Temperature Rising (12 page)

“So what happened? I didn’t get a call for a homicide, so I take it, it didn’t turn violent.”

“No, but he told me I was fired.”

“Ow,” Mac said, drawing the sound out.

“Actually not, I told him I already handed in my resignation. Then something incredible happened. Mr. Sherman caught me before I got back into the building and gave me his card. He wants me to call him about doing another building for him.”

“You’re kidding! That’s great.”

“Yes. I can’t believe it. I’m without a job. I should be panicking but I’m not. I’m excited.”

“Well, good for you is all I can say. So how are you getting home? I’m guessing you took the bus.”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I’ll come get you. Are you about ready?”

“Yes, but you don’t need to.”

“I know. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Love you.” The phone went dead, and Laken smiled happily.

As promised, Mac walked in ten minutes later. Her breath caught. He looked tired under his smile, and his limp was more pronounced, but there was nothing lacking in the kiss he gave her. She slipped her arms around him luxuriating in the feel of being in his embrace. He was just what she needed to wipe away the last tendrils of unease from what she’d experienced earlier.

She settled back, raising a hand to caress his cheek. It was slightly prickly with stubble. “Rough night,” she said gently.

“Long one,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck

She sensed there was more to it than that, and he must have read her perception because he added, “I’ll tell you about it later. You all ready?”

“Yes?”

He picked up the bigger of the two boxes, letting her take the smaller. “I’ll follow you.”

Laken stopped to say good-bye to Kathy. The secretary was shocked by the news, but most of her surprise seemed to be focused on Mac. They had just started for the elevator when Kathy caught her arm and held her back.

“Laken,” she whispered conspiratorially. “That man is… wow.”

Laken could only laugh. “Yeah, I think I’m going to have to marry him. See you later.” She hurried to catch up to Mac.

“Call me in a few days.” Kathy’s voice followed her, but Laken went to Mac. His eyes bore into her, making her insides jump.

“Did you mean that?”

She didn’t try to play innocent. “You heard that?”

“Oh, yeah. I have extremely good hearing.”

“I’ll have to remember that.” Her heart thundered in her chest, and she wondered if he could hear it. “Yes.”

“Yes,” he repeated, the intensity deepening in his eyes.

“Well, there’s still a lot of things to face first, and we haven’t known each other long, and….” Luckily, the elevator arrived, and she stepped inside. Mac followed, put his box down, and then took hers from her setting it on the other. Then, ignoring the other two people in the elevator, he pulled her into his arms. The kiss was full of promise and passion, and it took only a second for her to become lost in it.

It wasn’t until a throat cleared loudly that they broke to the sight of a crowd waiting to get on the elevator at the ground floor. If the elevator had stopped on the way down for more people, Laken sure didn’t notice. Mac gave a crooked grin, handed her the top box, calmly picked up the box he’d been carrying and led the way out with a cocky, “good day”, to the people waiting.

Laken was still blushing when they reached his car. “I can’t believe I just did that. I was making out in an elevator,” she said, mortified.

He just laughed. “Lady, I’d say you just made one grand exit. And I, for one, found it very enjoyable.”

She looked up at him, shook her head, and joined him in laughter.

Laken wasn’t laughing an hour later when Mac finally got around to telling her about the new body. She sat silently on her couch as he settled beside her, laying a comforting arm around her shoulder.

Chapter Eight

“She’s real,” Laken whispered out through tears. “I really wanted to believe so bad that it all was just a dream.”

“I know, sweetheart. I’m sorry. I wish I could have waited to tell you, but I need to go over what you told me again in case you might have remembered anything more.”

Laken nodded and started to go back over everything she remembered while Mac took notes. He probed for all the details he could, then held her to him. She really hadn’t added much from the first time but had clarified several points from his notes.

After a while, he cupped her face and tilted her chin up to him. “I have to go write this up,” he said gently. “How about, when I come back, I make you dinner, and we settle on the couch and watch movies all night.”

She managed a weak smile. “Yes.”

She sat there after he left, wondering what he could see in her, other than she was psycho.

A couple hours later, Mac came down the hallway toward Laken’s apartment with a grocery sack in one hand and whistling to himself. Life was good again. He had a beautiful woman waiting to be impressed with his culinary talents, and a couple of funny old movies sure to lift the spirits while they cuddled together on the couch. It sounded like the makings of a wonderful evening to him.

He had just reached her door when the door across the hall opened. Instead of the orange-haired old woman, a man stepped out. He would’ve been in his mid-to-late thirties, decent looking, average build. When he saw Mac, he gave a derisive smile and spoke.

“If I was you, I’d just leave now. Take it from me, pretty packaging, but she ain’t giving any.”

Mac cocked his eyebrow but kept his expression blank. “What’s that?”

The man nodded his head to Laken’s apartment. “Take it from experience, she’s one of those prim, too-good-for-any-man types. A real ice queen.”

“Really, I find her fun, intelligent, and warm.”

Laken picked that moment to open the door. Mac stepped forward, wrapping his free arm around her, hauling her up against him and kissing her with enough heat to raise the temperature in the hall. Before he closed the door, he glanced back over his shoulder, giving the man a totally predatory look that said she was his.

“I think I’m going to have to open the door for you more often if you’re going to kiss me like that.” Laken fanned her face.

He turned his attention to her with a devilish grin. “Just staking my claim. I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

“Not at all.” She wrapped her arms around his neck to stake one of her own.

****

The next afternoon, Mac’s doctor appointment went pretty much how he figured it would. Continued physical therapy twice a week; the prognosis for much more improvement wasn’t great, though he figured he was quite fortunate. He could’ve lost the leg from knee down, or he could’ve been forced to use a cane or a brace the rest of his life. As it was, his limp wasn’t too pronounced, except when he was tired or he tried to run. He hadn’t liked it when the doctor warned him he might be facing another surgery in the future to remove scar tissue from the joint. Still, he’d face that when it came.

Jonesy looked up at him when he approached his desk, a frown furrowing the man’s face. “What’d the doc say?”

“About the same. ‘It’s healing good, see you in another month.’ He’ll send his actual report to the review board at the end of the week with the physical therapist’s comments.” When his partner just nodded, Mac studied him closer. “No comments that it’s going to be no big deal. You’re finally accepting the inevitable too.”

Jones shook his head. “It’s not that. Mac, the captain sent Pearson and Tanner to bring Laken in for questioning.”

“Questioning. You mean to arrest her! For what?” Fury burst from him.

“Not arrest her. Just detain her. She knows too much about the murders, things that we never released. Things only the murderer would know. I tried to talk him out of it. I urged him to let me call and ask her to come down or even wait for you. He wouldn’t listen.” Jonsey looked up with sympathy in his eyes.

“They left already?”

“About twenty minutes ago.”

“You should’ve called me.” Mac was already heading for the elevator.

“I didn’t know when you’d be done. Mac, don’t do something stupid.”

He ignored the comment, and further remarks were cut off by the closing of the elevator doors.

****

Laken was just getting to the good part in the book when a knock sounded on the door. She raised her head and frowned at it a second before putting her book down with a sigh. She really didn’t want to be disturbed. It was the first time she’d had time to sit down and read in the last couple months, and she had relished it. Never, she vowed, would she let her life get so controlled that she would miss out on the simple pleasures she had.

Her thoughts went to Mac. There was nothing simple about her greatest pleasure. She smiled as she crossed to the door. Mac was a truckload of disturbances to her senses, and she was enjoying every one of them. Things were happening so fast between them, but already she couldn’t imagine her life without him in the future.

She looked through the peephole, catching sight of two men in the hall, not recognizing either. She hesitated, checking the door bar before cracking open the door. “Yes?”

“Miss Laken Williams?”

“Yes.” Nervousness settled in.

“I’m Detective Tanner and this is Detective Pearson.”

With her thoughts already on Mac, her insides shot right to panic. “Mac? Has something happened to him?” The words ripped from her with a wave of panic. “Just a minute.” She shut the door to release the safety bar and pulled it all the way back open. “Is Mac all right?”

The two men looked at each other.

“You mean Detective MacDaniels?” Detective Pearson asked.

Laken let out a sigh at the men’s obvious confusion that meant they weren’t there about Mac. “Yes, sorry. You wanted to talk to me about something else.” She was too relieved to pick up the men’s dour expressions for a moment then she looked from one to the other. “What’s going on?”

“Miss Williams, we need to take you down to the station for some questioning.”

The nervousness was back with a feeling of dread. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you just call? Why didn’t Mac come?”

“We were assigned to handle this.”

She took an instinctive step back when they moved toward her. “What is this?” Her breath caught in her lungs and became ragged. “I’d like to talk to Detective MacDaniels. I already gave him a statement.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. He’s not at the station at the moment.”

She glanced at the clock, stepping back again, feeling swamped with fear and the pain of betrayal. “His doctor appointment.”

Neither man made any comment, but one reached behind his back and drew out a pair of handcuffs. Laken couldn’t keep back a squeak of protest. “You’re arresting me? Does Mac know?”

“You are not under arrest as of yet, Miss Williams, but for precaution. Please turn around and put your hands on the wall.”

Pain yanked at her heart again as she followed directions. The hands patting down over her sweater and old faded jeans were impersonal but still brought a sense of revulsion at being touched so. “Please tell me, does Detective MacDaniels know?” The words tore at her as she felt metal bite down on her wrist. Her arm was brought down and then the other wrist was caught and fastened. Laken flinched this time from the pinch. The two men remained stoically silent as they drew her to the door.

“Wait a minute, my keys.”

“Where are they?” asked the man standing to the side – she thought he was Pearson.

“In my purse, on the shelf in the closet,” Laken managed to get out, before she was led through the door. She stood and waited while the door was locked.

With each step down the stairs, the pain in her dipped deeper. Her surroundings faded away into a sea of uncertainty. This couldn’t be happening to her. She was being arrested for murder. A murder she’d dreamed. Where was Mac? Surely, he would be here if he knew. He loved her. He said he did, and she didn’t doubt that. But where was he?

Her thoughts were so tied up she didn’t realize they were outside until Pearson jerked her forward toward the open car door held by Tanner.

Fear hit her hard. She stumbled. The Hunter, he was there. He was watching. He was hunting. Panic flooded her. “Wait,” Laken cried out and tried to turn, to see if she could find the Hunter.

The man holding her arm jerked her back around, sending pain ripping through her shoulder. Already unsteady, her foot barely caught the edge of the curb before it slipped off and she went down, twisting it painfully underneath her. Unbalanced by her hands behind her back, she had no way to catch herself. The hand on her arm dug in, but it couldn’t stop her head from clipping the door frame. Pain and lights flashed through her head, joined by a stabbing pain in her leg as she hit the ground. Everything faded away for a second before she was able to lock on what sounded like Mac calling her name.

****

Mac brought the car to a screeching halt in the middle of the street. The sight of Laken in handcuffs ripped at his heart. Forlorn was not nearly deep enough to describe the look about her. Then, in the instant it took him to get out of the car, he saw her fall and his heart missed a beat. He ran toward her, ignoring the pain in his leg, but had no way to stop her from hitting the ground, her head hitting the side of the car as she went down.

“Laken!” he called as he ran. “What are you doing?” Glaring the other detectives away, he came down beside her. She whimpered as he pulled her into his arms. “I have you,” he murmured, tilting her head up to see where she had bumped it.

“Mac.” She seemed dazed by his presence.

“It’s all right.”

A small stream of blood trickled down the side of her cheek originating from just below her hairline. Mac wanted to swear but held it in, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and pressing it over the cut. “Get these cuffs off her,” he ordered.

“We’re to take her in,” Pearson came back defiantly.

“And you’re doing such a good job of it.”

“Stay out of it,” Pearson snapped. “You’ve already compromised things enough.”

Mac sent him a fierce look at the comment. “I’ll take her to the station.” He started to fish out his own key.