04 A Killing Touch (22 page)

Only the presence of her dad had kept him from saying anything. When he had tried to tell her in her apartment, he had only managed to screw things up with his ill-timed remark he had known he didn’t mean as soon as the first word hit the back of his lips.

“Lana.”

“I—”

“Kieralyn Beckett.” A nurse’s voice came through their coms.

“Yes.”

“I’m Jayleen. I’ll take you to see Dr. Grayson now.”

Shit
. Anything he said to Lana would be shared with their audience of eager ears, and that was a little deeper than he wanted them in his personal life. Especially if he admitted how personal he wanted things to get with Lana.

Aidan had forgotten for a moment that they weren’t alone. He never got distracted on a case. The unthinkable repercussions battled his prevailing desire to somehow pacify Lana’s resentment. The woman was driving him to a precarious ledge and all he could think of was how to keep her happy. There was nothing he could say, though, that wouldn’t be misconstrued and screw things up even more.

He settled on, “We’ll talk later.”

A feminine—Ava’s or Kieralyn’s—sigh reverberated through his com that echoed the disappointment in Lana’s eyes. The yearning to set work aside, to focus on her, was as foreign and new as it was strong. It wasn’t quite strong enough to override duty.

Breck spoke, saving Aidan from trenching himself in deeper. “As soon as Dr. Grayson goes in with Kieralyn, we move.”

“Watch your backs,” Liam warned.

“Is that advice for the job or Aidan?” Ava quipped with a chuckle.

“Aidan will only listen if you limit it to work.” Tyler laughed the semi-distracted laugh of a man sequestered in a corner with his fingers tapping rapidly away on a tablet. Everyone knew he was anything but distracted. Tyler processed things as fast if not faster than most of his computers.

“My baby bro knows how to handle women.”

“His smile and sexy accent won’t work on Lana.”

“Sweet Ava,” Liam humored with a heavier tilt to his accent, “they work on all women.”

Aidan looked at Lana while listening to his brother—older only by three minutes. She watched him, armed and ready with her female weaponry, silently daring him to say something more. To respond to anything anyone said.

They never should have given her a com.

Dr. Grayson’s richly modulated tone reached them through Kieralyn’s com and vanished their wait time. With the warrant in hand, Breck led the way to the doctor’s office. Much to Aidan’s relief, Lana remained behind when he followed his team leader.

Breck pulled open the double glass doors and he and Aidan entered the waiting room. Wooden armchairs with stiff-looking padded seats, tile floors, two tables holding utilitarian lamps and one wall-mounted magazine rack were the only decorations. Nowhere in sight, even beyond the glass window blocking off the reception area, were the potted plants he’d seen on an earlier visit. The place was so impersonal to the point of cold that no self-respecting germ or allergen would want to stay in the office.

“Someone moved the plants,” Aidan said quietly. “They could be expecting us.”

“Stay sharp,” Ava added.

Breck headed to the receptionist’s window and tapped the glass twice, firm and with only a brief pause between, with the knuckle of his index finger.

Looking a little put out, but only for an instant before she took in Breck’s pretty face and slick suit, the woman smiled. He always got that response from women. “Do you have an appointment?”

“No.” Breck raised the hand he held the warrant in and handed her the paper. “But I have a warrant.”

“I’m sorry?”

Aidan hung back for the moment, allowing Breck his moment of fun. Since hitching his heart to Kami, a woman he’d thought to be an escort, their team leader had relaxed enough to have some fun on the job. He was never less than professional, but he seemed to have developed a knack for slowly doling out information on his terms. He enjoyed work more now that he had someone to go home to each night.

“I’m Agent Breck Lawson.” He pulled his badge out to show the woman before pointing a thumb over his shoulder. “This is Agent Burgess.”

Aidan held his badge up for her inspection. “Is Dr. Grayson in?”

She studied his ID for a moment before writing both their badge numbers down and responding crisply. “He’s with a patient.”

“When he’s finished—” Aidan adopted the role of easy-going cop. Neither of them played nice when it mattered most, “—let him know we’re here.”

“In the meantime, we’ll begin our search.” Breck moved to the door that would lead to the back rooms.

“You can’t do that.”

“We can, and we are,” Breck said as he opened the door without another glance at the receptionist.

“You have to let me get Dr. Grayson.”

“No. We don’t. But feel free to interrupt him.”

Breck had moved into the seriousness that kept his calculating mind focused. Lives were at stake and nothing would stop Breck, or anyone else on the team, from finding the truth when they were so close. Only when the truth was aired and the killer stopped could Lana write her coveted story. Only when her story was written could she and Aidan go back to a relationship he understood. Or at least one he knew how to handle.

With his agenda clear, Aidan split off from Breck. Breck searched the exam rooms with open doors. Aidan took the other end of the hall with the offices.

The sparse decorations from the waiting room contrasted vastly with the warmth of the private office space. Dark reds and muted greens accented dark and heavy furniture. Palms and ivies sat in large and small pots throughout. They were nothing special, like the plant that would’ve come from Maria’s. That plant had been on the front desk a few days earlier.

He’d expected to find it in Jayleen’s office. Instead it sat on the corner of Dr. Grayson’s desk.

Weighing the intel they had on Jayleen, it surprised him to find the plant out of her immediate domain even while it struck him as smart. If she was their killer, if she’d taken the plant from Dr. Grayson’s home, why keep it in the office? If it somehow led back to the murders she had to know Dr. Grayson would figure it out. And she had to know he’d talked to them after Maria’s
death
.

Then he found a contract centered in the middle of the desk blotter beside a bottle of lotion with Maria’s label. It had to be the lotion she’d told Lana about. Jagged edges and all, the pieces fell into a seamless puzzle.

“Found it,” he said for the benefit of the coms. “This is more complicated than we thought.”

Lana watched Aidan step from the room and close the door behind him and wondered at the sadness that swooped in. She missed him even before the door latched with a kick of reality. Somewhere between the animosity when she’d asked for help and the wounded feelings in her apartment, he’d slipped beneath her skin like a blonde splinter. She couldn’t see it, only felt it when she bumped the sore spot, and wouldn’t be free of it until she dug it out or it worked itself much deeper.

Judging by how desperately she’d wanted him to remove his com and pull her into a quiet corner while his team worked, she knew which would happen first. He’d splinter more deeply into her soul until she found herself starving for the privilege of being his number one. And with that privilege would come the constant worry that tailed a man in his work.

“Found it.” Aidan’s accented tone slipped like a whisper through the com she wore. Certainty and conviction coated his words. “This is more complicated than we thought.”

“How?” Lana asked the question without thinking of their need to keep the coms quiet, but if they’d missed something that could put more people in danger… If she hadn’t been thorough enough in her research… “Did I miss something?”

“Greed,” came his terse response. Then to her complete surprise he tacked on, “And
we
missed it.”

Propelled by his thoughtful inclusion of himself in the statement, of the suggestion that he neither blamed nor resented her, she moved forward. It wasn’t the time or place to force a showdown of emotions they weren’t ready for, and she wasn’t aiming for that. She was, however, curious to know what they had missed.

She heard a lot through the com… Kieralyn and the doctor went through the steps of a new patient consultation. Breck deflected questions from the receptionist, who seemed to be following him on his search. Aidan remained silent after his last announcement. She didn’t hear Jayleen, and given that she was the primary suspect, they needed to know where she was.

Hesitating, not wanting to be in the way, Lana stopped just outside the double doors of Dr. Grayson’s office. Whatever had made her think she needed to race in, or that her appearance would go over smoothly, vanished. Backing up a step she admitted to herself that though Aidan had included her in a statement he wouldn’t welcome her in the middle of their search. He would accuse her of interfering for the sake of her story.

The truth, though she’d likely never convince him of it, was that her story mattered less the more time she worked with him. Sure, the killing needed to stop. And someone would cover it in the news. But the need for an exclusive had slipped away. Winning Aidan’s respect was exponentially more important.

Her heart seized a beat. She backed another step. A man’s approval, aside from her father’s, had never mattered. So what made Aidan different? Why did the opinion of a grumpy and judgmental man have her willing to let a story go?

I love him.

Her legs trembled.

I love him.

Shock drove her back another step.

I love him.

Lana wanted their attraction to be an infatuation based on the excitement of animosity. They were too different to ever have a future, but damn if she didn’t want that more than any story. She reached for the wall for support. It wasn’t there.

Tumbling to the floor, she braced for impact. Steady hands stopped her fall.

“You okay?”

“F-fine.” Lana looked into a soft face framed by blonde hair—looking just as she had in her DMV photo. Jayleen’s face. Buzzing filled Lana’s brain. Her vision hazed at the edges, making it tough to focus. She was in love with a man who wouldn’t love her in return and she was face-to-face with a killer.

“You’re not.” Jayleen wrapped an arm around Lana’s waist and led her toward Dr. Grayson’s waiting room. “Come in here and sit down.”

“Lana?” Aidan’s voice through the com was muffled by the fog in her mind. “What are you up to?”

“It’s nothing.” She tried to dissuade Jayleen while hoping to ease Aidan. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“You’re pale and shaking.” Jayleen pushed her into a chair. “Are you sick? Has something upset you?”

“Damn it, Lana.” Aidan’s curse penetrated. “If you’re with Jayleen, keep her there. And stay out of the way.”

Out of the way of what? How could she be out of the way if she was with the killer?
Everyone on the coms spoke simultaneously, reporting their readiness to change positions. Breck ordered them to hold. Aidan cussed again. Jayleen pressed a paper cup into Lana’s hand.

“Thank you.” Plastering on a small smile that she couldn’t make herself feel, Lana accepted the conical cup. Jayleen didn’t seem to care that the receptionist wasn’t at her desk. Lana would keep her distracted enough to not care. “I’m not sure what happened out there.”

“Maybe you need to eat?” Jayleen studied Lana with concern as she sat in the chair beside her. She didn’t act like a killer with the FBI searching for proof of her guilt. She acted instead like a woman concerned about another woman.

“Maybe.” Food had nothing to do with her sudden dizziness, but she’d let Jayleen think she was on the right track.

“We have some protein bars in the back. I’ll get you one.”

Lana grabbed Jayleen’s hand when she began to rise. Her birthmark-free hand. “I think I just need to sit for a minute.”

“Let me go get the doctor for you,” Jayleen offered.

“I don’t know what you’re playing at, Lana, but you should have stayed where I left you.”

“No.” Jayleen’s desire to help paled in comparison to Aidan’s snarl over what he saw as Lana’s interference. She couldn’t fully explain herself without giving herself away to Jayleen, and if she did anything that would let a killer go free she wouldn’t have to worry about Aidan’s forgiveness. She would need her own. “I don’t want to get in the way. I was just…leaving.”

“Where’s Daisy? What’s going on?” Dr. Grayson’s tone shifted from mild irritation that his receptionist wasn’t at her desk to curiosity as his gaze settled on Lana and Jayleen. Kieralyn stepped in behind him with awareness in her stance. Dread dawned in Lana’s belly as she realized a piece of what they’d missed.

Shit.

“I found her in the hall about to faint,” Jayleen put in.

“I was in the area and thought I’d see how you were doing. Maria said you’d come back to work.” Lana pushed to her feet and offered a smile to Dr. Grayson. “I just got a little dizzy in the hall, but I’m fine.” She turned to Jayleen and extended her hand. “Thank you…”