Intimate Desires (The Love and Danger Series) (2 page)

“How do you know he’s dead?” she asked, then instantly realized what a stupid question that was.  “Okay, forget I asked that.” 
She lowered her head, sifting through the thousands of questions that were going through her mind.  Looking back up at him, she asked, “How did he die?  A drug overdose?  I don’t know of any homeless people in this area who do drugs.  They are all clean although some have some confusion issues.”

Sam’s eyebrow had gone up with the or
iginal question and stayed there during her next.  “Trust me, it was a drug overdose.”

She shook her head.  “The guys around here are clean.  They might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but they are just mixed up in the head, confused, you know?  They don’t do drugs.”

Sam tried to keep the amusement out of his features at her naiveté.  She might be cute and sexy as hell, but she wasn’t really aware of what happens on the street at night.  “There was a needle sticking out of his arm.  We’re assuming heroine, but the lab will test it.”

Hannah bit her lower lip, unaware of the tension in her shoulders.  “That just doesn’t make sense,” she thought. “Can I see him?”

That eyebrow went up again.  “You want to see the dead person?”

She cringed visibly.  “Well, no.  I don’t want to see him.  But I can probably help identify him.  I know most of the guys around here.”  She waited a moment but when the
doubt was still there, she huffed a bit impatiently.  “Look, I talk to them.  I give them coffee each morning.  They’re very sweet gentleman and one lady.  I’m sure some of the homeless do drugs, but that’s not a fair assumption of all of them.  I know most people just overlook the people on the streets, but the ones that hang out in this area aren’t rude or drug addicts.  They’re just kind, mixed up people who need mental health assistance but either can’t or won’t get it.”  When he still looked at her strangely, she started to get mad.  “Look bucko!  You might be big and gorgeous, and yes, I’m sure that there are homeless people out there who resort to drugs to get through the day, but not the ones that come by my store!”  And she poked him in the middle of his chest, hurting her finger because there wasn’t any give in that area.  It was rock, solid muscle. 

She stopped and froze, looking up at him as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just said.  But the smile of victory on his handsome face told her
she really had just said what she’d thought she’d said.  “Forget I mentioned that first part.  Just take me to see the body.  I can help you identify the person and give you some information on him,” she asserted with her cheeks turning red from embarrassment.  She stepped back as far as the boxes would allow, feeling silly and childish. 

Sam liked her, he thought as he stared down at her for a shocked moment.  He really liked her!  The spunk and fire she’d shown was a massive turn on and he wanted nothing more than to push her back against those boxes and kiss her, to see if her pink lips that she was currently mauling with her teeth were as soft and tender as they looked.

“We’ll identify the body,” he said, much more gently this time.  “But thank you for the offer to help.”  He didn’t want to take her out to the back of her alley, not wanting her to break down when she saw her first dead person.  He preferred seeing her like this, all warm and soft and sexy.  If he took her out back, she’d be screaming and crying, horrified and he’d have to stay with her at night because she wouldn’t be able to sleep. 

Actually, that wasn’t such a bad idea.  He liked the thought of spending the night, especially when she threw herself into his arms after having a bad nightmare. 

“I can do it faster,” she countered.  When he continued to look down at her as if he wasn’t going to budge for the next century, she raised her hands, palms up as she implored him to let her help.  “Look, I can also tell you things about him that you might not know.  Things that could be important.” 

Despite the
appealing idea of holding her in his arms after her nightmare, Sam still didn’t think it was a good idea.  Civilians really didn’t know how to handle the sight of a dead person.  But she was right.  If she knew the guy, the faster they could identify him, the faster they could wrap this up.  And the faster he could take her out to dinner. 

“Okay.  Let’s go,” he said, against his better judgment. 

He led her out through the back of her shop and Hannah’s eyes widened with all the police officers milling around.  There was police tape and even a large van with the back doors open.  She assumed that was the medical examiner, but she only thought that because of the television crime shows she liked to watch. 

Hannah tried to look casual, to not act as if she were fascinated by the whole scene, but she probably still looked like a rookie on her first crime scene.  The big, overwhelming guy
led her around to the side and, propped up against the fence that separated the small shopping mall from the apartment buildings behind, was George.  He was one of her favorites, actually.  He was kind and sweet, and always told her jokes when she brought him coffee. 

She tried to hide her horror, but part of it probably came out. 
“That’s George Clemons,” she whispered, covering her mouth as she watched the medical examiner pull a needle out of George’s arm.  “He’s about fifty-five years old and has a daughter in Cincinnati.  Or at least, he thinks she’s still in Cincinnati.  He lost his home about ten years ago after losing his job and never was able to get back on his feet completely.”

She shuddered and crossed he
r arms around her stomach, feeling cold and a stabbing sadness entered her heart.  “He was a good man.  Liked to play chess over at the park.”

Sam looked down at her, noting how the sunshine sparked off of her hair.  It looked darker now, almost all the red disappearing with the different light.  Fascinating he thought.  “Okay.  Any idea what his daughter’s name is?”

Hannah nodded.  “He has a picture of her in his left pocket on the inside of his jacket.  Her name is Melody.”

Sam nodded to one of the officers in uniform who immediately walked over to the body and checked the guy’s left pocket.  Sure enough, a ragged picture of a smiling, young woman
had been tucked inside. 

Hannah looked up at the officer, forgetting for the moment how gorgeous he was.  “George didn’t do drugs,” she asserted firmly.  “He was a good man, just mixed up and not sure how to get back on his feet.  He worked occasionally, holding down odd jobs in different places.  He’s worked a
t the hardware store down by Market Street, I think he worked at the fast food place over on Bond Street, but they had to let him go because he kept showing up to work without showering.  He forgets sometimes to shower, which…” she shrugged her shoulders.  “Well, he just can’t remember everything.  Which is one of the reasons why he lost his home although he can’t completely remember all of the details of that.”

Sam was impressed.  Not only was this little beauty not falling apart or screaming hysterically, she really did know more about this guy than he’d expected.  The fact that she w
asn’t falling apart was the aspect that really turned him on.  Well, that and her cute butt.  And her…. He looked down at her, had to pull his eyes away from the enticing view of the skin visible just over the top of her pink, short sleeved sweater. 

He took a deep breath, getting his mind off of the interesting swells underneath that pink material and back onto the task at hand.  “Thanks for your help.  Are you going to be okay?” he asked. 

She nodded her head, wiping away a small tear.  “I’ll be fine,” she said and smiled slightly.  “But thank you for asking.”

He
nodded, wanting to ask her out, thinking of all the restaurants that he frequented that might be good enough for this lady, but discarded each one as not being the right atmosphere.  And then he remembered where they were and he shut off that thought.  There was no way he could ask this woman out in front of a dead body.  Not good, he told himself. 

“Let’s go back inside,” he said and touched her arm, leading her back to her
coffee shop. 

When the back door closed behind them, he stood there in the dark, narrow hallway
watching her carefully.  “Are you going to be okay?” he asked, hoping she wouldn’t be.  That small touch of her skin wasn’t enough.  He wanted more, wanted all of her. 

“I’ll be fine.  But please,” she said, her
soft, brown eyes pleading with him as she said, “George didn’t do drugs.  I don’t even think he was capable of doing drugs.  He simply couldn’t connect all the dots to follow through with everything it would take to obtain the drugs.”

Sam nodded, touching her arm again.
  He liked the way her skin felt, all soft and silky.  “I’ll look into it,” he promised, although he was pretty sure the chemical in the needle would come back to a street drug.  “I promise.” 

She sighed and bowed her head.  “Thanks,” she said and wiped away another tear.  “He was a sweet guy.  Liked his coffee with cream,” she smiled
sadly. 

Sam was struck by that tear, her sadness.  He’d seen a lot in his line of work.  As a homicide detective, it was often his responsibility to notify the next of kin when someone died and it was a wretched, horrible part of his job.  But he learned a lot about a person when confronted with bad news.  Some people fell apart, some didn’t react at all, but kept everything bottled up inside.  He didn’t think this woman was suffering from true grief because he suspected that she didn’t know the deceased as a close friend, but she was sad.  It told him that she was kind and compassionate about her fellow humans, even the ones who wouldn’t be able to patronize her store. 

He liked that about her.  In fact, he was starting to realize that there was very little about this woman he didn’t like. 

She took a deep breath and his eyes were drawn right back to her soft breasts.  Although he told himself it was wrong, even inappropriate because there was a dead man on the other side of the door and she was sad because of it, but he excused himself.  He was alive and male.  And there wasn’t a man alive who wouldn’t notice this woman if she walked by. 

“Thanks for being strong enough to help out.  You saved us all a lot of time by being able to identify George.”  He looked down at her, wishing to prolong the encounter.  But he also knew that, the faster he got this case solved, the faster he’d be able to come back and ask her out for dinner. “I’d better get back to work.”

She nodded her head and wiped another tear away.  “Thank you.  And please let me know what you find out about how he died.”

Sam was almost one hundred percent sure that the man had died of an accidental overdose, but he’d follow through on his promise and have the medical examiner run a tox screen to find out exactly what kind of drug had killed him.  He’d even get with the drug guys and see if he could trace the drug back to a particular dealer.  There wouldn’t be any proof that the dealer had sold it to the guy, but he’d try and connect the dots. 

She turned and walked back towards the front of the store.  The line of customers had diminished now, the line extending only halfway to the door.  She dove into the work but he noticed that she wasn’t quite as cheerful as she’d been before he’d given her the news. 

With a shake of his head, he turned to head back out to the alley, telling himself to stop staring at her breasts.  He had no business staring at them.  At least not yet.

“Anything new?” he asked
his partner, Walker, as soon as he stepped out into the early morning sunshine. 

Sam thought about the woman’s cute butt,
then banished the image from his mind.  He wasn’t going to tell his partner about the cute woman.  Nope, she was definitely not a conversation he wanted to delve into with Walker.  The man was a womanizer extraordinaire.  Okay, so Sam might be as well, but that didn’t negate the fact that Hannah was his.  Finder’s, keepers, he told himself.  “Nah.  Not much.”

Walker watched Sam for a long moment before chuckling and shaking his head.  “You got it bad!” he mumbled.  “I don’t blame you though.  If I’d seen her first, I would have claimed her as well.”

Sam turned to look at Walker curiously.  “What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded. 

“The babe with the cute butt,” Walker replied and walked over to lean against his Jeep Wrangler.

Sam tamped down the surge of fury that came over him at his partner’s words.  “Back off!” he stated firmly.  “She’s not that type.”

Walker’s eye
s widened and he held up his hands, palms up.  “Hey!  I already acknowledged that you’d staked your claim.”

Sam mumbled something
obscene under his breath and turned back to the body.  “She says the guy didn’t overdose.”  He had to force his mind and body to calm down, which was strange since Walker was one of his best friends.  They’d been through a lot together and, along with Colt and Brock, two other Chicago homicide detectives, they had a great time together.  So why was he so riled over the fact that Walker had noticed the woman’s butt? 

Because Sam instinctively knew that Hannah was different.  The four of them had been to bars and if one of them saw an attractive woman, it was a competition to see who could get her first.  And all those times, it hadn’t really mattered to him if he’d won or lost.  But with Hannah….yeah, he knew that it mattered. 

Besides, Walker was too grumpy for Hannah.  Walker was grim and rarely smiled.   About seven or eight months ago, Walker had just shut down.  He’d always been a bit on the unemotional side but something had happened.  Walker’s lips rarely even twitched with amusement and his eyes were hard and unyielding most of the time.  Sam, Colt and Brock had been worried, but Walker kept on going.  Whatever had happened, Walker wasn’t talking about it.