Diagnosis: Danger Read Free Page B

And women were drawn to it like the proverbial flies to honey. It was a double whammy, his other sister, Theresa, had once told him. If his tall, dark, handsome lookshadn’t been enough to draw women to him, the nature of his work sealed the bargain.
    He tended to make women feel safe at the same time that he took their breath away. And every woman in his life knew that her position was temporary. No lies were told, no promises given. And a good time was had by all.
    A good time that sent his partner’s imagination into overtime.
    But tonight he was tired. Tomorrow was his nephew Alan’s first birthday and Mike’s parents were going all out to celebrate it. They lived in Brooklyn, in the same house they’d moved into thirty-six years ago. It was located in the center of an Italian community where everyone believed in celebrating in a big way. He’d already given his promise to be there. Nursing a hangover was not the way he wanted to greet his mother for the first time in almost three weeks. The lectures about how he was wasting the best years of his life would be endless and unendurable.
    “So there’s someone new?” Louis asked hopefully. Like a junkyard dog, when Louis clamped down on something, it was hard to make him let go.
    “Not at the moment.” Reaching the first floor, Mike walked ahead of Louis to the door and exited the stairwell. He looked over his shoulder at his partner and flashed a grin. “But you’ll be the first to know when there is, Lou. Until then, I’m—”
    And then he saw her.
    A vivacious-looking, petite woman with dark red hair that swirled about her like a cloud absorbing rays from a setting sun. At the moment, she looked frustrated and distraught.
    Not that he could blame her. She was talking to Mulroney, the desk sergeant, a man who was not known for his patient, understanding manner. Mulroney’s forte was paper, not people.
    Louis looked from his partner to the woman Mike was staring at. The woman who had stolen the second half of Mike’s sentence before it had a chance to come out.
    A knowing smile slipped over Louis’s small lips. “My guess is that I’m already looking at her,” he murmured under his breath.
    Mike heard only a buzz of words. His attention was suddenly riveted to the woman before Mulroney’s tall, scarred desk.
    “Lady, I already told you—come back in forty-eight hours.” Dismissing her, the hulking sergeant looked down at the stack of papers before him.
    If he meant to get rid of her that easily, he was in for a surprise, Natalya thought. Not her mother’s daughter for nothing, she dug in. “It’s ‘doctor,’ not ‘lady,’” she corrected him tersely. “And I’m telling you that I know Clancy. Something’s wrong. He wouldn’t just disappear this way.”
    Mike drew closer. Ordinarily, he tried not to get into Mulroney’s face. He had enough cases to work, enoughon his plate not to look for one more serving. Mike knew he should just keep moving until he reached his motorcycle and the beginning of his weekend.
    But he liked the way the woman wasn’t letting Mulroney intimidate her. And she did sound genuinely concerned. He was good about first impressions and his first impression of her was that she wasn’t rattled easily.
    “Something I can help with?” he offered mildly, looking from the desk sergeant to the woman standing before him.
    The woman was dressed with neither precision nor carelessness. It struck him that her clothing adhered lovingly to her form, as if trying to please herself and not with the intent to catch attention. But she did anyway. He saw the way Louis was eyeing her. As if she were a fantasy being served up hot on a plate.
    Mike moved his six-foot-one frame between the woman and his shorter partner, blocking Louis’s view. And his unabashed stare.
    “She’s trying to file a missing person’s report, but the guy’s only been missing a few hours, if that,” Mulroney complained, irritated. “I told her that she