The Big Heat Page 4

  Between him, Linc and Martin, there were always a couple of extra jackets in the closet. Mostly because they just wound up leaving them at work, but sometimes they came in handy as a disguise.

  “Fine, I’ll grab her a jacket. Go ahead and call a cab and have it waiting around the back. That’ll at least avoid most of the melee out front.”

  A fine frown settled between Marlene’s arched brows. “A cab? But—” she glanced at the pink copy of duplicate paperwork on her desk “—I think this address is only a block or two out of your way. Weren’t you heading home? Seems like it shouldn’t be a big deal to just drop her off on your way.”

  “Will you be happy then? Will I have thoroughly atoned for my sin? Will you finally concede Sunny Templeton’s not my problem?” And would he finally feel as if he could walk away with a clear conscience? That he’d done his best by her?

  “Yes. Mostly. Maybe.”

  He sighed and crossed the room to the back closet. He dug out a well-worn orange and white University of Tennessee jacket from Linc’s college days. He also snagged a ball cap off the top shelf.

  “Feel free to nominate me for sainthood when I’m through.”

  Marlene smiled sweetly and passed him the paperwork. Martin snorted from his office. Cade paused in the doorway on his way out. “Enjoy the sushi dinner,” he said, closing the door on Marlene’s laugh and Martin’s grumbling.

  The wind held a sharp edge and carried the smell of old grease and hickory smoke from the barbecue shack on the corner. Cade avoided a wadded fast-food bag blowing down the sidewalk and rounded the corner of the building to the small, potholed parking lot beside AA Atco.

  He just wanted to get this over with. Done.

  He unlocked his car and tossed the jacket and cap onto the passenger seat. Marlene was right, he could take fifteen minutes out of his day to do the woman a good turn. He cranked his car and pulled past the media to an unlit corner of the parking lot close to the back entrance.

  He was about to encounter Sunny Templeton in the flesh. No flyer. No newspaper article. No Internet blog. His heart pounded the way it hadn’t since he’d apprehended his first skip sixteen years ago.

  He had to get a grip. He brought in hardened criminals, for chrissakes. Just how much trouble could it be to bail Sunny Templeton out and drop her off at home?

  Chapter 4

  “She’s all yours,” officer Jack Winslett, per his name badge, said, speaking over Sunny’s shoulder.

  Time to face Nadine. It wouldn’t be pleasant but it couldn’t be any worse than what she’d been through so far. She turned, expecting her sister. Instead she came face-to-face, well to be technically accurate, face-to-wall-of-hard-muscular-chest with the big, badass bounty hunter himself who’d been starring front and center in her secret fantasies. Cade Stone.

  She must truly be off the deep end because she locked gazes with his piercing tawny eyes and something primitive, something hot and wild and deliciously disturbing shook her to her core, despite having just been bailed out of jail. More than likely, she was just flat-out disturbed. This hadn’t exactly been her finest day. She was tired. Hungry. Grubby. Still damp from her soaking. And to top it off, she’d been hit on by a big woman named Spanky with a skull tattoo on her forearm. And much as he might show up in her fantasies, she didn’t want to deal with him in real life. Especially not when she looked like she’d just crawled through hell and back. Feeling flushed and breathless and slightly weak-kneed was downright inconvenient right now.

  “What are you doing here?” she said, also reminding herself he was the enemy. He’d campaigned for Cecil, against her. He had a lot of nerve showing up here.

  A flicker of…remorse, amusement…something flickered in his eyes and then was gone. “I’m passing along your get-out-of-jail card.”

  His voice was deep, sexy with an underlying hint of gravel. Oh. Sweet. Mother. She reached behind her and grabbed the edge of the desk. A part of her would’ve been relieved if he’d sounded like Tweety Bird. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t be feeling this incredible surge of sexual energy if the guy sounded like he’d just sucked on a helium balloon. That would’ve killed the fantasy. But no, Cade Stone had to sound as good as he looked.

  “You want to take this somewhere else, folks?” Officer Winslett scowled at them. “You’re blocking my desk and I’ve got other people to process.”

  Cade grasped her by her elbow, his touch sending another heat wave through her, and led her out into the corridor.

  Once outside the release room, she dug in her heels and shook his hand off of her arm. She wanted some answers and his touch was…well, it made coherent thoughts other than “I’d like to see you naked” difficult.

  She tilted her head back to look at him. Way back. He had to be nearly a foot taller than her. Fine lines radiated from the corners of eyes that were a golden brown with flecks of black. No-nonsense lines bracketed his mouth. A dark stubble shadowed his jaw. His dark hair was close-cropped. Faint lines etched his forehead. His nose, Romanesque, skewed slightly to one side, as if it’d been broken once or twice and never quite made it back to the center. He was beautiful in a rugged, untamed kind of way.

  His size alone would have made him intimidating, but a body-hugging black T-shirt tucked into black jeans, black leather jacket and black military-style boots only furthered the intimidation factor. No one would mistake him for a gentle giant. He seemed hard through and through, but she didn’t sense any cruelty, just determination and focus.

  She stared him in the eyes, not wanting him to think he intimidated her.

  “I don’t understand why you’re here. I called my sister.”

  Nadine had been the lesser of two evils. Calling Sheila hadn’t been a remote possibility. She wasn’t screwing up the woman’s vacation. As for calling her other friends, it didn’t seem right to drag them into the financial matter of bailing her out. Nadine had plenty to say about Sunny landing herself in jail. Eventually, however, after she’d had her say, she’d agreed to bail her out. So where the heck was she?

  Overhead, a fluorescent bulb that needed replacing flickered. She looked away from Cade to an officer escorting a disheveled middle-aged man in handcuffs down the hall.

  “Your sister posted your bond but she couldn’t make it over here to finish up.” Was that a hint of disapproval behind that implacable stare? He’d campaigned for Cecil Meeks. He didn’t have room to disapprove of anyone. Then it suddenly occurred to her…color her slow what with being arrested and booked.

  “Nadine came to you to bail me out?” She could handle her sister’s tirades, her disapproval. She could handle Nadine not bothering to show up and give her a ride home. But to have gone to this man’s company, the very people who’d been on that billboard with Meeks to post her bond, that stung like an open-handed slap to the face.

  “Our office is right across the street.”

  She lifted her chin and started down the hall. “Thanks,” she said, more of a dismissal than an actual appreciation. She walked toward the exit arrow at the end of the hall.

  He caught up with her easily. “Look, put on this jacket and cap. We’ll duck out the back door and I’ll give you a lift home.”

  She hadn’t even noticed the items he held in one hand. “No, thank you.”

  “There are camera crews and news vans outside that are going to crawl all over you when you walk out of here.”

  Sunny stopped. Cade stopped, too. What did it take to get rid of this man? “Look. I know my sister stuck you with coming over here and bailing me out. I’m bailed. You’re done. Go home. Shoo.”

  Okay, so maybe the accompanying shooing motion was a bit much. Cade Stone didn’t look like a man who got shooed very often…uh, probably never. And from the way he narrowed his eyes and thinned his lips, he wasn’t happy with it happening now.

  “There’s nothing I’d like to do more. I’m trying to go home. I just need to take you home on my way.”

  “That’s not h
appening. How do I know you’re not a pervert who just wants to get me in his car?”

  After a stunned moment he laughed. If he was a pervert, he was a most amused one. “Sorry to disappoint you, honey, but you’re not my type.” He rubbed his hand over his head. “Look. I’m just trying to help you out, here.”

  “The same way you helped me out by campaigning with Cecil? No thanks.” She crossed her arms over her chest. Nice to know she wasn’t his type. He might have some bone-melting physical effect on her but he wasn’t her type, either. Case in point, she’d told him to go away and he was still here. She wasn’t feeling particularly tactful. “I don’t need your help, so quit bugging me.”

  “I’m bugging you—” uh-huh, he didn’t like that word any better than he liked shoo “—because our secretary has taken you up as the cause of the day. Marlene damn near considers you Joan of Arc. Your sister showing up today and then leaving you high and dry was just icing on the cake. Marlene has taken it into her head that I need to give you a ride home to atone for our sin of being part of Meeks’s campaign. If I let you walk out of that door and allow the media to swamp you, if I don’t deliver you safely to your door, my life isn’t going to be worth living.”

  She’d lived on her own for the past twelve years. Aside from having been taken into custody today and subsequently released, she was the only one that made the decision on whether she walked out of a door or not. “If you let me walk out the door…? You’re seriously confused on several issues.”

  “I just know my ass is gonna be grass and Marlene’s gonna be the lawnmower.”

  Maybe she was verging on hysteria because it suddenly struck her as hysterically funny that Mr. Macho Bounty Hunter was angsting over whether this Marlene was pleased or not. “Didn’t you say this woman was your secretary? Doesn’t that mean she works for you? Yet, you’re telling me she’s bullying you into taking me home.”

  He grimaced. “You’d have to know Marlene.”

  She smirked. “I bet I’d like her.”

  “I’m sure the two of you would have a regular Mutual Admiration Society going. Now, can I please take you home so I can go home?” He smiled and Sunny was pretty sure that all her insides melted. Thankfully her legs still worked. “Pretty please, with sugar on top.” It was much, much better for her peace of mind when he didn’t smile. She could actually think when he didn’t smile. He should not smile all the time. And she could feel her resolve weakening, crumbling in the face of that sexy, lopsided curl of his mouth.

  Where was her pride? Her brain? Her cherished independence? She squared her shoulders. “You know I’m not afraid to go out there and face them.”

  “No. You don’t appear to be. I, however, am afraid to face Marlene. And I’m hungry to boot. Could we just go?” Another rueful flash of faintly crooked teeth, which was somehow all the more appealing than if he’d possessed perfectly aligned pearly whites.

  Sunny weighed her options. She didn’t owe him anything. He’d campaigned for Cecil and there was a part of her that would enjoy knowing her refusal left him in bad graces with the much-feared Marlene. And she was perversely annoyed at his proclamation that she wasn’t his type. Which was just fine because he wasn’t her type. Just because her heart was going rat-a-tat-tat didn’t mean jack.

  She shook her head. “I can’t help you with that.”

  His smile took on a hard edge. “Listen, lady. We can do this my way or we can do this your way. Either way, I’m taking you home.”

  She needed a bath and dinner and she wouldn’t mind a beer and not necessarily in that order, but his sheer effrontery boggled her mind. She simply had to ask. “And what, pray tell, is your way?”

  He sighed. “We’ve been over this part before. You put on the cap and jacket and we walk out the back door.”

  “Of course, how stupid of me. It just seems to be my way that I’m in the dark about.”

  He seemed impervious to her sarcasm. “Well, your way, since you’re unwilling to go under your own power, means I toss you over my shoulder and carry you out the back.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Do I look like I’m kidding?”

  “You can’t manhandle me. We’re in a police station. You can’t carry me around like a piece of luggage just because you want to.”

  “I just bailed you out on an assault felony. It’s not going to look too good on your part if we go this route.”

  “I’ll tell one of the cops.”

  “I know I’m being redundant, but these guys know me. I’m in here several times a week. And I just bailed you out—”

  “I know. On a felony assault charge.” She shot him her best steely-eyed look. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  He stared back. Neither of them blinked. “Want to try me?” His voice was soft, which carried far more impact than if he’d shouted it.

  She knew what he meant and how he meant it. It was her imagination that put an erotic twist on his words, made it an invitation to something far more. Her pulse fluttered and for a second she stood there, mesmerized by the curve of his mouth. Heat crawled up her face. She blinked. “No.”

  “I’m glad we got that settled.” He held out the jacket and cap. “You want to go home. I want to take you home. What’s the problem?”

  She took them, taking care not to touch her fingers to his in the process. “The problem is…” What? She was going to tell him she was pissed her sister had dumped bailing her out on the enemy? No way. She was going to confess that even when he was being a macho bonehead, he turned her on? Hardly. She settled for the third truth, leaving the first two out. “I don’t like for someone to tell me what to do.”

  “This is the deal, honey—”

  “The name’s Sunny, not Honey.”

  “It’s a natural law. In every situation in life, someone has to be in charge. If it’s a situation I’m a part of, then I’m the one in charge.”

  Could he possibly be any more arrogant? But she was worn out and she just wanted to be home. Turning down a ride from him felt a little like cutting off her nose to spite her face. Principled didn’t have to mean stupid. She’d lost it with Meeks today and she wasn’t too far from losing it again. She was skating on the edge. Probably best to skip the reporters out front. Her temper and her mouth might get her into even more trouble. She shrugged into the jacket and crammed the cap down on her head.

  “Fine. Take me home.”

  “Are you always so gracious?”

  “Are you always so gallant?”

  He looked as if we wanted to deliver a smart-ass comeback. Instead he started walking and she had to hurry to keep up. “I’m parked close to the door. It’s the yellow Corvette.”

  Figured. A sexy muscle car. Her automobile weakness. Precisely the car at the top of her “hot” list. Everything about the man screamed testosterone.

  Ten minutes. Fifteen at tops. Surely she could put up with him that long.

  Chapter 5

  “Was it on the news?” she asked, a marked weariness in her tone.

  Cade made a right out of the parking lot, avoiding the news vans in front of the building. “The five o’clock.”

  He caught her nod out of the corner of his eye. Quiet descended on the car as he navigated downtown Memphis.

  He’d never met such a—she defied description—woman in his life as Sunny Templeton. Alternately aggravating, amusing, appealing, the woman had actually shooed him like he was a pesky dog. But there was an energy about her, a presence, almost…and even though he didn’t go in for this kind of crap…a connection. Even now, he sensed exhaustion rolling off her in waves, lapping at him.

  He drove past the Christmas decorations mounted on the light posts. He hadn’t lied when he told her she wasn’t his type. She was intense and he didn’t do intense women. However, the implication she didn’t appeal to him was, unfortunately, a lie. When he’d grabbed her arm, a surge of want had rocked through him at the touch of her skin beneath his fingertips despite the fact t
hat she looked tired and waterlogged, and that her hair alternately stuck out at odd angles or lay flat against her head. She was having what his sister termed “a bad hair day.”

  He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Her face was more interesting than pretty, her purple eyes even more arresting in person. High cheekbones. A strong nose. Her mouth was a shade too wide. There was nothing delicate or cute about her but her face’s angular sensuality drew him. And she had a nice ass, too. Hey, he was a man. Like he wasn’t supposed to notice.

  He’d deliberately played the Marlene card. He was sure blaming Marlene got him further than the truth. He’d been compelled to shield her from media circling on the front sidewalk. There was something about her that called to him, summoned him on an elemental level. He’d felt it when he saw that flyer but it was all the stronger when he met her. And wouldn’t she think he was crazy as hell if he told her that?

  If push had come to shove, he would’ve tossed her over his shoulder and hauled her out of there. Whatever it took to protect her, even if he was shielding her from her own stubbornness.

  And he needed to clear up the Meeks issue. This was probably his one chance. Other than passing along whatever Jones uncovered on Meeks, if and when he had information, there was no reason for their paths to cross again. “Those ads we did with Meeks—” she turned and looked at him “—weren’t politically motivated. Our business was feeling the crunch of a new competitor’s ad campaign. We needed the exposure so we hooked up with him.”

  She laughed abruptly, startling him. “I’d have preferred to think you at least believed in him.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  So much for that. He slowed down about a block from her house, watching for the turn.

  “How’d you know where I live anyway? I just thought about it, I never gave you the address.” Her voice held a slight huskiness that tightened his gut. She pulled off the ball cap and ran her fingers through her hair. It was shorter than it had been in the flyer. He liked it better this way.