Just Pretending

“You grew up in Miami?” he asked, his voice low and coaxing.

Her hands tightened on the wheel. “I grew up everywhere for a while. An army brat, but yes, we landed in Miami when I was ten.”

“How’d you end up here?”

She turned for just a second to look at him and she shrugged, a small smile on her face.

“Trying to soften me up, David?”

He smiled as she turned back to the road. “Maybe. Mostly I’m just interested in knowing who you are. It’s important for partners to know something of each other, don’t you think? I’m responsible for your life from here on out. You’re responsible for mine.”

She glanced his way again, a dawning respect in the look she gave him. “You’re right. It’s very important to know whose hands you’re placing your life in. I know I came on a bit strong yesterday, but I felt it was necessary, David.”

“I never doubted your methods, your motives or your abilities, lady,” he said seriously, truthfully. “Rafe chose you.”

“And you. I’m sure you are good at what you do.”

He tilted his head at her somewhat hesitant compliment. “How’d you end up in White horn, Gretchen? This is a long way from the mean streets of Miami.”

She smiled broadly for the first time, tilting her head up with pleasure, her smile sliding into her eyes to light them up like pale green flames, and David felt a zip of heated sensation shoot straight through his body. “My grand mother lived in Elk Springs. I used to come visit her, and it was an instant love affair between Montana and me. I moved to Elk Springs for a while four years ago, but White horn was a natural when Dakota Winston retired from the force. I love the size of the town, the location, the people, the mountain scenery surrounded by ranches… It’s home for me now, the best I’ve ever known.”

“No family here?”

Her low laugh filled the vehicle, an entrancing sound. David figured the lady might con a few criminals into surrendering just by seducing them with that laugh. “I have family everywhere,” she confided. “Three brothers and four sisters. I don’t remember a time in my life until now when I actually had a room to myself. Right now they’re all scattered, but we keep in touch. We’re as close as a phone or a modem or an airport can make us.”

He eased back more fully into his seat, relaxing as he stretched his long legs out, pleased that she’d let down her barriers just for a moment.

“So now you know me,” she said.

He had a feeling she’d just shown him the sheerest part of her surface, and that she didn’t intend to show him much more. Gretchen Neal was cautious.

“And what about you?” she asked. “You’re one of the Kincaids. Your family runs the Big Sky Bed & Breakfast. Your father is an architect. Your sister is a banker. One cousin runs a day care center. Your entire family is practically royalty in this town.”

“We’re just people, Gretchen.”

The lady actually rolled her eyes. “You believe that, don’t you?”

“It’s true.”

“David, after you left the station yesterday, every woman in the place was looking in the mirror, trying to see if she’d looked her best when you were there. This is not normal behavior around the station, in case you didn’t know that. You’re— Well, I’m sure you know what you look like and when you add that to the allure of being a Kincaid, that makes you a temptation to most of the women around here. Especially to those looking for husbands.”

She sounded and looked somewhat flustered. David raised one brow. “Just most of the women? Gretchen, you wound me. Deeply.”

Her chuckle tempted him to lean closer. “Sorry, I’m just…immune. Some of us are wedded and bedded to our jobs. Marriage isn’t an option for me.”

That got his attention. “So you’re dead set against marriage. Interesting. Is it because of your job?”

She took one hand from the wheel and held it out, palm up. “Not really. And don’t get me wrong. I like men just fine and I’m not anti-marriage. It’s a perfect choice for some people, but it’s not for me. I’ve already had my family, and while I adore every member of the Neal clan and I’d go out on the skinniest limb for any one of my brothers or sisters, I’m just not prepared to go that route again. I raised babies when I was still very young, I changed diapers, took temperatures, dried eyes and monitored curfew to help my mother out. Now I’m done with that. I like living alone and being free to make my own choices. And I intend to go on doing just that. I’m a lifer now, a loner. So don’t get panicky, Hannon. The women in the station may bat their eyes at you and run to get you coffee if you purr at them, but you’re safe from me.”

He chuckled. “You may find this hard to believe, but in spite of being a Kincaid, I don’t expect anyone, under any circumstances, to fetch coffee for me. And as for being safe from you, well…” He held out both hands. “Somehow I just wasn’t all that worried that you were going to crawl across the gearshift and onto my lap.”

David was surprised and entranced by the slight blush on her cheeks. She was tough, but not that tough. She didn’t want to get married, and it sounded as if she had good reasons. He had some good reasons of his own, the chief one being that he’d been a loner way too much of his life to be real good at maintaining a relationship for very long, not to mention all the bad relationships he’d watched his friends get embroiled in. But marriage, a wife, kids, had a certain dream like fantasy appeal to him. He wished he had the ability to make a go of it. Unfortunately, he didn’t. Besides, right now, there were more important things to consider.

“You think we’ve dropped enough barriers to enable you to trust me with a few of the details of the case now?” he asked.

Gretchen felt the low hum of David’s voice go through her like a touch that could seduce every secret out of her. But of course, they were working together on this case. It was time to give her assistant some assistance.

“You know that a resort casino is in the plans, and that part of it is going to be built on Kincaid land?”

He nodded. “The land belongs to distant relatives. It’s destined to be inherited by Gabriel Reilly Baxter, Garrett Kincaid’s youngest grandson.”

“Yes, the Kincaid portion, about fifteen acres, will house a hotel and spa, and the other half of the development being built on thirty acres of the Laughing Horse Reservation will consist of the casino as well as some honeymoon cottages up in the mountains. It’s a joint venture, one that makes sense, I suppose. The Cheyenne provide land that can be used for a casino and the private investors chip in the funding. Lyle Brooks has rounded up some silent investors to finance the project, and Lyle’s in charge of much of the operation. You’re friends with him?”

David frowned. “Why do you say that?”

She shook her head, strands of her hair catching on her lips. She carelessly freed it and gave him a look. “Lyle’s another distant relative, isn’t he? Another Kincaid, a grandson of Garrett Kincaid’s, and a member of the country club set I’m sure you belong to.” She wanted to apologize for what had to sound like an accusation, but she had to place all her cards on the table.

“You could have mentioned those things to Rafe yesterday.”

“Rafe knows what I know. It’s obviously not a problem for him.”

“And for you?”

She studied him, a small frown between her eyes. “It’s just something that needed mentioning.”

“No need to apologize,” he said, even though she hadn’t done that. “You’re right. It needed mentioning. I suppose that’s why Rafe put you in charge. You don’t avoid the tough questions even though it would be easier to do so.”

“No, I don’t, but I do try to be fair.” It was the best she could do. He needed to know that she would still be cautious, but that she would trust him as far as she could, given the circumstances.

“I’m beginning to see that, and I agree that you need to know more of my background. The fact is that Lyle and I don’t share martinis at the country club. We come from two different sides of the family and until very recently, long after I moved away, Lyle’s side lived completely in western Montana. I don’t really know the man.”

Gretchen gave him a nod. He supposed that meant that she trusted him a little bit anyway. Or maybe it merely meant that she didn’t see any point in arguing about what she couldn’t change.

He stared at her, trying to decipher that almost unreadable expression she worked so hard at maintaining.

“All right,” he said. “So Lyle is heavily involved in the resort/casino deal and then a skeleton shows up when they begin to dig the hotel site. I’ve heard that much and also that there was a bullet lodged in the rib bone. The bones belong to Raven Hunter, a Native American who went missing from the reservation thirty years ago.”

“A man who had made Jeremiah Kincaid angry by falling in love with Jeremiah’s sister, Blanche,” she added.

“You didn’t add the obvious—that Blanche was my aunt and she died in child birth. The baby she gave birth to is my cousin, Summer. It’s an old story, one the Kincaids don’t talk about too much. And now there’s a body and an old murder to solve. Anything I should know that wasn’t in the file?” David asked.

She shook her head. “We’ve already inter viewed those people in the area who might have had a link to Raven in any way. Old friends, your mother, your aunt, people on the rez who came in contact with him. It’s all there in black and white, what little there is. Right now the case is more or less on hold while we wait for Jackson Hawk, the tribal attorney, to locate Storm Hunter, Raven’s brother. We need to find out if Storm knows any more than we do about what happened all those years ago. But Storm’s been gone from the area almost as long as Raven has.”

David blew out a deep breath. “With the passage of time and the two principals both deceased, this case will be a challenge. And Peter Cook?”

“A construction worker,” she explained. “It appears that he slipped and fell into the hole he’d dug. Until we know more, excavation has ceased completely.”

“Any new leads coming in?”

She had to smile at that one. “Every day. Ghosts. Aliens. People who claim they were out walking their dog in the middle of nowhere and they heard a rustle in the bushes.”

His smile indicated a knowledge of what she was talking about. He’d been doing this for a long time, too. “Any likely leads, I guess I should have said.”

“Not yet.”

But at that moment, the radio crackled and the dispatcher came on. An armed robbery in progress. Just outside of town on a road they’d passed minutes ago.

Gretchen spun the car around and headed for the scene.

A hundred yards from their destination, she slowed and David got out of the car. As she came around the side, he pinioned her with a look. “I’ll go in through the back door,” he said, his voice barely stirring the air. “Stay outside the front in case someone tries to make a run out that door.” He moved silently back into the trees and toward the house.

Gretchen blinked. Obviously there was a problem here with chain of command. But David was already moving and she would not risk his life by stopping to stamp her foot and assert her authority.

At least not this moment.

She pulled out her weapon and approached the house.

Chapter Two

It was broad daylight but the shades on the little cottage had been pulled, blocking out most of the sunshine. David slid up to the kitchen window and peered in, but the curtains covering the windows were too thick to see inside.

“Don’t touch those. Go away from here. Leave me and my things alone,” he heard an elderly woman plead.

The sound of shoes shuffling on a bare floor drifted out, followed by a loud cracking sound and a grunt.

The woman squealed and David shoved against the thin wood of the door, which fell open beneath his weight. His gun was drawn as he bulleted through the entrance. He hoped that Gretchen was armed and ready as he got his first glimpse of the big, beefy man whirling toward the front door where she would be waiting.

“Freeze. Police,” David ordered.

The man spun around, hands high, his eyes rolling back in his head.

“Don’t shoot,” the man called as Gretchen came through the front door, holding him in the sights of her 9 mm.

“Thank goodness you’re here,” the elderly woman said. “I didn’t know what to do when I heard someone in the house.”

“Mr. Adkins?” Gretchen asked, slowly lowering her gun to her side.

The man hung his head. David looked at Gretchen. She motioned for him to put his gun away.

“He was stealing cookies I made for the church bake sale,” the woman declared. “I had to slap his hands to make him drop them.”

David looked down at the red prints on the man’s wrists.

“I wasn’t stealing anything,” the old man said.

“You’re in my house, aren’t you?” the woman demanded. “And you’re armed. You’ve got a big rock in your pocket. I saw you studying it like you were going to throw it at me.”

Her words jarred something in David’s memory. “Mr. Adkins? Earnest Adkins?”

When the man didn’t answer, David looked to Gretchen, who nodded.

David let out a sigh. He gazed at the man he’d once known rather well. Time had made changes.

“That rock in your pocket,” David said, moving in closer. “I don’t suppose you had a particularly good reason for carrying it around, did you?”

The man looked up, his eyes not quite recovered from the fear of having two guns trained on him. He nodded slightly. “Of course I did. A man carries rocks for a reason. Good reason, too. Just look at this. Isn’t it a beaut?” he asked, pulling the rock from his pocket.

David gazed down at what really was a fine specimen of milky dolomite. “Mr. Adkins used to teach science at the high school. He studies geology,” David explained.

“He was still stealing my cookies,” the lady mumbled.

“He came into your house?” Gretchen asked gently.

“Yes,” both man and woman said at once.

“The door was open and a cat came in,” Mr. Adkins said. “This lady had left the cookies on the ledge and that big cat was all set to help himself. I was simply moving them,” he said indignantly.

“I don’t see any cat,” the woman whined. David didn’t, either, but the slight itch behind his eyes told him that there was one nearby.

Gretchen must have sensed the cat’s presence, too, because a small smile lifted her lips and she looked around as if she expected to find whatever she was searching for.

“Oscar,” Gretchen suddenly called. A grumbly purr rolled out from behind the kitchen door. Gretchen pulled it back and the biggest, blackest cat David had ever seen strolled out, nose in the air.

“Your buddy?” David asked Gretchen, who was smiling at the cat.

“He gets around the neighborhood. Sometimes he gets into places he shouldn’t be.”

“The man still had a rock in his hand,” the elderly woman stated.

“Always do,” Earnest Adkins said. “Ask him,” he said, motioning to David. “You’re David Hannon, aren’t you? I recognize you now that you’ve put the gun away.”

“I was a member of the science club. I’ve still got a few rocks Mr. Adkins passed on to me when I was there. He’s an expert in local rocks and minerals,” David told the two ladies. “Not that it’s any excuse for trespassing,” he said firmly, frowning at Earnest. “Since you don’t know Earnest, would it be safe to guess that you’re new to the area?” he asked the woman.

The lady let out a sigh and nodded. “Just a couple of months. My husband died last year and I came here to start out fresh, to get away from the city. You—you were just saving my cookies from that cat?” she asked Mr. Adkins.

“Maybe I should have knocked first,” he admitted, “but Oscar was moving pretty fast.”

A slight blush rose on the woman’s still-pretty face. “I suppose I should thank you, then,” she said. “And apologize to the two of you,” she told Gretchen and David. “I’m used to living in the city and that’s made me too cautious, I guess.”

David shook his head. “You were right to call when you felt threatened. It’s always smart to be cautious, especially when there’s an uninvited stranger in your house,” he said, looking pointedly at Mr. Adkins, who mumbled another apology and gripped his rock more tightly.

“But this is embarrassing, now that I know the truth,” the lady said. “What can I do to repay you two for taking the trouble to come over here?”

David knew the woman wouldn’t be happy if he told her that he needed nothing, so he took the easy way out. “I’m sure I should just issue the standard ‘No thanks necessary, ma’am,’ but…what kind of cookies did you say those were?”

The ploy worked. The lady laughed. “Double chocolate chip, and yes, please have some. You, too,” she said to Gretchen and Mr. Adkins. “It’s the least I can do. It won’t hurt me to bake another batch.”

David hazarded a glance at Gretchen then. One brow was raised in a rather superior, knowing smile as if he’d just done something brilliant. And later, when they said their goodbyes and left the cottage headed for the car, she placed her hand on his arm.

“Thank you for being so gracious to her.”

David pulled up short, staring down at the woman—the detective, he corrected himself—standing before him. He could feel the warmth of Gretchen’s slender fingers through the layers of cotton shirt and sports jacket. It was a tantalizing feeling, knowing that only a few bits of cloth lay between his skin and hers. An in appropriate feeling, he reminded himself. They were partners. They needed to work together like a machine, not twine together like man and woman.

“She was uncomfortable. There was no need for that. If something real and dangerous should ever occur, I wouldn’t want her to hesitate about calling the authorities,” he said simply. “And let’s face it, while I’m rather partial to Earnest, he can’t be entering people’s houses even to save their cookies from stray cats.”

Gretchen nodded and they walked on, but once David had climbed back into the car, she didn’t start the engine. Instead she turned to him.

“I appreciate the way you wrapped up this call,” she said, “but I think we have a definite problem here, Hannon.”

He turned and stared into a pair of stubborn green eyes. Her chin was up, her lovely lips were firm, her arms were crossed.

For five whole seconds they simply studied each other. Then he held up both hands. “You’re upset that I invaded your territory. You want to lead.”

“It’s my job,” she said simply. “I intend to do it and do it well.”

He stared at her for a few seconds more.

“I’m sure you’re used to calling your own shots,” she said pointedly, “but—”

“I am,” he agreed. “And I can’t promise not to step on your toes from time to time, but I’ll make an attempt not to overstep my boundaries too often. I’ll do my best to try and curb my basic instincts from now on.”

Gretchen took a long and audible breath, but she merely nodded.

“I’m sure we’ll get the hang of this in time. It takes practice for partners to learn to work as one body.”

He stared at her hard, the vision her words called forth lodging in his mind immediately. A woman, a man above her, thrusting into the softness of her body, making himself a part of her very being. The thought nearly made him groan, and he fought it. He labored to keep his breathing even as he watched the woman seated not two feet away from him.

As he studied her, her eyes suddenly widened slightly as if she’d read his thoughts. Her breathing picked up a tad, but she didn’t drop her gaze from his. She sat as if frozen.

David struggled, pushing the temptation of the image of himself braced above Gretchen to the farthest corner of his mind. “I can’t quite believe you said that,” he finally managed to say, his voice quiet and reasonably controlled, an amused but still somewhat ragged smile on his lips.

“What?” The word was released on a breath. Gretchen sat up straighter, higher.

He smiled in earnest now. She knew darn well what he meant. “Gretchen, has it occurred to you that this is not going to be easy?”

She sighed slightly, rubbing at the frown that formed between her delicate brows. “I think that pretty much says it, yes,” she agreed.

“Why do you think that is?”

“I suppose it’s because I’ve been a rather reluctant participant in this partnership and also because you don’t like taking orders from a woman.”

He shook his head slowly. “I’ve worked with many women in many contexts. Taking my directives from a woman isn’t a problem. Having a relationship with a woman isn’t a problem. Generally speaking, I keep my private and public life separate.”

“We’re not going to have a relationship.”

“Exactly.”

She took a deep breath, waiting for him to finish.

“However,” he continued carefully, “I think it’s only fair to warn you that wrong and stupid and completely out of place as it may be, the fact that you are a fine detective hasn’t quite made me forget that you’re a desirable woman, as well.”

She didn’t move. She almost didn’t appear to be breathing. But he saw her swallow, then blow out a long, slow puff of air.

“Why are you telling me this?” Her voice was low. Sexy. Suspicious.

He shook his head slowly. “I’m telling you because we are going to be working as partners. I’ll trust you to protect my back. I want you to be secure in the knowledge that I intend to protect your life at all costs, but don’t expect me not to react as a man to a woman if you’re going to make provocative comments.”

She stared at him for long seconds. Then she nodded slowly. “Fair enough. I’ll try to think before I speak.”

“And I’ll try not to initiate any…unwarranted bodily contact.”

“Yes,” she said on a cracked whisper. “Touching wouldn’t be smart. It would make working together very difficult. Impossible.”

“I know that, and that’s my point. Finding the thin line we need to walk in the middle of the road is going to be difficult, Gretchen. My fault. My apology.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be working together at all.”

“Maybe. Except this is your case, and I fully intend to be on it.”

“Rafe might feel differently if he knew we were going to have problems.”

“What are you going to tell him? That I’m having trouble keeping my lips away from those of his top detective?”

He wasn’t even leaning close, but he could feel her presence as if she had wrapped herself around him. Her soap-clean scent enticed him. He forced himself to keep his hands at his sides.

“No. I wouldn’t tell him that. What’s between you and me is…between you and me, Hannon,” she said, releasing another long breath. “We’ll deal with it together. We’ll work through it.”

He raised his lips in the slightest of smiles. “I know women who would have been hyperventilating in a similar situation. You’re an admirable lady, Gretchen.”

“I’m a good detective, too, David.”

“Never let anyone say any different. I liked the way you manhandled Earnest into repairing a few things around Mrs. Barton’s house. A good solution for both of them.”

She smiled. “You’re not trying to flatter me, are you, David?”

He lifted one brow. “Detective Neal, you wound me. I was completely sincere.”

“Thank you very much, then,” she said, starting the car. “So, Agent Hannon, do you think it’s possible that you’re ready to take an order from me now that we’ve established a few truths between us?”

He held out his hands in defeat. She was being a good sport. He had laid his cards on the table in such a way that she might well have been flustered or angry. He had told her the truth, he’d gotten in her face and she was dealing with it, but she still hadn’t given up one millimeter of her authority. He could see why Rafe had put her in charge.

“Just say the word, Gretchen.”

“That’s a lovely sound, David. Since you’re being so cooperative, let’s go get lunch at the Hip Hop Café. And no cookies for you, partner. You’ve had enough for one day.”