Chance Collision (9 page)

“I need to go to my apartment.” Nikki’s voice was irritated, but her expression wasn’t angry. Still gorgeous, of course.

Pete cleared his throat. “Yes. But I don’t know how long this will take. I’m sorry. You could’ve stayed at the station. You’re safe inside the building.”

“And have you forget about me? No way. I want to go home, and I want to see Gram later today.”

“I couldn’t forget about you.”
She has no idea, does she? That’s for the better, bucko.
Pete studiously ignored her statement about seeing her grandmother. He didn’t want to argue. It wasn’t like he was going to try to keep her away from the woman who’d raised her, either. She had to realise it was different now.

She was belted in, but her arms were crossed over her ample breasts, shoulders tight. Nikki had no desire to be with him and a part of him was bothered by that. His gaze settled on her lips, but he made himself look away.

Nikki harrumphed, staring out of the window.

Pete sighed. Something about taking her to a murder scene roiled his stomach, but his CI, Raleigh Carter, was notoriously unreliable. And if Manning had tried to bring him to the PD instead of Pete going on scene, the part-time confidential informant/full-time pain in the ass would’ve done something stupid, like attempt suicide in the cruiser and end up in the psych ward.

“I’m sorry about all this, I really am.”

She didn’t answer, and his instinct was to make her feel better.

“When you live in a small city and you work at a police department, sometimes you get complacent. You forget that bad things can happen to anyone. Anywhere. To good people. It’s—”

“I’m not complacent,” she snapped, but at least she was looking his way again.

“Uh, I didn’t mean anything by it.” Pulling the car to a stop at a red light, Pete met beautiful dark eyes. He couldn’t read her expression and his gut tightened for some reason. “I’m not going to complain about
you
getting stuck with
me
.” He reached for her hand and squeezed.

Why the hell did you say that?
The boss warned you. You
agree
with what he said, idiot. You never should’ve kissed her. Ever. You will not do it again. Stop thinking about it.

But when Nikki’s expression softened, Pete almost changed his mind. She squeezed his hand right back.

“I’m sorry.” Her voice was soft, emotional. “It’s just… I never thought I’d be…a witness. You’re worried they’re going to come after us. There’s only one thing worse than a witness. A victim.”

Pete sucked in a breath. “Nothing is going to happen to you. Or your gram.”

A horn blared and they both jumped.

“Light’s green,” Nikki said, one corner of her mouth up.

Biting back a cringe, he nodded and hit the gas as a small pickup whipped around them at top speed and offered a one-finger salute.

“Jerk,” Pete and Nikki said at the same time. They exchanged a glance and a small laugh. The weight lifted off his chest.

“At least you can give them a ticket, if you want,” she said, flashing a smile.

Pete chuckled. “I haven’t written a ticket in years. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“I’m just saying. It’s handy and all.”

Grinning, he nodded and wanted to touch her again. Anything to keep them connected in some way. But he straightened his spine and berated himself. He didn’t need Chief’s warning to keep his hands to himself. He wouldn’t touch her, and he wouldn’t kiss her. Pete wouldn’t hold her. Wouldn’t be tempted by her in any way, shape or form. He’d do what was right—what he always did. His job.

He
would
protect her and her grandmother and arrest Caselli’s bastards.

“Where’re we going, anyway?” Nikki’s voice pulled him out of his head.

“The old trailer park.”

“I haven’t been by there in years.”

“It’s pretty empty. Only a few trailers left there. We chase meth-heads out of there all the time, but the guy who owns the property really wants to clean it up. Maybe even get some nicer trailers and modular homes and open the place back up.”

A few months before, he and Andi had been on a case involving a meth lab in one of the old trailers. The owner of the grounds had reported it himself. After a few bankruptcies, he was still struggling. Pete felt for the guy, he really did. It would help the city if the man was able to open the trailer park back up. Legit residents would force the meth population to find a new stomping ground. Maybe outside of Antioch.

“The Antioch slums.” Nikki’s tone was amused.

Pete smiled. “If we had a definite slum, it’d be the old trailer park, for sure.”

Their city of about fifty thousand had started out as what people in Texas liked to refer to as a ‘bedroom community,’ but they’d been expanding the last twenty years. Not very much in population, but they had a warehouse district, their own hospital. Even a movie theatre scheduled to open in the fall.

There were two apartment complexes of several hundred units. Nikki lived in the newer of the two, the Enclave, which had only been around for a few years.

Places like Health Solutions, and many bigger chains of retail stores were starting to come closer to town, and in the last six months they even had a posh hotel open up—The Covington was advertising itself as a four-star stay. Antioch, which had always been rather affluent, was growing. Too bad the crime rate was, too.

Pete pulled down the road that led to the heart of the old trailer park. The small building where the office used to be wasn’t visible from the main thoroughfare, a prime location for riffraff. The property was surrounded by woods, trees canopying the length of the street like an awning. Due to lack of maintenance, it was more
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
than
Pleasantville
.

“This place really is hidden,” Nikki said, as if she’d read his mind. She looked around, making a face as she surveyed.

“Yeah, that’s why it attracts crap.”

“But if cops chase them out of here all the time, why do they always try again?”

“I dunno. If you figure that out, lemme know.” Pete winked.

She flashed a smile. “Thinkin’ out loud.”

“You’re fine. You’re supposed to be my junior detective, remember?”

Nikki stared, one auburn eyebrow raised as if she was trying to solve the Pete puzzle.

Pete cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. He’d meant nothing more than a tease, but if he didn’t concentrate on something else, he would slip into the depths of her eyes. “We’re here,” he said unnecessarily, pulling the powder blue Crown Vic next to the white one Jared always drove.

The Crime Scene van was next to a navy one with
Medical Examiner
written on the side in yellow lettering. Police cruisers littered the place.

The day shift sergeant, Jason Connell, was in front of the trailer, and one of his officers was marking a perimeter with yellow police-line tape.

“Wow,” Nikki whispered, staring in the direction of the run-down double-wide.

“Maybe you should stay in the car,” Pete said, switching the engine off and palming the key.

“Do I have to?”

Instinct flared. Keep her safe. Keep her from seeing a dead body. Keep her innocent of that shit. But she’d already seen a shooting, a friend injured. Chief’s voice teased his mind.
Don’t let her out of your sight. I mean it.
But his boss sure as hell hadn’t meant drag her to a murder scene.

“What was that?”

He met her open, sincere gaze. He hadn’t answered her question. “I don’t mind if you come, but stay out of the way, and don’t contaminate the crime scene.”

“Okay…”

“Just stick with me and you’ll be fine.”

The smile she offered made his heart go into overdrive but Pete chided himself and squared his shoulders.

Chapter Ten

A murder scene. A victim. A dead victim.

It was real, not on TV.

Nikki swallowed hard and slid closer to Pete. She wished she could shut her eyes and block out the sights around her. Hell, she should just go back to the car, but she didn’t want to be alone. Away from her detective.

Pete’s back was straight and he kept shaking his head as he talked to a thin guy with stringy black hair and grungy clothing. Even if Nikki hadn’t known he was a meth user from what she’d heard Jared Manning tell Pete, she would’ve seen it from one look at him.

He was twitchy. Like all over. His face was pocked and scarred and his jeans hung low, hip bones prominent. He was too thin, and his teeth were rotted.

Gross. Seriously, what’s the appeal of something that makes you decay?

She schooled her expression when Mr Meth looked her way, but he didn’t stare—thank God.

“Are you lying to me?” Pete asked.

“No. Jesus, man, I’m telling you the truth. He said he scored big! Said he did a job and got paid ten Gs.”

“What kind of job?”

“I don’t know, man. I swear.”

“Where’s the money, Raleigh?” Pete’s voice was even, but Nikki could tell he was irritated.

“Do you think I’d be here if I found ten thousand dollars?”

“I guess I appreciate your honesty.” His retort was dry.

Jared Manning snorted. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest. When his dark gaze met Nikki’s, her detective winked.

He’d not asked one question when Pete had showed up with her in tow. Then again, she didn’t want his two cents. It was bad enough he’d caught her kissing Pete at the rehab centre.

A tremor shot down her spine and her body warmed.

Pete… Her attraction to him had come out of the blue, but it certainly wasn’t unwelcome, despite the tragedy in her life.

She glanced back at Jared. He was hot, no doubt. Pretty much the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. Probably about six-three and built like a linebacker. But Detective Manning wasn’t a temptation—even though he was closer to her age and had more than enough muscles to make a girl swoon. He leaned on his car, long frame appearing relaxed, belying his intent expression as he stared at Pete talking to the drug addict.

“When’s the last time you talked to Billy?” Pete asked.

“Yesterday afternoon. He said he’d catch up with me last night. He never answered my calls. I was pissed ‘cause I thought he took off with the dough. When he wasn’t at his place, I thought he might be here. Looks like he didn’t take off on me after all.”

“That it?”

“Yeah, man. I swear.”

“Where were you last night?”

“Home with my old lady. Promise. You can check.”

“You know we will,” Detective Manning said.

“Billy didn’t say
anything
to you about what the job was about? Or who he was with?”

Mr Meth shook his head, his scraggly hair flying around his face.

Pete sighed. “Okay. You know the drill. Call me if you remember anything else, or if you
hear
anything. I mean it, Raleigh.”

The guy nodded, his pale blue eyes widening. “I swear I will.”

“You’d better.”

“I can go now?” Mr Meth sounded like a little kid.

“Yeah. I’ll have one of the guys take you home.”

“No. No. I’ll walk.” He looked at Nikki, flashing a mostly toothless, rotted smile. It was all she could do to hold back her cringe. The guy left like his ass was on fire.

Jared Manning straightened and pushed off the white, unmarked police car. “Damn waste of time, if you ask me.”

“Yeah, probably. But you never know. The thing is, he
will
call me if he hears anything,” Pete said.

“We didn’t let anything leak,” the other detective said.

“Nope, but you know scum talks to scum. If he sees the Hummer or hears anything about Caselli’s guys, he’ll tell me. You know it doesn’t take much to make him shake like a leaf.”

“If you say so. Did you get what you needed inside?” Jared gestured to the dilapidated double-wide.

Pete hadn’t been in the trailer for very long. For that, she was grateful. Nikki had felt naked standing in the yard watching the uniform cops. Cold, despite the warmth of the day.

“Yeah. Billy Madden was small time. He didn’t deserve an end like that.”

Nikki agreed, but she couldn’t exactly say
poor guy
and move on. He was a criminal. He’d chosen his path and lost. What other outcome could he have expected?
Idiot.

Drugs and crime had a way of leaving a person with an early expiration date. She remained silent, observing the two detectives talk.

“I’ll tell Max they can move him then, if you’re done,” Jared said.

Pete nodded and Nikki watched Jared jog to the steps and disappear inside the trailer.

“You all right?” Pete asked.

Nikki met his eyes. “Sure. Thanks for asking.”

His smile was small and tentative, but his green eyes were warm. She wanted to sink into him.

“What was it like inside?” Nikki asked.

“Worse than your gram’s room at Health Solutions
.
” His expression sobered. “Nothing you need to worry about, though.”

If she closed her eyes she would
see
Maria’s blood all over the white linoleum floor. She hadn’t fallen asleep until well after three, calling herself every cowardly name in the book. Nikki kept replaying what had happened, like a horrible movie in her head. The end never changed. Maria was still covered in blood lying much too still. The shooters still got away.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay.” Pete’s low voice grounded her—again.

“I know.”

“Where’d you go? You disappeared on me.”

“Health Solutions,” Nikki admitted.

Pete gripped her face with gentle, calloused hands. “I promise I’ll keep you safe.”

She nodded as his thumb brushed her cheek. His touch felt so good, Nikki wanted to have his arms around her.
Safe
meant her detective’s embrace. The hard wall of his chest.

The creak and
ka-thunk
of a gurney being lowered down stairs caught her attention, and his hands fell away from her.

Nikki shivered, suddenly cold. But the black bag strapped to the gurney was what sent a tremor down her spine.

“Did you know him well?”

“He’s been one of my CIs for a few years,” Pete said. “Not sure that qualifies as knowing him well, but it was something. He didn’t deserve this.”