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  She shot him a look. “We’re not running this on your stomach’s schedule. Besides, arrest is the operative word. We can be discreet,” that word came out with a disdainful sneer, “and get nothing or we can be direct and actually get to question Garcia. I know which way I prefer.” She turned toward the attractive dark-haired woman who approached them.

  “You wished to speak with me?”

  “Yes.” Andie held up her badge, discreetly he noticed, so no one else could see it, and pointed to an open corner of the kitchen where they could speak more privately. “I’m Ranger Sellers and this is Detective McGovern. We’d like to speak with you about one of your employees. A Tito Garcia. Is he here today?”

  “Yes,” the woman said slowly, her brown eyes flickering between Andie and himself. “He came in late so I have him washing dishes in the back. Is there a problem?”

  “We’d just like to ask him some questions, ma’am.” He rested his hand over his own concealed weapon. “Do you mind if we go back and talk to him?” Ostensibly it was a question, but Chase made sure his voice said it was already a foregone conclusion. He hated being a dick at times, but there was no doubt it got shit done.

  The manager nodded and moved to precede them to the kitchen.

  Andie stopped her. “Why don’t you wait here, please. We’ll just be a moment.” She headed for the swinging door, ponytail swaying. He was right behind her with one last look around the crowded restaurant. No one seemed to be paying them any particular notice. The muscles of his shoulders unbunched. Maybe this would be a discreet take-down after all.

  They entered the small, steamy kitchen and two men glanced up. “Ti—” he began.

  The smaller man threw a plate at them and ran for the back door.

  “—to,” he finished.

  Andie knocked the flying disk aside with a swat of her hand and was after him in a shot. Chase took a second to admire her lean form taking flight, as predatory as a shark, before he jumped after them.

  He hit the alley half a step behind her. His palms itched with the urge to lob a bolt of electricity at the fleeing man, knock him off his feet. He loved the charge that flowed through him when he used his power. Loved that he could use his power to catch a bad guy.

  But watching his ranger tackle Garcia and wrestle his arms behind his back was even better.

  Chase cuffed the man and lifted him to his feet as she read him his rights. The manager and other dishwasher stood at the door to the kitchen and watched them, their eyes wide. Not the stealthiest of operations, but with a firecracker by his side, it could have been a lot worse.

  When they arrived at a ranger sub-station, they were given an interrogation room. After wolfing down their burritos, burritos he had insisted he go back into the taqueria to collect, they entered the dreary ten by ten room occupied only by a metal table, three chairs, and a closed-circuit camera. Garcia was waiting for them, both wrists handcuffed to a ring in the table.

  “You’ve got no call to arrest me,” he said, his chains rattling angrily. “I’ll sue your asses. Tackling me was police brutality. I know my rights.”

  Andie plopped down into one of the chairs and rested a booted foot on the table. “You threw a plate at our heads. That’s assaulting a police officer. In front of a witness. But I’ll give you my business card later so you can make sure to spell my name right in the lawsuit. However, if I were you, Tito, I’d save the lawyer to keep you out of jail, not waste him on frivolous lawsuits.”

  “Jail? Please.” He sneered. “It was a plate. I’ll be out of here by breakfast tomorrow.”

  Chase settled his frame in his own chair and tried to look as casual as Andie. It was difficult when he was worried about the flimsy folding chair collapsing beneath his two hundred and fifty odd pounds. Why did these Texas police stations have to have such crappy furniture?

  He was getting soft in the private sector. Compared to this, ARC’s headquarters were as lavishly decorated as the Four Seasons.

  “Do you think we brought you in here for a plate?” He tsked and flipped open the folder he held. There wasn’t much information in it, but Tito didn’t know that. “As we speak, warrants are being executed to search your home and your car. Your family and associates are being questioned. And that’s not even mentioning that little baggy of pills the officers found when booking you. I don’t even want to know where you were hiding that.” He and Andie hadn’t found it on their pat down, and he thanked all that was holy that it wasn’t his job to search further.

  “I know where.” Andie gave him a sly smile. “I talked to the booking officer. You’re a dirty boy, Tito.”

  “Fuck you, bitch.”

  Chase bit back a growl. The dirtbag needed to learn some manners. “I think your anger is misplaced. We’re not the ones who ratted you out. You have your friend, Eduardo Ramos, to thank for that. He told us you were the go-to dealer for Heaven here in Dallas. If you don’t want to spend the next ten to fifteen years in prison, you’d better change your attitude.”

  A slow, creepy smile crept across Garcia’s face while his dark eyes darted between the empty corners of the room.

  Chase shifted. The man sitting in front of him might not be a full-deck dude.

  “Heaven?” Tito shook his head. “Never heard of it.”

  Andie looked up from her phone. “That’s interesting. Because I just got a text from the cops searching your place. They found a two-gallon plastic bag full of Heaven under your son’s crib. So unless you want to claim that your two-year-old was dealing the stuff, cut the crap.”

  Tito turned an unfocused gaze on her. His smile stretched wider, his front teeth stained and jagged. “I know who you are.”

  “Since I introduced myself when arresting you, that doesn’t impress me. Now, where—”

  “He told me who you are.” Tito clenched and unclenched his fists and Chase followed the movement, his own muscles tensing. “You’re prettier than I expected, but otherwise he described you well.”

  She leaned back in her chair and locked her hands behind her head. “Who described me?”

  Tito laughed, the sound high, broken, and a troop of ants skittered down Chase’s spine. “You keep digging into Heaven, bitch, and you’ll find out soon enough. He’ll make sure of it.”

  “But if I want to speed up the process?” Andie covered a yawn. “Why don’t you tell me who you’re dealing for and I’ll go introduce myself.”

  Tito slouched in his seat. “I’m not talking.”

  “Is fifteen years in prison worth your loyalty?” Chase asked. “Somehow I don’t think your boss will lose any sleep while you rot away in a jail cell. Or do you think he’ll be waiting for you with a big reward when you get out?” He snorted. “I’ve heard that promise more than once and it’s never come through.”

  Tito remained silent.

  Andie brought her foot down to the floor with a heavy thump and rested her hands on the table. “It’s not loyalty, Chase. It’s fear. Tito here is as scared as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers. And he should be. As my abuelito used to say, ‘El pecado se paga con la muerte.’”

  Chase tilted his head at her and raised an eyebrow.

  “It means, the wages of sin are death. My other grandfather was from Mexico.” She pinned Tito with her glare. “You believe that, don’t you? That everyone must pay for their sins. Start talking, take a plea deal, and you’ll be getting off cheap.”

  A trickle of sweat ran down Tito’s hairline. “You’ll know fear too, bitch. There is no cell you can hide in that he can’t break into. There is nowhere you can run where he won’t find you. He’ll know that I didn’t drop no dime on him, just like he knows everything. He’ll reward me by not ripping out the throats of my family. He’ll reward me by leaving me alone. You won’t be so lucky.” He spat on the floor.

  A low throb pulsed at Chase’s temples. Tito wouldn’t talk, not if all they were threatening him with was prison. The way
he spoke about his supplier almost made it sound like he was a god in Tito’s eyes, someone with mystical powers.

  Or the devil.

  Chase looked at Andie’s profile. If she felt any fear that a high-level drug lord was gunning for her, she didn’t show it. His guts twisted and turned like eels in a bucket. She didn’t know all the dangers out there, that some did walk this world with god-like powers. She was vulnerable and she didn’t realize it.

  He turned back to look at Tito’s sullen expression. The dealer had a healthy fear of the unearthly. It was time to use that to his advantage.

  “Ranger Sellers, can I speak to you outside for a second?” Without waiting for an answer, Chase stood and stepped out of the room.

  “What is it?” she asked once the door snicked shut. “We’ve barely begun to turn the screws on him. Don’t tell me you’re giving up already?”

  He placed a hand on the wall by her head and leaned in closer. “Of course, I’m not giving up,” he said in a low voice. “But regular tactics won’t work. You saw him in there. He’s scared to death.”

  “So what do you suggest?”

  “Scare him more.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? Scare him how? He’s not scared of going to prison. And he knows that as cops, we’re limited in what we can do to him. How do we scare him worse than he is?”

  He gave her his full-wattage smile, the one that had charmed the pants off more than one woman. “Trust me.”

  Both her eyebrows shot up. “Trust you? With what? You think you’re going to flex your big muscles and he’ll break down in terror?” She snorted.

  Chase gritted his teeth. Obviously, the smile wasn’t quite as successful with Andie.

  “Give me ten minutes with Garcia alone. I have an idea.” He rolled up the sleeves of his button-down shirt to the middle of his forearms. “Trust me, Andie. Please.” He held his breath as he waited for her response.

  She nodded slowly, and the tension in his chest released with his breath.

  He stepped past her, and she grabbed his arm, her long fingers digging into his tendon. “Ten minutes, then I come in there,” she said.

  He nodded and lowered his head to brush his lips against hers in an unplanned kiss. It was nothing more than a quick peck, one that felt so natural that it shocked the hell out of him.

  He and Andie both froze, their lips inches apart.

  “I, uh, better get inside. My ten minutes are ticking.” He tried to make his voice sound casual, like he hadn’t just given her the boyfriend kiss.

  He failed miserably.

  Leaving her open-mouthed, he snuck into the interrogation room and faced the dealer. Rather pathetic that he would rather face this piece of shit than Andie right now. Then he remembered the threats against her life that Garcia had insinuated and his face hardened to stone.

  No more nice Detective McGovern of the Michigan State Police. It was time Agent McGovern of the Anagogic Research Council stepped up to the plate.

  He walked under the camera, out of sight of its lens, and opened up his raised right hand. An arc of electricity shot from his palm to the base of the camera, short circuiting its wiring. He looked into the slack-jawed face of Tito Garcia. “Now, I think it’s time just the two of had a little talk. Don’t you?”

  Chapter Six

  “So, really, how’d you do it?” she asked for the tenth time. Chase just gave her that satisfied smirk, the one he’d sent her way each time she questioned how he had convinced Garcia to give up his boss’s name. The arrogant curl of his lip was the standard red flag he enjoyed waving in front of her, but Andie didn’t miss the tight bunch of his shoulder muscles or the rapid tapping of his leg under the desk.

  Something wasn’t right in Chase’s world, but whatever it was, he wasn’t talking.

  She pushed her own uneasiness aside. After all, Chase had left Garcia unharmed. There hadn’t been a mark on the man. He’d been shaking like a leaf in a tornado but uninjured. She’d checked.

  But they had a name. Vega. For the first time since she’d begun her investigation into NU-216, she was close enough to catching her perp she could see the finish line. The anticipation made her feel like she was mainlining caffeine. Her heart was galloping, her taste buds were tingling, and she felt hyper-aware.

  Admittedly, that could have more to do with the extremely tall and sexy drink of water sitting next to her. She inhaled deeply, soaking in Chase’s scent. He smelled of cut grass and sunshine.

  They were back in her hotel room. Chase sat hunched over his laptop at the room’s desk, his phone pressed between his ear and shoulder. She’d set up her workstation at the round table by the bed. The investigation was flowing, the information they’d learned about Tony Vega now able to fill a small notebook. The research was necessary, but it was desk work.

  She cracked her neck. And typing on a computer and making calls just wasn’t hands on enough for her right now. She’d rather blacken an eye or two than do paperwork, any day of the week.

  From the heavy sighs and glances out the window, Chase must have felt the same. He’d gone to his room when they’d returned to the hotel to report in to his bosses and change clothes. Andie had to work not to lick her lips when he knocked on her door wearing faded Levi’s and a black, cotton t-shirt so worn the Metallica logo was barely visible. The soft tee stretched tautly across his chest, and every time he pecked at his keyboard, the muscles in his arms flexed delightfully.

  She swallowed. She wanted to bite him something bad.

  Good lord, what was wrong with her? She was on the verge of closing the most important case of her career and instead of concentrating on work, she was fantasizing about nibbling up his biceps to sink her teeth into the corded tendons that ran between his neck and shoulder. This man had pushed all her buttons from the start, but juvenile as it was, since he had gotten Garcia to talk, his sexiness factor had doubled.

  “You’re staring,” he said, not taking his eyes off his computer screen.

  Her face heated. “Just trying to figure out how you did it,” she lied. “Wondering what superpower you have hidden up your sleeve to get him to spill so quickly.”

  He froze for a moment before continuing to peck at the keyboard with two fingers. “You already knew I was the man of steel, babe.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and gave her a sexy smile, one that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

  That Chase was so familiar. His swagger, his charm. The way he could drag a smile from her with his silly jokes. But there was more depth to him than that. He’d shown it in brief flashes, unguarded moments. She loved all sides of his personality, except when he was pissing her off, but those flashes when he peeled back the armor were her favorite part of him.

  She looked at the tight pull of the denim over his broad thighs and amended that thought. Her second favorite. Maybe tied for first with his body.

  She rose and sauntered over to him.

  He glanced up and pushed back his chair, a question in his eyes.

  Never one to let an opportunity pass, she dropped into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. Their work day was almost over and her adrenalin rush from her arrest was making her horny. She would enjoy this guilt free. Her lips found the pulse point throbbing beneath his ear and she smiled when it kicked up a notch.

  He wrapped his large hands around her hips and thighs and drew her close. “Not that I’m complaining, but what are you doing?”

  “I want to see which part comes out on top.” She licked up to his ear. How could a man taste so good? He was a delicious combination of salty and sweet, like sweet potato French fries. She could spend hours just tasting his body. From the hardening bulge under her bottom, she knew he wouldn’t mind that either.

  “I don’t know what that means, but then I’m frequently at a loss when it comes to what comes out of your mouth.” He grabbed her ponytail and tugged until she looked up at him. “You’re running a little hot and col
d on me. All day you’ve treated me as though I have a case of poison ivy.” He rubbed his nose against hers and sighed. “Now you’re curled up in my lap. What gives, Ranger Sellers?”

  Andie straightened her back. “We were working. I’m not into PDAs, especially on the clock.” And she had been freaked out by how intense last night with Chase had been. She’d hoped she would be able to insulate hot, sweaty nights with Chase from a friendly, professional relationship with him during the days.

  That wasn’t going to happen.

  “We’re working now,” he said. “Isn’t this violating whatever rule you’ve got tripping around in that sexy brain of yours?”

  She scowled. “Fine. You’re right. Let’s work.” She pushed at his chest but he gripped her tighter.

  “That wasn’t an invitation to leave.” His thumb traced a pattern on her hip. “When I kissed you at the station today, that PDA wasn’t so bad, was it? The sky didn’t fall just because someone showed you some affection.”

  “Yeah, about that—”

  His lips stopped hers. After a deep kiss, he smiled his trademark wolfish grin. “Just wanted to stop you from saying something we both might regret. If I’m being honest, it surprised the hell out of me too.”

  She grumbled but relaxed back into his arms. “Okay, you’re forgiven, but don’t do it again. It doesn’t look professional getting pawed at the station.”

  “I didn’t paw you. It was a quick peck. There’s nothing wrong with that in the office. And I thought you’d stopped worrying about appearances.”

  She stilled. “Huh. I thought I had too. I guess I have to work on that some more. The spouses of other rangers do occasionally visit the office and no one thinks anything of a goodbye kiss. I guess I don’t have to be left out of the fun if I get married.” She raised one eyebrow and wiggled on his lap. “Want to help me practice getting more comfortable with that? I’ll supply the imagination that we’re in a public place, and you supply the affection.” With that thought, she leaned in and captured his lips.