“The woman who tried to poison Merissa had a sudden coronary, right in her holding cell,” he remarked.
“How convenient,” Tank said. He wasn’t overflowing with sympathy. Merissa could have been lying dead in her bed, thanks to that witch.
“Isn’t it?” Rourke agreed.
“Did she have any visitors, do you know?”
“There was an old man with a cane who said he was her attorney and asked to see her. He was very convincing. The jailer let him use an interrogation room to talk to her. The old man came out, hobbling on the cane, thanked the jailer warmly, talked about the weather and left. They found the woman slumped over in her chair. EMTs responded, but all attempts at resuscitation failed. DOA at the hospital. He doesn’t like loose ends apparently.”
“So there goes our case,” Tank said angrily.
“Something like that.” Rourke drew in an audible breath. “Malathion. Good God, man, there are thousands of poisons that are undetectable by taste or smell. Why use Malathion?”
“Terror tactics,” Tank replied, his voice very quiet. “Something for impact. We know he can be stealthy when he wants to. Either he’s deliberately baiting us, or he’s getting sloppy. If he gets sloppy enough, we can hang him out to dry.”
“Lovely thought, and I just seasoned a brand-new rope,” Rourke said with a lilt in his accent.
Tank laughed, but without any real humor. “Well, we’ll see what happens. But I don’t like having Carson here with her,” he added involuntarily.
“You’re barking up the wrong tree, mate,” Rourke replied. “He likes loose associations. Your lovely Merissa is a forever sort of person. Not at all his type.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Rourke chuckled. “You’ll see. I’ll go now. I’ve got things buttoned up tight here at the ranch. No worries.”
“All right. I’ll take your word for it that my family is safe.”
“A word to the wise,” Rourke added. “Don’t taste anything you’ve left unattended. Tell her, too. Carson will be watching, but it never hurts to emphasize certain things. He was careless with one poison. He might not be with another, especially now that his plans have been thwarted.” He hesitated. “I’ve seen men react under those conditions. A perfectly normal man, going by a set of mental plans, can go berserk when something unplanned happens. In this case, it could be fatal to a lot of people. Watch out.”
“Good advice, and I’ll take it. Thanks.” He paused. “You’ve been a lifesaver, Rourke.”
“You’re welcome,” the other man said as he hung up the phone.
MERISSA WAS SOLEMN. Carson was pensive. Neither of them spoke when Tank went back into the hospital room. He scowled.
Carson sighed. “He thinks we’ve been having a quick affair while the nurses’ backs were turned,” he mused, “somewhere between the checking-your-vitals and doctor rounds.” He smiled at Tank, who was really glowering now. “Just for future reference, I never conduct affairs with women of faith,” he pointed out, indicating Merissa. “They just aren’t into group sex, for some reason I can’t fathom.”
Tank couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing. So did Merissa, although she flushed a little at the explicit remark.
“No offense meant, if you’re into it, of course,” he told Tank dryly.
“Not me.” Tank sat down in the only vacant chair and leaned back. He met Merissa’s eyes evenly. “I’m a one-woman man.”
She stared at him with wide, soft eyes. She wondered at the words and the expression on his face. It could be just a male thing, jealous of another man. On the other hand, he was looking at her with pure delight. Could he really have meant that he only wanted friendship from her? Had he said it because he wasn’t sure of her?
“I feel decidedly like a third wheel,” Carson remarked while they stared at each other. He got up. “I’m going down the hall for coffee. Can I bring you back a cup?” he asked Tank.
“Yes, please, cream only.” Tank slid a hand into his pocket and presented him with a twenty-dollar bill. “Don’t argue,” he added. “Think of it as an expense account.”
“In that case, I’ll splurge and get a chocolate bar to go with it.” Carson chuckled.
“I like mine with cream and sugar,” Merissa told him.
Carson gave her a patient look. “The nurses would carry me into a back room and do God knows what to me if I gave you caffeine.”
“Oh, you can paint a rose on that,” a cute little redheaded nurse said as she came into the room and shot Carson a voluptuous glance. “Really terrible things. Unimaginable things.” She gave him a mock growl.
“How many cups of coffee would you like, then?” he asked Merissa with a big grin.
Tank laughed. So did the nurse. Carson shot her a wink and a smile as he went out the door.
The nurse whistled and waved her hand as if fanning herself. “If I weren’t happily married and a mother...” she mused, looking after Carson.
“He does have that effect on women,” Tank joked.
“Most women,” Merissa corrected. She looked at Tank in a way that conveyed she wasn’t one of them.
Amazingly his face changed. He relaxed. He looked...happy. Content. He let the nurse do her job, then when she left, he moved close to the bed and leaned over Merissa.
“I lied.”
“Excuse me?” she asked.
He bent his head and brushed his mouth tenderly over hers. “I don’t want you for a friend.”
“An enemy then?” she teased, but she was breathing as if she’d been running.
He nibbled her upper lip. “We can talk about it when you’re out of the hospital and all this insanity ends.”
She touched his cheek with cold fingertips and smiled while his mouth moved against hers very softly. “Okay.”
He chuckled, because that didn’t sound like a refusal.
She sighed as she looked up at his hard, gorgeous face. “You are so incredibly handsome,” she murmured huskily.
He actually flushed. “Who? Me?”
“You.” She smiled. “It’s not only the way you look. It’s the way you are.”
“You don’t really know me yet,” he pointed out.
“I know you down to your bones,” she said in an old, wise tone. “You’d lay down your life for your brothers, for their wives, for people who are close to you. In time of danger, you never run. You’re honest and loyal and you don’t even drink. Or smoke.” She shook her head. “Your only real flaw, and it’s a small one, is that temper.”
He made a face at her. “It only peeks out from time to time in extreme circumstances.”
“Like when you think Carson’s trying to charm me.” She laughed softly.
He sighed. It was impossible to deny it. “Yeah.”
She touched his chiseled mouth. “He’s very attractive. He seems like a rock sometimes, but he has a soft center. He doesn’t want to get serious about anyone ever again, but there’s a young woman somewhere who’s driving him up the wall.”
“She’ll have to get in line,” he teased, relieved to hear that Carson wasn’t mooning over his girl.
“It’s not like that,” she replied. “She’s very religious. She won’t like some of the things she finds out about him.” She searched over Tank’s face. “I think it will shock him. He isn’t used to women who don’t think of intimacy as an itch you scratch whenever you feel the need.”
“You’re that sort of woman,” he said softly.
“Yes,” she replied. “I’m not judgmental. I don’t want to make the world over into my own image of how things should be.”
“I know what you mean. But there will always be people of faith, and women who don’t follow the crowd over the cliff of...group sex,” he added jokingly.
She laughed.
