Cavanaugh Justice: The Strong Silent Type Part 17

The man on the other side was slightly shorter than Hawk, but no less powerfully built. His curly black hair made him look engaging, as did the wide grin on his face. He wore an expensive black silk robe that threatened to come undone from the loosely tied belt drooping at his waist.

The wide smile faded, but only a little, as he saw the gun being pointed at him. "Hey, man, what's going on? No need for guns." He looked at Teri. "Tell your honey to stop waving that thing around. Come in, talk, take a load off. I've got something going you might really be interested in."

Danny had changed, Hawk thought. He looked a h.e.l.l of a lot better than he had the last time he'd seen him. Living off others could do that.

"Right. I would," Hawk agreed, not moving, "but not for the reasons you might think." He flashed his badge at the other man.

Staring at it, Tierney then started to laugh. "Nice bit of copying, Hawk. I always did say you were a natural."

"His badge is real," Teri said tersely, still pointing her weapon at him. With her free hand, she dug out her own s.h.i.+eld. "So's this one." She held it up in front of him.

The smile became tight around the edges. "What's this all about?"

"About ten to twenty," Hawk told him. "Somebody rolled on you, Danny."

There was bravado in his laugh. "Only one rolling is my girlfriend. She's still in bed." He nodded toward the inside of the apartment. "Have a taste. Your type, Hawk." His eyes momentarily washed over Teri before returning to Hawk's face. "Not like this one. C'mon, what do you say?"

Pity and loathing blazed in Hawk's blue eyes. "You don't get it, do you, Danny? We're taking you in."

The smiling face turned malevolent. "What's the charge?"

"Burglary. Murder. All sorts of things. You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent-" she began to recite as Hawk turned him around and snapped handcuffs around his wrists.

Tierney looked at him in disbelief. "Hey, at least let me get my clothes."

"There's an orange jumpsuit waiting for you at the precinct," Hawk a.s.sured him grimly. "Just your size, too."

His words were met with a barrage of curses. This, Hawk thought, ushering him out of the apartment, was more like the Danny he knew.

"So, what is your type?"

Hawk stopped dead in his tracks. It had been a long day. He'd grilled the man who had once been his friend in darker times-to no avail. Tierney had used his one phone call to summon his lawyer, confident he'd walk out a free man at the end of the day.

He was still in his cell.

The case would be built. Solidly from everything that Hawk could see. They had enough on Tierney to put him away for a long time. Prodded further by Mulrooney, Phil Sherman had given them the address of the warehouse where the stolen goods were being stored until they could be properly fenced.

Ironically enough, it turned out to be the same warehouse he and Danny had once used for shelter. It was a small world and at times, it felt as if the fit was very, very tight.

Hawk looked now in her direction. The office was supposed to be empty. Only half the lights were on. "I thought everyone was gone."

"You thought wrong." Getting out her purse, she closed the bottom drawer with her foot and stood up. She threw the purse strap over her shoulder. "We broke the case. I thought you might want to get a drink and celebrate."

He thought of Danny. Each of them had crawled out of the life they'd found themselves in. But Danny's choice had taken him to an even darker side by some accounts. Hawk wondered if the man had ordered the execution of the two men they'd caught earlier.

Had Danny done it himself, or just ordered it done?

"I don't much feel like celebrating."

"Okay, then we'll get a drink and talk." She saw the look he gave her, the one that warned her to back off. She wasn't about to listen. "And don't tell me you don't feel like talking because you do."

He felt tired, drained and definitely not up to this. Hawk slid his jacket from the back of his chair. "Taken up mind reading?"

"Taken up partner reading," she told him. "Tierney looked as if he thought you and he were more than just pa.s.sing acquaintances."

"Maybe we were," he allowed. "Once." And that was as much as she was getting out of him, he thought. She had a habit of taking everything and using it against him, undermining him.

Standing close to him, Teri looked up into his face. She didn't need lighting to see what was there. "You saw yourself in him today, didn't you? Saw what you could have become if you hadn't become a cop."

He didn't want to encourage her. The shrug was an accident, a slip.

"Well, I don't think you could have." The fierceness in her voice surprised him. "It's not in you to be dishonest."

He looked at her sharply. Where did she get off, acting as if she knew him inside and out? "You have no idea what's in' me, Cavanaugh, so don't pretend you know me."

She wasn't about to allow him to sweep her aside. "But I do. You could have gone down the same path your parents did. Most kids of flawed parents wind up having the same flaws. You could have become like Jocko, but you didn't. And you could have gone Danny's route, but you didn't. That says a lot about your character."

Character-now there was a nice, antiseptic description. It covered myriad conditions. "You have no idea what I did in the past."

"No, I don't. So tell me." He said nothing. He was going to be stubborn about this, she thought in exasperation. "Okay, don't tell me, but tell someone. Tell a goldfish. Open up to something, Hawk. Don't let things eat at you. You're a good man and you do good every day. Accept that. Make peace with it. Stop blaming yourself because you couldn't save your parents."

She'd struck a nerve he hadn't realized was exposed. His temper flared. "You don't know what you're talking about. That has nothing to do with it."

"Okay." She folded her arms in front of her. "So tell me what does."

He blew out a breath and sank down at his desk. Maybe she was right. Maybe talking to someone would help leech out this darkness inside of him, at least abate it a little.

"I met Danny when I ran away from the last foster home the system put me into," he began.

Teri sat down again and listened to him as he talked, keeping quiet even when she wanted to comment, to offer comfort. She knew he had to get this all out, and if she interrupted him in any way, he'd stop.

So she listened. And waited. Until she was certain he was finished. And when she was sure he was, she said, "I've only got one question."

"Only one?" Hawk laughed shortly, shaking off the somber blanket that had enshrouded him. "I'd thought you'd have a dozen. Okay," he said gamely, "what's your one question?"

She embellished the question she'd first asked him when he walked back into the squad room after personally taking Danny to booking. "Are wild-eyed Latin girls your type?"

At first he couldn't believe what he heard and then he laughed. Really laughed. It felt good.

Chapter Fourteen.

"Y ou're not answering," she pointed out a few moments later when he made no attempt to respond. She was smiling at him, but this nervous, uncertain fluttering went on in the pit of her stomach. And it was growing by the moment. "Are wild-eyed Latin girls your type?"

From across the length of two desks, Hawk studied her for a long moment. "Actually, no, they're not. Not anymore."

"Oh?" She told herself she was being stupid, taking heart from that. But she did. The nervous flutter heightened. "And do you have a type?"

Hawk paused, giving her question serious consideration. "Type" had never mattered to him. Looking back, he realized that the women he'd shared a night with had all been dark-haired.

Slowly, his eyes raised to her face. And he felt that strange, familiar tug. The one Cavanaugh could legitimately claim as her own. "I never thought about it before, but yes, I guess I do."

She could feel her pulse joining in the race. d.a.m.n, but the man excited her. Just by drawing breath. "And that is?"

Just the barest hint of a smile curved his mouth. "Blond. Medium height. Intelligent. Annoying." Each p.r.o.nouncement emerged separately. He paused, looking at her significantly. "That sums it up."

She rose from her desk, aware that his eyes were moving along her body. Aware of the way her body was responding to him even at this distance. The man had powers.

"Does it?"

"Yeah, it does."

Teri rounded the desks, coming to stand beside his. Beside him.

"So, you want to have that drink now?" Hawk shook his head. "Dinner?" Again, he moved his head from side to side, his eyes never leaving her face.

She felt confused, and a whole lot of other things that had nothing remotely to do with logic. And all the while, antic.i.p.ation built within her, making demands as it grew.

"Then what?"

Hawk rose slowly from his chair. He loomed over her, fighting the temptation to take her here and now, in this room bathed in semidarkness.

"Come home with me," he said simply.

They were words he'd never thought he'd hear himself say, words he never thought he'd need to say and yet, there they were. He wanted her. Needed her. Despite all the pep talks he'd given himself, all the logic he'd tried to exercise over his reactions to her, only one thing prevailed. He needed her.

At least for tonight.

Because tonight he didn't want to be alone with his memories of the past. He had shut them away in a tight box a long time ago, but seeing Danny today had brought everything back to him, had shown him the road not taken, the road he might have taken if he hadn't been strong enough. And he didn't like what he saw. Didn't like the fact that only a trick of fate had kept him from ending up that way.

"Okay," she said slowly, watching his face for signs of regret. She took her cue from him, tried not to think about what she was feeling herself. She couldn't tackle something so complicated right now.

There was no moon tonight, she noticed as she followed behind Hawk's car in her own. It added to the feeling of desolation. Was that why he'd asked her to come? Because he felt lonely?

It should have mattered to her, but it didn't. She didn't care why he'd asked, only that he had.

She made one pa.s.s through his complex, then headed out into the street again, looking for parking. She found a s.p.a.ce on the block that ran along right outside. This hour of the night, all visitor parking within the apartment complex was taken.

As she walked along the mist-dampened path to his third-floor, single room, she could hear her heels clicking as they struck the pavement. Could hear her heart echoing the beat in her ears.

If she had an ounce of sense in her head, Teri told herself, she would turn around right now, get into her car and drive home. Home, where things were safe. Home, where she wasn't required to risk her heart.

She kept walking.

Hawk was in the doorway, waiting for her. If she hadn't known better, she would have said he looked anxious.

She would have been right. He was. As soon as he'd parked his own car, he'd stood there waiting, wondering. "I thought maybe you changed your mind."

I did. Three times. "Parking's hard to come by," she murmured, and then she looked up at him. "Why, did you want me to change my mind?"

A funny smile she couldn't quite place played along his lips. "It would make things easier."

"What things?" she asked.

He didn't answer her, couldn't answer her, because he hadn't allowed himself to label what he was feeling. Not for her. And he certainly wasn't about to label the nameless apprehension that lurked inside of him, growing bigger by the moment.

All he knew was that he didn't want to get attached.

What he wanted didn't seem to matter, not in the face of the desires pulsing inside of him.

The moment Teri walked into the apartment, he swept her into his arms without warning, pus.h.i.+ng the door closed strictly as an afterthought. Hunger, fueled by emotions he'd struggled to keep chained, had grown to giant, unmanageable proportions.

He didn't know how much longer he could rein himself in.

As he pressed hot, ardent kisses along her neck, making her head spin, Teri struggled to keep a cool head. She couldn't let him know how much she wanted this, how much she wanted him. How she'd been able to think of almost nothing else except being with him like this again.

If Hawk knew, if he suspected, that would give him all the cards, leaving her with nothing. She'd have to rely on him for everything, every morsel, every crumb. And if he walked away, she would cave.

That couldn't happen.

"What things?" she breathed, asking again.

"d.a.m.ned if I know," he rasped, his breath curling along her heated skin.

Clothing was eliminated with breathtaking speed as eagerness took charge of the reins and plotted the course for them.

She hadn't realized just how much she'd ached to have him touch her, caress her again until just now. Her whole body felt as if it vibrated, desperate for release, yet desperate for the sensations that led to the climax, as well.

Though the distance wasn't far, they barely made it to the bed. He wanted to take her where she stood, to sheath himself inside of her and grab on to the comfort of that joining with both hands, pretending for a moment that was all he needed. That the world was a good place as long as he could be in it with her.

He knew he was attaching a great deal of importance to this and he shouldn't be. He knew how quickly things could fall apart, how quickly they could be blown apart.

But knowing changed nothing. Something inside of him needed this thing he'd denied himself for so long. Beacons stood alone. Were alone. He didn't want to be alone anymore.

His mouth flew all along her body, drugging her, making it hard for her to think clearly. This wasn't like Hawk at all. The last time he'd a.s.saulted her senses, but there hadn't been this rush, this fire that threatened to consume them both.

She tried to get him to slow down, but even as she braced her hands on his shoulders, even as the words rose to her lips, they melted away. His mouth did things to her that erased everything else in its path. Certainly logic.

His tongue took possession of her. The explosion that wracked her body was not long in coming. She arched into it, into him, then fell back on the tangled covers, exhausted. Only to have him begin again.

Everything inside of her went wild.

The next explosions came faster. Small, large, they converged inside her body until she thought she couldn't take the ecstasy any longer, not without completely expiring.