“I’ve heard about girls like you,” Eddie said, matter-of-fact.
They passed by Larry’s desk on their way toward the garage. With a sly grin, he greeted them each by name. They returned his friendly gesture with nods and waves.
“And just what exactly is it that you’ve heard about girls like me?” she asked, opening the exit door.
“Hey...” He held the door open while she stepped into the garage. “Do you think Larry’s going to call your dad and tell him to bring his gun?”
Rio stopped abruptly—her eyes glued straight ahead—and let out a sharp gasp. “Damn it.”
Both tires on the driver’s side of her car were flat.
Her heart sank. That car was like her baby.
She tried to move toward the crippled vehicle, but her legs said no dice, forcing her to stay put while Eddie rushed around to the passenger’s side. From the look on his face, she had more than two flat tires.
Like a delayed reaction, Rio moved forward in slow, sluggish steps. Adrenalin probably had a little something to do with his ability to land between her and the car.
“Not so fast.” He kept his voice calm, and physically stopped her. “You stay back until I’ve checked out the car.” Eddie’s direction carried little weight with her. She tried to forge ahead, forcing him to restrain her. “Somebody slashed your tires.”
“What...?” Fear reddened her face and colored her eyes darker. “What makes you think that?” She looked heartbroken, as if somebody had attacked her personally.
“Because they’re all flat.” He stopped talking and used his eyes, willing her to stay back. The tension gripping her demeanor receded and she backed off.
Eddie let his arms fall to his sides. He gave her a soft smile and moved toward the car. He dropped to the cold cement and rolled underneath.
“Eddie.” Her voice floated to him in such a soft whisper that he almost didn’t hear her.
“Yeah,” he said in the most normal tone he could manage while examining the vehicle.
“What are you doing?” Her voice remained a soft, low whisper.
“Looking for a bomb.” Eddie kept his tone cool and collected. If he hid his concern, then maybe she wouldn’t panic.
“A bomb?” Her voice amplified to just below a shrill. The sound of flesh slamming against the concrete distracted Eddie momentarily. He looked toward it and Rio was on her hands and knees. “Get out from under there,” she demanded. “If there’s a bomb under there, I don’t want you anywhere near it.”
Eddie rolled out from under the car as if he’d been doing it his whole life. In one swift move he jumped to his feet and stood before her. “What’s the matter, Laraquette?” he asked. “Worried about me?”
“Oh, you take great pleasure in aggravating me.” She raised her hand and turned away.
“But I’m so good at it.” He laughed, reaching for his cell phone.
Yes, you are. She turned back to meet him head-on.
“I’ll call the precinct. You call your dad,” he said, hitting the speed dial.
Some primeval instinct pushed the anonymous letter she’d received a couple of days ago to the forefront of her mind. Could this be related? Was that thing real?
Certainly not. No.
Eddie’s gaze fell upon her as he wrapped up the call. Rio’s new concerns must have escaped to her outward appearance because his face skewed with unease. “What?” his tone held a hint of agitation.
“Huh?” She attempted to put on her best poker face but had no way of knowing if she’d succeeded.
“What is it, Rio?” he asked, stepping closer and standing over her protectively. “You’re spooked. What’s the matter?”
Rio’s instincts urged her to keep her concerns to herself, but her heart issued a dire plea to open up. “I don’t know if the two are related, but I did get this weird letter at work the other day.” She ran a search in her brain for any indication that she should be truly worried.
“And it said what?”
“It was just some non-threatening order to back off.” She shook her head, trying to discard any potential significance for the matter. “I truly thought it was someone’s idea of a bad joke,” she added, searching his face for corroboration.
It never came. Eddie looked just as alarmed as before, maybe more so.
She sucked in a deep breath as a second bombshell hit. Digger’s prediction. She’d told Rio, something was going to happen with her car, and a knife.
A taste of fear sliced through her as easily as the knife has slashed her tires.
* * *
Rio had never felt so claustrophobic, on any occasion that she’d been summoned to Gabe’s office, as she did at that moment. Not even as a kid, when her father was too busy and forgot to pick her up from school and Gabe would come to her rescue.
Today, something with the potential to be far more dangerous than a little thing like Daddy forgetting about her was lurking on the horizon.
She looked at LaCall on her left and Bradley on her right. She got why LaCall was there, but Bradley...? Maybe Gabe thought he was responsible for the letter. Her flirtatious coworker was always pranking somebody in the department.
But he’d vehemently denied any responsibility or connection to the mysterious letter she’d found on her desk. If it wasn’t a tasteless joke, that only left one valid explanation.
The last thing she ever wanted was to be the center of this kind of attention. Not just Bradley, but none of her coworkers were copping to the letter-writing prank from the other day, and that was disturbing on more than one level.
If that letter was not a hoax, and the recent assault on her car was related, then she could pretty much surmise she’d pissed someone off and their retaliation had gone from exasperating to rancorous.
Eddie stood, backed his chair up to her and straddled it. He folded his arms across the back and rested his chin on his hands. One sweet smile from him chased away her fears and, for the moment, kept them at bay.
The clicking sound of Gabe’s ink pen pulled her thoughts away from LaCall. Her boss tossed the pen down onto the desk. “It’s Turner Atkins.”
“Turner Atkins?” Rio snorted and blocked it with a one-handed cover.
“Rio, you of all people, know how ruthless Atkins can be.” Gabe’s statement was accurate, but still—
She didn’t buy Turner Atkins as the letter-hoaxing type.
“Laraquette...” Eddie’s exuberant confidence and his much too sexy voice reached out and stroked Rio with soothing, safe caresses. “What’s your gut telling you?”
“Turner Atkins is lethal,” she said with a slight nod. “Yes. I admit that.” Just as quickly, she changed, shaking it off. “But this is not his M-O.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Gabe wailed. He looked as if he wanted to shake her, like a father trying to get his child to see reason. “You are single-handedly responsible for that man being behind bars.”
She liked it when he went all daddy on her. It made her feel loved, wanted and needed. Not that her father wasn’t trying, but Gabe was tried and true. Still, giving her single-handed credit was an exaggeration.
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far.” She couldn’t have pulled that one off alone. Rio had had plenty of help and she knew it.
“What would you say he’s capable of?” Eddie asked.
“Turner Atkins is arrogant,” she said. “Any vindictiveness that he feels is spawned from that arrogance.”
“What does that mean?” Chris Bradley spoke up.
“It means,” Eddie said, “that he’s all about one-upping the law.” Eddie knew exactly what she was talking about. He’d run across Atkins’s kind before. “He’d be more inclined to best her, than kill her.”
Rio closed her eyes momentarily, breathing a sigh that Eddie read as gratification.
She could just be happy that someone understood her. Then again, this could all be a ruse to throw the focus in some other direction. Somebody in this depart
ment was a dirty cop, and right now Eddie’s feisty and oh-so-sexy partner was his number one suspect.
“I’ll take this down to the lab and see if it has any secrets to tell.” She reached for the anonymous letter lying on Gabe’s desk.
“Not so fast, Laraquette.” Gabe snatched the letter out of her reach. “You won’t be investigating a case where you’re the victim.”
“Victim?” She scoffed.
“You’re off this one.”
“Sir,” LaCall spoke up, “I’d like to be on it.”
“Negative, LaCall,” Gabe said. “Having you on the investigation would be like having her there.”
“Begging your pardon, sir—” Eddie’s objection came respectfully enough, but it didn’t appear that Gabe was biting. “But why?”
“Because you’re sweet on the victim.” He chuckled. The telephone on Gabe’s desk buzzed, distracting him from taunting Eddie further. “Dalton...” he answered the call in a short, authoritative manner. He listened for a moment and his expression eased, indicating the call wasn’t serious. “Thanks, Rivera.” Hanging up the receiver, he turned his attention to Rio. “Your father’s here.”
“He is?” She pushed the anxiety aside and scanned the room. Who was the culprit who’d called her father? She felt confident she could rule out Eddie. It wasn’t like him to call up a man, her father no doubt, and alarm him unnecessarily. At least she hadn’t read him as that kind of guy.
Standing, she cast a threatening glance around the room, knowing the offender would understand the message. There would be serious repercussions for wantonly scaring her father over something she herself wasn’t convinced was happening.
Two angry steps and she was at the door, slamming it between herself and her offender.
* * *
Gabe winced at the sound of the slamming door but it didn’t bother Eddie. If anything it amused him.
“LaCall, you wouldn’t be the responsible party here, would you?” Gabe asked.
“If you’re asking me—” Eddie pushed himself up from the chair. “—did I call her father...?” He shrugged and hesitated a moment before letting the smile spread on his mouth. “The answer is, yes.” He turned away and reached for the doorknob.
Eddie heard Gabe chuckle as he left. “That boy has got a lot to learn.”
A dark-haired man, tall and lean, towered above Rio. Figuring him for her father, Eddie strode toward them. He wasn’t afraid of Rio, and he didn’t see what everybody was getting so riled up about. But her father, he was a rather intimidating man.
At six-two, Eddie had never felt short until he stood beside James Laraquette. He had to look up to make eye contact.
But Eddie was the last thing on the man’s mind. He was totally enthralled in his daughter. “Rio,” he was saying, “someone slashed all four of your tires. I don’t think it was careless of your new partner to call me.”
“You!” Rio scolded Eddie with angry eyes. “You did this?”
“Guilty.” Eddie quirked his eyebrows a couple of times and smiled slightly. He pulled away from her upbraided glare. “Hello, Mr. Laraquette. I’m Eddie LaCall.” He stuck his hand out. “I’m Rio’s new partner.”
“Please call me James.” He shook Eddie’s hand. “Thanks for giving me a call.”
Rio’s gaze zeroed in on her father, but she said nothing. She was speechless. That was a new one. Rarely did she find herself at a loss for words.
“It wasn’t my intention to upset you or alarm you when I called.” Eddie stuck his hands in the pockets of his Levi’s. “I’m merely worried about her welfare,” he added, nodding at Rio.
“You were right to contact me,” James said. “There is nothing more important to me than my daughter’s safety.”
“Okay, you two can stop talking about me like I’m not even here.” Her tone inferred that a change needed to be made, and quick. “I don’t need you guys laying out some security plan to keep me safe.” She mocked the idea. “For God’s sake, I’m a cop. I can take care of myself.”
“Famous last words.” James managed to get a laugh out before anxiety drowned his amusement. “Are you done here? Is it too late for breakfast?” He checked his watch. “How about lunch?” He turned to Eddie, saying, “Would you like to join us?”
“Yes, I believe I would.” Eddie glanced at Rio. “Besides, I’m not letting her out of my sight.” She gave him one of those quirky looks he was starting to recognize as a precursor to annoyance. “If somebody’s after you, they’re going to have to go through me.”
“While I’m sure you’d be a very capable bodyguard, she’s safe in my building. I have top- notch security.” A definite chill resided in James’s voice.
His building? Wait. Did her father own the building she lived in? That sure changed things. Since his entire focus on her was based on her extravagant lifestyle, the likelihood of Rio being on the take had just taken a nosedive.
He’d bet James Laraquette had paid for the car too. Relief started deep in his heart and crept outward until it filled up most of his soul.
“I’m sure that’s true,” Eddie said, quickly recovering from the unexpected news, “but I’m not willing to test your theory. Are you?”
“You’re right,” James conceded. “Too much protection is better than not enough.”
Eddie may not trust Rio entirely, and he wasn’t sold on the slashed tires being tied to the weird letter, but something was going on and he intended to find out what it was. There was no better way to do that than stick to Rio Laraquette like glue.
CHAPTER 7
WITH nothing between Rio and Gabe but the desk in his office, she challenged her boss to a stare-down. “Why not?”
While that glare of hers worked on most people, her godfather had become resistant to her intimidation tactic. That happened, she suspected, sometime during her teenage years when she and Digger were always trying to pull a fast one.
“Like I told you yesterday, you won’t be investigating your own case.” Gabe fiddled with the pen in his hand, rolling it up and down his fingers and stopping every so often to click the retractor repeatedly.
Just as he knew her, she knew him. While he thought this was a distractive ploy, mostly it expressed his anxiety over a given situation.
“This is so not fair.” She threw one leg over the other, and while she was at it she gave his desk a swift kick.
Gabe pointed the ink pen at Rio. “If it is Atkins, which I firmly believe it is...if you’re on the case, he’ll know we’re on to him.”
Rio cemented her anger in her gaze and projected her most intimidating stare at her boss. She’d played this game with the best of them. She’d done it with Turner Atkins and won—impressively. After that, everyone else was a breeze. Except for Gabe. He never seemed to budge.
“Well, he does have a point.” Eddie shifted uncomfortably in his chair beside hers. “If you’re not going to put me on the case, I do request that we at least be kept apprised of the situation.”
“Yeah,” Rio agreed halfheartedly, and her gaze darted between both men. “Yeah.” She repeated herself but with more confidence this time, and fixed her focus on Gabe. “Who, pray tell, are you putting on the case?” she asked. “If not us.”
The door opened and, as if he’d been waiting for his cue, Blake Switzer entered the office. Smiling, he shyly scanned over Rio and positioned himself beside the door.
He’s my hope? Rio’s confidence crumbled around her. She wanted to talk to Gabe alone. To know why he’d risk placing her life in the hands of a meek little guy like Blake Switzer?
“Him?” Eddie’s skepticism was so obvious that it almost ended in laughter.
“Actually, LaCall,” Gabe said, “Switzer happens to be an expert on ransoms and anonymous letters.” Clearly, Gabe had more faith in Switzer’s abilities than either Rio or Eddie.
“That’s all fine and well,” Eddie said, matter of fact, “but who’s going to be responsible for Rio’s physical safety while g
enius here is trying to figure out how to tie this Atkins guy to the letter and her slashed tires?”
“Here we go again.” Rio flung a waving hand around in the air. “Like I told you and Daddy, yesterday,” she said, tossing him her best icy glare, “I can take care of myself.”
If her defiant stare bothered him, he recovered quickly. “Yes, I remember,” he said instead of retaliating. Then he presented her with a wink and an inviting smile that raked through her, tugging at her deeply buried desires.
Slowly, helplessly, Rio shook her head. She closed her eyes, hoping it would help stifle her frustration. It didn’t. She couldn’t decide which she wanted to do more—scream at him or take him home and have her way with him—
Stop that! Sex with Eddie LaCall was out of the question. It was a bad idea, for one. Aside from the fact that he was up to something, this guy had heartbreak written all over him. And, truth be told, Rio wasn’t entirely convinced he and that chick from Phoenix were completely finished.
“When you two are done,” Gabe’s harsh tone cut into Rio’s mental musings. “Let me know so I can fill you in on your next assignment.” His attitude indicated that his patience was wearing thin, but that mattered little to Rio.
Next assignment? “Are you trying to distract me?”
“I’m putting you where I think you can do the most good.” His resolve indicated that he wasn’t budging.
Neither was Rio. “And where’s that?”
“The Golden Sunset.”
Rio raised an inquiring eyebrow. She knew the hotel-casino’s reputation. It was one of Vegas’s most illustrious resorts.
“The casino sponsors a series of poker tournaments annually,” Gabe explained. “Allegations have arisen that the games are tainted.”
“Credible allegations?” Rio wondered out loud.
“Allegations nonetheless.” If Gabe was trying to maintain his composure, he wasn’t doing a very good job. His patience was waning and she couldn’t tell if it was her, the threat to her life, or the accusations about the poker tournament. “You two are on it,” he said. “The tournament starts next Monday. You’ve got until then to figure out if the accusation has merit.”
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