A Little Harmless Submission 6 (10 page)

Maria wasn’t a fool. She knew part of it was just the image he had of her last night. They were playing roles. Lines could get blurred when you were undercover. She had learned that on her first job. She’d thought she had made a friend in a fellow agent, and he’d just used her to get ahead. Then he’d stopped talking to her. It hadn’t been a sexual relationship, but he had been one of few friends she’d made at the FBI. And he had been the last.

“We have work to do, Callahan,” Rome said. She jumped at the sound of his voice, but she could hear the amusement in it.

“Bite me, Carino.”

He chuckled. “I’m hungry so hurry up.”

She grumbled but finished cleaning up and opened the door, expecting to see him there. But he wasn’t, and she tried to ignore the disappointment she felt. She grabbed a pair of jeans and shirt and slipped them on. When she walked out into the living room, he was drinking coffee.

“Where did that come from?”

He shrugged. “It was in the fridge.” She made a face, and he laughed.

He rose from the table and walked toward her. Damn, she was going to have to get used to the idea that a man she was intimate with was going to see her every day. It was an odd thing.

Always make sure to keep things on a platonic level, girlie. Men will try to use you to get ahead in the FBI. Remember that.

Yeah, remember that. But her father never had to deal with a delicious specimen like Rome Carino. And he had nothing to gain from her. Oh, they could catch the serial killer, and lord knew in Hawaii, that would be huge. It could make his career. But he didn’t have anything to do with the FBI. So while working with her helped him, she had a feeling that he didn’t look at working with her in those terms. His mind was on finding the killer.

He stopped in front of her, grabbed her by the arms and pulled her closer for a thoroughly arousing kiss. His tongue swept inside, and she couldn’t keep that wall built up. It crumpled under his sensual assault.

When he pulled back, both of them were breathing heavily. Her brain had just stopped working. She couldn’t even think of a word to say, but apparently Rome had no problems with that.

“Morning again, Maria.”

If she hadn’t heard the deep need in his voice, she would have been embarrassed by her own reaction.

“Morning again, Rome.”

He smiled, satisfaction in his gaze as he released her. “Let’s go get a bite to eat. I worked up an appetite last night, as I am sure you did.”

“Wait, before we go, we need to come to an understanding.”

He raised one eyebrow but said nothing. He still had his hands on her upper arms and it was wreaking havoc with her head.

“We can’t let what happen interfere with the investigation.”

He nodded, still saying nothing. It was enough to unnerve her and that was odd. Her father had been a quiet man except for when he was telling her what to do. She pushed that thought aside.

“So, it’s best when we’re out of the bedroom, it stops.”

Something she couldn’t quite read flashed in his gaze before he hid it behind a mask. “And what does that mean?”

She shrugged, hoping he would take his hands off her, but he didn’t let go. It was an odd situation having his hands on her. “I understand what happened is all part of the job.”

His eyes turned to ice then. “Really? Do you fuck everyone you work with, or just the undercover assignments?”

His tone lashed out at her. She didn’t know how to respond to it. His fingers had tightened on her upper arms, and it was now starting to hurt. She shook herself free then stepped back. “No I don’t. After some bad experiences, I don’t get involved with other agents.”

He studied her for a second. She badly wanted to know what he was thinking, but he kept his expression impassive, not allowing her any hint to what he was thinking.

“So, you don’t sleep with everyone.”

She closed her eyes as she felt tears prick the back of them. An emotion she couldn’t figure out welled up in her chest. When she felt as if she’d gotten herself back under control, she opened her eyes.

“I’m not built to handle this, to handle you. I don’t have long relationships for a reason. And I know with an assignment like this, it can blur the lines. I just wanted to make sure that during working hours, it’s normal.”

Silence filled the air between them, and he said nothing. Dammit, he was starting to make her feel like a specimen again. She’d spent most of her life like that, but with Rome it bothered her more than she wanted to admit.

“Agreed, as long as you understand that if another man touches you while we’re involved, I’ll tear his arms off and beat him over the head with them.”

He said it in such a cheerful voice she didn’t catch on to what he said for a second.

“That’s barbaric.”

He grinned at her. When he did, he looked much younger. His hazel eyes now looked more green than brown, and dammit, the man had a freaking dimple. She couldn’t say anything at the moment. Any words of admonition stuck in the back of her throat.

Rome winked. “What can I say, love? You bring out the Neanderthal in me.” He grabbed her hand. “Let’s go eat.”

She opened her mouth, but he just kissed her then. Quick, hot, and it had her yearning for more by the time he pulled away.

“Don’t worry about it. Your brain is working without nourishment. That’s never a good idea.”

She wanted to argue, but she knew he was right. Besides, discussing what happened the night before was too much to handle without a cup of coffee.

“Okay, why don’t you show me a cool local place to eat for breakfast?”

· · · · ·

Rome ignored the clatter of dishes down the aisle as he watched Maria eat. Good lord, the woman could pack it away. When she had ordered the breakfast sampler, he had thought he would have a little extra to eat. Women rarely ate much around men, but apparently she had no problem eating in front of a man. It was something else he liked about her.

She looked up from her plate and frowned.

“What?”

He shrugged and smiled. Maria was a normal size woman, and he was glad she had a healthy appetite. He hated eating with women who picked at their food.

“Nothing. You seem to have an appetite.”

“Well, when I was growing up, you never knew when Dad would stop again. I learned to eat whenever there was a chance. When Big John got it in his head to chase a killer, nothing got in his way.”

Apparently not even the health and safety of his daughter, his only child. Rome had always admired her father—still did—but he was starting to get a little pissed on her behalf. What kind of fool dragged a twelve-year-old behind him while chasing scum? You might have to give up something, but family was more important than that.

He brushed aside his aggravation. Getting mad at a dead man when Maria didn’t seem to care would be a useless exercise and a waste of energy.

“I’m not complaining about your appetite. In fact, it’s nice to have a woman eat a meal I paid for.”

She grinned, and his breath caught in his throat again. She was undoing him in simple ways, and she had no idea. After taking a sip of coffee, she glanced around the café.

“Can we talk here?”

He nodded. It was early, and there were very few people in the diner. They had grabbed a corner booth, and no one was around them.

“Did you get those membership rosters?”

He nodded again. “Of course, they’re trusting us not to release the names.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll make sure not to mention them when I’m interviewed by Anderson Cooper next week.”

“The FBI isn’t the best when it comes to discretion, and they have been known to be the morality police.”

She snorted. “Yeah, especially Hoover, and he was a man who wore dresses. I’ll make sure none of it gets out.”

Rome should have known that Maria would have a common sense attitude about the whole thing, He nodded and picked up his fork again. “I don’t know if you’ll find anything. We checked them out a month ago.”

She took another sip of coffee. “Yeah. I was worried about that. We might have someone who isn’t a member but stalking them, you know what I mean?”

It was his fear. It was the one reason he thought they hadn’t been able to nail anyone down. What if it was a friend of a friend of a friend? That was the way it went sometimes. Worse, the fact that he might know the killer, have had drinks with the bastard…it ate at his gut on a daily basis.

“Dad always said you have to look at the crimes, the way they are handled, to figure out the killer.”

“I did take that class off him.” He couldn’t hide the sarcasm in his voice.

She nodded. “But if it is like we think, if it’s someone in law enforcement, he could be doing things in a way to make us think he’s different than he is.”

“What do you mean?”

She pursed her lips. “The guy is smart. No doubt about it. So if he is that smart, he could be sending us on chases after a person who doesn’t exist.”

“He knows the mentality, the FBI playbook? So he does things to throw you off?”

She shrugged. “Could be. Not like there aren’t a hundred shows to teach you how to do it, and thousands of sites on the Internet with instructions.”

He shook his head. “Someone in that kind of frenzy wouldn’t be thinking of that.”

She opened her mouth and then her attention went to someone beside him. He looked up and found Jack standing there. Shit. Rome wasn’t in the mood to deal with his now-former partner. Jack wasn’t a bad guy, but he wasn’t someone he wanted to deal with. And not someone he wanted around Maria.

“Hey, Jack. How’re you doing?”

Jack was watching Maria with an interest that Rome didn’t like. Jack’s marriages ended up in the gutter because he cheated on all his women constantly. Jack didn’t believe in being faithful. More than once he’d gone after one of Rome’s lovers after he’d split. He didn’t think it had anything to do with Rome, but that the women might have been vulnerable…and easy.

“Thought I would grab something to eat before I go on over to mediation.”

He barely gave Rome any attention.

“Maria, this is Jack Daniels.”

Jack tossed him a look of aggravation. He turned back to Maria with a smile. “Jackson Daniels.”

She offered Jack a smile that had Rome biting back a growl as something dark and nasty coiled in his gut. Did she have to be so friendly with the idiot? He took a smile as an invitation to sex.

“Nice to meet you,” she said with just enough southern accent that she had him blinking. Then he remembered, she had used it the night before.

Jack, damn him, widened his smile. “I can’t believe I haven’t met you before. I know most of Rome’s…friends.”

Rome bit back a snarl. “We just met.”

“Ah, that explains it. Tourist?”

Maria practically batted her eyelashes at Jack. “Does it show?”

“Not much.”

Rome decided he’d heard enough. If he let it go on much further, there was a good chance he would beat up his ex-partner…or blow their cover. At the moment, Rome wasn’t all that sure which was worse.

“You might want to order your breakfast or you’ll be late. For your divorce proceedings.”

Jack shook himself and looked at Rome. It was as if he had just noticed he was there. “Oh, yeah.”

“This is your…what? Third?”

“Yeah. And there’s my lawyer,” Jack nodded toward the door. “It was very nice meeting you, Maria.”

“Same here.”

He left and headed off to the well-dressed shark who kept punching something into his phone. When Jack was out of earshot, Rome turned around and found Maria smirking at him.

“What?” he asked.

“What was that display for?”

He fought not to fidget, but it was hard. “Jack has a reputation.”

One eyebrow rose. “And you don’t?”

“I don’t.”

“Funny, your friend seems to think you do.”

He shifted in his seat. “First, he isn’t a friend. He’s my ex-partner. And second, Jack always thought I had a lot of women, and I don’t. Not any more than the next guy.”

Her smile widened. “That’s not what I heard at the club last night.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, the women were all talking about you last night. I mean, the subs do like to compare notes.”

He frowned. “There was no one I dated there last night.”

She didn’t say anything, just kept looking at him over the rim of her coffee cup. He could tell by the way her eyes were sparkling she was messing with him. And she had a right. He knew exactly what he was feeling, and it was jealousy. He hadn’t felt this for years, and never this violently. Jack, a harmless pain in the ass, had sent such a rage through him for just flirting with Maria. He was acting like a jackass, and he knew it.

“So, how about we get together this afternoon and work over those names again. We sent them through once, but it wouldn’t hurt to look at some of them again.”

“And the employees,” she added.

“You don’t suspect Evan or Micah?”

She shook her head. “I told you I didn’t. They both have juvenile records which are sealed, but both of them have walked the straight and narrow, and they haven’t been on the mainland in years. Plus, I talked to a former FBI agent who could vouch for their characters…and they both have alibis for the killings. Again, we need to find someone who has some kind of connection to law enforcement. They would have to have intimate knowledge of your investigation and of the FBI’s. I just don’t see that happening.”

He nodded. “I hate to say it, but we better check out the patrol officers. Hawaii has done a lot recruiting the last few years. People from all over.”

Something caught her eye again, and Rome followed it. Ashton walked in, a small, timid looking Asian woman on his arm. He turned in the opposite direction of the booth where they sat.

“Well, I didn’t expect to see him again so soon,” Maria said.

Rome watched as Ashton allowed the woman to slide into the booth before he joined her on the same side. He glanced in their direction and sneered, but then smoothed his features as the woman drew his attention to the menu.

“I guess we can meet up at my house after lunch.”