Cody Walker's Woman

Cody was still careful, of course; he hadn’t imagined being tailed two weeks ago. He alternated his route to and from work every day, so if anyone was following him, they wouldn’t be able to latch on to a pattern and plan an ambush. And he watched his rearview mirror constantly. He’d never again seen the guy who’d been tailing him before he went to Wyoming, although he knew that didn’t mean anything—the militia could easily have any number of different people switching off following him. But the urgency he’d felt when Callahan first called him was no longer there.

And he wasn’t complaining about his current job, even though he’d always hated being chained to a desk in the past. There was something to be said for going home at a decent hour and getting a full night’s sleep. Not to mention having time for a social life.

A social life. That was a bit of a misnomer, when the woman you were courting seemed oblivious to your overtures, and you had to resort to stratagems to spend time with her away from work.

Pathetic, Cody thought with a rueful laugh. He’d quickly learned Keira was a tigress when she was working a case, especially when she was onto something. But ever since they’d returned to Denver, he’d managed to spend time with her nearly every weeknight. The first week they’d discussed the case as they grabbed a bite to eat after work before heading their respective ways.

Then a week ago he’d surprised her with an invitation to a lecture on “Crime in the New Millennium” on the campus of the University of Colorado on Saturday afternoon. He’d carefully picked something he knew she’d have trouble turning down, and she hadn’t. And he’d avoided treating it like a date, although he had talked her into having dinner with him afterward.

They’d had a great time that evening sharing their different takes on the lecture. But when he’d tried to get her to open up about herself, she’d steadfastly refused to go below the surface, adroitly steering the conversation into other channels when it got too personal.

Sunday he’d invited her to go to the shooting range with him, and although she’d hesitated, she hadn’t refused that invitation, either. They’d made it a challenge to see who could score more points in a variety of competition rounds. Cody had been secretly amused at how competitive Keira was and how much joy she’d gotten out of beating him—joy she was hard-pressed to hide. Losing to her hadn’t dented his ego. He knew if the competition had been knives instead of guns, she wouldn’t have been able to hold a candle to him.

This past week she hadn’t even hesitated about accepting when he’d invited her to dinner every night—she’d almost seemed to be expecting it. But now it was Thursday. One more day and the weekend loomed before him. You’re running out of excuses, he told himself. Maybe you’d better just tell her the truth.

The truth. That was a good one. The truth was...he didn’t know what the truth was. He just knew he wanted to be with her no matter what, even if it meant taking a desk assignment to make it possible.

He wanted to listen to her arguing with herself and him about what she liked to call “next steps.” He’d shared the field reports with her as they came in, and at first she’d devoured them as he did, searching for clues that might trigger a breakthrough. But lately she’d seemed distracted, as if the information they contained wasn’t crucial to the case.

He wanted to watch her face come alive as she animatedly discussed theories of the case, what she was uncovering and what it meant. Although the past few days she hadn’t said much of anything, almost as if she didn’t want to jinx whatever it was she was onto by saying anything about it.

And he wanted—desperately wanted—to take her to bed. That physical obsession had grown until it was now a constant ache, just barely contained. Cody was finding it increasingly difficult to lock away how he felt, especially since Keira was there...every day...just a few feet away from him at times. So close. And yet, an impossible distance away.

It was easier for Callahan, he thought. When he let Mandy think he was dead, he didn’t have her around as a constant reminder...and a temptation.