You helped this woman on a case just over twelve hours ago, you ass. You need to lock it up. Right goddamn now.
Kellan froze as if he’d been hit point-blank with a bucket full of frigid water. As sexy as her body felt against his in the dark of the bar—and fucking hell, it really, really did—he knew far better than to let himself get so brazenly carried away on impulse.
Losing control was dangerous. He couldn’t let it happen. Not even for a night.
“Ah.” He shifted to put some breathing room between them, snapping the moment in half. “So how’s that case from this morning going? Did you get any leads from your friend?”
After a handful of rapid-fire blinks, Moreno matched his backward shift, putting clear distance between them as the song on the jukebox shifted into a new one, equally slow. “Oh. Uh, maybe. She’s working at the pizza place until eleven tonight. I’m actually going to head over there tonight to see if I can catch her and maybe dig up some more information.”
“Is your partner going with you?” Kellan lifted his chin in a slight gesture toward the table by the door, where her fellow detectives had been eyeballing them at regular intervals.
“What, Hollister?” Moreno shook her head, filling the air with the tropical smell of coconuts again even though there was enough space between their bodies to be all-business. “No. I haven’t told anyone about this morning yet.”
His heart kicked at his rib cage, part concern and part residual want. Damned coconuts. “You’re going down to the pier just shy of midnight, by yourself, to grab some intel on what might be a serial rape case or a prostitution ring?”
“Yeah,” Moreno said, her tone directly translating to and why the hell wouldn’t I?
Christ, she was a piece of work. “Don’t you think that’s a little dangerous?”
“Don’t you think that’s a little sexist?” she volleyed. “I’ve been a cop for over a decade, Walker. I’m pretty sure I can handle myself.”
Nope. He wasn’t backing down. Not even in the face of her obvious irritation. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you being a woman. It has to do with the fact that your ass isn’t bulletproof, and you have a table full of partners right here in this bar, any of whom would almost certainly go with you. Working a case without backup is stupid, Moreno.”
Judging by her expression, she’d taken that ‘stupid’ comment to heart. “I’m not asking for your blessing,” she said.
“Good, because you’re not going to get it. I want to go with you.”
“No.” Isabella’s spine went rigid. “A CI’s identity is strictly confidential. Hence the ‘C’.”
“Your friend at the pizza place is a CI?” he asked, and wasn’t that all the more reason for her not to fly without a wingman. “Look”—Kellan squeezed her waist, just enough to snare her attention so he could say his piece—“I don’t want anyone’s resume, and I’m not trying to mess with your case. But come on. You’re completely off the books, here. You saw those pictures. Digging into this without backup is asking for trouble.”
Moreno paused. “And you’re going to back me up?”
“You’re not willing to trust your partner or your boss. You got a better idea?”
“I trust Hollister and Sinclair just fine. I wouldn’t work with them if I didn’t,” Moreno said. “This is just a chat with one of my CIs. Detectives do them solo all the time.”
“Not this time,” Kellan said, and Moreno pursed her lips, showing off her disdain.
“My CI’s not going to like it. She might not even talk to me with you around.”
Oh, look. Still no. “Don’t worry. I’ll charm her.”
“Seriously?”
Kellan met Moreno’s look of severe doubt with the best smile he could throw together. “What? You don’t think I can be charming?”
The song ended, and Isabella slid her hands down his shoulders, pulling back to cross her arms over the front of her T-shirt. “I think you’re a pain in the ass.”
But Kellan just kept his smile firmly in place as he leaned in toward her, not stopping until their mouths were only a few inches apart.
“Yeah, well like it or not, I’m the pain in the ass who’s going with you to that pizza place. Now are you driving, or am I?”
6
Isabella stared down the ridiculously sexy firefighter in front of her, and damn it, she was going to regret this. But the glint in Kellan’s stormy blue stare told her not only was he not backing down, but he had half a mind to blab her plans to Hollister if she refused to take backup for her meet-and-greet with Carmen, and at this point, she had to pick the lesser of two evils.