“The fictional town of Millbrook, where the show’s set. It’s supposed to be somewhere in the Midwest. Storm’s a cop. Personally, his life’s a mess, but professionally, he’s focused and intense and occasionally ruthless. In this new story line I’m working on, I want to concentrate on his police work, the routine, the frustrations.”
“Wait.” He’d always been quick, but it was taking him a minute to change gears. “You want me to help you with a story line?”
“Exactly. If you could just tell me how you think, how you go about solving a case, working with the system or around it. TV cops have to work around the system quite a bit, you know. It plays better than by-the-book.”
He swore under his breath and rubbed his hands over his face. Damn it, his palms were sweaty. “You’re a real case, McNee.”
“You don’t have to decide right now.” She was also persistent. And she wondered if he had a spare gun strapped to his calf. One of those sexy-looking little chrome jobs. She’d seen that ploy in several movies. Still, she thought if she asked him that, she’d lose her edge. “I’m having a thing tonight.” As she spoke, she dug into her huge bag for her notebook. “Eight o’clock until whenever. Bring a friend, if you like. Your partner, too. He seemed very sweet.”
“He’s adorable.”
“Yeah.” She ripped off the page and handed it to him. “I’d really like you to stop by.”
He took the sheet, not bothering to remind her he already had her address. “Why?”
“Why not?” She beamed at him again.
Before he could list the reasons, he heard his name called.
“Alexi.”
Alexi.Bess was already enchanted with the sound as she rolled the name over in her head. Different, exotic. Sexy. She was certain it suited him much more than the casualAlex.
Bess studied the woman bearing down on them. This wasn’t one who’d be lost in a crowd, she mused. She was stunning, totally self-assured and very pregnant. Beside Bess, Alex pushed off the desk and sighed.
“Rachel.”
“A moment of your time, Detective,” Rachel said, flipping a glance over Bess before pinning Alex with a tawny stare. “To reacquaint you with civil rights.”
“Your sister?” Bess surmised, beaming at both of them.
Alex sent her a considering frown. “How did you know that?”
“I’m really good with faces. Same bone structure, same coloring, same mouth. You have to be brother and sister, or first cousins.”
“Guilty,” Rachel admitted. Though she would have liked to know what Alex was doing with the sharp-eyed redhead, she wasn’t about to be swayed from her duties as a public defender. “Jesús Domingo, Alexi. Illegal search and seizure.”
“Bull.” Alex crossed his arms and leaned back against the desk.
“You had a search warrant?”
“Didn’t need one. He invited us in.”
“And invited you to poke through his belongings, I suppose.”
“Nope.” Alex grinned while Bess watched them bounce the verbal ball as though they were champion tennis players. “Jesús got sick. I offered to get him some water. He didn’t object. I opened the freezer to get the poor guy some ice, and there it was. Two kilos. It’ll all be in my report.”
“That’s lame, Alexi. You’ll never get a conviction.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Talk to the DA.”
“I intend to.” Rachel shifted her briefcase and began to rub her belly in circular motions to soothe the baby, who seemed to be doing aerobics in her womb. “You had no probable cause.”
“Sit down.”
“I don’t want to sit down.”
“The baby does.” He yanked over a chair and all but shoved her into it. “When are you going to knock this off?”
