Family Honor Read Free

widened.
    Willis laughed. "Kills after mating, huh?" He shifted the load of folders in his arms and turned toward the conference room. "I'll keep that in mind," he told Stone, and winked at Mel before he walked off.
    Mel knew her face flushed bright red, but there was nothing she could do about it. He was gone, anyway. For the moment. As he retreated she couldn't help thinking of the line " hate to see him go, but love to watch him leave " . His trim physique looked damned fine in a suit. She wondered how he'd look in a pair of tight jeans. Oh, I think I know . Once again, she had to shake her head to clear it.
    "Shoot!" Stone sat at his desk and fired up his computer. "I forgot to ask him if any more of his team are here."
    She watched Willis turn the light on in the conference room and begin arranging the furniture. "He didn't go very far. You can still ask."
    Stone nodded absently. "You know, he might not be so bad after all."
    Mel sipped her latte. "Smells like trouble to me."
    "Think so?" He inserted the memory card from his camera into the machine, and began uploading photos.
    No, he smells like Aramis or some other musky cologne I can never resist. Mel sighed, and headed into the conference room.
    Willis had dragged the bulletin boards and positioned them next to the white board. He'd lined up a row of tables underneath, leaving one lone table in the middle with chairs around it.
    "Taking that 'make yourself at home' comment to heart, I see," Mel said as she entered.
    He glanced at her and smiled. "We have a method that works pretty well. If you stick to an established routine, you spend less time worrying about the logistics of things and can devote more energy to the task at hand."
    "I see." She blinked, not sure she really did, but expecting she was going to find out.
    He fanned her folders out on the lone table with chairs. "Have a seat over here, and hand me what you've got on victim number one. Photos first, then I'll ask you for some information."
    Mel did as directed.
    Willis peeled off his suit coat and draped it over the back of a chair. He took the handful of pictures she held out and spread them across his table. He chose the mug shot of the woman and pinned it to the top row of the bulletin board. Below it he displayed the shots of her body at the crime scene. He moved to the white board and picked up a blue marker. "Name? Age?"
    Mel had been so caught up watching him dart around she wasn't prepared with the answers. She leafed through the files while he stopped and looked at her.
    "You don't know your victim's name?" he asked, sounding incredulous.
    "Of course I do. It's Rhonda something." She shuffled papers and felt the heat of another blush creep up her chest, past her neck, to her face.
    "Rhonda Something. Unusual last name." His voice was patronizing.
    "Look." Mel slapped her folder closed and caught his gaze. "I wasn't expecting this today. I was up 'till all hours with number three last night—"
    "I'm sorry." Willis put his hands on his hips. "Maybe we should put a notice in the newspaper, asking the killer to please do his dirty work earlier in the day because our officers are getting too tired."
    She stood to face him and realized they were very close to the same height. He was slightly taller, and for a second that threw her. Most of the men she worked with were shorter, and she knew she intimidated them. Nathan Willis was nowhere near intimidated. "Look, Agent, that's not what I meant."
    "Supervisory Special Agent," he corrected.
    "Supervisory Special Ass ," she retorted. "Yesterday I was in charge of this case. Today, apparently, I'm playing second fiddle to you. Okay, fine, I appreciate the help, I really do. If you could just show some mutual respect and departmental courtesy, it might go a long way. Because I have to tell you, when you say 'Jump', not everyone around here is going to say 'how high?'. "
    Willis appeared taken aback. "You weren't expecting me?"
    "God no!" She nearly added you