by Barb Han
“What? Take responsibility? Then who will, Austin?” Some of the fire had fizzled and she had a look similar to a balloon deflating. “I’m tired. And I want to look at the pictures on your phone and see if anything stirs.”
“That’s not a good idea right now,” he said. “Not when you’re being this hard on yourself.”
“Cliff isn’t getting any better while I’m having this—” her gaze darted around as if looking for the right words “—pity party for myself.”
“You’re good at what you do. I’ve already heard your boss say you’re one of his best and trying to force memories might be dangerous,” he stated.
When she didn’t respond, he touched her back and could feel her shaking.
She turned toward him and started to speak, to protest, but the words looked like they died on her lips. She gazed up at him and he noticed the second her eyes turned from frustration to awareness—awareness of him standing so close, awareness of how intense the chemistry was causing electricity to ping between them, awareness of the deep need they shared.
Maria broke eye contact first.
“We’re going to figure this out together and stop this jerk from hurting you or anyone else,” he said, catching her gaze again.
She started to look away but seemed to decide against it when she said, “Kiss me, Austin.”
“You belong to someone else,” he argued.
She balked. “To who? Mitch? We dated a couple of times—”
“But he’s been saying the two of you were planning a wedding.”
“I’m sorry he mistook a couple of dates for feelings. I only agreed to them to try to get over you. I’m not seeing him anymore,” she stated.
That was pretty much all the encouragement he needed. He cupped her face in his hands. His heart pounded in his chest like he was a teenager again and those same insecurities crashed down around him. But this was Maria and she needed his comfort. He told himself that was the only reason she was reaching out to him and he was responding.
He slicked his tongue across his bottom lip as he glanced at hers. Perfection. Her cheeks were flush and her eyes glittery. He took in a sharp breath before he pressed his lips to hers. This move would come at a price but he did it anyway.
Her lips were soft and wet and it didn’t take but a second for them to part enough to give him access. He delved his tongue inside her mouth, tasting her sweet mix of coffee and the peppermint breath mint still on her tongue from when she’d popped it in her mouth on the ride home.
Austin groaned against her mouth as his muscles pulled taut with tension. How many nights had he stared at the ceiling thinking about holding her in his arms again? So many...
Maria’s flat palms splayed against his chest before her fingers curled around his shoulders, pulling him toward her. In the next second, their bodies were flush and he could feel her quick heartbeat pounding against his chest, her breasts rising and falling rapidly.
There was so much heat and chemistry in the kiss that a well of need blasted through Austin faster than a lightning bolt and he wanted to get lost in the feeling, get lost with her. She gently bit his bottom lip and he thrust his tongue inside her mouth, her fingers roaming his chest. He dropped his hands, wrapping his arms around her waist, pressing her against him. It took all his self-control not to keep going.
As difficult as it was, he pulled back. She slowly opened her eyes and her gaze lifted to meet his. Her full lips were rosy against her lightly bronzed skin.
“I miss you.” She said the words so low he almost couldn’t hear over the rumbling sound in his own ears.
His heart thundered against his chest and his resolve melted. He dipped his head and claimed her mouth one more time.
Keep it up, O’Brien, and stopping will be even more difficult.
He pulled back enough to rest his forehead against hers.
“What happened to us?” she asked.
“Honestly? I’m still trying to figure that one out,” he said. A couple of smokin’ hot kisses—and they had damn sure sizzled—wouldn’t solve anything.
They both stood there for the longest time, breathing in the same air.
Maybe once they figured this case out they could make some sense of their personal lives?
“We should check over those files,” he said, taking a step back. “And then you can move forward with your other plans, as well.”
Chapter Twelve
Maria was confused as she followed Austin to the house. Had the air between them changed? Maybe changed wasn’t the best word for it. Charged was more like it—charged with so much sexual chemistry that they’d nearly ripped each other’s clothes off at the edge of the yard. There was no way that she was the only one who felt the pull between them or the undeniable attraction.
He was right about one thing, though. They needed to get to the bottom of whoever was after her. With Cliff in the hospital, she was even more resolved to put the puzzle pieces together and find answers. And she needed to make that her solitary focus before someone else got hurt.
She followed Austin into the kitchen.
“Janis sent lunch over,” he said.
There were still so many questions racing through her mind. She needed a minute to pull herself together. Her emotions when it came to her husband weren’t something she could afford to focus on right now. He’d been smart to correct their course. Besides, that was better than thinking about how much his rejection stung after such a heated kiss. But, hey, rejection always hurt, right?
“I’ll just wash up before we eat,” Maria said, making a beeline for the guest bedroom.
Austin mumbled an acknowledgment, his voice still husky and she had some relief knowing that he’d been just as affected by their kisses as she had. Okay, they seemed to have impacted her more but she didn’t want to overanalyze it. They’d momentarily lapsed into old habits, she thought as she slowed her pace in the hallway.
The door to baby Raina’s room was closed, just like it had been last night. Maria paused in front of it, wondering if the same pale pink walls with mint green accents were inside. Had Austin cleared out the crib they’d put together?
Her stomach coiled thinking about it as her hand hovered over the knob. She remembered how excited Austin had been when the home pregnancy test had given a positive reading. Maria hadn’t been so sure that she was ready. His excitement had boosted her own confidence.
Those first few months of pregnancy had been emotional and difficult. She’d been so afraid of being a bad mother that she hadn’t given herself a chance to enjoy it, which would’ve been tough anyway early on when she spent most of her time bent over a trash can. And then, like a blinking star it was gone, and her heart had shattered. She’d been devastated and confused at how she could miss a child she’d never seen or held so much.
Because you’d wanted that little girl more than you’d wanted your next breath, a little voice in the back of her mind said.
A noise in the other room, the sound of dishes clanking, startled her. She spun to the right and stalked down the hall, not stopping until she was standing in front of the bathroom mirror. She stared at her reflection for a long moment before turning on the faucet and splashing cold water on her face.
She could do this. She could be around Austin and not wish for things she shouldn’t. She could stay in this house and not allow emotion to take over. Three lies that she’d told herself over and over again a year ago.
Maria took a deep breath before forcing calm she didn’t own. Solving the case was all that mattered, she told herself. Get answers and she could make the nightmares stop. Or at least one of them.
“Smells fantastic in here,” she said to Austin as she took a seat at the breakfast bar.
“Janis sent over sandwiches and her special potato salad,” he sai
d, slipping onto the seat next to her. Their elbows brushed and electricity shot up her arm, still very much live from earlier.
Neither said much until the plates were clear.
“I’m on dishes.” Maria made a move to get up but was stopped by Austin’s hand. More inconvenient electric pulses coursed through her. She ignored them this time.
“I got it,” he said.
She’d almost forgotten how self-sufficient O’Brien men were. And stubborn with an emphasis on stubborn, she thought with an almost smile. Arguing with him would do no good, so she handed him her plate instead.
When she really looked at him she could see the worry in his green eyes, the sorrow. She wouldn’t flatter herself enough to say she was the cause. His emotions were most likely a result of losing his parents and the current situation with Denali. Denali. Her heart squeezed and tears brimmed. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d sat on the front porch with him at her feet, wishing she could find the right words to talk about her emotions with Austin.
And his parents? Losing them sent more pain shooting through her chest. She remembered where she’d been the exact moment that she read about their so-called accident, the café on Lavaca Street. It was a Saturday. She’d gone for her morning run and then stopped off for an iced coffee and to read the paper. The headline had caused her heart to hurt so much it felt like it might explode inside her chest. Instinct had her grappling for her cell. She’d called but he didn’t pick up.
Maria refocused, needing to get back on track instead of torturing herself with another blast into the past. The two of them had already determined that the unsub they were looking for was male based on his size and strength during the Lady Bird Trail attack. He had some kind of public persona that he was trying to maintain, which was most likely the reason for the indirect attacks. In fact, the first few attempts had been set up to look random or like an accident, so this guy wasn’t initially trying to draw attention toward himself or her cases. Maria hadn’t been close to solving any of them that she could remember—a lot of good that thought did—so this all truly felt out of the blue.
“Mind if I take a look at the pictures on your phone?”
“Be my guest,” he said, motioning toward the laptop on the counter. “I already loaded them so we could examine the images on a bigger screen.”
Seeing him work in the kitchen stirred more memories that she couldn’t afford to indulge, so she forced her gaze off the way the muscles in his back corded and released as he stretched to reach the top shelf into the cabinet in order to put away dishes.
“See anything?” he asked. His slender hip was leaning against the bullnose edge of the granite countertop. She realized that the noise had stopped a few minutes ago and he must’ve been studying her ever since.
Embarrassment heated her cheeks.
“I keep thinking that everyone has something to lose on my cases. I mean, we’re talking about crimes against children here. Most people who kidnap or exploit children have a lot to lose if they’re discovered,” she stated.
“Nothing stands out in your mind?” He folded his arms across his broad chest and her stomach flipped.
“These are the worst of what I remember working on and I get a bad feeling every time I touch any of these cases. That’s why I earmarked them,” she said.
“We know that we’re looking for a male. Only a strong man could overpower Cliff even with the use of tear gas,” Austin said.
“Our assumption that this guy has some kind of military background is probably safe,” she said.
“We’ve already covered the fact that he’d have a lot to lose if he got caught,” he stated. “Who was the last person you spoke to before this all started?”
“That would be Ansel Sanders,” she said, pulling up the file with the interview. “Male, age fifty-four. I suspected him of kidnapping his niece.”
“What happened?” he asked.
“The girl, six years old, was taken from her backyard by someone the family dog recognized. Mom was in the house washing dishes after lunch and the dog never barked, never alerted her to the fact that anyone was there,” she said. “So, my guess is that the dog knew the unsub. Sanders had been charged with Class C misdemeanor for peeping through an eight-year-old’s window roughly six months before.”
“He escalated,” Austin said.
“That’s the typical path,” she confirmed. “He’d lost his job at the glass factory where he worked the prior year and it had been the only steady job he’d had in years. He was agitated during my interview and fled town shortly after.”
“Or maybe he stuck around and now he’s trying to stop you before you get too close or get the evidence you need to lock him up,” he said.
“He’s a consideration,” she conceded. “I have no way of locating him, though. And my belief is that he moved on. Possibly to another relative’s house.”
“Any chance he has a military background?” he asked.
“He didn’t,” she confirmed, returning her attention to the screen. “But he was built fairly big, strong. And he could see me as the only thing between jail and freedom. With access to the internet he could look up ways to blitz attack.”
“Meaning he could fly under the radar,” he said.
“Especially if he used a relative’s internet account,” she agreed.
“The government can’t watch everyone’s online activities contrary to popular belief,” he stated.
“Not unless their name comes up in conjunction with an investigation. Otherwise, there just aren’t enough resources,” she confirmed.
Austin nodded.
“I’d been watching a bus driver along with Austin PD on this one.” She shook her head. “He has a wife and kids but I think he’s soliciting thirteen-year-old boys online.”
“Did he spend any time in the service?” he asked.
“Yeah, he did.” She rocked her head.
“Any recent developments in the case?” he asked.
“None that I remember and I’m not seeing anything marked here in the case file, either.” She studied the screen. At least she had her files to help stimulate her memory. Patches were coming back.
“Which doesn’t mean there aren’t any. You might not have had time to enter your notes.” Austin moved next to her and he stood so close that she could smell his spicy, woodsy aftershave.
“This one involves a PE teacher. He’s only five-seven, though. Couldn’t be him based on the size of the unsub we’re looking for,” she said. “I marked it in case someone else is in the background that I haven’t identified yet.”
“I can print out any pages you want to take a deeper look at.” Austin checked the name on the screen. “Antonio Graco.”
“This case bugs me.” She pointed toward the next file.
Austin’s lips thinned as he read the narrative. A twelve-year-old boy solicited for sexual favors by an adult male via the internet. She dealt with some of the worst crimes since they involved innocent children and they still made her stomach turn.
“I spoke to an ex-policeman as a routine part of this investigation and I can remember thinking that he wasn’t telling me everything he knew. He seemed put off by my presence. At the time, I figured that he didn’t like being investigated in connection with this kind of crime let alone by a woman. Some guys still have trouble with that last part. I was working alongside Round Rock PD when I came across the guy’s name as a possible suspect. He’d just left the department for a security job. Said he’d had his fill of shift work and having all his decisions questioned in court,” she said. “His name is Garrett Halpern.”
“Sounds like a disgruntled employee or someone with a chip on his shoulder.” Austin took a sip of coffee, his gaze narrowed on the screen.
“That’s what I thought initially. The prob
lem is that he managed to answer all my questions and gave me no reason to suspect him. The case went cold until more pictures showed up online,” she said. “And then evidence pointed toward the original family member we suspected and the trail went cold when we couldn’t make enough of a case to get a warrant. Seems like there was something else but I can’t remember what for the life of me.”
“Might be a good idea to circle back to the police chief and do a little digging into Halpern’s background,” he said.
“Vic can’t get upset about that, right?” she asked, but it was a rhetorical question. The truth was that she could get into a whole lot of trouble by investigating anything that had to do with this case.
“We might be able to vet out a name or cross one off the list. It’s just an informal conversation with the chief. What’s the harm in that?” he asked. “And I can’t think of a safer place than the office of the chief of police.”
“What about our escort?” Could they bring him in or make an excuse to lose him?
“He can follow us. Can’t hurt to have an extra set of eyes wherever we go,” he said.
“I’ll just make a quick call to the chief and we can be on the road if you’d like to go today,” she said, thinking urgency was needed.
“Let’s roll,” he said.
She glanced at the screen, realizing the last file hadn’t been opened yet. “Hold on a sec.” She clicked on the icon. “This one was interesting. A teenage prostitution ring.” She scanned the suspect list that she’d put together. “Oh—also, I was in the process of investigating an airline pilot, Ronald Ferguson.”
Austin jotted the name down in a notebook. “A pilot would be physically fit and I’d bet money that he’d have a military background.”
“I haven’t interviewed him because I was in the process of gathering evidence,” she said.
“I don’t see his name.” Austin scanned the page. “But if he’s our guy he knew about your investigation.”
Maria agreed. “I haven’t entered him into the system yet. I’m not even close to building a case against him.”