Intimate Desires (The Love and Danger Series) (6 page)

She stepped outside and the police officers were already examining the body.  They turned quickly when she stepped outside and Hannah held her hands up to show that she wasn’t a danger.  “Is he…?” she couldn’t finish the question.

The officer stood up and came closer, stepping between her and the body.  “Do you know him?” he asked, using an official tone of voice. 

Hannah shuddered and looked away.  “I don’t think so.  He looks vaguely familiar but I’m not positive.”

Another car came barreling down the alley behind the shops and Hannah couldn’t ever remember being so happy to see
a big, tall, scary man with bulging muscles and a stern expression.  When Sam stepped out of his big, black pickup, she thought he looked like a superhero who was just missing his cape. 

He didn’t stop when the officer spoke to him, making his way directly to Hannah.  He didn’t stop until she was in his arms and that’s when she released all of her pent up fears.  Letting go, she let everything out, crying all over his shirt for several long, embarrassing minutes. 

When the storm subsided, she sniffled, took a deep breath and stepped back.  She felt cold when his arms dropped away but he must have seen the look in her eyes because he wrapped his arm around her shoulders again, holding her close.  Hannah didn’t have the energy to be nervous around him this time.  She leaned against him, feeling his strength and confidence.  Feeling safe and warm. 

“Any idea on TOD?” he asked the officer
, referring to the time of death. 

The officer shook his head, his eyes bouncing between Hannah and Sam.  “
No idea.  But I’d bet this wasn’t where he was killed.  The body looks staged.”

Walker
stepped forward, having been in the truck with Sam when the call came in, his eyes taking in all the details of the crime scene once again.  “I think you’re right.  His clothes aren’t right for a man who was sitting when he was murdered.  The folds are wrong,” he explained, pointing to how the folds of his pants legs were slightly underneath him, as if someone had rolled him into this position.”

Sam agreed but turned to Hannah.  “I might be wrong, but it looks like another homeless man.  Any idea
who he is?”

She sighed and tried to stand on her own, but he pulled her right back against his side and since that’s where she wanted to be, she didn’t fight him.  “
No.  I told the officer that he looks vaguely familiar, but I’m not positive that I know him.  He might have hung out with George occasionally, but I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him.”

He pulled her closer, gave her a brief hug and kissed her on the top of her head.  “I need to figure this out.  Are you going to be okay?” he asked.

She took a deep breath, feeling much better now that he was here.  His hug helped a lot.  “I’ll be fine,” she said and was glad it was the truth.  “I’m off now, do you need me to stick around?”

Sam took a deep breath
and looked over her head to Walker.  He could see it in his eyes and they silently communicated.  “Think you can stay for a little while longer?  I might have more questions for you.”

Hannah shuddered, but forced a smile and nodded.  “I’ll be here,” she assured him.

Sam watched as she walked through the back door, once again admiring her butt in the jeans as well as her tiny waist and slender legs.  Legs that he was determined to have around his waist, just like they’d been the previous night. 

Finger
s snapping in his face made his eyes blink and he refocused on the present.  Turning, he caught Walker smirking back at him.  “What?” he demanded and looked around.

“
Like I said before, you got it bad,” Walker replied and turned to face the victim again.  “You’re not…”

“Not a chance,” Sam replied, not even needing his partner and friend to finish the question.

A moment later, Brock and Colt pulled up in Colt’s SUV.  Both men walked over, their faces grim as they all four looked at the victim while Joe pulled up right behind one of the patrol cars guarding the area. 

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Brock asked, voicing the question that was running through all their minds.

Sam, Walker and Colt all nodded their heads.  “Yeah.  Unfortunately.”

“Damn!”
Walker said, rubbing his hand over his face.  “You’re not going to…”

“No way,” Sam stated firmly, his eyes slash
ing once again to the doorway, telling all three men that he wasn’t going to let Hannah stay alone tonight.  One murder in her back alley was bad.  Two indicated she was possibly in danger and Sam wasn’t going to leave her alone at night. 

A moment later, they were all bent down, tossing out ideas on why this next person was murdered.  Joe bagged the needle after smelling it. “Not a street drug,” he confirmed.  “But I’m not sure what it actually is.  I’ll get you an answer soon.”

The five of them knew the implications of this death and all of them looked grim. 

“We need to get answers f
ast, Joe,” Sam finally stated what they were all thinking.

Joe stood up
with a sigh, his knees crackling from age and abuse.  “I’ll put this autopsy on a priority flag.  I’ll even go in tonight and get you preliminary autopsy results and get the tox screens back to you as soon as I can.  But there are other tests that just take time to run.”  He looked down at the body, shaking his head.  “I’ll do what I can and send you information as soon as I get it.”

Brock patted him on the shoulder.  “We know you’ll do what you can.  And we’ll get you information as soon as we get it.  Maybe something we uncover will help you.”

Joe nodded his thanks and walked away, signaling to his team that they could move the body.  The four detectives searched the area, looking for clues.  Tire tracks, garbage that shouldn’t be there, cigarette butts…anything that they found was bagged.  One homeless person being murdered in the area was a problem.  Two homeless men being murdered, both with similar methods, was a whole different breed of murderer. 

“Let me get Hannah settled and I’ll meet you back at the station,” Sam said. 

Walker flipped out his phone.  “I’ll get the captain to approve someone to watch her overnight.”

“No need to have someone there overnight,” Sam said.  “Just get someone to stay outside her apartment until I get there.”

Walker hesitated, looked at Brock and Colt, then all three men chuckled in their various deep voices.  “Good idea,” Walker finally said.

When they finished up at the crime scene, Brock and
Colt headed back to the station to start setting up a white board to visually see all the evidence in the two cases.  Sam and Walker moved back inside.  Walker stood to the side while Sam watched Hannah for a moment.  He could tell that she was more upset about the situation than she was willing to admit, but was hiding it well.  He noticed because he already loved her smile as well as the warm way in which she greeted the world and it was missing right now.  That special sparkle that lit her eyes from the inside out was dimmed. 

His gut ached with the need to rekindle that sparkle, but he was at a loss as to how to do it.  He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her, tell her everything would be okay.  But since he didn’t know what was wrong or why someone was doing this, he couldn’t tell her that.

One thing he was sure of though.  He damn well was going to protect her from whatever kind of sick bastard was doing this. 

“
You going to tell her?” Walker asked.  He leaned against the building’s wall, his eyes moving from Sam to the woman who had tied his best friend in knots ever since the first moment Sam had laid eyes on her. 

Sam rubbed his hand over his face, trying to figure out the best words.  “She’s not going to like it.”

Walker smiled slightly.  “Yeah, but you will.”  Walker’s lips twitched in his version of a smile even as he slapped Sam on his shoulder.  “Go ahead.  News doesn’t get better with age.  Just drop me off at the station so I can get my car.”

Sam
nodded, his expression grim.  “Right,” he said and moved forward with obvious reluctance. 

“Ready to head out?” he asked her when she stepped away from her customer.

Hannah looked up into his eyes and knew something was wrong. 

“Tell me,” she said, squaring her shoulders as if bracing for bad news. 

“Let me get you back to your place and we’ll talk.”

Hannah didn’t like the sound of that at all.  “What are you not telling me?” she asked warily. 

He took her hand and pulled her around the counter.  With nimble fingers, he released the bow on her apron and handed it to the guy standing by the cash register.  “Just go get your stuff and I’ll bring you home.”

She started to move towards her office where she stored her purse each day but stopped after two steps.  “I have my car here.”

“I’ll drive you to work tomorrow morning.”

The look in his eyes told her that he wasn’t going to argue about that.  It wasn’t an option. 
“Fine. But you have a lot of explaining to do,” she grumbled.  “Hi Walker.  You okay?” she asked as she took in his grim expression as well. 

Walker
looked down at her with a softness to his eyes, as close as he ever came to revealing any emotion lately.  But he was impressed that she was worried about others after what she’d seen today and a few days ago.  “I’m doing okay.  Thanks for asking.”

She continued to look at him, then nodded, her expression telling him that she knew he wasn’t okay but playing along with both of them anyway. 

When she had her purse and her sweater, she came back to stand between the two large men.  “Okay.  Let’s hit it,” she said and led them out the door.

She slipped into the back seat of the large pickup truck, impressed with the amount of space, but doubly amazed at how clean it was.  “Why aren’t there bags of
takeout, and empty soda cans all over the place?” she asked.  It looked like he’d just vacuumed his truck earlier in the day.

“We dump
them all in Walker’s Jeep,” Sam teased.

Walker
got into the front seat and snapped his seat belt on.  “You wish,” he came right back, adding a punch on Sam’s upper arm for good measure. 

Hannah couldn’t help but smile at the two guys who acted more like brothers than co-workers. “How long have you two been partners?” she asked, leaning back in the seat and trying very hard to avoid thinking about the dead man outside her coffee shop. 

“Two years,” Sam said.  “And he’s been holding me back ever since.”

Walker
shook his head, his arm tucked between the top and bottom of the passenger side window in what appeared to be a casual stance, but Hannah watched with fascination as both men surveyed the area, their heads going from side to side as if they were simply watching the scenery, although she suspected they were picking up details she had no idea might be pertinent.

“So
are either of you going to tell me what’s going on?  Or am I going to continue to let my imagination terrify me?”

She saw Sam look over at Walker
and her stomach tightened with dread.  “Spill it,” she told both of them.

Sam took a deep breath and slowed for a red light.  “Here’s the deal.  We don’t know what’s going on, but we’ve arranged for someone to watch over you for the next few days until we can figure it out.”

She heard the words and tried to read between the lines.  “Why would someone need to watch over me?” she asked, her voice dropping towards the end.  “You think this involves me, don’t you?”

Sam looked at her in the rear view mirror and she tried to control the shaking, not wanting to alarm him.  “We don’t know anything yet.  But we’re not taking any chances.”

Her mind scrambled to keep up.  “Maybe it isn’t me.  Maybe it’s one of my employees that the murderer is after.”

Sam shook his head.  “
We thought of that.  But none of the employees were at your store at the same time both bodies were dropped.”

She absorbed that new piece and mulled it over.  “You think someone is trying to send me a message.”  It wasn’t a question.  It was the only logical explanation, based off of her years of experience watching police shows.  “Okay, so someone is trying to send me a message.  What might they be trying to say?”

“That’s where we’re clueless,” Walker admitted. 

“But until we figure it out,” Sam added, “you’re not to leave your apartment or your shop without someone with you.  Understood?”

She bit her lower lip as he pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex.  This was the time she should object because she had things to do and couldn’t be hindered from getting out and living her life.  But then the image of those two men came to mind and the idea of objecting flew from her mind.  “Got it,” she finally replied. 

Walker
’s eyes crinkled into a semblance of a smile as Sam stepped out of the car.  He opened the back door for her, taking her hand to help her out. 

Her eyes flew from
Walker’s expressive hazel eyes, to Sam’s crystal blue ones, understanding that some sort of message had just been exchanged but not sure what they weren’t telling her.