How to Seduce a Cavanaugh. Marie Ferrarella

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Brian replied genially. Then amusement curved the corners of his mouth. “Which is exactly why I’m not assigning you to partner with one of the department’s German shepherds.”

      Brian leaned back in his chair and gestured first toward Kane, then toward his grandniece whose performance was at times a little bit unorthodox. But by all counts she was both professional and tenacious—and she got results, which was what he was ultimately shooting for.

      He smiled at her now, just before saying, “Detective Kane Durant, meet your new partner, Detective Kelly Cavanaugh.”

      Durant’s expression never changed, Kelly observed, but she thought she saw a flicker—just for a moment—in the other man’s eyes that told her the thirty-two-year-old detective was far from happy about this newest coupling that was taking place.

      “I’m not an unreasonable man,” Brian went on to say. “If this partnership isn’t working for either one of you after, say, a couple of months, you can request a reassignment and I’ll consider the matter. Nothing is written in stone,” the chief went on to assure the duo.

      “But before either one of you decides to make that request, I want you to give this partnership a decent try.” He emphasized the words decent try. “Remember, nothing worth keeping comes easy. The rewards that are the sweetest are those that are hard-won.” Deep green eyes swept over both detectives, one at a time. “Do I make myself clear?” he asked.

      “Perfectly,” Kelly replied with all but unbridled enthusiasm.

      “Yes, sir,” Kane said. His low-key voice was all but flat.

      Satisfied, Brian nodded. “Good. Now good luck—and goodbye,” he added. Just like that the meeting was over.

      Kane lost no time leaving the chief’s office. Walking briskly through the outer office, he headed straight for the elevators.

      Kelly found she had to lengthen her stride to keep up with her new partner. The latter gave absolutely no indication he wanted her to catch up.

      He certainly wasn’t willing to slow down long enough for her to accomplish that small thing.

      Too bad, she thought, lengthening her stride with determination.

      Kelly arrived at the elevators just after her new partner did.

      The man was going to take some getting used to. Right now, he seemed to be all blustery, like a bull confined in the proverbial china shop. He couldn’t seem to turn around without knocking something down and breaking it.

      The worst part, she thought, was that he was aware of what he was doing—and not even the most subtle display of remorse was forthcoming from the man. There was obviously a good reason for that—he was feeling no remorse. Or, if by some chance he actually was, he was exceedingly careful not to show it.

      He wasn’t like the other detectives. Something had made him different. It was up to her to make different synonymous with extra capable. Her granduncle saw qualities in this man, she could tell. She’d heard that Brian Cavanaugh had never been wrong when it came to doing what was best for his police force.

      Although she was somewhat skeptical about this particular arrangement working out, Kelly decided she was just going to have to proceed on faith.

      “How do you want to do this?” she asked her new partner brightly, breaking what was beginning to feel like an ironclad silence. Kane had given absolutely no indication he would say anything if she didn’t prod him into it.

      “‘This’?” Kane echoed. The elevator arrived and he stepped inside. He noted how she seemed almost to hop in, claiming the space directly next to him.

      Terrific, the chief had assigned him to partner up with a rabbit, Kane thought darkly. A chipper, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed rabbit.

      The idea did not inspire him.

      “Yes,” she confirmed. After almost a minute went by, she realized that her new partner didn’t have a clue what she was referring to. So she elaborated. “You have your desk and I have mine,” she pointed out.

      “So? Is this where you tell me something informative about desks?” he asked with more than a touch of impatience in his voice.

      “So one of us has to make a move. Amos cleared his desk out before he left,” she told him, hoping that Muhammad would opt to come to the mountain rather than deal with the mountain coming to him. “Your partner did the same when he transferred out of Robbery and into Vice,” she concluded.

      Kane looked at her sharply. Just how closely had this eager little beaver been paying attention? His most recent partner, Woodward, had abruptly just picked up and left. Since the chief of ds had known all about it, Kane assumed Woodward had left with the man’s blessings—his didn’t count, even though he’d made no secret that he was glad to be rid of the man. Until just now, he’d had no idea where the detective had gone, nor had he cared, as long as it was away from him.

      He just assumed it would be the same deal when it came to his current partner. A few weeks would go by—maybe even the two months to which the chief had referred—and then his newest so-called partner would bolt, and he would be more than glad to be rid of her.

      But for now, he had a question he wanted answered. “How do you know which division Woodward transferred to?”

      “I pay attention,” she answered simply. She waited for Kane to answer her question about which of them would be transferring desks, but that didn’t look as if it was about to happen. She began to doubt he was even listening to her.

      In that case, the man had a serious attention deficit disorder. She tried again, since it was obvious that what she considered to be a possible dilemma didn’t seem to have occurred to her new partner at all.

      “Okay,” she began again. “Now, do you want to switch desks or should—”

      A curt “No” cut her down midsentence. Trying hard not to look annoyed, Kelly tried another approach to pin the man down.

      Was he saying no to everything or just to the first part of her sentence? Kelly dug deep for her patience.

      “Do you mean no, you don’t want to switch desks? Or no, you don’t—”

      Kane cut in as if she wasn’t saying anything—at least nothing worthwhile. “You want me to hire a skywriter? Would that help you understand?” he asked impatiently.

      Words rose to her lips that would only fan the flames and turn this into a full-fledged raging forest fire. She practiced restraint—although it was far from easy. She settled for sarcasm.

      “No need to go to that expense. Just use your words, Durant. Do you want to move?”

      “No,” he bit off. “I don’t want to move.”

      There was nothing to be gained by echoing his sentiment and saying she didn’t want to move, either. One of them had to and, apparently, at least for now, she had been awarded the role of the flexible one.

      “Okay,” she agreed gamely. “Then I’ll be the one to move.”

      Kane wanted to say no to that as well, but he knew СКАЧАТЬ