But Miranda was no pushover. Especially where men like this one were concerned. "Getting touchy tonight, Knight. Keep it up and I may just think you don't hate me after all. The sky might just fall if I did that."
Miranda arched her back just a little. Pressing closer. Pressed closer than she definitely should have. There was something about being pressed against a man his size...
But alas, Miranda Talley and Allan Knight together were definitely not meant to be.
His lips pursed, and a flash of anger hit his face. It had her tensing.
She was almost five-foot-eleven. She didn't often have to look up at a man, especially this close. But seven inches separated them in height. And he was lean muscle and male perfection. And very unpredictable.
It really wasn't fair that he could look like that and be such a total ass...
She deliberately stepped away. Sometimes, she had to just retreat. "I don't know, who? Please tell me it's Jac? We have some girl-talk to get down to when we get the chance."
"Sorry. Jac and Ian are on the Rockford, Illinois missing elderly men. Should be wrapping up soon, though. The other two are in California now."
"I thought everyone was in?" She'd had two days off, since she’d driven home from the trouble in Wyoming. An ongoing case in her hometown involving a nasty drug called Opal Joy—Miranda had been sent home by PAVAD fast to help out. She still had the bruises from the so-called car accident. She had her theories, but it was Wyoming’s case, not hers. Well, Wyoming and Texas State Police. It had been a joint investigation.
"Called back out." This time the smile he gave her was cold. Almost sinister. Dangerous. "It's just you and me for this one, Sunny."
Sunny. The ridiculously irritating nickname he had given her on the first case they had worked together. Her hand unconsciously went to the arm she had broken during that case as memories came back again.
"Hope you can handle me, Mr. Doom-&-Gloom." She smirked right back. This was not a man who should ever get the upper hand. "So...the case photos are on the conference table. See you first thing in the morning."
Miranda did something no Talley had ever admitted doing before—she retreated.
Ran away completely.
A girl had to do what a girl had to do, after all.
Especially with a man like Knight.
They drove. Dr. Allan Knight knew his partner wasn’t too thrilled with his presence, but she would never let that show. Miranda Talley never let anything he did or said make her react visibly. And he liked making the woman react.
He enjoyed the challenge.
Not very well done of him, but he did it anyway.
He enjoyed digging beneath the woman's skin, however he possibly could. He'd found her both fascinating and irritating from the first case they'd worked together. That fascination hadn’t gone away in the months—over a year now—since. "So tell me what your initial thoughts are? What did Dr. Stephenson say?"
"That her husband is the biggest stud PAVAD has ever seen." She sent him a sly look from those ridiculously green eyes. “She claims it’s indisputable now.”
"Excuse me?" He'd met the assistant supervisor of the pathology department several times. She wasn't exactly the type to be boasting of her husband's sexual prowess. Anyone said sex in front of her, she’d probably turn beet red—and hide behind that husband completely.
Mia Stephenson was shy—beautiful, sweet, kind, incredibly brilliant, but very socially awkward. She was one of Knight’s favorites in PAVAD, no denying that.
"She's pregnant again. It's their second. We discussed that for a bit. Then we were distracted when her husband tracked her down, along with some of his buddies. Since I had the rest of the night free, we ended up closing down Smokey's together. Didn't really discuss the case much. At least, Mia didn't have anything more than what we already had. And I was busy dancing the night away with members of Evan’s team.”
Well, he didn’t doubt that. Men were drawn to this demon-spawn next to him. He’d seen it far too many times before. “And she has…?”
"Come on, Knight, admit it. You spent at least three hours or more in the conference room going over everything we have after I left. I have you figured out."
She probably did. The woman was one of the most perceptive he had ever seen, both off the job and on. "You win. But give me your initial impression."
"Mass murderer. Not a family annihilator, for one thing.”
"Why is that?" He'd pored over the photos, just as she had said. What they had could be summed up quickly: a family of four in a small town in Southern Indiana had been brutally murdered. Father shot first. Then the nine-year-old boy. The mother had been sexually assaulted after her son's death, before being stabbed to death almost twelve hours later. Their bodies had been arranged neatly on the living room rug, the boy nestled between his parents.
The teenage girl, just turned thirteen, had never been found. Knight could imagine what had happened to her, most likely. There was a lot of national forest around that part of Indiana, karst and limestone caves. That girl was gone. They would probably never find her body. Local and state police in Indiana had given up after a year of searching. "How long has it been a PAVAD case?"
