Save Me
"Damn that bastard Bennett."
Livvy Marini slammed her office door closed, then
tossed the file onto her desk with a little too much force. The manila folder slid across the surface,
bumped into the stack of files piled on one side and toppled off the edge. The folder landed in her chair, the contents
fluttering to the floor.
Livvy closed her eyes for a long moment and
breathed deeply. When she was certain
she wouldn't scream with frustration, she gathered the papers and evened them
up before replacing them in the folder.
Still fuming, she threw herself into her chair and shoved her fingers
through her hair. A few strands
whispered over her face. Damn it! She'd spent a lot of time on the elaborate
French braid that morning.
Sighing, she tucked the hair she'd pulled loose
behind her ear, opened the folder and re-assembled it in the correct
order. Stared at the picture on the
first page.
Anson Bates.
Former cop. Arrested a month ago,
sitting in jail, awaiting trial. Bates
had been charged with four counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder,
drug distribution, assaulting a police officer and a whole page of lesser
offenses.
Everyone in the State's Attorney's office knew who
he was. Bates was a high profile
case. National-news high profile.
Bates had been denied bail right after his
arrest. But now he had a new lawyer. And Henry Bennett had just petitioned for
another bail hearing.
Bennett was the most well-known criminal defense
attorney in the city. The most
successful.
The most expensive.
Bates' property and money had been impounded – the
fruit of his drug crimes. If he was
acquitted, he'd get it back. But he
couldn't use it for his defense.
So who the hell was paying for Bennett?
More important, how could the SA's office stop
Bates from making bail?
This case was a career-maker, and Livvy wanted to
be part of it. But since her sister
Cilla had been the detective who'd arrested Bates, there was no way Livvy would
be in the public eye on this one.
She'd begged to be allowed to do something. Her boss had handed her this file, with
instructions to get as much information as possible from this witness.
Ryan bleeping Ward.
Bates' partner.
A hothead. An adrenaline junkie.
A cop her sister Cilla had arrested for roughing
up a suspect.
Yeah, Livvy knew all about Ward, too.
She wondered if Gus knew about her connection to
Ward. She shook her head, flopping back
in the chair. Of course the Cook County
State's Attorney knew about it. Gus
Swenson was the ultimate political animal.
He knew everything about his assistant SA's, and he'd use Livvy's
distaste for Ward to make sure she dug hard into what Bates' partner knew.
And if Livvy didn't want to question Ward? If she still harbored a grudge for the way
Ward had treated her sister? Gus
wouldn't give a damn about her tender feelings.
Snorting to herself at the idea of Gus even
knowing what tender feelings were, she straightened and picked up the
file. Ward had been interrogated by a
DEA agent shortly after Bates' arrest.
The Chicago P.D. had taken a shot at him, too.
Both organizations had concluded that Ward hadn't
known about Bates' criminal activities.
Which didn't say a lot about Ward's powers of observation. How had the guy even made detective?
As she read through the file, familiarizing
herself with the details of the case and Bates' interrogation, someone rapped
on her door. "Come in," she
called, glancing up from the file.
The door opened hard, bouncing off the wall. A tall, glowering man stood in the doorway.
He had light brown hair. Gray eyes, and right now they were simmering
with anger. They turned stone cold as he
studied her. Even his thick, sooty
eyelashes didn't soften that glare.
"Can I help you?" she said, setting the
file on her desk and closing it, hiding the contents.
"I'm supposed to talk to you." His arms at his sides, he clenched his fists
and released. Clenched and released.
Livvy narrowed her eyes and stood up, crossing her
arms over her chest. "And you would
be…?"
"Ryan Ward.
Swenson told me you're investigating Anson. I'm supposed to cooperate with you. Spill my guts." He clenched his fists again as he studied
her. "You're Cilla Marini's sister,
aren't you? He told me I'd be talking to
Ms. Marini, but I figured, what are the odds?"
He stared at her, as if daring her to deny it.
Livvy stared back.
"Yes, Mr. Ward, I'm Olivia Marini.
Cilla's sister." She watched
as he processed the information. His
eyes hardened even more. So did his
mouth.
Livvy held out her hand, and after studying it for
too long, he finally shook it. His palm
was warm, and the calluses on his palms and the pads of his fingers scraped
over her skin.
"Have a seat," she said, her back ramrod
straight as she curled her fingers into her palms and waited for him to lower
himself into one of the chairs in front of her desk.
As he glowered at her, his expression was an open
book. He hated being here. He wanted to leave. His jaw worked. His gaze slid toward the door. His foot tapped out a nervous rhythm on the
tile floor.
"Why am I talking to you?" Ward finally asked.
"Because I'm part of the investigative team
for the Anson Bates case," she said, her voice steady. She was in the power position – standing
while he sat. She didn't intend to lose
her advantage. "Gus Swenson gave me
your file. You and I will be working
together." She forced herself to
uncurl her hand. No way would she let
this rude man know he'd rattled her.
"Is this Swenson's idea of a joke?" Ward leaned forward, his gaze as hard as
winter ice. "I thought he wanted me
to cooperate. Tell you everything I
know. So why did he turn me over to you, knowing we have history?"
"We
don't have history, Mr. Ward. What
happened between you and Cilla has no bearing on this case." She slid into her chair, holding his gaze.
Ward gripped the arms of the uncomfortable
chair. A muscle jumped in his jaw. "Right.
You think what happened between your sister and me isn't going to affect
how you and I work together?"
Since he was laying it on the table, so would
she. "I won't let it. The Anson Bates case has nothing to do with
the disagreement between you and Cilla.
As long as you cooperate, I can work with you."
"The 'disagreement?' Is that what you call it?" He laughed.
The cold, hard sound matched his icy eyes. "Your sister arrested me."
She had no intention of getting into an argument
about what had happened between Ward and her sister. "Cilla's a good cop. She didn't arrest you for fun. Or because it was 'that time of the
month.'" She punctuated her words
with a vicious slash of air quotes.
"I never said that. Never implied it, either." His face was stone, his eyes hard as granite.
Livvy shrugged one shoulder. "You created the atmosphere. You didn't think one of your buddies would go
a step farther? Make a crack like that
to Cilla?
He flinched.
Barely, but enough that she noticed.
Satisfaction hummed through Livvy.
She leaned toward him, her hands pushed flat against her desk. "If someone had said that to me? I would have kicked his ass. Then yours for starting it. And believe me, I'd have enjoyed the hell out
of it." Her nails dug into the old,
soft wood of the desk. She still got
angry every time she thought about what Ward had done. "Regardless, it's in the past, Mr. Ward. Leave it there."
He narrowed his eyes. "So you're just going to forget about
what happened?"
"Not at all.
But I know how to separate my
personal life from my professional life, Mr. Ward." She straightened her back, realizing anger
was painting her voice with sharp edges.
She had to work with this guy.
Get him to confide in her.
Obvious anger wasn't going to get her what she needed. "Can you?"
He shrugged one shoulder. "We'll see, won't we?"
"I guess we will." Livvy swallowed the ball of temper lodged in
her throat and pulled the file toward her.
"Have you read Mr. Bates's interrogation transcript?"
"I didn't have to read it. I was there."
"I'm not talking about your own
interrogation," she said. "I'm
talking about Bates'."
"I heard every word Anson said. I was in the observation room during his
interrogation." His jaw worked
again and he stared out the window behind her, as if fascinated by the vista of
rooftops and air conditioning units."
Was Ward pissed off at Bates? Or was he angry he had to cooperate with the SA's
office? "It's been a month,"
she said. "You're a detective. You know witnesses forget details after a few
days, let alone four weeks."
He slanted her a glance, but didn't say
anything. Didn't have to. The muscles clenching in his jaw told her everything
she needed to know.
He needed to read the transcript. Didn't want to admit it.
Savoring her tiny victory over Ryan Ward, she
nodded once. "I'll make you a copy
so you can review it. Look for anything
the prosecutors might have missed. An
expression Bates used that has special meaning to him. Some reference that only you would
understand. Anything we might not have
caught."
Ward rolled his shoulders, drawing her attention
to them. His blue dress shirt emphasized
how wide they were as it clung to the muscles in his upper arms. "I can recite almost every word of that
interrogation in my sleep," he said, shifting his eyes to hers again.
His bleak look told her he probably had, and a
tiny breath of sympathy drifted through her.
Regardless of what she thought of Ward, it had to be hard to testify
against a former partner. Wrenching and
painful.
"I don't need a transcript."
"I'll make one anyway. Reading a document is different than
listening to someone talk. You might see
something." She reached for the
folder, opened it and pulled out the transcript. "It can't hurt."
"Fine.
I'll read it tonight. Is that all
you need from me?" He stood up, and once again filled her small office.
"I'm afraid not," she said, standing as
well. He towered over her. "I'll have a lot of questions for
you. About where you and Bates went on
your shifts, who he talked to, who he ran into more than once. But for starters, read the transcript and
mark anything that strikes you as…interesting."
"I want to get this over with," he said.
She raised one eyebrow. "You know you'll have to testify at his
trial."
"Anson's a smart guy. He'll take a plea."
"You think so?" Livvy shook her head. "He's had a month to sit in his cell and
think about doing serious time. He hasn't
budged. Still says he's not taking a
deal. Now he's got a new attorney. The best in the city. Bennett is asking for bail again. So why would Bates take a plea and lose his
chance to get out of Cook County jail?"
Ward scowled.
"What the hell? Henry Bennett's his lawyer now?"
"Yes.
And he's asking for a bail hearing.
Based on the charges against Bates, he shouldn't get it. Bennett must have something up his
sleeve." Livvy clenched her teeth
and glanced at the picture of the guy on the cover of the file. Bates' smirk made her angry all over
again. "My job is to figure out
what it is, and how to counter it."
Ward snorted.
"Anson knows he won't get bail.
He's a master at chess. He has
his next five moves planned out."
"Then I'll figure out a way to checkmate
him," she said, standing up.
"It'll take a couple of minutes to copy the transcript. I'll be right back."
As she edged past his chair, the heat from his
body washed over her, carrying his scent.
Was he wearing aftershave, or did he always smell like cool fresh air
and sunshine?
What the hell?
She was wondering about Ryan
Ward's aftershave?
Clearly, anger at the thought of Bates getting
bail had short-circuited her brain. The
only thing she should be wondering about was how quickly she could complete her
work with Ward.
She absolutely didn't care what he smelled
like. Or looked like, for that matter.
He could be the most gorgeous hunk in the history
of hunks. He was off-limits. On top of the ethics issue and the loyalty to
her sister issue, what if he was working with Bates?
They were partners. It was possible he'd run back to Bates with
information on how the SA's case against him was shaping up.
Her hands weren't quite steady as she set up the
copy machine. She braced herself on the
machine as she watched the copy spew out.
She needed to focus on the case.
Keep her head and be careful about what she shared.
Her hands were rock steady as she removed the
papers and tapped them on the lid of the copier. Breathing deeply, she headed down the hall
toward her office.
When she walked in the door, Ward was holding
Bates' file. Thumbing through the
contents, he paused to read something.
Rage, accompanied by the bitter taste of déjà vu,
roiled her stomach. "What are you
doing?" she asked, snatching the folder out of his hand. She held it against her chest and stared at
him,
"Doing what you told me to do," he said
coolly. "Looking through your
notes."
Slamming the folder onto the desk, she stood over
him, blood roaring in her ears. "I
asked you to look at the transcript. Not the entire file."
"Why not?" he asked, leaning back in his
chair and letting his gaze drift over her.
"You want my help, I need to know everything you know."
"No.
You don't." She narrowed her
eyes at him. "There's sensitive
information in that file.
Confidential. Not for general
distribution."
The memory of James Dugger, her 'boyfriend,' going
through her briefcase a few months ago, looking for his friend's file, made her
cringe with shame. The betrayal was
still raw. Still fresh.
"I'm cooperating with you, aren't
I?" He pushed out of the chair and
stood, towering over her. Too
close. Staring down at her. "I'm on your side."
She stared right back. Angry witnesses didn't intimidate her. They made her push harder. "Are you?" she asked softly. "When was the last time you saw
Bates?"
A shadow flickered in his eyes. "A couple of weeks ago."
"You visited him at Cook County jail."
"No, we had a beer together at the Pipe and
Shamrock." His jaw twitched, as if
he was grinding his teeth. "Of
course I went to Cook County. Only way I
was gonna see him."
"What did the two of you talk about?"
His gaze slid to the side. "This and that."
Livvy lifted her chin as she stared at Ward. "Was it something you told him that made
him think he could get bail?"
When Ward sucked in a breath, LIvvy grabbed the
file and slid it into a desk drawer.
Didn't look away from him.
"He's your partner. Are you
going back to the jail and tell him what you saw in his file?" she
demanded. Just like that asshat Dugger planned to do.
"How're you going to prevent it, Marini? You going to take me into protective
custody?" His gaze drifted over
her, lingering at her mouth, her breasts, her legs.
A flash of awareness sparked between them, and she
sucked in a quick breath. "I'm not
interested in babysitting hostile witnesses," she said, although her skin
tingled every place his gaze touched.
What the hell was wrong with her?
Why was she always drawn to the jerks?
The guys who wanted something from her?
She took an empty manila folder off the bookshelf,
dropped the transcript into it and shoved at him. "Here's the transcript. I'll call you tomorrow."
His fingers curled around the file folder. "My phone number is 773..."
She interrupted, crossing her arms over her
chest. "We already have it."
"Of course you do." He lingered for a moment, studying her. "You going to check the logs at the
jail? See if I visit Anson?"
"Will I need to?" She raised one eyebrow and held his gaze.
"What do you think?" he asked, staring
back. After a few moments that felt like
hours, he stepped into the hall, glancing over his shoulder. "It's been fun, Ms. Marini. I look forward to talking to you tomorrow."
He turned and headed down the hall. Livvy stepped to the door to watch him walk
away. To make sure he went right to the reception area. She didn't want him snooping around the office.
It was hard not to appreciate the way he
moved. Smooth, flowing steps, no wasted
motion. Graceful.
His ass was worth a second look, too.
If she was thinking about Ryan Ward that way.
Which she most emphatically was not.
She stumbled back into her office and closed the
door. Where the hell had that come from?
Yeah, he was attractive, with those cool grey
eyes, wavy brown hair and that sculpted body.
She had a weakness for big guys.
So sue her.
But this was Ryan
Ward. The guy who'd orchestrated her
sister's shunning at her police station.
The guy who'd made Cilla's life so miserable she'd had to transfer to
another district.
The guy she
was investigating because his partner was a criminal.
She sat heavily in her chair and rubbed at her
forehead. As if James Dugger wasn't bad
enough, now another loser was ringing her chimes.
Apparently, her string of being attracted to the
wrong men continued.
She fumbled for the drawer where she'd stashed the
Bates file and pulled it out. Opening
it, she tucked the original copy of the transcript where it belonged and began
paging through the notes again.
After fifteen minutes, she closed the file. She didn't remember a thing she'd read.
She glanced at her watch. Six pm.
Time to leave.
She'd get some takeout Chinese and work on this at home. She needed to concentrate on this case. Go over all the information in the file and
make notes about what to ask Ward tomorrow.
As she stuffed the folder in her briefcase, she
glanced at the chair on the other side of the desk. It was horribly uncomfortable, with a broken
spring that poked you in the ass if you sat in it. There was no money in the budget for new
furniture.
Ward hadn't seemed to mind. He hadn't shifted in his chair, hadn't
squirmed. Almost as if he hadn't noticed
the broken spring. It spoke to a
single-mindedness, a focus, that could be dangerous.
Or seductive.
She shivered, remembering the way his gaze had swept over her. Maybe he'd been focusing on…other things.
And maybe she was a complete idiot.
As she slipped on her jacket and headed down the
hall, though, an image of Ward appeared in her mind again. Standing at her door, asking if she was going
to check the visitor log at Cook County Jail.
Great ass or not, she wasn't going to take
anything on faith.
Livvy pulled her phone out of her pocket, Googled
the number for the jail's visitor office and added it to her contacts.
She'd check with them tomorrow to see if Ward had
visited Bates.
Blurb for Cover Me
Chicago cop Brendan Donovan loves the adrenaline rush of his role on a tactical team. So when he's assigned to an undercover job to ferret out the supplier of a new and deadly sex drug, he's thrilled. His partner is Cilla Marini, a detective he'd met recently during a traffic stop. He's intrigued by Cilla, but his sister told him that Cilla doesn't date cops. Which is exactly what they have to pretend to do. Brendan loves a challenge.
Cilla is shocked to find out that Brendan is her mystery partner. After an incident that forced her to transfer from her district and isolated her from her fellow cops, Cilla knows relationships with cops are off the table. But she's spent far too much time thinking about Brendan since he pulled her over for speeding. Now, not only are they working together, they have to pose as a couple to find the source of the sex drug that's already killed several men.
As the action heats up, Cilla and Brendan don't have to pretend they want each other. But when secrets put them both in danger, will they have each other's back? Or will their quarry divide and conquer them before they can find their way to happily ever after?
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Blurb for Protect Me
olice officer Mia Donovan is studying for the detective's exam when her captain offers her an assignment – be Finn O'Rourke's personal bodyguard for the next three weeks. He's in town to film a movie, he has a stalker, and the threats are escalating.
Mia isn't interested – she's focused on the looming exam. But her captain convinces her that successfully protecting Finn will look very good on her record when promotion decisions are made. So, reluctantly, she takes the assignment.
Finn isn't the arrogant, egotistical actor Mia expected. There's more than meets the eye when it comes to the 'most hated man in America', Finn's nickname since he cheated on his girlfriend, a beloved pop star.
But his stalker is lurking and the threat is escalating. Although Mia's feelings for Finn are growing, her job is to protect Finn, not fall in love with him.
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Blurb for Save Me
State's Attorney Livvy Marini and Detective Ryan Ward have many reasons to dislike each other. Starting with Livvy's sister once arresting Ryan. But when Livvy's boss assigns her to interview Ryan about a case, they have to put aside their animosity and work together to keep Ryan's former partner in prison.
Anson Bates is desperate to get out of jail. Livvy and Ryan unearth information that will destroy his chances for bail, but the more they uncover, the more risky their job becomes. Working to keep a dangerous criminal off the streets, Livvy and Ryan go from adversaries to friends. Then lovers. But when Livvy's life is threatened, can Ryan reach her in time to save her?
And once she's safe, can he save himself?
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Bio
I love being a writer! That moment when I get an idea and it begins to crystallize into a story is a burst of adrenaline like no other. I've published thirty-seven books, and that lightning bolt at the beginning of each story never gets old.
After writing thirty books for Silhouette and Harlequin, I'm now writing a series about the Donovan family, siblings who are all in law enforcement in Chicago – four detectives and one FBI agent. They're sexy romantic suspense, with a big helping of family. I've finished all the siblings' books, but I can't bear to let the family go. So I'm working on books featuring secondary characters from the first six books.
I've wanted to write since I was a child, but a love for animals and a fascination with medicine led me to become a veterinarian. I love that career, as well, and my job has provided me with lots of inspiration for my books.
I live in a Chicago suburb with my husband and a variety of pets. When I'm not working, we spend our time visiting our adult daughters, traveling and hanging out with our friends.
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