Page 29 of Dark ’N’ Deadly

“Staan.” Tiger leaped to his feet, sunlight striking the varied shades of brown stripes on his flanks, making them stand out with even more definition.

When Jesse flipped the card over, Tiger’s head snapped up, following every motion of the kid’s hand. Considering Jesse had, according to Tess, a real prick for a stepfather, Eric thought he was a good kid. He’d enjoyed going into town with Tess and Jesse, and he was getting a kick out of teaching him Tiger’s routines, something that surprised him.

Blaring music made him turn to find Tess doing a little dance as she stirred something on the cooktop. For someone so tiny, she was as graceful as a gazelle, her body swaying gently to the rhythm. On anyone else, all those vibrant colors, crystals, and clacking beads might have seemed chaotic or over the top. But they suited Tess’s personality perfectly.

She’d tied the silk scarf he’d bought her around her waist. He didn’t know why, but he’d wanted her to have it for no other reason than he knew it would make her happy.

Fuck. What was wrong with him?

He’d bought women gifts before, but always on birthdays, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day…all perfunctory, boyfriend-required, gift-giving days. Unlike today.

Buying that scarf for Tess had actually made him happy, which was freaky and scary as hell. Aside from being Homo sapiens, they had exactly zilch in common and never saw eye-to-eye on anything. Tess would undoubtedly smack him for saying it, but “arguing” with her was a hell of a lot more fun than “conversing” with anyone else he’d dated.

Not that they were dating.

She turned to look out the door, and he caught the surprised look in her eyes. For several seconds they stared at each other. The spoon in her hand dripped something onto the floor, and he snorted as she jumped away from the falling dribble of tofu-tinged whatever.

“Hey, Eric!” Jesse shouted. “You gonna quit droolin’ over my sister and show me how Tiger sniffs things out?”

He glared at the kid, annoyed that he’d been caught making eyes at Tess, something he really needed to quit doing.

Am I really so obvious?

Yeah, he was. There was something about her, and other men picked up on it, too. All those times at the Dog Park Café, and today at the brewery, he’d had more than one urge to mash his fist in another man’s face as they’d glued their eyes to her perfectly shaped backside or ogled the way her breasts filled out that damned green tank top. She was a siren, silently calling to him, luring him in. Didn’t matter that he was convinced she was hiding something.

“Give me a sec.” He pulled out his phone and shot Dayne a quick text to meet him at the office tomorrow to go over the ops plan. While they were there, he’d run a quick background check on Tess.

He hated the idea, but her behavior was triggering too many red flags, and he was going far enough out on a very shaky professional limb by letting her and Jesse stay with him. If only he weren’t so damned attracted to her.

The quick background he’d run on Jesse after arresting the kid was practically worthless. No priors, no address history, and no known associates. Conceivable for an eighteen-year-old, but considering she was about ten years older, Tess’s history should contain more information.

No matter how much he liked her, letting his personal feelings distract him to the point where his dick was calling the shots over his brain was just plain stupid. He knew virtually nothing about her past. Until yesterday, he hadn’t even known she was from Alabama. Jesse’s accent was clearly Deep South, but Tess had no identifiable accent.

He opened the heavy plastic case he’d brought out containing experimental K-9 training scents his agency was testing, chose ammonium nitrate, then scented one of the rolled towels in the kit and shoved it into a stash tube. While Jesse kept Tiger busy, he hid the tube in one of half a dozen cinder blocks he’d strategically placed around the yard for training purposes.

“Hier,” Eric said. Tiger charged to his side and sat. “Revieren.” He pointed to one of the cinder blocks, and Tiger charged forward.

His dog processed the odors surrounding each block Eric pointed to. At the very last one, Tiger sat and stared at the cinder block. “Good boy.” He patted Tiger’s side then extracted the tube from the block and handed it to Jesse. He gave his dog a chicken-flavored treat he’d stashed in his pocket.

“That was awesome!” Jesse eyes were wide with excitement as he pulled the towel from the tube. “What’s on this?”

“Ammonium nitrate.”

The kid’s smile faded as Eric had known it would. They both needed a reality check.

Jesse handed the tube to Eric then knelt at Tiger’s side, resting his arm on the dog’s back. “Am I goin’ to jail after the controlled delivery?”

“Not if I can help it,” he answered honestly, wishing he could give the kid more assurances. Knowing he couldn’t. “Do your best on Monday and it’ll go a long way with the prosecutor and give me more to bargain with.”

Jesse stood and shoved his hands in the pockets of his shorts. “Why are you doin’ this? I mean, lettin’ us stay here with you and bein’ so nice to us?”

“I want to nail the people putting this bomb together. And your sister is a friend of mine.” Both aspects of his response were true. She would never be anything else to him, but he was sure they were friends.

Who was he kidding? Friends don’t drool over friends.

Jesse cocked his head. “Are you screwin’ my sister?”

His jaw tightened. It was obvious the kid was protective of Tess, but hearing him talk about her that way pissed him off. “Don’t ever be disrespectful of her like that. Not that it’s any of your business, the answer is no. We’re friends, nothing more.” Not that he’d been thinking about it, but if he slept with her, she’d want more than he was capable of giving. Unlike every other woman he’d dated and taken to bed, he couldn’t see doing that with Tess and then walking away. The only safe option in Springfield had been to keep his distance and not go there at all. The same held true now. Maybe more so.