In Dietz’s world, Kane took everything. Dietz lost his sister in the fiery crash that took Leilani. A crash Dietz believed Kane could have stopped had he recognized Leilani’s drinking problem in time. Dietz also lost his job as acting police chief when Kane came on the scene, did the work better and won the Commission’s approval.
Kane understood Dietz’s rage, his sense of impotence. Kane didn’t like Dietz’s irrational behavior, but he understood it. But, it was time for Dietz to move on.
“Ted is in charge of this investigation.” Kane hoped pointing out the obvious might stop Dietz from going any further with this. “Did you bother calling him, or is this just part of your plan to frame me at any cost?”
“We’ll see how arrogant you are after a few days in jail.”
“That would require evidence, Dietz.” Josh wandered in with his hair sticking out in every direction, a T-shirt hanging over his sweatpants and his running shoes untied. “You got any of that?”
Dietz stood up to block Josh’s path to the table. “You’re not needed here. This isn’t a federal investigation.”
“Ted let me in.” Josh pointed at the two-way mirror parallel to where the men faced off. “Wave to Ted.”
Dietz’s obnoxious smile flat lined. “How did he—”
“Yeah, about that. He wants to see you. Seems in all the excitement you forgot to call the lead investigator and let him know what was going on.”
“An oversight, I’m sure,” Kane mumbled.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Dietz insisted.
Josh didn’t let up. “Ted said something about calling Mike Furtado over at the Commission to check on the scope of your appointment.”
“Mike values his sleep, so I’d leave,” Kane said.
“We’re not done here.” Dietz growled his warning.
Kane smiled for the first time in hours. “I don’t know about that. It feels like we’re done.”
Dietz threw open the door and marched out. Kane assumed he was off to throw his weight around with Ted. Kane didn’t envy his lead officer’s next few minutes but did respect the hell out of him for taking on Dietz.
“Did Ted really call Mike?” Kane asked even though he knew the answer.
“You’re not the only one around here who hates Dietz.”
“I don’t hate him.” Kane glanced at the mirror.
“Don’t worry. Ted turned off the intercom.” Josh flipped a chair around backwards and sat down across from him. “You okay?”
“I’ve had better evenings.”
“You’ve had better years.”
“Sorry about dragging you away from your waitress.”
Josh waved him off. “You gave me a good excuse to kick her out. We were done anyway. An hour earlier, now, I really would have been pissed then.”
Kane felt the tension constricting his chest ease. “Not the future Mrs. Windsor?”
“Not even second date potential.” Josh rubbed a hand across the stubble on his chin. “Manning’s dead?”
“Yeah. We stumbled on the body while checking out the scene.”
“We?”
“Annie.”
“Somehow I knew she’d be at the bottom of this,” Josh muttered. “Look, I’m happy to know your dick is working, but you need to stop thinking with it.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Red’s got your head spinning. You want to take a ride or two between the sheets, fine. I’m all for your gettin’ some.”
Hearing his friend brush Annie off like a one-night stand made his temperature spike. “Get to the point.”
“This lady’s trouble. Her story doesn’t fit together. Her showing up like that near your house. It’s all too convenient.”
“You didn’t see her. She nearly froze to death in that water.”
“Think about it.” The chair scraped against the floor as Josh leaned forward. “We’re looking into Howard’s business dealings. She’s connected to him. She winds up on your doorstep. That kind of thing can’t be a coincidence.”
A heaviness settled in Kane’s lungs again. The mysteries surrounding Annie frustrated him more than Dietz’s vendetta.
For that moment, he decided to act like the police chief instead of a lovesick schoolboy. “What did you find out about her?”
Josh picked up Dietz’s pen and started tapping it against the metal desk. “More questions than answers.”
“Not a surprise. That seems to be the modus operandi with Annie.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“Tell me.” Kane was in the business of information. In this case, he waffled between wanting to hear it and wanting to ignore it.
“Annie Parks is her real name. She’s a freelance nature photographer. She does picture spreads for calendars and books. Some work for organizations.”
All good so far.
Josh continued. “She’s single and lives alone in a rented house on Bainbridge Island, outside of Seattle.”
The basics checked out. “Why is she here?”
Josh drummed the pen against the table. “No idea. Her agency doesn’t know anything about an assignment in Hawaii. They think she’s on vacation in the Caribbean.”
“Sounds like she vacations the same way I do.”
“If you mean not at all, then yes.” Josh stared at the ceiling for a second before giving Kane eye contact again. “You know and I know that Red’s looking for something. What that is, is the question.”
Kane knew Josh well enough to figure out biographical information wasn’t the only information he had. “What else?”
“Before she got here, she spent a few months cleaning out a savings account by paying a private investigator.” Josh kept tapping that damn pen.
“For what?”
“Can’t tell you. Tracked down the bank records, but so far the investigator is nowhere to be found.”
Investigators. Made-up work assignments. Lying to work about her vacation. More pieces and no answers.
“Is it possible this guy is on vacation, too?” Kane asked.
“I have some people checking on the PI. We should have the information in a few days.” Josh tapped faster and louder. “Until then is the problem.”
Back when they worked together every day, Kane had seen Josh twirl pens a thousand times. The more tense and agitated Josh became, the more he’d work on those drumming skills. Kane had lost every single pen from his desk until he stopped working in the same office with Josh.
Because of that, Kane saw the lecture coming and decided to stop it before it began. “I can handle her.”
The minute he said the words, he wondered if they were true. Annie always edged one step ahead of him, ready with an excuse or an explanation. She turned up everywhere she shouldn’t have been. Underwear here. A journal there.
Dietz had cuffed him but let Annie get in the car without being bound. Kane knew she’d taken the opportunity to slip the journal into the back waistband of her shorts. The damn thing could be anywhere by now. Some of the answers he needed were in there. Years of experience and common sense told him that.
“She was on the yacht,” Josh said.
“I know.”
“Everyone else on that trip is either gone or dead. Do you know that, too? What does that tell you?”
“Her luck sucks.” The pieces didn’t fit together. Not the way Josh wanted. Nothing about Annie turned out to be that simple.
“Come on, Kane. Open your eyes.”
For some reason, Kane needed his friend to believe in Annie. “She weighs a little more than a hundred pounds. There’s no way she could’ve disposed of Howard and four staff members without someone making a noise or trying to stop her.”
“You’re looking for excuses. Maybe you should look for accomplices instead.”
“I’m trying to be rational.” Kane hesitated. “And I know she didn’t kill Chester. She was with me.”
“She could have—”
“In bed wi
th me.” Kane let the words sit there. Never one to boast or talk about sexual conquests, not since he was a teenager with nothing much to boast about, but he needed to draw a line for Josh.
“You’re leading with the head in your pants.”
“I can handle her,” Kane repeated.
“Can you handle the idea of being out of a job, possibly in jail?”
“I can only control what I can control.” Kane lowered his voice. “Someone killed Chester. Someone is going to a lot of trouble to make it look as if Howard is missing, too. Someone tried to kill Annie by throwing her off the yacht. All of this could be related to the meth sting. I don’t know.”
“I can’t find a tie.”
“We have work to do because we need to find it before anyone else gets hurt.”
Josh stood up and took the pen with him. “Then I better break you out of here.”
“And Annie.”
“You’re a matched set now?”
“Where she goes, I go.”
Kane realized that for the first time in a long time, the thought didn’t scare him.
Chapter 15
Annie stewed and bitched and complained. Since no one was around to listen, she finally slumped back down on the bench in her dank cell. The small area smelled like mildew. The stale air added to the foul atmosphere. The thumping around her knee didn’t help her disposition either.
She could tolerate all of that if she could see Kane. Make sure he was okay. Dietz had separated them as soon as they walked into the lobby of the police station. He’d handed her off to a young man and stalked off with Kane, handcuffs still hooked behind his back.
No one took her journal. Dietz’s obsession focused on Kane. Being out of the spotlight allowed her to hide the folder. Right now, it doubled as a seat cushion.
When she heard keys jingle, she hoped in vain Kane had gotten out and come to take her home. Instead, Josh walked in dressed in what looked like a mismatched set of pajamas.
“You look like you rolled out of bed and into your car,” she said.
“I did.” Josh wrapped his fingers around the bars. “That’s my life. Kane calls and I come running.”
Sounded good to her. She wondered who would run for her. “You’ve known each other for a long time, I guess.”
“We started together at DEA. Worked our way up the ranks fighting the bureaucratic bullshit.”
Been through a shooting together. She knew that part from Kane but didn’t share. With his flip attitude, Josh didn’t strike her as an emotional guy. No need to make him uncomfortable.
“Where is he?” She rubbed her knee one last time, then stood up and faced Josh through the gate.
“Upstairs filling out some paperwork.”
“He didn’t do it.” No matter what else happened, she had to make Josh believe that.
“I know.”
“He would never—”
“I know.” Josh’s knuckles turned white. “What I don’t know is why you’re here. Why Kane?”
His anger drove her backward. “He found me.”
“And ever since then he’s been running around getting himself deeper and deeper into trouble. He’s had enough issues with women, Annie. Don’t drag him into your shit.”
Loyalty was one thing. Being insulted was another. “Wait just a minute. His wife died. I know that, but it doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
Josh’s eyes widened. “Kane told you about Leilani?”
No choice now but to fake it. At least Josh gave her a name. “About the car accident a few years ago, yeah.”
“Did he also tell you why Dietz wants his ass so bad?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She silently cursed Kane for his secretive ways. Never mind that she had her own private tales. Right now she could use a tidbit or two for cover.
“Okay, fine. No.”
“Then, Red, you don’t know everything about Leilani or Kane.” Josh opened the door to the cell. “Let’s go find your superhero and get out of here.”
She couldn’t let that cryptic remark be the last word on Kane’s wife. “Tell me the rest.”
“Not my story to tell.” Josh hitched his chin toward the bench. “That belong to you?”
“Yeah.” She hurried over and scooped up the journal. “Dietz is letting us go?”
“Ted is. He’s in charge.”
She followed Josh down the long hallway. From the back he reminded her of Kane. Broad shoulders and long, lean body. They sure shared the same ability to tick her off. But what Kane could do for her the way he could make her forget everything else…yeah, that had to do with more than an awesome set of shoulders and fine ass.
Since meeting Kane, she thought about what might happen the day after she found Howard. The daydreaming was silly, really. Nothing serious could ever bloom with Kane. Once he found out her intentions, the cop part of him would kick in, and he’d stop her. All those plans she’d made as she bided her time waiting for Howard to surface would go to waste.
Couldn’t happen. Sterling Howard had to die. He’d scammed enough innocent women. The authorities didn’t care, so she’d be the one to end his streak.
She watched Josh’s stiff form ascend the stairs. His lazy, disinterested demeanor covered up a serious guy. Right now, a very angry guy.
“Why do you hate me so much?” she asked.
Josh stopped but didn’t turn around. “I don’t hate you.”
“It’s no secret you don’t like me very much.”
“I don’t trust you. There’s a difference.”
She took one more step until she stood one stair below him. The move put her close to his back.
“I’m not going to hurt him,” she said in a low voice.
When Josh started walking again, she figured he didn’t plan to answer.
A few steps later he did. “I’m more worried you’ll get him killed.”
She didn’t have an answer to that, so she followed the rest of the way in silence. When they entered the squad room, Ted and Kane sat there talking. Ted balanced his chair on the back two legs with his arms crossed behind his neck. Kane leaned against the desk, looking far too relaxed for a man who just got arrested.
“Here they are.” The front legs of Ted’s chair fell to the floor with a thud.
“Hey there.” The roughness around Kane’s eyes softened when he glanced at her.
Her heart did a little tumble in response. Damn traitorous thing. When Kane pressed his hand against the small of her back and pulled her close to his side, she gave in to the urge and relaxed against his strong body. Just for a second. Because of her knee, of course.
“What did you think of our cell?” Kane asked with a smile.
“Not exactly four-star accommodations.”
Ted stood up and motioned for her to take his seat, but she declined. “Sorry about the last few hours downstairs, Annie. Dietz sometimes lets—”
She finished the thought. “His hatred of Kane rule his common sense?”
Ted chuckled. “That’s about right.”
“The guy’s a jackass,” Josh muttered.
“A pissed-off jackass.” Kane’s smile grew wider. “He didn’t take it too well when Ted kicked him out of here.”
“He’s lucky he’s not in jail.” Without thinking, she rested the back of her hand against Kane’s chest. Touching him warmed her from the inside out.
“Yeah, well, I’d bet he’s not gone.” Ted bent down and locked his desk drawer.
Annie felt Kane’s body stiffen in reaction. The more she knew about Dietz, the more she suffered the same reaction to hearing his name. The guy brought out the worst in all of them.
“What do you mean?” Kane asked.
“I’d bet he’s waiting in the parking lot for another shot at you. That’s his style. Covert and underhanded.”
At Ted’s comment, Josh rested his hand on his gun. “Let him try.”
“Easy, tiger,” Annie said. �
��We’re not going to have a shoot-out in the parking lot. Kane and I are going home—” She broke off in mid-sentence and bit down on her lip. Home. That sounded so domestic. So committed.
When she glanced around the room to see if anyone caught her misstep, only Josh stared at her. His blue eyes didn’t miss a thing.
“No need to worry. Josh and I will escort you. But from the way the chief’s holding you, I doubt he’ll let anything happen.”
With that reminder, she dropped her hand from Kane’s chest. From Josh’s smile, she guessed he caught that move, too. But if Kane thought her sudden shift away from him was odd, he didn’t show it. His hand stayed firmly on her back, which was good since little else was holding her upright at that point.
“We’ll go home, get some sleep and be back,” Kane said.
She twisted around under his arm. “Back?”
“Ted needs a statement from you.”
For a man who’d spent the last few hours heaven knew where, Kane seemed pretty damn calm. And looked unbelievably hot. His straight black hair showed tracks from his fingers, but that was the only hint of fatigue. After only a few hours of sleep, his tan skin glowed, and his eyes sparkled with mischief. Not the typical ex-con reaction.
“We need to get these two home before they embarrass me,” Josh said.
Kane blinked, breaking their eye contact. “Right. Let’s get out of here.”
With Ted in front of them and Josh behind, they walked out the back door of the station. She thought the armed-guard escort was a bit much. Until she got outside.
Despite the early hour, drizzling rain and a stray chicken or two waddling around, three men stood in the parking lot. They glanced up in concert when the door opened.
One idiot she could name. Dietz. The other two stood about ten feet apart. One, kind of pudgy and balding, shifted from foot to foot, kicking a pebble around and staring at the ground. The other man was older, maybe around fifty. That one clenched his fists at his sides the second his gaze connected with Kane’s.
“Fuck me,” Josh whispered behind them.
“This is what I imagine the welcome party in hell must look like.” Kane gave her arm a squeeze. “Let’s get this over with. Josh, you watch Annie.”
Your Mouth Drives Me Crazy Page 12