door. “In a manner of speaking, I guess I probably did.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
HE WAS STRIDING ahead of her. Charley quickened her pace, caught him by the arm and refused to let go until he turned to her.
“Okay, you’re not going anywhere until you explain that one,” Charley informed him tersely. Her question to him about the rabbit’s plight had been a joke. His response apparently hadn’t been.
Nick didn’t want to discuss it. He wished the technician had kept his mouth shut.
“Just something I need to look into.”
“Regarding the case?”
Nick stretched the truth. And credibility. “Possibly.”
“And possibly not,” Charley concluded. The way she said it let Nick know on which side of “not” she thought it stood.
He had too much on his mind to play games. “Look, Special Agent Dow, if you want to put me on report with A.D. Kelly—”
Charley stared at him, puzzled. “Why would I want to do that?”
Nick threw up his hands. Depending on policy enforcement here, she had the ammunition to get another partner. “For abusing the facilities.”
Her expression told him that she didn’t quite see it that way, nor did she want to play it like that.
“I just heard a ‘possibly,’” she informed him lightly. “That’s good enough for me—if you tell me just how a pregnant rabbit figures in your life.”
Not wanting the conversation to carry throughout the entire floor, Nick ducked into an alcove. Charley went right along with him. “That’s what I was trying to find out.”
The alcove, she realized, was just a fraction too small. And she was standing more than a fraction too close to Brannigan. She moved back as far as she could, creating a whisper of a space between them. She found the need for air urgent and immediate.
“I need a little more information than that,” she told him. “Did you find one on your doorstep?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes widened at the response. “I was just kidding.” Charley turned the situation over in her head. “You’re new to the neighborhood, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” He gave the answer guardedly, not knowing where she was headed with this.
“Maybe the rabbit was intended for someone else. The tenant who lived in the apartment before you,” Charley suggested. “Or maybe someone got their apartments mixed up.”
“Could be,” he allowed in a voice that said he didn’t really buy into either theory.
Charley was quick to pick up his tone. “But you don’t think so.”
Nick had never cared for being questioned, second-guessed or probed. “Trying to get into my head, Special Agent Dow?”
“Wouldn’t have to, if you volunteered a little.”
Nick shrugged, looking over her head. Hoping she’d get the message without his having to tell her to butt out. “Nothing to volunteer yet.”
To his surprise, she caught him by the lapels and forced him to look at her. “Partners are supposed to have each other’s backs, Brannigan. I can’t cover your back if I don’t know what to expect.”
She had beautiful eyes, he thought suddenly. Eyes that went right through a man, clear to his spine.
Nick mentally pulled himself back. Those weren’t the kind of reactions a man had about his partner. Not if he intended to remain part of a successful team. “It’s just a hunch.”
She released his lapels but made no effort to step out of his way. If he wanted to get out of the alcove, he was going to have to physically move her. Or give her an answer she accepted.
“What kind of a hunch?”
He shrugged. “Maybe I’m being paranoid.” It was meant to get her to back away.
It failed. Charley rolled along with the comment. “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”
She wasn’t going to back off until she had what she wanted, he thought in exasperation. “It’s a long story, Special Agent Dow.”
Charley smiled sweetly. “Fine, I love long stories. We’re due for a lunch break. You can entertain me.”
He gave her a long, significant look. One that went along the length of her before it returned to rest on her eyes. “Telling stories is not the way I usually entertain a lady.”
It took Charley a second to recover, and do it without swallowing. Not that she could. Her mouth had suddenly turned bone-dry. She was aware that the terms of their future partnership depended on her not showing her reaction. She liked to think that when the chips were down she could bluff her way out of anything.
“Think of it as broadening your repertoire,” she instructed flippantly.
With reluctance, he agreed to give her at least a partial explanation over lunch. After he got the report.
NICK STOPPED BY the lab to get the report from Hank. Not that there was much to add to what he’d already been told. The rabbit had been pregnant when it died.
But that was enough. It told Nick everything he needed to know.
He muttered his thanks and left. There was no point in saying anything about the fact that Garcia was less tight-lipped than he would have liked. At least he’d gotten to the rabbit quickly.
“You okay?” Charley asked when he came out of the glass-enclosed lab.
“Let’s go eat,” Nick said.
The fact that he didn’t answer the question was not lost on Charley.
SHE TOOK HIM to a nearby taco restaurant, one she frequented. When it came to placing his order, Nick told her to pick for him, then added that he’d never had anything on the menu so he was going to have to trust her. She’d looked at him as if he’d just admitted to hopping the ten-fifteen shuttle from Mars, then ordered two beef-and-cheese burritos.
“I can’t believe you’ve never had a burrito,” she said when they received their order several minutes later.
“Missed that in my education,” he responded.
Charley waited until he’d taken a second bite, then asked, “Well, what do you think?”
He enjoyed it. As far as fast food went, this was preferable to a hot dog. “It’s a theme and variation on a crepe.”
As good an assessment as any, Charley thought. She also estimated that she’d given him enough time to frame the answer she was waiting for. Unwrapping her own
