Military Man

by Marie Ferrarella

  With a sigh of relief she got back to work. There were other reports waiting for her besides the one she’d turned into her own personal crusade because of a man with a sexy smile and killer eyes.

  Eight

  It took Lucy a moment to realize that she was no longer alone in the room.

  So deeply immersed in reading over the reports of past autopsies plus the notes pertaining to the police investigations attached to them to get a feel for what exactly might tip the scales of justice, she hadn’t heard the door to the morgue being opened.

  Nor did she hear anyone walk in.

  But even as she looked up, she knew that whoever had entered wasn’t Harley or any of the other doctors associated with the medical examiner’s office. The others made noise as they walked in.

  The man who had entered was accustomed to moving around like a shadow. Without a sound.

  Though she tried her best to stifle her reaction, she’d started when she saw him. It was like seeing someone walk out of her dreams and into her afternoon.

  Taking off her glasses, Lucy rubbed the bridge of her nose, buying herself some time and trying to put on a composed face. Wearing glasses gave her a headache, but if she wanted to be able to read the fine print that was sometimes included in the notes, it was a necessary evil.

  Lucy looked at her invader. He was wearing jeans again, along with his leather jacket. The imported leather was probably the softest thing about him, she mused. “Do you always sneak up on people?”

  “I wasn’t sneaking,” he told her. “I was being quiet.” And then, because being around her made him feel relaxed and alert all at the same time, Collin allowed himself a smile. “I suppose it’s what you call an occupational habit.”

  Lucy put her glasses down on the desk on top of the files she hadn’t gotten to yet. Questions rose in her mind. They seemed to pop up in her head every time she saw him. This, she knew, she had no business asking, but she couldn’t help herself.

  “How dangerous is the life you lead?”

  The question caught him off guard. He wasn’t here to discuss hazards of the field. He was here because she could help. Because he paid his debts, no matter how small. And because he liked looking at her. “It all depends on whom I’m facing.”

  She found herself smiling and told herself she was being adolescent. But seeing as how she’d never really gone through that stage in its entirety the first time around, she supposed she could be forgiven a little back-sliding every now and then.

  “Usually,” she elaborated.

  Collin shrugged carelessly as he parked one hip against the steel desk. “No more than the average soldier.”

  Average her foot. No one associated with Special Ops was anywhere near “average.” “Who’s been parachuted behind enemy lines,” she completed.

  So, she was a romantic, as well. Interesting combination, he thought.

  “Never parachuted,” he corrected quietly. “That’s giving the enemy much too big a target.”

  He’d been dropped off on coastlines, crawled across borders into enemy terrain, always in the dead of a moonless night. There was also a host of other ways of slipping in behind enemy lines that were more intricate and more stealthy, which meant that, ultimately, they were safer.

  For about a minute and a half.

  He never let his guard down for that long.

  He wasn’t about to now, with her.

  Lucy might not be the enemy, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a threat to life as he knew it.

  She leaned back in her chair, deliberately pushing it away from the desk. Having Collin so close at this angle, smelling of some aftershave that caused her to want to have been there way before he began shaving this morning, overwhelmed her. She didn’t like being at a disadvantage, even around someone as seemingly honorable as Collin.

  Especially around someone like Collin, she amended silently. There wasn’t just danger in his eyes; it was there in every move he made. It had certainly been in his kiss. In her heart, she knew a woman would do well to be watchful around him.

  She craned her neck, looking behind him. “Where’s your cousin?”

  He and Emmett had talked it over and decided they might be able to cover more ground if they split up.

  “Out doing what he does best. Wearing people down.” He saw her eyebrows rise in a silent query. “Emmett’s trying his hand at attempting to get into the investigation through normal channels. The FBI frowns on family connections in investigations,” he added, but he had a hunch she already knew that.

  Collin doubted, young though this woman looked, that there was very much Lucy Gatling wasn’t up on or that managed to escape her. That was part of what attracted him to her.

  He didn’t allow himself to dwell, even fleetingly, on her other compelling parts. It wouldn’t be productive.

  “If he’s busy doing that, what are you doing here? Come to pick my brain some more?” She shook her head, indicating that he’d miscalculated. “I don’t have anything new to offer you.”

  He didn’t know about that. From where he was standing, the woman had a great deal to offer him, new or otherwise. But he wasn’t here about that, he told himself firmly, then relented slightly because that wasn’t altogether true. At least some of the reason why he was here had to do with her. Not with what she could do for him, but with her.

  “I owe you two meals,” he told her casually. “I thought that maybe it was time to start paying up.” He glanced at his watch. “Isn’t it about your lunchtime?” He knew it was. He’d already looked into that to make certain it was.

  She’d brought an orange and a sandwich with her in a paper sack. “Are you sure you have time for it? You don’t have to do this, you know.”

  Lucy didn’t want him here out of some sense of obligation. A sense of obligation could be a daunting, dehumanizing emotion at times. It was what had forced Jeff to marry that woman who was carrying his baby. The woman he didn’t love. In her heart, she’d always felt that, given enough time, Jeff would have returned her love. If he hadn’t allowed himself to be swayed by one night of passion, which ultimately resulted in a lifetime commitment he wasn’t ready for.

  Collin’s eyes locked with hers. “Sure I do. Are you ready?”

  The last question seemed to undulate along her skin, causing her mind to scramble. All she could think of in response was that she had been born ready for him.

  That wasn’t the right answer, she told herself. She cleared her throat.

  “Excuse me?” she asked.

  The almost wicked smile that took possession of his lips didn’t help her mental state settle down.

  “For lunch,” Collin explained. “Are you ready for lunch?”

  Seeing as how her pulse was suddenly determined to institute a new rhythm, maybe going out to lunch with him wasn’t the wisest thing to agree to right now. She pretended to glance at the work she had yet to do, silently using it as an excuse. “You really don’t have to,” she repeated.

  She was resisting, but Collin got the feeling that she truly didn’t want to resist. That made two of them. Because he wanted to share a little time with this woman. Share it in some nice, well-trafficked place where he wasn’t tempted to do anything stupid.

  Yeah, right, he mocked himself, like the way a crowd had prevented him from doing yesterday.

  “Yes, I do have to,” he informed her, his eyes never leaving hers. “A man’s only as good as his word, and I said I’d buy you lunch—and dinner.”

  She gave him a way out. “Technically, you already bought me lunch.”

  He grinned and she felt her insides unraveling at a faster clip. “Yes, but as I recall, I’m also to blame for you leaving it behind.”

  She inclined her head, feeling both embarrassed and excited at the same time. She searched for a response. “Not often I’m thrown a curve like that.”

  Yes, he supposed that was one way to look at it. For both of them. “I don’t usually throw a curve like that.”r />
  For the first time since she’d met him, she glanced at his hand, looking for a wedding ring, something she realized she hadn’t checked for before. It would be just her luck to get emotionally involved with a man who was already spoken for.

  There was no ring, no tan line for one, but that didn’t mean anything. Her father had never worn a wedding ring, either.

  Self-preservation kicked in. She took the offensive. “Are you married, Lieutenant?”

  “Man in my line of work doesn’t get married.”

  Well, that was certainly putting her on notice, Lucy thought. He had no intentions of making this serious. But it was good to know, because that meant she wouldn’t be in danger of accidentally trying to raise this to a higher plateau.

  Knowing it couldn’t go anywhere freed her from concerns that she might make a misstep that would take her to a place where her principles might have to battle it out with her emotions. Simply put, she meant to stay pure until she married. But she was smart enough to know that her emotions might not see it that way. Especially since this lieutenant was causing them to scramble.

  She decided to continue to feel him out. “I see. Married to your work?”

  “Let’s just say I’m never in one place long enough to make that kind of a commitment.” Talking about his private life, of what went on inside his head, always made him feel restless. He needed to move on to another, safer subject. “So, you never answered my question. Are you ready?”

  He wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She could see him as an operative, taking that same stand. Except with a deadlier glint to it.

  The image sent a little thrill through her that she squelched a beat too late.

  Lucy forced herself to focus on his question. They were pretty lax when it came to hours at the medical examiner’s. As long as she did the work expected of her, there was leeway.

  Lucy rose from the chair, pushing it back against the desk. “Yes.”

  Straightening, Collin moved away from the desk. “What are you in the mood for?”

  A repeat performance of yesterday by the crosswalk, please.

  She pressed her lips together, pretending to think. Hoping that no pink color had leached out onto her skin again. She took her three-quarter coat out of the locker where it was housed. “I’ve had food from all four corners of the world. Surprise me.”

  He frowned, unprepared for her answer. Taking the coat from her, he helped her on with it. “I’m not good at surprises.”

  She sincerely doubted that. Turning around, she pulled her hair out from beneath the coat. She had a hunch that he was very, very good at surprises. Both in the field and off.

  Still, Lucy decided to play along. “All right, I’ll make it easy. Mexican. As a matter of fact, I know just the place.”

  He let her take the lead.

  The restaurant belonging to Jose and Maria Mendoza, simply called Red, was extremely popular. It was also very crowded at this time of day. But luck was with them and they managed to find the last available table on the premises, securing it a beat before another couple.

  Collin slipped out of his jacket, letting it fall over the back of his chair as he watched the woman he’d brought. She looked like a soft little thing, but there was a strength there beneath the softness.

  Just as there had been in her kiss.

  He took a long drink of the water at the table.

  The waitress, a pretty dark-haired girl with even darker eyes, came to their table almost immediately. “May I bring you something to drink?” she asked in a lyrical voice that held just a hint of a Mexican accent in it.

  Since he found himself not exactly thinking clearly, he ordered a margarita rather than his usual bourbon, neat.

  “And for the lady?”

  Thinking of the long afternoon ahead of her, Lucy was about to demur, then decided that one drink would be all right. After all, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t hold her liquor. In her late teens she’d discovered that she had a great tolerance for alcohol. Something else that being with Jeff had taught her, along with the lesson that had left an indelible mark on her soul: giving your heart away could get you in trouble. And bring with it a boatload of disappointment.

  The boat had docked in her harbor, never allowing her to forget what she’d learned. It had been almost ten years now, but it was just as fresh in her mind today as it was when it had first happened. When she’d fallen in love with Jeff only to lose him to someone who was far more aggressive, far more into “the game,” even when that so-called game took on very serious stakes.

  “I didn’t picture you as someone who enjoyed a drink,” he commented when the drinks arrived.

  She took a sip of the beverage. “I don’t pigeonhole well, Lieutenant.”

  He raised his glass in a silent toast to her. “Obviously.”

  Along with the drinks, they’d ordered a plate of nachos with its accompanying special cheese sauce as an appetizer. In the background, the mellow sounds of a solo guitarist making love to his guitar came slowly drifting to their table.

  For the duration of the meal, though she knew she shouldn’t, Lucy pretended that there was no clock ticking the minutes away.

  When the main course arrived, the servings turned out to be huge.

  “They certainly believe in giving you your money’s worth,” he commented as he watched the waitress set the plate down in front of him.

  The woman flashed him an inviting smile before withdrawing. It was not lost on Lucy. It reminded her that she and Collin came from two different worlds. His being the one with an abundance of experience, among other things.

  She lowered her eyes to her enchilada, pretending to give it her undivided attention. “You are hereby officially absolved of any debt you feel you owe me,” she told him. “This covers lunch and dinner.”

  He paused to read between the lines. And discovered that the lines were a little blurred. “Listening to you, someone would get the impression that you don’t like my company.”

  She looked up. Then someone would be very, very wrong, she thought.

  Because he was looking at her so intently, she shrugged. “It’s not that. I don’t like being in debt to someone and I imagine neither do you.”

  He didn’t view this as a debt in the true sense of the word. Not when he was enjoying himself. He’d come to a point in his life where he thought he’d forgotten how. But he hadn’t. And she had brought it out of him. “Not unless that debt has compensations.”

  Afraid that he might be using her, she jumped to the most logical conclusion. “Like DNA information?”

  He didn’t bother denying the obvious. They did need confirmation. But that wasn’t all of it. “Among other things.”

  His words, his tone, hung in the air between them. “I don’t follow.” She raised her eyes to his.

  And then she did follow.

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  But maybe, she warned herself tersely, she was reading too much into this. Maybe, she insisted, Military Man was just being friendly because she had access to things that he couldn’t get at through regular channels, short of breaking into the M.E.’s office.

  Not that she didn’t think he could. She could envision him making locks do his bidding, stealthily making his way through the dark and bypassing security alarms with ease to get what he wanted.

  But it was probably much easier and less complicated wining and dining a third-year medical student, she thought ruefully.

  Collin could see by the look in her eyes that they understood each other—and that she was overthinking things, as well.

  Maybe it was better that way. If she was leery of him, it just might keep him from making a mistake, the way he had yesterday. Although while it was happening it certainly hadn’t felt like a mistake. Kissing her had given him an incredible rush that seemed endless. It contained more kick to it than the drink he was now nursing.

  Just remembering the moment made him want to lean over the small ta
ble for two to see if her lips had the same potency today as they had yesterday. Or if yesterday had happened because he was still chasing a dream and living with regret.

  The look in his eyes made Lucy warm. She knew it had nothing to do with the drink in her hand. Desperate to find a neutral subject, something that wouldn’t send her thoughts running to places where they didn’t belong, she asked suddenly, “Are you going to need any help?”

  He looked down at his plate, wondering if she was inordinately hungry. “I think I can manage.”

  “No,” Lucy laughed, “I meant with the investigation. You said something about wanting to talk with Jason’s former neighbors and co-workers.” One slim shoulder lifted in a disparaging way, then fell again. “Maybe I could help.”

  A small furrow formed between his eyes. “Aren’t you busy with your work?”

  She was the kind of person for whom multitasking was a religion. She could step up her pace, finishing faster and applying herself to something else.

  “Yes, but I’m thinking that Jason’s neighbors might be working until five, six o’clock. They won’t be coming home until the early evening. We could go then. I’d be someone more reachable to talk to. After all, I’m with the M.E.’s office. People find the medical examiner’s officer a lot less intimidating than the FBI or the CIA. You people need a better publicist.”

  She flashed him a quirky smile. As she spoke, she fingered the badge that hung from the chord around her neck, tying that in to what she’d just said.

  Collin could just see it. A newer, friendlier CIA. It wouldn’t fly with the powers that be. And an agency that was less intimidating might not have accomplished as much as it had now.

  “You might get into trouble,” he cautioned her.

  “I wouldn’t tell them I was there officially. Just that I’m with the M.E.’s office. Which is true. I am. Until they rotate me out.”

  A certain admiration came into his eyes. “You’re not new to lying, are you?”

  “I had two strict parents who weren’t sure how to go about the job of parenting a teenage daughter who’d tasted her share of freedom. Besides, it’s not lying, it’s all in how you arrange the words. It’s not my fault if people happen to understand one thing when I meant something else entirely.”