had driven as if the car was on fire, squeezing through yellow lights just as they were about to turn red.
Hunter took a second to get the air back into his lungs. “I think I lost my stomach back there.”
“Too bad you didn’t lose your mouth,” Kenzie retorted shortly. She slammed the driver’s side door as she got out of the car. Her manner softened when she looked at O’Reilly and Jupiter as the duo climbed out of the back seat. “Thanks for all your help,” Kenzie said to the handler.
“It’s been an experience, Detective Cavanaugh,” O’Reilly told her with a bemused smile. “It surely has. Be sure to let me know how the case goes.”
O’Reilly’s last request was addressed to both detectives but Kenzie acted as if the handler had said the words to her only.
“I’ll be sure to do that,” she promised Officer O’Reilly.
Hunter waited until the handler had taken Jupiter back to the kennel and was out of earshot. Catching her arm to keep her from taking off, he asked, “What do you have against me, Kenzie?”
Kenzie shrugged his hand off. She seriously considered just walking away and ignoring the man and his question, but she knew that he wasn’t going to drop it and she had no desire to be confronted in the squad room in front of people she worked with on a daily basis. He was capable of that.
So she turned around and faced Brannigan squarely as she replied, “Do you want that alphabetically, chronologically or in the order of magnitude?”
He whistled softly, as if impressed. “Wow, you’ve been saving that for a while now, haven’t you?” Hunter asked. He saw Kenzie opening her mouth, but he acted quickly, beating her to the punch. “Tell me in any order you want to, Detective Cavanaugh,” Hunter said, deliberately using her surname the way she had requested.
“I know your type, Brannigan.”
He knew he was asking for trouble, but at the same time, he was rather curious what she had to say. “And just what type is that?”
“You’re a narcissist who mistakenly believes that he is God’s personal gift to women and despite your intelligence, you’re not bright enough to know that you’re not anything of the kind.”
His eyes met hers. She expected him to back off. Instead, she saw that smile of his slowly curve the corners of his mouth.
“So,” he said, his smile growing, “you think I’m intelligent.”
She threw up her hands and started to walk away. “You’re missing the whole point, Brannigan. Why am I not surprised?”
But he wouldn’t let her walk away. This time, rather than take hold of her arm, he put himself in front of her, bodily blocking her path to the back entrance.
“Oh no, I don’t think I am missing the point,” he contradicted. “You had one bad experience with a Class A jerk a little over a year ago who didn’t know how lucky he was and screwed up a really good thing. You let that color the way you view every other man who even comes near you and you judge them and shut them down before they ever have a chance to open their mouths.”
Where the hell did he get off spouting all that at her? Did her brothers say anything to him? But how could they? She’d never said a single word to her brothers or anyone in the family about the way Billy had behaved or why she had dumped him. There was no way Brannigan could have known.
“Trust me, not opening your mouth is not your failing, Brannigan,” she informed him. “Now, you might not have anything better to do than stand out here in the hot sun, flapping your gums, but I do.”
And with that, Kenzie neatly turned on her heel and marched away from him and toward the rear steps of the police station.
She hurried up the steps quickly, intent on getting away from Brannigan as fast as she could. She needed to cool off before she slipped up and said something to confirm his assumption.
Hunter let Kenzie keep several feet ahead of him. It was really more prudent that way.
When he walked into the building a couple of minutes after Kenzie had, he wound up running into Murdoch, one of Kenzie’s older brothers. He nodded a greeting at the detective and the other man crossed over to him.
Murdoch obviously had something on his mind. “I hear your cold case just heated up and you’re working with my sister,” the homicide detective said.
The whole incident was less than a few hours old. There was a time not that long ago when Hunter would have been surprised that news about a potential “new” case could travel so fast.
But he had learned that there was an inside private line of communication within the departments, especially when it came to all matters concerning any of the Cavanaughs. It was almost as if at least some of them—if not all—were blessed with telepathy.
Hunter laughed at Murdoch’s suggestion. “Not if she has anything to say about it,” he told his friend.
“That cold case is yours, right? The guy without the head and hands,” Murdoch specified just for the record as they walked over to the elevator bank.
“Right. That was my first case when I came into the Cold Case Division. I’ve managed to clear some of the other ones since then, but that one,” Hunter told his friend, “it just kept going nowhere.”
“Well, I heard that the case Kenzie just caught today looks as if it might be connected to your cold case,” Murdoch repeated. “Both victims lost their heads.”
Hunter shook his head, softly laughing to himself. “You Cavanaughs are just amazing, you know that? Somebody not knowing any better would say that you all seem to operate on the same mental wavelength.”
Murdoch grinned. “Hey, who says that we don’t?” he laughed. “Seriously, though, if Kenzie’s case is somehow connected to yours, this could be the first big break you’ve had with it in a long while. I know how territorial she can be at times. Whatever you do, don’t let her chase you away.”
“Oh, I have no intentions of letting her do that,” Hunter assured the other detective. Belatedly, he pressed for the elevator. “I just plan on backing off for a minute or so to allow her to cool off and regroup. After that, I plan to go at this case again, this time full speed ahead. If there is a connection, I’m going to use it to my advantage. It’s time this cold case was finally put to bed.”
Murdoch nodded his approval. “Good for you. Kenzie’s a good detective, one of the best, but she needs to know that she can’t just boss people around whenever she wants to. You have every right to the information about this case as she does.”
Hunter had to laugh at the simple statement. He bet that Kenzie didn’t see it that way.
The elevator car arrived and he got on. Murdoch remained where he was, so Hunter put his hand up to keep the doors from closing just yet.
“You want to tell her that?” he asked Murdoch.
“Me? You kidding? Not on your life. Becoming a lion tamer might be easier. As a matter of fact,” Murdoch said, “I’m damn sure of it. Good luck, though,” he said
