Linda Castillo - Cops and…Lovers?

Gritting his teeth against the annoying rush of blood to his groin, Nick approached the bed. "What do you have here, McNeal, access to the Illinois Crime Lab Database?"

"Better." She shot him a superior smile. "A database still under development. It tracks the movement of known criminals, namely Mafia types. The big, mean dogs."

"Your favorite kind," he said dryly. "I'm not even going to ask how you got into that databank."

"You probably shouldn't." Her fingers danced over the keys. "Knowing you, you'd probably want to arrest me."

Scowling, Nick glanced down at the screen, where Vic DiCarlo's name blinked. "Our boy's been busy."

"A subsidiary of one of his corporations owns a Learjet. Modified fuel tanks for long hauls." She tapped a key, and the screen scrolled down. "A day after the warehouse shooting, his personal pilot filed a flight plan from New York to London. From there they flew to Sicily."

"Interesting destination."

"Family reunion, no doubt."

"Or a funeral."

Erin 's finger quivered slightly when she hit another key. "Interesting perspective, Chief. But Sicily would also be a good place to rehab if you'd been shot."

"Just what do you plan to do with this information?" he asked.

"Use it to get DiCarlo off my back."

"What are you going to do, hit him over the head with your laptop?"

She looked up from the monitor and frowned. Her eyes were so clear and earnest that for a moment he thought he might do something stupid, like lean forward and kiss her until she forgot all about Vic DiCarlo.

"The computer says DiCarlo is in Sicily," he said instead.

"I think he's back in the States," she said. "He knows the feds are watching, so he did it secretly. No flight plan." She paused. "I think you and I should put our heads together and figure out a way to flush him out."

Anger unfurled in his gut, but Nick curbed it. It wouldn't do him any good to snap at her. He'd already tried that and it hadn't worked. Maybe he could shock her into believing the mob didn't mess around when it came to revenge.

"You shot his son, Erin. DiCarlo won't let it go. He's not going to forget about it."

"If DiCarlo wanted me dead, I wouldn't be here."

"Maybe he doesn't just want you dead. Maybe he wants to hurt you the way you hurt him. You know his reputation when it comes to cops. If he decides to make an example of you, there won't be enough of you left to bury." She started to speak, but Nick silenced her by raising his hand. "Do us both a favor and let the feds handle this."

Unfolding her legs, she rose quickly and crossed to the other side of the room. "I'm not going to walk away."

Nick reached down, punched the power button on her laptop and closed the case. "If I have any say in the matter, you will."

She glared at him. "Don't let your philosophy on female cops cloud your judgment, Chief."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that misplaced sense of honor of yours that cringes at the thought of me getting into a tight spot with DiCarlo. Admit it, Chief. For all your enlightenment, there's a part of you that thinks women and police work don't mix."

A kick of anger surged through him. "Recklessness and police work is the mix that chafes me."

She laughed sharply. "Right. That's why you nearly blew a gasket when I took down those two suspects during the Brass Rail robbery."

"Your being female has nothing to do with it."

"Hector would have gotten a pat on the back, a gold star and a free beer. He sure wouldn't have gotten assigned to the school crosswalk-"

"Hector wouldn't have risked his life on two small-time bums who would have been picked up by the highway patrol within the hour."

"I'm not going to run away from DiCarlo just because the thought of me taking him down grates on your male sensibilities."

Nick's temper uncoiled. He was across the room, his fingers closing around her arms, before he even realized he had moved. "You want to know what's wrong with that picture, McNeal?"

She stared at him, surprise and a hefty dose of anger suffusing her face. "Let go of me."

"DiCarlo isn't some two-bit hood. He's cunning and he's ruthless. He's got an army of mindless goons just waiting for the chance to cap a cop. Call me a Neanderthal if that makes you feel better and helps you justify your need to make amends with your conscience, but I'm not going to stand by and let you get yourself cut up into little pieces in the name of decorum."

The color drained from her face, but her expression remained fierce. "I'm a police officer, Nick. I go after the bad guys no matter how scary they are."

"You're a powder keg, and you don't have the good sense to know when you're out of your league."

"We're not going to agree on this."

"Evidently."

She took a step back, but Nick went with her. "There's a difference between courage and taking needless risks just because you've got a score to settle with your conscience," he said.

"You can't handle my being a cop, and you've let that affect your actions when it comes to me." Erin 's back bumped into the wall with a thud, stopping her backward progression.

"Maybe I can't handle it. But maybe you can't, either, McNeal. Maybe you're in this as deep as I am. Maybe we're both in so far over our heads that we don't know up from down." He stopped just short of touching her with his body. The restraint cost him, but he didn't let her know it. He desperately needed the upper hand, but knew with the certainty of a sailor watching his ship go down that he was about to lose that as well.

Never taking his eyes from hers, he reached for her hands and drew her to him. "I care about what happens to you, Erin. I didn't want to. I didn't want a lot of things to happen when it came to you. But they have. I'm not going to let you go after DiCarlo."

She was so close he could smell the warm, enticing scent of her, feel the heat coming off her, the electricity jumping from her body to his. Slowly, he eased her hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles.

"Don't," she said breathlessly.

"Don't what? Worry about you? Don't care about you? Don't kiss you?"

He didn't miss her quick intake of breath. Her eyes widened when he took her fingertips into his mouth, and Nick knew then he wasn't the only one hanging on to control by a thread.

"Don't do something you're going to regret," she said.

"I already have." Reaching out, he trailed a finger down her throat, marveling at the silky feel of her flesh, wondering what it would be like to take the same track with his tongue.

She stared up at him, her cheeks suffused with color. "Funny, Nick, I never had you pegged as a risk taker."

"That's not the first time you've been wrong about me, is it?"

"I don't want to get in over my head."

"You already are." He smiled at her. "But you're not alone. But that's what risk is all about, isn't it?"

Her eyes darkened with the realization of what they both knew would happen next. "Why is it that getting any closer to you is the one risk that terrifies me?" she whispered.

"Maybe because we both know how good it's going to be. Maybe because we both know things won't ever be the same." He barely heard his own words over the drumming of his heart. Desire and a thousand other emotions he didn't want to deal with tangled inside him until he thought he would explode. He wanted her so badly he ached. He feared what it would do to him if he kissed her, if he totally lost his head and tried to seduce her.

Bracing his hands on either side of her, he leaned forward to kiss her. Just one kiss, he told himself, then they could sit down and discuss the problem like two adults. Cops, for Pete's sake. Nick would convince her to go with the nice U.S. Marshals. Erin would agree. The feds would bust DiCarlo. It would be over.