “You were watching me?”
He glanced past her at her brother, who quickly averted his gaze and turned to study the CD collection on the bookcase. “I wanted to see if you were okay.”
“I’m fine,” she said, although perspiration dotted her forehead and her wrists were red. “My brother and I were just talking.”<
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“It didn’t look that way to me.”
A soft gasp escaped her. “Trust me, everything is under control.”
He stared at her, then brushed past her and grabbed Bailey’s arm. “Listen to me, you ever touch your sister like that again, and you won’t only end up handcuffed, but you’ll find out what it’s like to have two broken arms, then cuffs snapped around them.”
Dr. Madden gasped again, and Bailey turned white. “I’m out of here, sis. I don’t need this crap. Not from you or this jerk.”
Raul let him go, and so did Jenny.
But she turned on him, livid. “How dare you barge in here and intrude on my family.”
“I’ve seen plenty of domestic-violence cases, Dr. Madden, and this looked like one to me.”
“Then you misread the situation.”
He narrowed his eyes, saw a flicker of fear and some other emotion he thought was probably embarrassment in hers. “Did I?”
She clamped her teeth over her bottom lip. “Yes. Believe me, Detective, I’ve treated enough abused women that I won’t let that happen to me. If Bailey pulls that stunt again, I’ll call the police and have him arrested.”
He studied her, wanted to believe her. And he did. “You want to talk about it?”
“No. I can handle it.”
“Like you can handle the maniacs you treat?” Sarcasm laced his voice. “The sexual deviants?”
“Yes.”
His anger rose again. “You’re crazy for putting your life in jeopardy treating psychos who prey on women.”
She jammed her hands on her hips, her cheeks coloring. “I’m no more crazy for doing my job than you are. You put yourself in danger every day tracking down criminals.”
His gaze locked with hers in challenge. “I can take care of myself.”
She gave a sardonic laugh. “That’s right. You’re invincible, aren’t you, Detective Cortez? No one can hurt you or anyone you care about because you don’t care about anyone.”
Her words cut him to the bone. Anita’s face flashed in his mind, her eyes wide with shock, the blood pouring from her chest. His baby dead before it had ever had a chance to breathe life.
God help him, he hadn’t deserved them. But he’d wanted them with every fiber of his being….
Still, it was his fault they were dead. For that he’d never forgive himself.
Or the shrink who’d let the madman who’d murdered them go free.
JENNY SILENTLY berated herself at the pain that darkened the detective’s eyes. Pain she had put there with her careless words.
What in the world was wrong with her? Why did this man push all her buttons? Make her resort to fighting back when they should be working together? When she understood his attitude and had the professional expertise to help him?
Which was the crux of the problem. He didn’t want help or anything to do with her. He’d written her off without a chance.
A chance she wanted because in spite of her humiliation over the confrontation with Bailey, and Raul Cortez’s disdain for her job, the fact that he’d defended her had touched her.
She always took care of everyone else. Having a white—well, dark—knight charge to her rescue only heightened the insane attraction she felt toward the man.
Too bad he hated her.
“I’m sorry, Detective Cortez, that was out of line. I…went too far.”
His cold look made her shiver, his eyes scrutinizing her as if dissecting a bug. “Captain Black told you about my wife, didn’t he?”
She chewed her lip again, remembering that haunting photo. Though still broad-jawed and -shouldered, his face was more gaunt now, his cheeks hollow grooves in his sculpted face, lines of anguish creasing his eyes. “Captain Black didn’t tell me anything.”
“But you dug it up on your own?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Quite the resourceful shrink, aren’t you?”
“I…Detective…Raul, I only wanted to understand you. You blame the psychiatrist who recommended your wife’s killer be set free on insanity charges, don’t you?”
“It was her fault. If she hadn’t convinced the judge to let a maniac go free, my wife would be alive.”
“That thinking is not only emotional but irrational. According to your logic, I should blame every cop in the world if one is bad. And now I should blame the police for Judy Benson’s death because they failed to catch the killer.”
“Maybe we are at fault,” he growled. “We’re obviously missing something. But to call me irrational? I thought shrinks were understanding, not judgmental.”
A heartbeat of silence stretched between them. “I’m not your shrink,” she said in a quiet voice. “You, I, doctors and policemen, we’re all human. We all make mistakes, we save some, we lose others. Goes with the job.”
He gritted his teeth. “I don’t need a lecture, Dr. Madden. And you will never be my shrink.”
“Fine, I’m not asking to be,” she snapped. “But if you want to be effective, you have to find a way to let go of your bitterness.”
He squared his shoulders, towering over her, furious at her assault. “I do my job fine. But I can’t and won’t change my opinion about yours.”
Her heart ached for him. “You deserve to be happy again, to move on with your life.”
“My life ended two years ago,” he said in a tortured voice. “I only live to catch psychos like those you protect. And I don’t need or want you analyzing me.”
Emotions dried her throat. “What do you need?” she finally asked.
He stared at her so long she thought he wouldn’t answer. The intensity of his gaze sent a shiver of heat rippling through her, jumpstarting a fantasy journey in her mind. His wide angular jaw and that bronzed skin taunted her to touch him. The hum of sensuality radiated off him in waves. He was undoubtedly the biggest, most masculine man she’d ever met, and he had needs, fierce needs that were driving him.
His eyes flickered, turned jet-black. He wanted her.
Not in an emotional way, but his body craved release.
Just as her own begged to be touched. She wanted to see him naked, wanted to allow him to use her to make his pain go away.
God, she must be crazy. She’d never let a man use her….
“A good lay, that’s what I want and need,” he said with a chilling smile. “But that isn’t all. Justice. I want justice for these dead women.”
She jutted up her chin. “I would be a good lay,” she said, “probably the best you’ve ever had.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw, and he wet his lips with his tongue, drawing her gaze there. Heaven help her, but she wanted to lick his lips. Taste him one time. Make him smile until all that rage dissipated.
Thankfully, self-preservation kicked in. “But I can’t, won’t sleep with you,” she said, mustering conviction to her voice. “As far as your second request, though, finding justice for these victims, I’m completely onboard with that.”
His thick eyebrows rose. “Good. And for the record, I don’t need your pity. I can get laid whenever I want.”
She laughed, a hollow sound that she knew would score a direct hit at his inflated ego. “Right. Glad we got that out of the way. Now, if we’re going to work together, we need a truce.”
He stomped closer to her, eyes narrowed. “Oh, we’re going to work together,” he said as if in challenge. Or perhaps his captain had ordered him to do so. “But you are not going to get inside my head, Dr. Madden.”
“Jenny,” she said, knowing the first step to softening him was to personalize their relationship.
“‘Doctor’ is fine.”
“I can’t work with someone who says my title as if it’s a four-letter word.”
He hissed. “Fine. Jenny.”
She had to stand her ground. Lose this battle and she’d be forever cowing to him. “You stormed in here to save me from what you perceived was an abusive situation.” She paused, crossing her arms and straightening to her full height. “There’s more than o
ne type of abuse, Raul. And you’re walking dangerously close to the edge yourself.”
She’d struck a direct blow. He actually flinched. Then for the briefest of seconds, remorse softened the cold glint in his eyes, and he scrubbed his hand over his face with such a weary sigh she wanted to retract her words.
Just as she opened her mouth to apologize, he spoke. “You’re right,” he said, throwing her off balance. “My mother taught me better.”
The reference to his mother resurrected memories of her own. The morning, the decision to make a change with her therapy, her mother’s empty eyes. The loss…
Pain tightened her chest, and she breathed in deeply, refusing to give an inch. Knowing if she did, she’d never earn this man’s respect.
“So let’s start over.” She offered her hand, and he stared at it as if it was a venomous snake that might bite him. But finally he took it in his. A tingle of anticipation and desire shot through her, but she tamped it down. This man might be potently sexy, desperately in need of some TLC. But his heart was closed, and she didn’t intend to get hers broken.
RAUL CLOSED THE DOOR and leaned against it, trying to calm his racing heartbeat as he contemplated what had just happened. Dr. Jenny Madden had gotten to him.
He’d been half out of his mind when he’d seen her brother grab her, and then she’d mentioned his family, and…he’d wanted to run.
But he hadn’t. He’d stood there and endured her.
Because for some insane reason he hadn’t been able to drag himself away.
Maybe he was crazy. Needed help.
But not from her. Not the woman with those cornflower-blue eyes and those pink lips that she liked to nibble when she got nervous.
And as much as he believed he was right, that a shrink was responsible for his wife’s death, a seed of admiration for Jenny Madden had sprouted. She’d been professional today, had handled the crime scene with dignity, and her conjecture about the perp might be dead-on. She’d also stood up to him and her no-account brother.
And that mouth of hers was too tempting. So was that body. And when she’d shaken his hand, a bolt of electricity had sent his blood racing, like it hadn’t raced in years.