Cavanaugh Justice: Alone In The Dark Part 9

Inserting his finger into the cage, something she would have strongly advised against, Walter ran it along the bird's feathers. Ill, the bird still accepted it as her due.

"I don't know how to thank you. I have nothing else in my life besides my work and Mitzi." On her guard, Patience could have sworn she saw longing in the man's eyes. "You know, if things had turned out differently between us-"

"There was nothing between us to turn out, Mr. Payne. There was never even an 'us.' Now please, I saw you out of consideration for Mitzi's health, but I'd rather you found another doctor for her."

"There isn't anyone like you."

She was in no mood for flattery, she just wanted him on his way. "Be that as it may, you're going to have to find someone else." She kept her voice as cool and detached as possible. It was against her nature to be hard, but there was no other way. If she left even the smallest of openings, Walter would find a way to wiggle through it.

The man looked as if he wanted to say something else, something in protest, but then he clamped down his mouth. The next moment he picked up the cage, then exited without uttering another word.

Patience was at the door in two strides. She closed it hard, shutting her eyes and trying to pull herself together before the next patient.

After a beat she stepped away from the door. d.a.m.n, she wished she were tougher. All those years of putting up a brave front had almost managed to erode her strength. Right now, it felt as if she were walking along a hairy edge, about to plummet over the side.

Nice way for a doctor to behave, she upbraided herself.

The door behind her opened again, and she immediately thought of Walter. Had he fabricated some excuse to return? Not waiting to find out, she grabbed a heavy stone bookend and swung around.

"If you don't go home right now, I'm going to call the police."

Brady stared at her. "I am the police. Hey, careful," he cautioned as the bookend slipped from her hands. He reached for it a second too late. "You could lose a toe like that." And then he looked at her ashen face. "What happened?"

Instead of trusting her voice not to break, Patience threw herself into his arms, catching him completely off guard.

She was tired of being brave. She wanted someone else to be brave for her for a change, if only for a second. "Just hold me."

"Okay." He did as she asked. Awkwardly at first and then his arms closed around her more comfortably. The scent of the shampoo she used tripped lightly along his senses, arousing rather than sedating him. He moved the sensation to the rear of his consciousness. "Patience, what just happened here?"

He'd never used her first name before. She'd always been just "Doc." Patience felt tears materializing and silently called herself an idiot. There was no reason to feel this vulnerable. Nothing happened.

This time.

"Walter came."

A tightness formed in Brady's chest. d.a.m.n it, he should have talked to the man when she'd told him her story. "What?"

"His bird was sick."

"What?" Hands on her shoulders, Brady held her away from him. Anger joined forces with disbelief as he looked at her.

"Mitzi, his pet c.o.c.katiel," she explained. Even as she said it, she felt stupid for being this skittish. And yet she couldn't seem to be able to quite shake off the feeling, couldn't quite get a handle on her resolve. "He wanted me to treat her. He seemed distraught."

"Not as distraught as he's going to be," Brady muttered under his breath.

His words made her rally. She didn't want to start something, she wanted it over with.

Behind her.

Patience squared her shoulders and pulled back. Away from the shelter of his hands, of him. "Brady, I'm all right. I just got upset, that's all."

"Did he try anything?"

"No." She shook her head. "No," she repeated. "He was just grateful I could help Mitzi." And then, because she wanted to be honest about what happened, she added, "He did say that he wished things had turned out better between us."

Storm clouds gathering over the plains appeared lighter than the expression forming on his face. "I just bet he did."

She pushed her hands deep into her pockets. "Look, I didn't mean to break down like that. I'm just a little punchy, that's all. I haven't been sleeping all that well lately."

There was a lot of that going around, Brady thought, but he said nothing.

"I'm behind," she told him, stepping to the door. Routine. She needed to lose herself in her routine. That was the only way to keep going. And then she paused. He'd told her earlier that he'd take a rain check. What changed his mind? "Why did you stop by?"

"Just to tell you that all the results are in and no one touched the box or card who shouldn't have. The woman at the florist can't remember who ordered the flowers, only that it was paid for in cash." He'd questioned her himself, but had gotten nowhere. According to the man who ran the shop, it had been an unusually busy day.

Patience nodded. "So that's that."

He let her think it was over, but he didn't believe that it was. Most stalkers kept after their target; they didn't just fade graciously away.

"I'll stay on top of it." They walked out into the reception area together. "Be sure and call me if anything turns up."

She flashed him a smile before turning to the next exam room and her next patient. "Don't take this the wrong way, Coltrane, but I hope I don't have to call you. At least, not about that," she amended.

Brady made no comment, nodding absently as he left.

Walter Payne's address was in his pocket and Brady lost no time in driving over to the man's house. King rode shotgun, alert and taking in this new neighborhood.

"No drug bust here, boy," Brady told the dog. "Just a possible vermin bust."

Walter Payne lived in the oldest part of Aurora. The fifty-plus-year-old neighborhood was comprised of a combination of houses that were either sagging with age and neglect, or beaming with brand-new and relatively brand-new renovations. The Willows, where Payne lived, was a development in transition.

Brady wondered where Payne fit in. He got his answer when he stopped in front of the man's house. Except for a new paint job that, by the looks of it had been done some time in the last few years, the house was sadly in need of major repair. Its entire demeanor appeared dark and forlorn.

Much the way Walter Payne looked when he answered the door after Brady had rung the bell twice. The moment Payne saw the uniform, he straightened, apprehension all but permeating from his every pore. He swallowed audibly before asking, "Yes?"

Brady wasted no time with preliminaries. The man knew why he was here, otherwise he wouldn't look like a frightened rabbit staring at an oncoming eighteen-wheeler. "You come near her again and you're going to be arrested."

There was no need to clarify who he was talking about. They both knew. Payne's broad nostrils flared. It was his only outward sign of bravado. "I only went there because she's Mitzi's doctor."

"Not anymore," Brady informed Payne tersely. As a rule, he was a man of few words. The angrier he became, the fewer the words. "Find another one. Look under V for Vet." His eyes narrowed as he stared down the man. "And vermin."

Payne took a step back into the dark shelter of his home. It seemed as if light refused to cross the threshold or find its way through the windowpanes. "But she-"

"You've had your warning, Payne. Now the choice is yours. And just in case you make the wrong one, remember, a lot of things can happen to someone in the back seat of a squad car before they get to the precinct."

With that, Brady turned away.

Brady heard the door close quickly behind him. The sound of chains being set in place and locks being flipped followed.

A grim smile curved his mouth. He'd done a little background research into Walter Payne. The man was a perfect example of someone who lived a life of quiet frustration. Unless he missed his guess, Payne was the type to pine away after a woman. Violence was a step he wouldn't be willing to take easily. Nothing in his very nondescript life pointed to it. There wasn't so much as a parking ticket with his name on it.

Payne lived modestly and definitely not out of his means. He owned and ran a small, relatively successful computer business. Brady could see how the man could yearn after someone like Patience, but he was reasonably sure that a veiled threat was all that was necessary to get Walter Payne back on track again.

And if not, well, he'd deal with that, too. Nothing got to him faster than a man who threatened a woman's peace of mind.

The rest of his day was uneventful. Brady debated going home after his s.h.i.+ft was over. Stretching out in front of the TV with King and a pizza sounded pretty good right about now.

Seeing Patience sounded even better.

He got in behind the wheel of his Mustang and glanced at his watch. According to his estimate, she was calling it a day, as well. There was nothing wrong in stopping by to give her a quick update and a little relief. Despite her words to the contrary and that independent act of hers, he knew she'd been shaken up by Payne's visit and he wanted to a.s.sure himself firsthand that she was all right.

"Pizza's on hold, King. We're going by the doc's place first."

King barked his approval.

A grin he reserved only for his furry companion graced Brady's lips. "Sometimes I think you're more human than I am, King."

Again, the dog barked.

Patience was just closing up the clinic when he pulled his car up in the driveway. Seeing him through the window, she stopped and came outside. As he got out of the car, he tried not to let her smile affect him. But it was getting harder and harder to block it.

King was hanging out the window on the pa.s.senger side. The canine barked for her attention.

Patience shook her head as Brady approached her. "What did I tell you about letting him hang his head out like that?" She'd given the warning to all five of the officers attached to the K-9 squad.

Brady glanced back at the dog. "It makes him happy. You argue with him."

She crossed her arms in front of her, pretending to scrutinize the officer on her doorstep. "Don't tell me that Officer Coltrane can be manipulated by a furry four-footed animal."

"Let's just say King and I understand each other. I give him s.p.a.ce, he gives me s.p.a.ce."

The evening air was crisp, but she hardly felt the chill. She was warming herself standing beside this brooding policeman. I can see right through you, Brady Coltrane. You're not as tough as you'd like me to believe. "Is that what you like, s.p.a.ce?"

He shrugged. "I work better that way." At least, that was what had always worked for him before. But if that was true, why was he here, in her s.p.a.ce, when he could have been home? After all, he'd turned down her invitation.

She nodded back toward the building behind her. "Want to come upstairs for some coffee?"

Yes, he wanted to come upstairs. But not for coffee, which was why he should remain right out here, where the air was cool and the temptation a little less intense. Or, if not less intense, at least he couldn't allow himself to act on it.

He shook his head. "No, I just wanted to make sure you were all right."

She smiled. "You really are very nice. Sorry-" Patience raised her hands in mock surrender "-no compliments, just doing your job, yes, I remember." She thought of this afternoon. At this point, he probably thought she was afraid of her own shadow. "Look, I want to apologize about this whole thing. I was overreacting-"

He didn't see it that way. What he saw was a brave woman being justifiably frightened. "No, you weren't. The roses were real, the message was real. That's not overreacting, Doc, that's being sensibly cautious."

Her mouth curved. "If you say so."

He had this overwhelming urge to take her into his arms. To hold her to him and to feel her warmth. But Brady reminded himself he was the one who was supposed to be giving comfort, not the other way around. "I don't think you'll have anything to worry about anymore."

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at him. "What did you do?"

"I went to see Payne."

The wind whipped her hair into her face. She combed it away with he fingers so she could look up at him. "And?"

"And I told him to find another vet. He promised to look."

He'd been coming around with King for two years now. She knew a little something about the way he approached things. "Was this before or after you flipped him and stood on his chest?"

"Before," he quipped, his expression so serious that a look of concern entered her face. How could she be concerned about someone who made her constantly look over her shoulder? What kind of a woman was she? Just how big was her heart?

"Don't worry, I didn't lay a hand on the rodent. But he looked smart enough to be worried."

She laughed, shaking her head. The sound wound itself around him, sealing away the wind. "I would be, too, if you growled at me the way you probably did at him."

This time, when the wind moved her hair into her face, he was the one who combed it away. He watched the pupils of her eyes widen and found himself struggling against falling in. Something tightened in his belly. "You're not the type to be intimidated."

It was what she needed to hear. He made her feel strong, as if everything was going to be all right. And grateful to Brady. "Thanks," she murmured and then, because a part of her still felt vulnerable, still felt the need for someone to turn to, she looked up at him.

Everything she was feeling was in her eyes. He felt himself being drawn in, felt himself wanting to protect her. To keep her out of harm's way for as long as there was breath in his body.

Lightly he slid his hand along her cheek, tilting her head up a little more. He rubbed the tip of his thumb along her lips.

And then, before he knew it, before he could talk himself out of it, he kissed her.

The man watching them from within the shadows swallowed the red-hot curse that burned his throat.

Chapter 9.

Patience sighed as she leaned into the kiss, into him. Surprise quickly turned to pleasure. Pleasure turned to desire.

All the fears, all the anxiety that had been dancing around inside of her suddenly burst forth. Overwhelmed by it all, she clung to this tall, dark, silent hero who had stepped out of the shadows into the center stage of her life.

Patience was feeling things, things she'd promised herself she'd never feel for a policeman, never wanted to feel for a man of the law. Or perhaps for any man because feelings like this bound her when she wanted to remain free. But she couldn't dictate to herself now, couldn't reason herself out of what was happening to her. All she wanted to do was to feel.