Wild Hyacinthe (Crimson Romance) (29 page)

“Generations of them. A tradition on both sides of the family. I followed one grandfather onto the staff at Kaiser. The other grandfather was on the faculty at the medical school. My mother’s a pediatrician up at Doernbecher. My brother is a psychiatrist in Vancouver. My father’s a surgeon at Emanuel.”

“That’s it. I think your father was the doc who put Sam back together a few years ago after he got shot up.”

“He’ll remember if he was. I swear my father can recall the name of everyone he’s ever treated. And if Sam was his patient he’ll be happy to hear he’s doing great. Boosts his ego to hear how well his work turned out.”

“Speaking of work, I better get back to mine. We’ll be in touch. Promise me that if something, anything, happens that even vaguely seems like it’s related to this, you’ll call us.” Reaching into her pants pocket she pulled out a business card and handed it to him. “My number’s on here. If Sam forgets to give you his card, ask for it.”

He scrutinized the card. “Hmm. No home address so I can come and roust you out.”

“No, Jake. And don’t bother with four-one-one. That won’t find me either.” She smiled before heading to the patrol car where the responding officers were congregated.

• • •

Damn. Why the hell had he been such an S.O.B. when he first met her? Now she wouldn’t give him the time of day — unless it was the time she’d be at her desk, willing to listen to any evidence he might have. That wouldn’t be the worst way to get back into her good graces. If only he could find something.

As he watched her walk away, he noticed that the rear view of the very attractive detective was almost as good as the view from the front. She was tall, maybe five-eight, five-nine. And she walked like she owned the place, a long stride with a controlled sway to her hips that wasn’t sexual but was surely sensual. And those hips and fine ass were covered by chocolate brown pants that fit like a glove. The cream-colored shirt she wore looked good with her honey blonde hair and bourbon-colored eyes.

Where the hell were all the food images coming from? He wasn’t hungry; he’d eaten breakfast that morning. Maybe not enough. Or maybe it was that he thought the lady looked good enough to eat. Although, she had a mouth on her that made him certain she’d be no lady when she was in charge of who was eating what.

He shook his head to stop this disastrous train of thought. The image of Danny Hartmann, on her knees in front of him, deciding who was eating whom, had to go before it took up residence in his head and distracted him for the rest of the day. He had surgeries waiting for him. Even food metaphors describing her hair and eyes were better than the very pleasurable image of her naked that was filling his thoughts and making his mouth dry.

“You okay, Doc?” Sam Richardson interrupted his fantasizing, looking concerned.

If Sam only knew how
not
okay Jake’s thoughts about his partner were, he’d be more than concerned. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Jake shook his head again, trying to clear it. “You finished talking to people?”

“Mostly. For now anyway. The patrol officers are about to leave. Danny and I will be around for another half hour or so. If you need to get to the clinic . . . ”

“Nope, on my way to the hospital. I’m in surgery for most of the day but if you need me, here’s my number.” He pulled out his own card, tucking Danny’s into his wallet as he did so. “Leave a message and I’ll get back to you between cases.”

“Sounds good. Is that Danny’s card? I’ll give you mine, too.” Sam handed him a business card and looked as if he was about to walk away.

“Ah, Detective Richardson? One more thing, not related to what happened here. It’s personal and I’ll understand if you don’t want to answer.”

“Okay, what is it?” Richardson sounded very curious and a bit wary.

“It’s about Detective Hartmann . . . Danny. Is she attached?”

“Attached? If you mean professionally, yeah, she is. To me. She’s my partner. But if you mean personally, the only attachment I know of is to the classic VW convertible she restored and rebuilt from the engine out.”

“Wow.”

“Yup. That about covers it. She’s a ‘wow’ kind of woman.”

Sam had a look on his face that said he wanted to say — or ask — more, but he didn’t, much to Jake’s relief. Jake wasn’t even really sure why he’d asked about her. It wasn’t like there was a chance she’d be interested. Not after the way he’d behaved when they first met.

Fortunately, Sam merely shook his hand and walked away. Jake got out of there as fast as he could, kicking himself for behaving like an idiot, first with Danny, now with her partner. He needed to lose himself in his work.

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