Secure Location - By Beverly Long Page 0,18

listen to her defend Boy Scout Scott, he tempered the urge. “Can we just go to bed? You, in there and me, in here. Separate but equal. Very politically incorrect.”

She massaged her temples and it reminded him of the day she’d had. She had dark shadows under her pretty eyes.

He shut up.

She let out a breath that she had evidently been holding. “All right,” she said.

He almost sighed in response. He was dead on his feet and he didn’t want to fight with her. Had always hated to see her upset and had been miserable the few times in their marriage when they’d argued about something stupid. She grabbed her dry cleaning out of the closet and the sack that had her other things. “My clothes go with me,” she said. Then she left, partially closing the door between the two rooms.

It opened again after just seconds and she tossed his bag into the room. It toppled end over end, before stopping when it hit the wall. It made him smile. Now who was being ridiculous?

He brushed his teeth and splashed some water on his face. Then he took his shirt off. He left his cargo shorts on because a good cop never got caught with his pants down or off. He pulled back the bedspread, turned off his light and lay back on the big bed.

It took her four minutes and eighteen seconds to turn her light off. Once she did, he could hear her sheets rustle. What the hell was she wearing to bed? She hadn’t bought pajamas. So, maybe it was one of her fancy new bra and panty sets.

Or maybe she was naked.

He closed his eyes and rested his forearm across the bridge of his nose, as if that would somehow be an extra level of protection against the images that were playing in his head.

* * *

MEG WOKE UP when she heard a knock on the door. She jerked up in bed and saw Cruz standing in the doorway between the two rooms, a coffee cup in hand. He was dressed in a fresh shirt and cargo shorts and his hair was still damp.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“Seven,” he said, his voice husky. “You slept in your dress?”

Cruz Montoya was one of the sexiest men to walk the planet and he turned her on. Always. Still. And there was no way in hell she was letting him know that and double no-way that she was going to act upon it.

So she’d gone to bed with the only armor she had. “I thought the room might be chilly.”

“You can always turn down the air-conditioning,” he said.

“Whatever. I better get dressed.”

“Coffee?” he said. “I just made a second pot.”

Cruz loved coffee. And drank way more than he should. On the weekends it hadn’t been unusual that he’d get through two pots before she ever poked her head out of the bedroom. “No, thanks,” she said.

“What?”

She’d given up coffee when she’d moved to Texas. The smell of it had kept too many memories fresh. “It bothers my stomach,” she said.

“Have you seen a doctor?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“So that he could tell me good job? Drinking coffee is a vice, not a virtue.”

Cruz rolled his eyes. “Once you get showered and dressed, I’ll walk you to your office. By the way, I called your boss early this morning.”

“Why?”

“’Cause we’re buddies.”

She rolled her eyes this time.

“Because I wanted him to know what happened on the River Walk. I suggested that he assign a security guard outside your office. He said to consider it done.”

“Do you really think that’s necessary?”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”

She wanted to argue that it was a waste of a resource but knew it was probably useless. Cruz had convinced Scott and there was no way she could persuade both of them. “Then what are your plans?”

“I’m going to track down Mason Hawkins, Tom Looney and Troy Blakely.”

She’d known Hawkins and Looney pretty well. They’d been at their jobs when she’d gotten hired. She knew Blakely less well. He’d come a couple months after her and his tenure had been short. She’d had no bad interactions with any of the men, hadn’t even been there when they’d been fired. Yes, she was administration but surely that wasn’t enough for one of them to hate her.

But somebody did. If it wasn’t hate, it was something close. The only person who really had a reason to hate her was Cruz and she knew he was