Marie Ferrarella - Cavanaugh On Call

The corners of his mouth curved in amusement. She was feisty, he thought. He was raised with feisty women. Anything less would have been exceedingly dull. “I meant to drink.”

She gave him the name of a currently popular beer.

“That’s a new one on me. Is that any good?” Bryce asked.

“Better than most. I’m not much of a drinker,” she told him.

Even though there was so much noise building around them, his laugh wasn’t lost in the din. Instead it seemed to undulate right through her, like a shiver waiting to happen.

“I already picked up on that,” Bryce told her. His grin intensified. “See, I’m learning things about you already.” The table was several feet away from the bar itself. “Stay right here,” he requested. “I’ll be right back.”

With that, he made his way to the bar to order their drinks.

Scottie glanced over her shoulder at the front door.

Chapter 4

This would be a perfect time to make a getaway, Scottie thought. Cavanaugh’s back was to her and he was busy trying to get the bartender’s attention. The latter was taking and filling orders like a house afire, but it still looked as if it might take him at least a few minutes to get to Cavanaugh.

If she slipped away now...

If she slipped away now, Cavanaugh would undoubtedly hunt her down and insist on collecting his “debt” at some other, probably less convenient, time. Scottie sighed. She might as well resign herself to getting this over with and out of the way.

It wasn’t easy, but she stayed where she was.

Cavanaugh came back faster than she thought he would, a mug of beer in each hand.

“You’re still here,” Bryce said. There actually was a note of surprise in his voice.

That made two of them, Scottie thought.

“I said that I would have that drink with you,” she reminded Cavanaugh. “What, did you think I’d make a break for it?”

She found herself, just for a moment and very reluctantly, being drawn in to the man’s genial smile. It was just this side of sexy and difficult to ignore.

“It crossed my mind, yes,” he answered.

Her eyes met his. Maybe ground rules were called for here. “When I say I’ll do something, I do it.”

Bryce placed her mug of beer in front of her and then, straddling his chair, set his mug down where he was sitting.

“Good to know.” He raised his mug, waiting for her to do the same. When she didn’t, he went ahead with his toast. “Well, here’s to a fruitful partnership.”

Scottie knew she couldn’t very well ignore the sentiment behind that, so she nodded, raised her mug and clinked it against his.

Taking a sip, she placed her drink down again. Glancing at her watch, she wondered how long she would have to remain at Malone’s before Cavanaugh would call them square and let her leave.

“So, do you do that often?” Bryce asked out of the blue.

Caught off guard, she stared at him, quickly reviewing their sparse conversation. She came up empty. “Do what?”

“Serve dinner at the homeless shelter. I assume that was what you were doing there.” He hadn’t seen her carry in any bags of clothes to donate, so he had come to the only conclusion he could about her thirty-five-minute visit to the shelter. “Very noble, by the way,” he added.

She frowned. What she’d heard about the Cavanaughs was true. Once they latched on to something, they just wouldn’t let go. She was going to have to answer him.

“Before you start fitting me for a halo,” she told Bryce, “I wasn’t there serving dinner.”

“Oh?” He watched her over the rim of his mug. “Then what were you doing at the homeless shelter?”

The words “none of your business” rose to her lips, but antagonizing Cavanaugh from the get-go would just cause problems and she already had more than enough of those. So, she grudgingly told her partner, “I was looking for someone.”

The look in his eyes told her that his interest had piqued a notch higher. “Who?”

Okay, this had gone as far as she was willing to go with it. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but what I do off duty is my own business.”

If she’d offended him, she saw no indication. “No, you’ve got that right. I was just going to volunteer to help you find that ‘someone,’ that’s all.”

He couldn’t help her, not without her opening up about Ethan, her brother’s past and her concerns that it had caught up with him again.

“I don’t need help,” she told him.

The last thing she needed was to have Cavanaugh looking for her brother’s whereabouts. It wouldn’t take much for him to unearth a slew of things she didn’t want anyone knowing. Once Cavanaugh started digging, it would be all too easy for him to make the leap from her brother and his particular set of skills to the current break-ins plaguing the city’s residents.

“I don’t know about that,” Bryce countered. She looked up at him sharply and he explained, “Maybe it’s because I was raised with so many relatives, always willing to pitch in, but to my way of thinking, everyone needs help at some time or other.”

“Fine,” she said with finality, hoping this would be the end of it. “When I decide that I need help, I’ll let you know.”

Bryce studied her for a moment and she could almost feel his eyes probing her, poking around in places he had no business being.

“Will you?” he asked. The expression on his face told her he wasn’t that convinced.

She instantly responded the way she knew he wanted her to. “Absolutely.”

“I thought you always told the truth.” The skeptical note in his voice told her she hadn’t managed to fool him.

Okay, time to go, Scottie decided. She’d done her due diligence, now she had to go home. She wasn’t sure just what her next move was since no one at the shelter had heard from Ethan in several months. Hearing that had just concerned her even more. Where was he? What had caused this break in his routine?

She refused to allow panic to take center stage. If it did, then she’d be lost, not to mention that Ethan might very well be lost, as well. She had a feeling he might need her at her sharpest.

Scottie pushed back her chair. “Well, this has been fun, but I’ve got to get going,” she told Bryce, preparing to get up.

But what she’d hoped would be a clean getaway hit a rather large stumbling block when a tall, muscular man moved right in front of her.

“Damn, it is you,” he said, surprised and pleased at the same time. He looked to Bryce, who was still seated. “Is the end of the world coming?”

Scottie looked up and found herself staring into the face of Duncan Cavanaugh, Bryce’s older brother and one of the people she had worked with on occasion while she’d been assigned to Homicide.

An incredulous expression on his face, Duncan looked at his brother. “How did you manage to talk her into coming to Malone’s? She always said no when she was working Homicide.”

Bryce grinned. “I guess she just finds me better company than you.”

“Yeah, like that’s the reason.” Duncan laughed, dismissing the answer and shaking his head. He turned back to Scottie who continued to look as if she was out of her natural habitat. “Well, it’s nice to see you, Scottie. Hope things are working out for you in Robbery.”

“Too soon to tell,” she replied quietly, unconsciously slanting a glance toward Bryce.

“Nothing’s changed, I see. Honest to a fault,” Duncan commented. He smiled at her. “It has its charm.” It was unclear if he was referring to her honesty or to her new department. With that, he raised his bottle in a silent salute. “Carry on, little brother.”

“Shouldn’t you be home?” Bryce asked. When Duncan looked at him quizzically, Bryce elaborated. “Isn’t Noelle due any day now?”