know our guy is a cop. Flynn was there. Maybe you should think twice before you believe you are chasing some black Suburban that just happens to have illegal tags. That’s hardly the same level of crime as raping and killing young girls.”
She ignored him, stepping out of the conference room at the FBI field office. The last thing she would tell any of them was that Perry probably had followed her to the bowling alley, since he had promised her he would return last night. More than likely he saw her leave her home. But offering that bit of information would open a can of worms. And she wasn’t going to go there. It was bad enough getting chewed out because her meet didn’t go down right.
There wasn’t anything to tell John anyway. Perry knew her because of her involvement with his nieces. End of story. She blew out an exasperated breath, knowing there would be a confrontation with him soon and unable to quit speculating as to how that meeting might turn out.
She wanted to beat the crap out of Perry, knock some sense into him, show that dominating, aggressive man that he couldn’t push her around, or follow her and yell at her from across a parking lot. That’s what she wanted to do. Pound some kind of acknowledgment into his thick, sexy skull and make him see who he was messing with.
Kylie stopped at her car, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes. Blowing out a frustrated sigh, she fought to get her temper under control. Daydreaming about taking her fists and beating that steel chest of his wasn’t doing a damn thing but getting her hot and bothered. Pissed and horny was a bad combination.
“Kylie,” Paul said, hurrying out the door. “Wait up a minute.”
He hurried toward her, his straight brown hair falling in thin strands over his forehead. Paul pushed his glasses up his nose and offered a weak smile.
“John’s got a hot temper. He’s not a bad guy, though. He’ll simmer down quickly.”
“I’ve got a temper, too,” she said, not apologizing. “And I don’t like being told how to do my job.”
She turned from Paul, unlocking her car, and threw her purse over to the passenger seat.
Paul held her car door when she slid behind the wheel. “I’ve got the live feed running surveillance on your home,” he began, suddenly sounding awkward.
Kylie remembered Perry telling her he wanted to see her surveillance equipment. “Yeah? And?” she said, knowing where this was heading.
Paul sighed. “If it’s any consolation, when John questioned Chief Radisson about Perry Flynn the Chief got all hot under the collar, too. If there’s a bad seed in his department, the Chief is putting his neck on the line swearing it’s not Flynn. Apparently he gave him the Kathleen Long case today.”
“Okay,” Kylie said, managing to sound indifferent. If Perry was assigned the same case she was, though, they were going to start crossing paths a lot more often. She hated not being able to come forth with him. “If he did that, why is John all bent out of shape about him? You’d think if the police trusted one of their men enough to put him on this case, we could work together.”
“You could suggest it to John. He seems hell-bent and determined not to trust anyone down at the station, though. He damn near got into a screaming match over the phone earlier with the Chief for putting Flynn on the case.” Paul shook his head, letting go of her car door and taking a step backward. “If it’s any consolation, from what I’m seeing, Flynn seems to be more in your corner than out of it.”
When she looked up at Paul, he looked away, apparently unwilling to admit he’d seen her kiss Flynn. She needed to find out if every room in her home was bugged. “I’ve got a criminal to catch. Is there anything else?”
“Actually, there is. What are you doing now?”
“I thought I’d get online and see if I can’t get Mr. Pete to give me a rain check.”
“Good. When you get him online, call me. I’m going to run a check through all city office computers and find out who is online when he’s talking to you.”
“Good idea.”
“Some advice?”
“What?” She glanced up his slender body, not built up at all like Perry was, although Paul wasn’t a bad- looking guy. She smiled, still feeling irked over her lecture from John, but seeing Paul was doing his best to be diplomatic.
“Go somewhere other than your house so that you aren’t…” He hesitated, staring down at his shoes. “So you aren’t interrupted.”
She fought not to smile when Paul blushed. “Maybe I’ll find a good coffee shop and set up camp there for a while and work off my laptop. But I’ll call you once I’m online.”
Kylie leaned back in the black metal chair while nursing a damn good mocha latte. The richly flavored aroma drifted around her face as she licked her lips. She stared at her laptop and her buddy list. PeteTakesU wasn’t online.
In spite of the years she had behind her on the job, sitting and waiting and doing nothing was damn hard. More than likely John also viewed the live feed from her house. He saw her kissing Perry. And it was more than just a kiss. She raised her gaze to the street in front of the coffeehouse Paul had suggested. Kylie was the only one sitting on the brick patio in front of the small cafe. Across the street, a new-wave bookstore seemed to do a decent amount of business. There was a buy, sell, and trade record and game store next to it. On the corner, cars drove in and out of a gas station. Business as usual for a growing, progressive town and suburb of an even larger city.
Where were the cameras in her house? She knew there was one in the living room and two out front. But she wasn’t aware of any that were installed in the back end of her home. It actually surprised her that she didn’t pay closer attention to where Paul had installed them. In her defense, she’d been busy as well that evening, working to get her computer going and setting up passwords and screen names. It had been a normal day preparing for undercover work, and one she would do exactly the same if she were to do it again. But then she didn’t anticipate Perry sweeping her off her feet.
Was that what he’d done?
Kylie scowled. She was a professional, one of the best in her line of work. Her record was impeccable. There wasn’t an online predator she’d gone after that she hadn’t nailed to the wall. A local cop sniffing around her wouldn’t hinder her investigation.
“Damn,” she sighed, blowing out her frustration with a loud sigh. She was thinking about Perry as if he were lower on the totem pole than she. Yet picturing him, remembering how he grabbed her, damn near swept her off her feet with a kiss more powerful than anything she’d experienced in a long time, made him seem anything but inferior. The way he kissed her, touched her, got her off more than sex had with some of the men she’d been with in her past. She fidgeted in her seat, feeling her jeans rub between her legs, and closed her eyes, imagining Perry touching her there.
The chime from her laptop made her jump and she damn near spilled her latte in her lap. Not the kind of heat she was looking for, she thought, scowling at her computer screen.
Kylie stared at the words that appeared on her screen. She bit her lower lip, switching gears quickly, and posed her fingers over the keyboard. Nothing pissed her off more than getting her ass chewed, especially when she was doing her job. She didn’t like how John had brushed off the Suburban, indifferent to it having illegal tags when that appeared to her to add suspicion to her guy. She’d had cases in the past where her perp hunted young girls using an alias as well as being illegal in almost every aspect of his life. It was common for a sexual predator to live somewhere where his name wasn’t on a lease, the car he drove was not registered, and all efforts were made to keep his identity hidden. If John refused to acknowledge that, possibly he wasn’t doing his job right.
She stared at her computer screen, forcing herself to calm down and think only about being the bait this sick monster fed off, and bringing him in.
She typed a quick,
