Melting Point

by Debra Cowan

  Raw, searing hunger ripped through him. That one brief touch was enough to make him recall the feel of her baby-soft skin beneath his palm last night. The way that backless dress had traced every curve, set off legs that went on forever. Finally his brain kicked in. He cleared his throat. “Want to change before we interview Angie Bearden?”

  “Yes,” she answered quickly, the raggedness of her voice causing him to clench his fists to keep from reaching for her.

  He carefully got to his feet, dragging the heel of his shoe across the ice to reach the grass below. He helped her up, letting go of her as soon as he felt she was steady. “Think we can make it to our vehicles without a repeat of that performance?”

  “I hope so,” she said smartly, looking down at herself. “I don’t want to ruin any more clothes.”

  He grinned, the rush in his blood slowly ebbing. From her car she called to confirm Angie Bearden had gone into work today. She had, so he and Kiley agreed to meet in northwest Oklahoma City at the woman’s place of employment.

  Collier was glad for the break away from Kiley Russell. He had kept himself from kissing her, though it had taken more effort than he’d expected. The woman fired his rocket, but she wasn’t the fast-ride, hot-sex and no-strings type of woman he’d set his sights on after Gwen had ripped his heart to pieces. Kiley would want a commitment, and the last one he’d made had sent him down in a burst of flames.

  He couldn’t afford to be distracted by her, professionally or personally. She’d been the one to put on the brakes last night after that dance, but he planned to keep riding them as long as they worked together.

  Chapter 5

  Just after five-thirty that evening, Kiley strode through the front doors of Presley Medical Center carrying a small gift bag for Terra’s baby. Needing to update Collier on a couple of things about the case, she had left him a voice mail on his cell phone and a message with his secretary, Darla. If she hadn’t heard from him by the time she finished her visit with Terra, she’d call him again.

  After their interview with Alan Embry’s girlfriend, she and Collier had gone their separate ways. She’d managed all day to keep her mind on the arson murders, but her stomach had been fluttery ever since that moment with him in the parking lot this morning. She’d thought he was going to kiss her.

  There had been a moment, hadn’t there? Yes, she was sure of it. What she wasn’t sure of was if McClain really had wanted to kiss her or if he was just playing mind games. He knew he made her jumpy. What really annoyed her was that, at that moment, for one instant, she’d wanted him to kiss her.

  Even thinking about it now had anticipation jolting through her. But all she had to do to douse that fire in her belly was remember her dad. Roger Russell’s numerous affairs hadn’t hurt only Kiley’s mom. Even at nine and eight years old, Kiley and her sister had known their father was unfaithful. They didn’t fully grasp the concept until the day they had heard their parents arguing about it and their mom deciding to get a divorce.

  There had been enough hurt and humiliation for everyone. When Kristin was twelve, Roger had put the moves on the mother of one of her friends, and he’d hit on Kiley’s tenth-grade English teacher, to name only two instances. Whenever she and her sister were with him, their concerns were put second to his girlfriend du jour or his efforts to nab the next one.

  Kiley had once likened him to having the scruples of an alley cat, but on her twenty-first birthday, when she’d been called to bail him out of jail on a solicitation charge, she’d decided that even a tomcat used more discrimination than her father. She knew what it was like to live with someone who went from woman to woman, what it was like to have her heart and her trust broken repeatedly. So what if she wanted Collier McClain? It was only lust and she wasn’t going there. Her hormones didn’t call the shots; her smarts did.

  At the nurses’ station on the fourth floor, Kiley was directed to Terra’s room. Jack Spencer answered her knock. “Hey, Russell.”

  His handsome face was lined with exhaustion, but that didn’t diminish the megawatt power of his smile. She smiled in return. “Hey, Dad, is this a good time to visit?”

  “Sure, come on in.” He opened the heavy door wider, and Kiley stepped inside the room that looked more like a cozy parlor than a hospital. Dark wood floors and pale peach walls set off the tapestried drapes and love seat.

  Terra sat up in a bed in the middle of the room, holding a little pink bundle. “Hi, Kiley.”

  The new mother beamed as brightly as her husband. She was fresh-faced, her strawberry-blond hair pulled back in a neat ponytail. “Thanks for the flowers.”

  Jack moved up the side of the bed toward his wife, pointing to a vase of pink mini-roses set apart from a dozen other bouquets. “They’re the ones on the windowsill.”

  “I’m glad you got them. I brought something for the baby. What’s her name?”

  “Joey Elise.” Terra turned the baby so Kiley could see her little face peeking out from under a soft hat. “We’ll call her Elise.”

  “We chose Joey in memory of Terra’s grandfather.” Jack put an arm around his wife.

  Kiley knew firefighter Joe August had raised Terra after the deaths of her parents. “May I hold her?”

  “Sure.”

  Kiley passed the gift bag to Jack, then reached for the girl. She looked down at the infant’s little round face and button nose. Dark hair peeked out from beneath a tiny pink cap. “Looks like she has a lot of hair.”

  “Yeah,” Jack said. “I’m hoping the color will change to be like her mother’s.”

  “She’s gorgeous, no matter what.” The baby, smelling clean and sweet, slept soundly. From what Kiley could see, the little girl was perfect. And if Jack and Terra were any happier, they’d bust. “She’s a doll. When do you go home?”

  “In the morning, I hope.” The fatigue in the other woman’s eyes reminded Kiley not to stay too long.

  Jack pulled pastel tissue paper from the gift bag. “The doctor is supposed to come by sometime this evening and let us know.”

  “If I hadn’t had a C-section, I could’ve gone home late yesterday.”

  “From what my mom’s always told me,” Kiley said, “you’d better take rest wherever you can get it from now on.”

  Jack chuckled, and she glanced at him. He held up her gift, a teddy bear dressed as a cop.

  “A police officer bear!” Terra exclaimed. “What about the firefighter?”

  Jack grinned. “Obviously Russell has a good head on her shoulders.”

  “We’re always telling kids not to play with fire, Terra,” Kiley quipped. “I didn’t want to encourage her.”

  The other woman laughed. “It’s very sweet. Thanks.”

  “I tried to find one dressed as a firefighter,” she admitted. “But I didn’t have any luck.”

  “Probably because I got the last one.”

  Kiley’s heartbeat stuttered as she looked over her shoulder. Collier stood in the doorway, his face ruddy from the cold, his green eyes smiling. “The door was open, so I figured it was okay to come in.”

  “Yeah, do.” Jack met the other man at the foot of the bed to shake his hand.

  Collier’s gaze shifted to Terra as he asked affectionately, “Doing okay?”

  “Yes. It’s so nice to see you both.” Her gaze moved from him to Kiley.

  Collier glanced at her. “Hey, Russell.”

  “Hey,” she murmured. An image popped into her head of his calendar picture, that strong naked chest, the scar just below his navel. She sure would like to how he’d gotten that. And just how far down his flat, ridged belly it went. And why she found it so fascinating.

  He moved over next to her and peered down at the baby. “She’s little.”

  His breath washed against Kiley’s temple, striking a low hum of awareness in her blood, and she fought the urge to ease away.

  He reached over her shoulder and skimmed a finger lightly over one pink baby cheek. “Pretty, too.”

&
nbsp; Kiley was a little surprised. Most men she knew would’ve given the baby a glance from across the room. He took a step back, reaching inside a blue plastic bag and bringing out a bear dressed as a firefighter.

  “Ah, equal representation. I love it!” Terra took the stuffed animal and grinned at its miniature fire helmet and turnout coat. “How are things going with the investigation?”

  “So far, so good,” Collier answered as Kiley nodded in agreement. “We’re following up some leads. I just came from the training center. Everyone sends their best.”

  Kiley smiled, hoping the others couldn’t tell that her nerves were jumping because of the big man standing so close to her.

  Terra’s speculative gaze slid from her to Presley’s newest fire investigator. “Looks like you two are managing pretty well.”

  “Oh, yes,” Kiley said. “Just fine.”

  “Don’t worry about anything while you’re off,” Collier said. “I might even try to have the office cleaned up by the time you get back.”

  The other woman laughed. “Don’t raise my hopes, McClain.”

  He grinned and, just like that, Kiley’s knees went weak. Her pulse jumped into the red zone. Aaargh! She had to get away from him. Problem was, she needed to talk to him.

  “Is there anything you want me to do while you’re on maternity leave?” he asked Terra. “Now’s the time to get it on the list.”

  “I’m afraid you’ll hardly have time to breathe. Just give me an occasional update on our cases and settle in to the office. Make yourself at home. I mean that.”

  “Knock-knock.” A slender dark-haired woman in a white lab coat walked in.

  “Hi, Dr. Denton.” Terra’s voice was grainy with fatigue.

  The physician glanced at Kiley. “I see you have the guest of honor.”

  She grinned. “I guess that’s not for long.”

  The doctor smiled and took the baby, laying her on the bed at Terra’s feet and peeling back the pink blanket. She quickly checked the infant, then rebundled her as she looked at Jack. “Here ya go, Daddy.”

  The big man took the baby, cuddling her close, and Kiley blinked at the tenderness on his face. As a cop, Jack Spencer could be downright intimidating, but he was going to be putty in that little girl’s hands. Watching him had her throat tightening. He shared a look with his wife that sent a pang of envy through Kiley.

  The doctor lifted a chart from the foot of the bed and studied it for several seconds. “Sorry, folks. I need a few minutes with Terra.”

  “We’ll go.” Kiley smiled at the new parents. “She’s beautiful. I’m glad everything’s all right.”

  “Thanks for coming,” Jack said.

  “Yes. Thanks so much.” Terra waved as Kiley and Collier moved toward the door. “Come see us at the house if you have time.”

  “Sure thing.” Collier pulled the door shut behind him and started down the hall with Kiley.

  “Been here long?” he asked as they reached the elevator.

  “Just a few minutes before you.”

  He reached around her to punch the button. “That was nice of you to come visit.”

  “You, too.” He was too close. His clean masculine scent settled in her lungs, and the moment she’d been trying all day to forget unfolded in her mind. All of it.

  The hunger on his face, his featherlight touch on her skin, that dim-the-lights tone in his voice. She had wanted him to kiss her then. She wanted him to kiss her now. She wanted to taste him, to—Work. She yanked her thoughts back to the case. Her focus needed to be on work. “Did you get my messages?”

  “I got one on my cell phone. What’s going on?”

  “I need to catch you up on a couple of things.”

  “Okay.”

  The elevator door opened and they stepped inside. Just as the door began to close, a woman and a little red-haired girl hurried on board. A glance at Collier told Kiley he agreed to wait for further conversation about the case until they were alone.

  The little girl, who looked to be three or four, was bundled into a pink coat. Red-gold curls hung past her collar. She peeked over her shoulder at Collier.

  He grinned.

  With a dimpled smile, she turned, training her big blue eyes on him. “We’re up here seeing a baby. What are you doing?”

  “We’re seeing a baby, too.”

  “It’s my aunt’s baby.”

  “Oh, yeah?” He crouched so that he was at her eye level. “What kind of baby?”

  “A girl baby.”

  “My friend had a girl, too.”

  Her wide-eyed gaze shifted to Kiley. “You have red hair like me.”

  “Yes.” She smiled as the child’s attention skipped back to Collier.

  “Do you like girls with red hair?”

  He likes girls with any color hair, Kiley thought wryly.

  “Yeah, I do. Redheads are my favorite.”

  That flutter in Kiley’s belly was due to the elevator’s movement, she told herself. Not the morning-after rumble of his voice.

  The little girl looked at Kiley. “What’s your name?”

  “Kiley.”

  “My name’s Maddie.”

  “Hi, Maddie,” she said.

  “Our baby’s name is Petunia.”

  “No, it isn’t.” The woman with her hand on the child’s shoulder laughed. “Maddie heard my sister mention that name while trying to decide on one. The baby’s name is really Anna.”

  “Yeah, Anna,” Maddie parroted. “What’s your baby friend’s name?”

  “Elise.”

  The little girl’s mother smiled at both of them. “I guess you can probably tell Maddie’s never met a stranger.”

  Kiley grinned and Collier touched the tip of the little girl’s nose. She giggled.

  The elevator stopped on the first floor and the doors opened. Collier rose as Maddie jumped out with her mother and waved over her shoulder. “Bye!”

  “Bye.” He chuckled. “Cute.”

  He and Kiley walked a few feet into the lobby then paused next to the wall. The hospital’s glass doors showed it was dark out. A block of cold air hovered in the entrance.

  “Let’s talk inside. It’s brutal out there.” Collier’s gaze slid over her black wool dress coat. “How’s your leather coat?”

  “I think it will be all right.”

  “And your pants?”

  “They can be mended.”

  A corner of his mouth hitched up. “You’re not too big for the britches you’re wearing right now, are you?”

  “I knew you’d have some kind of remark,” she muttered, trying not to smile. “What about your coat?”

  “Already dropped it at the cleaners.”

  The one he wore now was long and black wool like hers. Beneath it, she saw the same navy slacks and white shirt of his uniform that he’d had on this morning. Kiley had kept her purple sweater, but changed into gray slacks.

  “Did you get any news today?” she asked.

  “I heard back from several of the prisons we contacted, but none of them have recently released an arsonist.”

  “Maybe one of the other prisons will be able to give us something so we can get a lead on that fake fireman. After we split up this morning, I checked Embry’s phone records. He did talk to his ex-wife on the night he said.”

  “What about his neighbors? Did you have time to go talk to any of them?”

  She nodded. “The neighbors to his east are a retired couple. The husband has been in the hospital since the day after Christmas with a broken pelvis and leg from a car accident.”

  “So they couldn’t vouch either way for Embry’s being home.”

  “Right. His neighbors to the west are a family, but they’re away on a cruise. No one in the subdivision was sure if Embry was home on Friday night or not.”

  Collier shoved his fingers through his dark hair, the front spiking a little. “Like we talked this morning, I still don’t buy his girlfriend’s story about him being with her the
night Lazano was shot. Have you changed your mind about that?”

  “No. I think you’re right. She’s hiding something.”

  He gave her an assessing look. “You were dead-on about her being in her early twenties, blond and built. We’ll call Embry’s parents in Kansas and check out his and Angie’s alibi.”

  “Sounds good. I also went by Sherry Vail’s house on the way here. She still wasn’t home.”

  Because Collier had tipped Terra and Kiley off about Vail filing a complaint against Lazano before she’d been fired five months ago, the two women had tried to talk to the female firefighter the day following Lazano’s murder, but had no luck.

  The filed complaint had been for harassment, although not sexual, which was what Vail had filed on Rex Huffman, victim number two. The woman had been interviewed after Huffman’s murder, not only because of the complaint she’d lodged against him, but also because Huffman had last been seen alive with an unidentified blond woman at a low-rent motel on the outskirts of town.

  Sherry Vail was definitely blond. And turning up her connection to Lazano, another arson-murder victim with a link to her, had sent Kiley to the ex-firefighter’s house again.

  “Her neighbor who lives across the street got a call from Sherry last night, asking him to turn on her water so her pipes wouldn’t freeze. He said she told him she’d be flying in tonight, landing around eight o’clock.”

  “Do you have to be anywhere for the next few hours?”

  “No,” she said warily. “Why?”

  He laughed. “Relax, Russell. I’m not asking you on a date. Let’s go get something to eat and stake out Vail’s house. She doesn’t live far from here. I think we should talk to her tonight.”

  “So do I.” She really did. It was just that seeing him bring that sweet gift for Terra’s baby, then watching him with the little girl on the elevator, skewed Kiley’s image of him. Which made her jittery.

  “We can take my truck,” he said. “It’s unmarked, so we’ll be able to go stealth.”

  Kiley wasn’t wild about sitting in a vehicle with him for any length of time, but she wasn’t going to let on. Besides, his truck afforded more room than her sports car. “That’s a good idea.”