Deadly Pursuit (SCVC Taskforce) (9 page)

“And you sent them to him?”

“I had a set on me. To give to Dupé if he wanted them.”

The snort of disgust cleared Cooper’s lips. He wanted to slam his fist on the table at her naivety. “So you bought Emilio’s spiel and gave him the pictures.”

“No,” she said. “I traded them for information.”

That shut him up for a minute and turned his irritation into confusion. “Information on what?”

Celina shook her head. “I traded the photos for information on Enrique’s whereabouts.”

Hel-
lo
. Celina had just surprised him again. “You got the info on Mexico City.” Coming out of his mouth, it still seemed too good to be true. His rookie Fed was the mysterious informant that had helped him find Enrique’s hiding place. Why hadn’t Lana told him?

Unfortunately, Enrique had been dead by the time Cooper arrived. Toasted to a crisp in his house. Cooper guessed Petero Valquis had personally poured the accelerant on him before tossing the lighted match in his lap.

Celina smiled, the pink lip gloss gone. “It was too little too late, I’m afraid.”

Cooper waved her off. They ate in silence for several seconds. “So what’s the second thing you’re scared of?”

Celina’s hand stopped midway to her mouth. “That Valquis will hunt me down.”

“Val was killed in the skirmish outside Mexico City by two
federales
. He can’t hurt you, Celina. He’s dead, too.”

She twirled the liquid in her margarita glass. “Not in my nightmares,” she murmured. “In those, he’s still very much alive.”

Memories flashed through Cooper’s mind. A family of four whose father was a mule for the Londano operation brutalized and murdered. Dyer’s limp body. Enrique’s crispy remains. “Mine, too,” Cooper told her. “Mine, too.”

Chapter Seven

Celina never imagined that morning when she left her apartment that she’d be returning that night with Cooper Harris in tow. After her really sucky day, this was an unbelievably
good
thing.

Too good to be true, in fact.

It was past midnight; she and Cooper had discussed the San Diego operation during most of dinner. Over a shared fried ice cream, Cooper had entertained her with stories of some of his daring take-downs that she had no doubt he’d embellished, but that pleased her. He didn’t need to impress her—she was putty in his hands and he knew it—and yet he had tried to anyway. And then, when their waitress had politely asked them to leave since it was past closing time, Cooper had offered, without any goading, to see her home.

As she parked the Civic at the snow-packed curb half a block from the entrance to her apartment building, she did a mental scan of her one-room efficiency apartment. Bed: unmade. Couch: cluttered with
Elle
and
Vogue
and her camera. Kitchen sink: full of bowls and silverware. Refrigerator: one Diet Dew and a half-eaten yogurt. Bathroom: fairly clean except for the pile of clothes on the floor.

In her fantasies where Cooper came home with her, it was a warm Southern California night. Her place, two blocks from the ocean, was spotless and smelled like homemade chocolate chip cookies. The refrigerator held Cooper’s favorite beverage—Corona—and plenty of fresh limes. A modest display of her best photographs were hung and spotlighted on various walls. The drawer of her bedside table contained a healthy stack of condoms.

She was dressed in a sexy, cleavage-enhancing black silk dress with a coordinating black lace bra and underwear. Cooper, so entranced with her beauty and wit, couldn’t keep his hands off her as she fumbled with her keys to unlock the door…

A knock on the car window jolted Celina back to the present. Cooper stood beside the car, snowflakes falling on his hair. The streetlight at the end of the block threw shadows on him but Celina could see one of his brows lifted in question. She yanked the parking brake and grabbed the keys out of the ignition.

“You okay?” Cooper asked as she emerged from the car.

“Fine.” Boy, if that wasn’t a total understatement. Every last one of her cells vibrated with anticipation. She was finally,
finally
going to have Cooper Harris all to herself, and she refused to worry about the state of her apartment or her mismatched underwear and bra. She’d missed him so much it hurt, and he was going back to California tomorrow. Today, actually. She had a few more hours with him. That would have to be enough for now.

He fell into step beside her on the sidewalk. Pushing the front door open to the entryway, Celina looked back over her shoulder at Cooper as she headed for the stairs. “Hope you’re up for a hike. I’m on the top floor and there’s no eleva—”

The word died on her tongue. Cooper wasn’t following her. He’d stopped in the doorway.

“It was good seeing you again, Celina.” His eyes took a slow tour of her body. “Real good. But I’m not coming up. It’s late and we both have a long day ahead of us, so I’ll say goodnight here. When you get back to California, come see me.”

Celina’s heart fell an inch in her chest.
No, no, no
. “But you…but I…” She couldn’t find the right words to make him stay. “You’re kidding me. Even after tonight, you’re going to walk away?”

“What? I’m not sure I follow.”

The talking. The bragging. The flirting. All through dinner she’d known Cooper wanted her. She’d seen the way his eyes lingered on her mouth. Felt that incredible heat across the table. Every time he listened to her talk, even when she was talking about something as mundane as her new addiction to Whitey’s ice cream, his eyes undressed her. He seemed especially entranced when she mentioned picking the miniature peanut butter cups out of her Moose Tracks ice cream and eating those first.

“You know
what
,” Celina said, exasperated. “This is the part where you walk me up to my apartment and I invite you inside. You ignore the unmade bed and the dishes in the sink and the fact that I’m wearing a white bra that doesn’t match my tiger-striped bikinis. And then you miss your flight back to California in the morning because you’re still here. Upstairs. In my apartment. With me.”

“Celina,” he started, but she cut him off.

“Don’t.” Her heart couldn’t take his gentle rejection. Not again. Not after this crushing day of bullshit. “I don’t want to hear The Speech.”

“I’m not the guy—”

“Stop.” She shook her head, pinched her eyes closed for a moment. “I know this part by heart. ‘I’m thirty-eight. You’re twenty-four. I’m DEA. You’re a Fed. You’re part of my team. I can’t and won’t sleep with a subordinate. I won’t break the rules.’” Celina opened her eyes. “But, wait, I’m not your subordinate anymore, Cooper. Remember? You kicked me off your team. You won’t be breaking any laws, moral or otherwise, if you come upstairs.”

Cooper’s eyes had gone dark and Celina could see he was working hard not to sound pissed when he answered her. Since pissed was his normal MO, there was a definite strain in his voice. “I didn’t personally kick you off the taskforce. That decision was made by Dupé immediately following the
Time
magazine cover and I concurred with his opinion that you were then ineffective as an undercover agent for my group.”

He paused, ran a hand over his face. “And even though I’m no longer your boss, I still feel responsible for your career.”

“God!” Celina slapped the handrail with her gloved hand. “You are so full of crap. You’re not worried about
my
career—heck, I don’t even have a job at the moment. You care about
your
career. You’re afraid having any kind of relationship with a rookie agent like me will scandalize your precious reputation as the SCVC’s agent-in-charge.”

“It’s a school-girl crush, Celina, and it would be wrong of me to take advantage of that.”

“School-girl
crush
?” The accusation slammed her in the stomach. “You think I’m infatuated with you because I’m too young to know what I want?”

Cooper stepped inside the doorway, the door shutting with a jerk on squeaky hinges behind him. His voice came out low, controlled. “I’ve spent the last ten years with the DEA working my ass off to get where I am, Celina. I deserve the commendations in my personnel file and the respect of my team as well as my superiors. Your career is just getting started and you’re already on thin ice after the media coverage you received on the Londano bust. Now you’ve quit Quarters’ team. The last thing you need is a relationship with me.”

Celina hung her head and looked at her wet boots. “The last thing you need is me,” she countered. She lifted her head and met his gaze again. “So you flirt with me, lead me on all night, and then when you have the chance to make your move, you chicken out. You are so freakin’ unbelievable, Cooper Harris.”

She blinked away the hurt she was feeling. If she could just get him upstairs, she could make him forget his damn logic. She could make him smile and laugh and look at her the way he had over his steak. “Who’s going to know if you come upstairs? You’re two thousand miles from home. No one will know this night happened except you and me.”

“Celina? Is that you?” a voice said from the hallway.

Recognizing the woman’s voice, Celina sighed and leaned over the stair rail to greet her landlady. “Hi, Linda. Did we wake you?”

The forty-something woman rubbed her eyes before cinching her robe tighter and stepping down the hall. Her permed brown hair was flattened on one side, sticking out on the other. “Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine,” Celina lied. “I’m sorry we woke you. We didn’t wake Jacob, did we?”

Linda shook her head, looked at Cooper. Ran a hand through her hair before holding it out to him. “Linda Findley.”

Cooper shook Linda’s hand as Celina finished introductions. “How is Jacob?”

“He has to be in Iowa City for his pre-surgical blood work at eight a.m. We should leave here by six, but if this snow doesn’t quit soon, I won’t be able to get the car out.” She shook her head and ran a hand through her hair again. “I knew I should have taken him out today and stayed in that hotel near the hospital, but I didn’t want to spend the money. A night in a hotel costs as much as a month’s worth of his anti-seizure medication. But, now…” her voice trailed off. “If I have to postpone that surgery, it will be weeks before he can get his hip fixed.”

Breathing out a sigh, Linda explained the situation to Cooper. “My son has cerebral palsy. His muscles and bones don’t grow at the same rate. He’s had two surgeries already, but his right hip bone keeps dislocating.”

“The snow plows are out but the roads are slippery,” Cooper said. “Do you have anyone who can go with you? Help you out if you have trouble?”

Linda shook her head. “Jacob’s dad left me shortly after Jacob was born. It’s just me and him.”

“If you need help,” Celina told her, “or a ride, call me. I know the local sheriff and can pull some strings. We’ll get Jacob to his appointment.”

Linda laid her hand on top of Celina’s gloved one, smiled up at her. “Thank you, Celina. I appreciate all you’ve done for Jacob already.” She leaned in closer, spoke in a sotto voce voice. “I believe you might be busy come six o’clock.” With a wink, she left Celina and Cooper alone.

They stared at each other in silence. Cooper had shut down. He stood expressionless, just staring at her.

“I have to go,” he said too abruptly. “Take care of yourself.”

Celina watched him walk out the door into the snowy night. Sliding down to sit on the step, she closed her eyes and buried her face in her mittens. Unbelievable.

Cooper sat in the Durango, defroster on high, windshield wipers scraping across the ice frozen on his windshield. He’d brushed some of the snow off with the arm of his jacket, but his fingers froze in under thirty seconds in the blowing wind and he’d hopped inside the SUV for shelter. He was completely underdressed for a Midwestern snowstorm. Completely unprepared for Mother Nature’s raw pillage of the world around him.

Completely unprepared for the assault on his senses Celina caused.

Unprepared was not in his vocabulary. Angry with himself, he dropped his fingers from the vent covers and sat back. It was going to be a few minutes before the Durango was clear enough for him to drive safely. He should check his cell phone. He’d shut it off before arriving at the Mexican place for dinner. No doubt, Thomas had already called to find out where he was, what he was doing since he hadn’t made it back to the hotel. He also needed to program the vehicle’s GPS to guide him from Celina’s street to the hotel since he didn’t know the area and couldn’t get his bearings at night in the middle of a blizzard.

It all seemed like too much work. Telling himself it had been a long day and he was tired, Cooper watched a snowplow’s running lights inch down the street toward him in his rearview. No way did his reluctance to join the real world have anything to do with Celina. No way was his refusal to play with fire making him feel less honorable instead of more.

Cooper stared at the entry door to Celina’s building. He’d done exactly what Celina accused him of…flirting, bragging, charming her pants off. For a few hours, he’d relaxed. Enjoyed his dinner. Laughed a couple times. Desperate not to end the night, he’d offered to see her home, but on the drive to her apartment, all the reasons he’d used before to stay away from her surfaced. He’d tamped them down, ignored them, but they wouldn’t go away. When the time came to actually take her pants off, he’d chickened out.