An amused smile spread across Tess’s face. Patty was a hoot, and they would all miss her when she wasgone. Taking the phone handset from the other woman, Tess punched the flashing button to connect the call. It wasn’t unusual for members of the various local law enforcement agencies to contact her and ask questions about a case if Dr. Hansen wasn’t around. She knew practically everything he did after an autopsy.
However, that didn’t explain why her heart rate spiked at the mere mention of Agent Brian Malone. Patty was right—the man was a hunk. But he was also a huge flirt and a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy. The latter she heard through the local law enforcement gossip mill. Even if he weren’t a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy, no way would Tess mix business with pleasure. She also didn’t have time to date, between working, raising her brother, and maintaining their home. For now, romance was completely out of the question, especially with someone she knew through the ME’s office.
Reminding herself this was a professional call, she said, “Hello, this is Tess. What can I do for you, Agent Malone?”
“Um, yeah, Tess. Hi. I... uh... I hate to call you like this, but I’m afraid I have your brother at the SBI District Office, and I need you to come down here.”
All thoughts of the hunky man on the other end of the phone flew from her mind. “What! Is—is he okay? What did he do? Is he?—”
Brian interrupted her panicked line of questioning. “He’s fine, Tess. He hasn’t been charged with anything, so he’ll be released into your custody. I’ll explain what happened when you get here.”
“O-okay. Um, I was actually on my way out the door at work. I can be there in about ten minutes or so.”
“That’s fine. Drive carefully. Andy is okay, so there’s no need to race over here. When you get to the front desk, tell them you’re here to see me, and they’ll send you back.”
Letting out a heavy breath, Tess tried to calm down. If Brian said Andy was okay, then he was. The man might be a playboy when it came to dating women, but she knew he was a complete professional while at work. He sat in on several of her autopsies before, with and without his partner, Rafe Montoya, and she never had a problem with either of them. Well, except when Brian’s gaze met hers, and her girlie parts took notice of the man’s good looks.
Ugh. She brought her brain out of the gutter. “Okay, I’ll be there in a few.”
She handed the disconnected phone back to Patty, who wore a sympathetic expression. “Is Andy okay?”
“According to Agent Malone, he is. That will probably change when I get my hands on the little twerp.” She paused. “Patty, I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
When tears filled Tess’s eyes, and her lip quivered, the clerk stood and pulled her into a motherly hug. “You’re a strong woman, Tessa Marie Bingham.Everyone here knows that. You’re doing the best you can do for that boy—he’s just growing up and testing his boundaries, as they all do. If I told you stories of what my boys did when they were Andy’s age, you’d understand where I got all these gray hairs from.”
She let go of Tess and grabbed a box of tissues from the corner of her desk. “Now, dry those eyes, drive carefully, and go flirt with Agent Malone instead of beating the daylights out of your brother. You don’t want any witnesses around when you do that—especially not the cops.”
A barked laugh escaped Tess, and she wiped her tears away with a tissue. “Thank you. What am I going to do without you?”
“Don’t you worry. I’ll still stop in to see everyone now and then, and you can always call me. You’ve become like a daughter to me, Tess—please don’t ever forget that.”
Tess gave the older woman a brief hug. “I won’t. Thank you.”
After saying goodbye, Tess hurried out to the parking lot and hopped into her car. She spent the entire drive to the local SBI office trying to forget how sexy Brian Malone’s voice had sounded over the phone and convincing herself not to kill her brother when she saw him. She only succeeded with the latter—one out of two wasn’t bad, right?
Chapter 2
After receiving a call from the agent manning the front desk that Tess had arrived, Brian met her in the lobby. His gut clenched at the worry in her hazel eyes. Despite his reassurances that her brother was unharmed and not under arrest, he was certain she wouldn’t relax until she laid eyes on Andy.
It took him a moment to realize she wasn’t dressed in her usual scrubs. It was the first time he’d seen her in everyday clothes. Her chestnut-colored hair was down—another first for him—and appeared silky smooth. His fingers itched to touch it. He’d always thought she was cute, but now, in those snug faded jeans and a blue V-neck top that only gave him a hint of her cleavage, she had his dick stirring in his dress pants.
Reminding himself what she was here for, he held out his hand. “Sorry about this, Tess.”
“I highly doubt it’s your fault, Agent Malone,” she responded, briefly shaking his hand and then pulling from his grasp again.
“I think after all the autopsies I’ve attended with you and Dr. Hansen, you can call me Brian.” After all, he always called her by her first name—things weren’t that formal behind the scenes at the coroner’s office.
“Okay... Brian.”
He gestured for her to follow him back to the investigation bureau. “I’ll take you to Andy, and then we’ll talk.”
“Thank you.”
She still hadn’t relaxed, but hopefully that would change in a few minutes. Brian knew all about how her parents were killed in a car accident a few years ago. Even though he hadn’t been on the call, it was big news locally. A tractor-trailer they were directly behind blew and shredded a tire, sending large chunks of hard rubber sailing through the air and striking the windshield of Eli and Pam Bingham’s sedan. Tess’s father lost control of the vehicle, drove off the road, and rolled down an embankment. The husband and wife were both pronounced dead at the scene. And just like that, Tess’s and Andy’s lives changed forever. Tess had needed to drop her medical school plans and raise her then twelve-year-old brother. Brian doubted things had been easy on them, but he was sure Tess was doing everything she could to keep her brother out of foster care and juvie.
He unlocked and opened the door to the interrogation room, where the kid had been cooling his heels, and let Tess enter first.
“Andy!”
