Nine-Month Protector. Julie Miller

man Sarah Cartwright had identified as a cold-blooded killer—had gone AWOL.

      McDonough had skipped the country. His plane ticket out of KCI said Bermuda, but authorities had had no luck tracking him down there. They couldn’t even confirm that he’d actually gotten off the plane. The bastard could be anywhere on the planet. Spending his money in the Caribbean. Living under an assumed name back in London, still doing his boss’s dirty work. Murdering someone else if the price was right.

      Coop set down his coffee as the taste went bitter. That fateful night when Sarah had witnessed the murder of Teddy’s mistress had changed his life, too. And not for the better. He’d screwed up when he’d gone to check on her. He hadn’t been thinking with his brain. He’d misread signals and moved way too fast. At the very least, his timing had sucked. He’d risked his heart and gotten it thrown back in his face for his troubles—and jeopardized his friendship with Seth should the whole truth of those twenty-four hours together with Sarah ever come out.

      “So what are we supposed to do, Captain? Sit back on our heels and let Wolfe International peddle its influence somewhere else?” Seth’s question was a welcome interruption to Coop’s self-damning thoughts.

      His gaze strayed to the photograph posted on the screen at the front of the room. Theodore Wolfe, Sr. Black hair, silver temples. He could have been a member of Parliament with that high-class suit and demeanor. But there was a much darker side to the multimillionaire mob boss who ruled a gambling empire that touched four continents.

      Wolfe was controller of everything he touched. Rich as Midas and as feared as Hades himself. Not a nice guy.

      KCPD may have put a stop to his son’s criminal career, but Daddy and his number-one henchman remained untouched.

      “No, Cartwright.” There was no doubt that the captain had command of the room. “I intend to nail Wolfe on our turf. We’ve got unfinished business with him here. He’s responsible for ordering the death of crime reporter Reuben Page—” the father of Seth’s fiancée, Rebecca “—and Danielle Ballard, the intern who was feeding Page information on the bribes Wolfe offered key economic development and zoning committee members.”

      “So that disk Rebecca and I found at the Riverboat casino proves Wolfe’s influence?” Seth asked.

      Captain Kincaid nodded. “Absolutely. Plus, Mac Taylor from the forensic lab says he’s got a clean bullet from Dawn Kingsley’s body that matches the one he took from Reuben Page three years earlier. If we can get him McDonough’s gun, we can link him to both murders and send McDonough to death row.”

      Along with Sarah’s eyewitness testimony.

      “Captain?” Coop had to pipe up with a smart remark sooner or later, or Seth would suspect that something heavy was weighing on his thoughts, and start asking him questions he didn’t want to answer. “You really think Wolfe and McDonough are stupid enough to return to the scene of the crime?”

      “Not stupidity. Arrogance. And family honor.” Coop had to admire the captain’s thorough profiling of their targets. “If one or both of those men don’t show up to avenge Teddy’s death at the hands of KCPD, I’ll be surprised. Even if they think Teddy was an embarrassment to the family and Cartwright did them a favor, they’ll be back. Sooner or later. Since Wolfe assumed power of his company, he hasn’t had a failure.”

      Cooper grinned. “Until he ran into us badasses here in K.C.”

      “Something like that.” Captain Kincaid chuckled, making it okay for the snickers in the room to erupt into matching, stress-relieving laughter. “On that note, let’s start wrapping this thing up. We’ve got eyes on Wolfe in London, and McDonough’s picture is on every airport, shipyard and border crossing watch list. If he tries to re-enter the country, we’ll nab him. We’ll…”

      While the captain began outlining the task force’s strategy through the end of the year, Seth leaned over and whispered, “Nice one, buddy. So you think Wolfe is going to come to the States to stick it to us?”

      Coop shrugged. “A good businessman is going to want to show some kind of victory for his investment here in the U.S. Between us and the Treasury Department, we’ve locked up Wolfe’s money. He doesn’t want to walk away from here empty-handed. Kincaid’s right. One way or another, he’ll be back.”

      Seth sat back with a grin. “You’re smarter than you look.”

      Coop didn’t miss a beat. “You’re taller than you look.”

      “Wiseass.”

      “Pee-wee.”

      To his credit, Coop’s shoulder-high tank of a partner had mellowed in his emotional moods since finding a woman who could go head to head with him in any battle of words and wills. They could give each other grief, and Seth would walk away smiling with a genuine sense of peace he hadn’t known for a long time.

      Coop hid his pensive smile behind another swallow of his tepid morning coffee, swallowing the guilt that nagged at his conscience right along with it. His friendship with Seth Cartwright went deep, and he wouldn’t begrudge the tough guy his well-earned contentment.

      Funny how finding a soul mate could reform even the hardest of hearts. Seth and Rebecca Page deserved their happily-ever-after. And come Christmas time, he’d proudly stand up as best man when the two of them got married.

      Coop’s mind wandered from the captain’s spiel about timetables and task force goals.

      Serving as best man might be as close as he’d ever get to a wedding himself. Not unless he could find a way to purge Sarah Cartwright from his thoughts the same way she seemed to have erased him from her life so quickly and thoroughly.

      It had started as a simple kiss that morning in July. Coop had stood by Sarah while a uniformed officer had taken her statement and gotten contact information. He’d held her hand while the officer had promised to post an APB for both a man named McDonough and the blond girl’s body. Sarah had witnessed a murder at the Riverboat Casino. She’d tried to tell Coop something about her father setting her up, something about Teddy Wolfe using her.

      And then she’d started crying again before everything made sense. When she’d walked into his arms a second time, Cooper had welcomed her, held her tight. When she’d asked for a kiss, he hadn’t been able to resist.

      That kiss had seemed to go on and on. Instead of stopping, it had altered, deepened—demanded—and comfort had given way to passion.

      It had been quick that first time. Crazy.

      She needed him, she’d said. Needed that affirmation of life, of normalcy. She’d needed that soul-deep connection to another human being that making love could provide. And Coop had wanted to help her so badly—had wanted her so badly—that he hadn’t been able to summon the common sense to refuse her anything she asked.

      “I’m sorry.” She’d started apologizing before they’d even had all their clothes back on. “I took advantage of your kindness, your caring. I’m no better than—”

      “Hey, that wasn’t completely unexpected between the two of us, was it? Things have been simmering for months. Trust me, kindness had nothing to do with howmuch I wanted you.” He’d tried to draw her back into her bed, had tried to gentle her nervous discomfort with another kiss.

      “No. This was a mistake. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”

      She’d been out of his arms, out of the room before he could get a straight answer about where he’d gone wrong. Then he was out of her apartment, and out of her life before he could really get his head around the idea that Sarah Cartwright had only wanted a warm body to get close to that morning.

      She hadn’t been looking for a relationship.

      And she sure as hell hadn’t been looking for him.

      “Watch it, buddy.” Seth nudged Coop’s arm, wrenching him back to the present. He nodded toward Coop’s hand