He had his hand on the doorknob when the door suddenly opened, all but hitting him right in the stomach.
Jumping back, out of the door’s range, he went for his service revolver before remembering that he’d left it on the top shelf of his hall closet.
The next second, he saw that he really didn’t need his gun—unless, of course, he used it to put himself out of his misery...which at this point seemed like a viable possibility.
“How did you get in?” he demanded, glaring at Kari and trying not to notice that the silver cocktail dress she had on made her look sexier than should have been legally allowed. “I locked the door.”
She merely smiled complacently at him and said, “One of the perks of coming from a large family of law enforcement agents. You learn a lot of useful miscellaneous information that might come in handy at some point,” she told him.
“Like breaking and entering?” he challenged, because that was clearly what she’d just done to gain access to his apartment.
“Were you going to open the door for me? I did ring,” she pointed out pleasantly. She already knew that he hadn’t been about to let her in, but she wanted to hear what he had to say on the matter.
He looked away, a disgruntled expression on his handsome face. The man really should smile more, she thought. When he did, he looked almost exactly the way he had when he’d been a high school heartthrob.
“I didn’t hear you. I must have been out of hearing range,” he said.
“Where?” she wanted to know. “On the moon? Because I rang loud enough for the next county to hear me. Never mind,” she cut him off before he could attempt to stitch together some sort of lame excuse. “That’s all behind us. I’m here now and I’m going to take you to the wedding. Get dressed,” she ordered, then forced a wide smile on her face in hope that it might help in moving him along.
It didn’t.
Esteban looked down at the jeans and T-shirt he had on. “I wasn’t aware that I was naked.”
Trust him to go that route. His flippant comment instantly created an image of just that in her mind. The dive-bombing butterflies turned into dive-bombing Boeing jets. With that picture in her head, she found breathing to be rather challenging.
Finally, despite a bone-dry tongue, Kari managed to say, “You want to go like that, fine with me.” She shrugged indifferently. “Let’s go.”
But Esteban remained exactly where he was. “You’re missing the point,” he informed her. “I do not want to go at all.”
Her eyes darkened as they met his. “So let me get this straight. You’re refusing to go.”
“So you do understand English,” he declared triumphantly. “I was beginning to worry.”
“Yes, I do.” Her eyes remained unwaveringly on his. “The question is, do you understand the consequences arising out of this little rebellious stand of yours.”
“Absolutely. I get to spend a quiet day here—starting when you walk out the door.” He held it open for her, waiting for Kari to take his blatant hint and finally leave.
Two could stand fast, she thought, calmly adding, “But there’s more.”
He should have known, Esteban thought irritably. A skin rash was easier to get rid of than this woman. He didn’t know whether the fact that she was so damn attractive made it better or worse to endure this ridiculous standoff.
“More?” he questioned.
“Yes, more. More consequences,” she emphasized, then spelled it out for him, tackling one section at the time so that it could really sink in. “Like the fact that by not showing up after receiving an official invitation from one of the main participants of this event, you are in effect insulting approximately half the Aurora Police Department, not to mention the Chief of Detectives—never a good career move,” she underscored, then continued, “the former chief of police and the head of the daytime CSI unit, who also happens to be the bridegroom. Do you really want to do that?” she asked Esteban, pinning him with a piercing look.
He bit back a few choice words that rose to his lips. Instead, he sighed melodramatically and said, “Did anyone ever tell you that you were one hell of a giant pain in the butt?”
She surprised him by saying, “Actually, yes, they have, but seeing as how the person saying that was one of my brothers and I had just won an argument at the time, I didn’t let it faze me much. A little like right now,” she added pointedly.
They were running out of time. She proceeded to wrap it all up. “Now then, if you can change your clothes fast, I’ll wait. If you can’t, then this just turned into a come-as-you-are event and we’re leaving right now. The family doesn’t really care that much about what a person wears, anyway. I just thought that you might.” Kari paused for her words to sink in, then asked, “So what’ll it be?”
He answered her question with a question. So far, she’d managed to counter him at every turn. Was she just lucky—or very good? He held off on final judgment. “There’s no third option?”
She pretended to think for a second. “There’s my dragging you to the ceremony kicking and screaming, but that’s really a last resort and, all things being equal, I’d rather not have to do that.”
The woman thought a lot of her abilities, he mused. She had to have a pretty inflated sense of self. “You really think you could?” he taunted with a dismissive laugh.
Her eyes remained locked on his and her expression didn’t change an iota. Nonetheless, there was something almost chilling about it, Esteban thought.
“This is the part,” she was saying to him, “where my brothers—and father—would firmly suggest that you not test me.”
She had to be kidding. “I far outweigh you and I’m practically a foot taller,” Esteban reminded her. At this point he was more amused by her bravado than anything else.
She looked at him coolly. “It’s not about size. It’s about leverage—and opportunity.”
Now, that was a crock, he thought.
“And just what’s that supposed to— Hey!”
Esteban had no time to even frame his question. The next instant, the air had gone flying out of his lungs. Catching him completely by surprise, Kari had swung around, twisted his arm behind his back and successfully brought Esteban down to his knees.
There was actually searing pain shooting through his arm and shoulder, and he found himself stunned, immobilized and, he had to admit, somewhat impressed by the pint-size woman with the iron grip.
Gritting his teeth together to keep the pain from emerging in grunts and half gasps, Esteban ground out, “All right. If it means so much to you, I’ll go.”
“Good.” She released her hold on his arm and took a step back. “I’m taking you at your word. Just remember, I can always do that again.”
Not twice, you can’t, he silently promised her. But there was time for that—and for evening the score—later. But right now, he inclined his head and said, “Give me a minute then.”
She could have before, but she couldn’t now. Not if they were going to make the ceremony despite any traffic snarls. “Sorry, you already used that up. Just grab a sports jacket, if you have one, out of your closet and let’s go,” she instructed in a no-nonsense voice that matched her expression. “I hate being late.”
“Then by all means, go on ahead,” he suggested amicably, gesturing toward his front door. “I’ll take my car.”
Did he think she was born half an hour ago? She was not about to take her eyes off the elusive Fernandez.
“No,” Kari informed him sternly, “you won’t. And what kind of fool do you take me for? Now, if you don’t want to grab a jacket, that’s fine, too. But you are coming with me to the wedding.”
Resigned, Esteban paused to grab a dress jacket from his hall closet, then led the way out his front door, since he could see that pretending to follow her out ju
st wasn’t going to fly with this woman.
“Have you ever given a thought to being a dominatrix?” he wanted to know, slanting a glance in her direction to see her reaction to the question. He reasoned that she would either display a sense of humor—or an offended sense of morality.
Kari never blinked. “Maybe as a second career option after I retire from the force.”
Esteban laughed in response. It was the kind of laugh back then that had instantly caught her attention and had gone a long way to captivating her heart, as well. Infectious, compelling, genuine, it was a sound that a person couldn’t remain indifferent to.
She’d made a breakthrough, Kari thought, silently congratulating herself. A breakthrough that allowed her to bridge the past and the present for her reluctant partner.
She felt like cheering.
“Where’d you learn that move you used on me in the apartment?” he asked her out of the blue as she started her car.
Since she was watching the road, he only saw her profile, but he could make out the corner of her mouth curving. What he saw of the smile was enough to rope him in.
He found himself being tantalized. Against his will, he recalled the way her mouth felt against his that night she came bearing whiskey and arguments.
“I could answer that,” she told him. “But then I’d have to kill you.”
Esteban surprised her by saying, “It might be worth it.”
It wasn’t a secret, really—just something she had picked up a few years back and never forgotten. It was the kind of move that gave you confidence and made you feel less vulnerable in the world.
“I went to college with this girl who came from Israel. Shula’s whole family was either in the military or involved in an agency that was her country’s equivalent of our CIA. She was the only girl, and her father, uncles and brothers were very protective of her. They taught her all sorts of things she could use to stay safe. She passed some of those maneuvers on to me,” she explained.
“And did she?” Esteban asked her. “Stay safe?” he added when she didn’t answer his question.
She’d lost touch with the dark-eyed young woman after graduation. Something she regretted, but it couldn’t be helped. They both had lives waiting for them after graduation. Kari had always wanted to join the force, and Shula, most likely, was a spy by now.
“Last I heard,” she said.
“So you have any more moves I should know about?” Esteban asked wryly.
This time, she spared him a look and smiled.
He found her smile not just intriguing, but pretty damn compelling. If he didn’t know better, he would have said he could feel himself being reeled in.
And resistance, he discovered, as the saying went, was futile.
“I have lots of moves, Fernandez. Cross me and you’ll find out just how many,” she promised in a voice that might have been used to describe a favorite episode of a beloved television series.
“I’ll pass,” he responded, adding, “maybe some other time. But right now I have this wedding I’m supposed to be attending.”
Kari grinned, relieved that her stubborn partner had apparently finally made his peace with coming to her father’s wedding. And she hadn’t even had to hog-tie him. She supposed this was progress.
“Yes,” she agreed, “you do.”
They turned down a long tree-lined block. By their towering size, it was evident that the trees had been there a very long time.
“Hey, Hyphen,” he said to her, “answer a question for me.”
Inwardly, she braced herself, knowing that nothing was ever really easy with this man. She supposed that was what kept it interesting. “Shoot.”
“If I still had refused to come with you, would you really have strong-armed me into coming?”
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye as she took another right turn. This one brought her onto one of the main thoroughfares that ran practically the length of Aurora and would eventually lead to her uncle’s house.
“With my dying breath, Fernandez,” she told him. “With my dying breath.”
There wasn’t a hint of a smile on her lips.
Suppressing a grin of his own, Esteban had a feeling that she was actually being serious.
Kari had obviously done a lot of growing up since she’d been that quiet girl with those mesmerizing eyes back in high school, he thought.
Who would have ever guessed?
Chapter 13
He was absorbed the moment he and Kari stepped over the threshold into the house already teeming with earlier arrivals.
There was no other way to describe what happened to him, except for that word.
Absorbed.
He wasn’t prepared for it.
Esteban had spent so many years literally being on the outside while pretending to be someone he wasn’t. The trouble was, he’d been that other “person” for so long and had done such a good, believable job of it—until someone had ratted him out—that now he wasn’t sure how to be himself or even who that actually was.
Consequently, he entered the home of Andrew Cavanaugh without an identity intact.
And they accepted him anyway.
For the past couple of weeks or so, Esteban had worked among them—it was hard going anywhere in the station without tripping over a Cavanaugh—not to mention that the beguiling partner that had been thrust on him was one of them. But even so, coming to this wedding, he’d thought that he would be on the outside looking in. Just as usual.
Instead, he was immediately considered to be “in.” Immediately accepted and welcomed.
Just like that.
Andrew Cavanaugh, the host of this major family event, had opened the door for them himself. After hugging Kari, the man unexpectedly clasped his hand and shook it heartily, his booming voice filling the foyer as he greeted him.
“So you’re the new guy I’ve been hearing so much about.” Then the former chief of police laughed, still holding Esteban’s hand as he drew him into the house. “Don’t look so worried, Detective. It’s all good,” Andrew assured the younger man.
“If you don’t mind my asking, sir, who have you been hearing all this from?” Esteban asked.
Finally breaking the physical connection, Andrew merely smiled and said, “Reliable sources. That’s all you need to know. Either of you,” he added, his penetrating look sweeping over both his niece and her new partner.
“Go,” he urged. “Get yourselves something to eat, something to drink, and mingle. The ceremony’s going to start soon.” He looked at Kari. “Your uncle’s about ready to officiate. He’s getting set up in the back.” And then Andrew paused for a moment, looking pointedly at Esteban. “He might still need help with the altar,” he speculated. His inference was clear: he wanted Esteban to pitch in and get involved.
“Altar?” Esteban asked, not quite sure he’d heard correctly.
Andrew nodded. “It’s actually something some of the boys rigged up. Mostly it looks like a wooden arch with flowers woven through it,” he told them. He gestured toward the back. “It’s that way. I’ll see you both out back for the ceremony,” he said in parting.
Kari flashed her uncle a smile, then turned back to Esteban. “Guess we’d better go out back,” she said before leading the way through the crowd.
The backyard, like the living room they had just threaded their way through, was a hive of activity in absolutely every direction. It was enough, Esteban thought, to make a man’s head spin.
“One of your uncles is performing the wedding?” he asked her, somewhat surprised.
She nodded even as she scanned the area for the man in question. “My uncle Adam is a priest.”
“A priest?” Esteban echoed, puzzled. “I thought that all the Cavanaughs were involved i
n some area of law enforcement.”
“You thought right,” she confirmed. “They are, one way or another. My uncle Adam is a Cavelli,” she told him, then went on to explain further. “That’s the last name of the family my dad thought he belonged to. The family he grew up with. He thought he had four brothers and sisters—before he discovered he was a Cavanaugh. Now there are a lot more relatives.”
The last sentence, in his opinion, was unnecessary. What was necessary was a way of identifying everyone. “How the hell do you tell who’s who without some kind of a playbook or name-tag system?” he wanted to know, mystified as he looked around at all the different clusters of people scattered throughout the immediate area.
She laughed at the completely overwhelmed expression on Esteban’s face. She had a feeling that there wasn’t all that much that threw him for a loop, but her family obviously did.
“It does take a little time,” she admitted. “But it’s well worth the effort. I could see how it might be a little overwhelming for someone, though.” She decided to give him an example to work with. “Think of it as the first day of college. You don’t know anybody and it’s intimidating. But after a couple of weeks, you start making friends and it begins to all fall into place. Pretty soon, you’re in a comfortable niche.”
“I’m not interested in a comfortable niche or in making any friends,” he informed her in a clipped voice. “I’m just interested in doing my job.”
Kari abruptly stopped walking through the yard and looked at him as if she was certain she hadn’t heard him correctly.
“Why wouldn’t you want to make friends? It’s very lonely without friends,” she said. Then, picking up on the signs, she said quietly to him, “But I think you already know that.”
“Hey, Steve—right?” Thomas, her oldest brother called out, waving at her partner to get his attention.
“Esteban,” Esteban corrected him. His name hadn’t been that important to him when he was younger. But it was now. Having lost everything else—his mother, his brother and, in part, his stepfather, since the man was now in prison serving twenty to life—his heritage was all that he had left, and Esteban was determined to hang on to it.
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