The sun was just barely beginning to rise over the mountains and peek into the glass rear wall of Raine’s small rental cabin when a loud knock sounded on the front door. She hesitated, even though her spot at the kitchen island put her just a few feet from the entryway. Callum and fellow investigator Faith Lancaster were the only ones she expected to come by. But it seemed far too early in the morning for Callum to show up. Faith had stayed here overnight, checking on her per doctor’s orders. But she’d headed down the mountain a few minutes ago to a café she swore had the best breakfast sandwiches for miles around. If she’d come back this quickly, something must have gone wrong—like maybe she forgot her wallet. She’d refused to let Raine pay, no matter how insistent she’d been.
At the hospital last night, after she awoke in the ER to find Callum sitting beside her bed, he too had refused to accept any compensation from her. She’d insisted that she could afford any fee or expenses he’d incur while helping her, and that she owed him a paint job for the scratches his SUV got while heading to the cottage. But he’d informed her that his boss, Grayson Prescott, had approved all expenses related to the work on her brother’s case, because of the information she’d provided for their serial killer case. That had her feeling guilty, of course. Once her brother’s...situation...was resolved, she’d circle back around to the discussion about reimbursing Unfinished Business, and Callum as well.
Another knock sounded, this one louder, as if her early morning visitor was growing impatient. It must be Callum after all. She couldn’t imagine Faith acting impatiently. She’d treated Raine with nothing but understanding and kindness, far more than she deserved given the circumstances.
She scooted her chair back from the kitchen island and looked through the peephole in the door, unsurprised to see Callum staring back at her. She opened the door, and almost forgot how to breathe.
Callum in a suit had been...expected, normal, like most of the people she worked with on a daily basis. Callum in jeans, a snug black T-shirt and a black leather jacket that highlighted his dark hair and midnight blue eyes was anything but expected. Devastatingly handsome was one phrase that came to mind. The light stubble on his chiseled jaw, the golden tan, the...oh my goodness those shoulders, that flat stomach outlined by the formfitting T-shirt. How had she not realized how gorgeous he was until now?
He held up a laptop that she recognized as her own.
“You’ve been spying on me, Ms. Quintero.” He brushed past her, pulling a rolling bag behind him.
Spying? Her stomach sank at the implications of that statement. He must have been exploring more than her brother’s files on her computer. She slowly closed the door, mumbling, “Good morning to you too,” as she followed him into the kitchen.
“Good morning,” he surprised her by replying, his tone amused as he moved her coffee cup from the island to a countertop and sat in the same chair she’d just vacated. Without asking, he shoved the papers she’d been reviewing out of his way and set her laptop in their place.
Faith had better come back soon. Callum on top of a concussion was a combination she wasn’t prepared to deal with before finishing her first coffee of the day. She’d like to think that if she hadn’t banged her head she wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed right now. But he’d been intimidating at the ramshackle cottage even before she’d gotten hurt.
“I need something for this headache.” She started past him. His hand shot out and grabbed her arm, stopping her.
“When was your last pain pill? Is your headache worse than it was at the hospital?”
She shook her arm and he let go. But his piercing gaze pinned her in place just as well as his grip had.
Stop it, Raine. There’s no reason to be flustered around this man.
Was she off-kilter because this was the first time she’d been really alone with him since the cottage? Or because her head was pounding so hard now that she could barely think straight?
“Raine?” His brows drew together in a look of concern that had her more confused than before. “How bad is the headache? Any other neurological symptoms? Dizziness? Fainting? Maybe you should sit.”
He started to rise from his chair as if to make her take his place, when her brain finally started working again.
“No, no. I’m fine, or I will be when I take the prescribed pain pill I’m allowed to take this morning.”
His frown told her he wasn’t sure he believed her. But he didn’t try to stop her again.
She’d swear she felt the heat of his gaze following her as she got the prescription bottle from the cabinet and grabbed a bottled water from the refrigerator. Once she’d downed the pill, knowing relief would soon come for her throbbing head, she sat across from him at the island—with the coffee mug he’d moved earlier. After three deep sips of the caffeine-laden drink of the gods, she finally felt more in control and able to risk looking at him.
He was still staring at her with concern.
Her hand tightened around her coffee mug. “Why act so brusque at the door and then completely switch to being hyperconcerned for my welfare? Even Faith isn’t worried anymore. I did fine last night and don’t need babysitting at this point.”
His eyes widened. “You’re upset that I’m worried about you?”
“I’m confused. And aggravated. I don’t know how to read you, or...” Her face heated as he continued to stare at her. “Never mind. Like I said, I’m fine, or I will be once that pill and this coffee kick in. And before you ask again, no. I’m not having any other symptoms. Just brain fog and a headache that won’t quit.” She motioned toward the laptop in front of him. “I think I’d feel better if you confront me with whatever you found on my computer instead of pretending you care. Go on. Interrogate me. You accused me of spying on you.”
He closed the laptop and set it aside, his mouth crooking up in a half smile. “Maybe I overreacted. After all, you did admit you’d been watching my routine when you pulled a gun on me. I shouldn’t have been so surprised and angry when I saw the mounds of reports you wrote over the past week, cataloging my every move.”
She grimaced. “Yes, well. I was prepping for our face-to-face meeting by learning everything I could about you. I wanted to be prepared. Turns out, I wasn’t.”
He crossed his forearms on top of the island. “Actually, I thought you were rather impressive in how you handled things. If you’d chosen a chair in that cottage that wasn’t dry-rotted, I might still be handcuffed to it.”
“Really?”
He chuckled. “No, not really. But you seem out of sorts this morning, even more than I’d have expected from your concussion. I was being nice.”
She choked, then coughed. “This is you being nice?”
He shrugged, his smile firmly in place. “Let’s start over. I’ll forget about the stalking and kidnapping—for now—and that you’re a lawyer. We’ve each made a deal with the devil, more or less, and we might as well make the best of it for however long we’ll be working together. Or for however long it takes my team to prove, or disprove, your bribe—that research on the serial killer we’re after.”
His warning about her research had her feeling queasy. But it was the other part of his statement that really caught her attention.
“Deal with the devil? Because I’m a lawyer? Or because I held you at gunpoint?”
“Not sure I could choose one over the other.”
She blinked again. “Wow. I don’t even... What do you have against lawyers?”
“In the interest of forming a good working relationship and starting over, let’s forget I said anything about your chosen profession.” He held out his hand. “Hello. I’m Callum Wright, former police detective, currently an investigator for Unfinished Business, specializing in cold cases.”
“Really? We’re going to do this? Pretend the events of the past day—”
“Or weeks. Of stalking.” He winked.
“We’re pretending all of that never happened. I’m supposed to, what, ignore that you helped send my brother to death row? And in return you’ll ignore that I researched you, not stalked, and that I’m a lawyer? So you can stomach being around me?” She arched a brow and crossed her arms.
He pulled his hand back, his smile fading. “New plan. We’ll continue to nurse our grudges against each other but do our best to be civil so we can do what needs to be done.”
She let out a frustrated breath. “That wasn’t what I meant. I just—”
“When you started all of this, what was your goal? What did you hope I could accomplish? As I said, I was basically a gopher for Detective Farley on your brother’s case. Before browsing the information last night that you provided, I could barely remember it. So why do you think I can help you? And how? Even if I had exculpatory evidence—which I don’t—I have no pull with Georgia’s governor to ask him for a pardon.”
“It’s not the governor we need to influence. In Georgia, he doesn’t have that kind of power. The authority to grant pardons or commute death sentences to life in prison is held solely by Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles. And even though the governor appoints members to the board, the senate still has to approve them. Plus, they each serve on the board for seven years.”
“Meaning the governor can’t stack the board during his four-year term to have more sway over their actions.”
She nodded. “Exactly. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to sway the majority of the board to grant a stay of execution, or clemency. The only hope really is to present some kind of evidence that is so overwhelming that they can’t ignore it.”
“If you had that kind of evidence already, I imagine you wouldn’t have gone to drastic measures to get my attention.”
“No. I don’t, and I wouldn’t have. Obviously, I’m desperate at this point. My brother’s set to be executed in a couple of weeks. Earlier you recommended that I hire a lawyer experienced with capital punishment cases. I have two, from two different firms. They’ve been doing everything they can to work through the appeals process and try to find new evidence that might exonerate Joey. Over the past month, they’ve been reinterviewing dozens of people the police originally spoke to, trying to find something, anything that would help. A while back, they even managed to get an audience before the board to argue for mercy. Nothing has worked so far and I have little faith that they’re going to succeed. That’s why I’ve taken a leave of absence from my job, so I could pursue any avenue I can think of to help him, before it’s too late.”
“Including risking being disbarred and going to prison yourself by holding someone at gunpoint and kidnapping them?”
Her face heated. “What I did to you isn’t something I’m proud of. But my innocent brother is the only family I have left and he doesn’t deserve to die for something he didn’t do. In spite of what you may believe, there are limits to what lines I would cross to help him. With you, for example, the gun wasn’t loaded. I was hoping to scare you into doing what I asked. Risking hurting you, or worse, wasn’t something I could stomach. Thus, the gun was empty.”
His jaw tightened. “Which reminds me, don’t ever do that again. Only point a gun at someone if it’s loaded and you’re prepared to shoot. Otherwise, you’re putting your own life at risk by bluffing. Someone calls that bluff and you could be killed.”
“Careful, Callum. It almost sounds like you care.”
“I do care, as one does for children or fools.”
“You think I’m a fool?”
His mouth curved in a sardonic grin. “Well, you’re definitely not a child.”
She blinked, not sure how to take his comment and smile. On the one hand, he was insulting her by labeling her a fool. On the other, he was giving her a backhanded compliment, seemingly appreciating her as a woman. How could he seem so aggravating in one breath and ridiculously appealing in the next? She needed to get them back to safer ground. Even an argument was better than sitting across from this incredibly handsome man, half wishing she had the courage to bait him with a flirty response.
Clearing her throat, she said, “Regardless, what I’m after is your experience on cold cases in the hopes that you can find evidence to convince the board to at least stay my brother’s execution. And the fact that you worked on his case, even in a minor role, would—I believe—have sway over getting the board to listen to you if you requested an audience with them to present new evidence.”
He quietly considered that a moment, then shook his head. “You had to be a lawyer, huh?”
She frowned as he pulled out his phone. “I don’t see what that has to do with—”
He held up a hand to stop her and pressed the phone to his ear. “Hey, Reid. Yes, it’s Callum again. I’m calling about that possible favor we discussed last night. Yeah, looks like I’ll be taking you up on it sooner than anticipated.”
She crossed her arms and sat back as he spoke with this Reid person. What did Callum have against lawyers? Not that it really mattered. She wasn’t going to apologize for her chosen profession. What mattered was helping her brother, Joey. If that meant tolerating a man who made her angry one minute and want to jump him the next, so be it. Her reactions to him made no sense. He confused and frustrated her. But that was something she’d have to deal with, somehow. Focusing on Joey’s life being at stake was what she had to do, even if it meant being uncomfortable around Callum Wright for the next few weeks.
He ended the call and slid his phone into his back pants pocket. “How’s that headache?”
She frowned, then pressed a hand to her temple. She’d completely forgotten about her headache. A reluctant smile curved her lips. “For the first time since I cracked my head against that hard floor, the pain is gone. Apparently fighting with you is some kind of cure.”
“Is that what we’re doing? Fighting?”
“What else would you call it?”
That sexy grin curved his lips again, but he simply shook his head. “I’ll consider it my sacred duty to pick another fight if your headache returns.” He pushed back from the island and stood. “I was going to sit here and discuss the information that I read about your brother’s case. But, as you reminded me, the clock is ticking. We can save time by discussing it on the way to the other source I want to talk to. Grab your jacket.”
“My jacket? Wait, we’re leaving?”
“That’s the plan. The sooner the better.”
“But Faith, she went to get us breakfast—”
“I’ll call her from my car and explain. If you don’t mind a drive-through, I can get you something to eat on the way out of town.”
“Drive-through is fine, but I don’t—”
“Is that the hall closet, I’m guessing?” He motioned toward a door on the wall to the right of the front door.
She nodded.
He yanked open the door and grabbed a waist-length gray jacket. “Is this okay? I don’t think it’s cold enough today for the heavy coat.”
“That’s fine, thanks.” She took the jacket he held out, then grabbed her purse from the small decorative table a few feet away. “Where are we going?”
After opening the front door, he motioned for her to precede him outside.
She shrugged into her jacket, but instead of doing as he wanted, she stood her ground. “I’m not leaving until you tell me where we’re going. I may not agree that the time is well spent driving around in your SUV. I can answer any questions you have, explain the case without us going to some other source to—”
“The man I just spoke to is a friend, someone I used to work with. We trade favors off and on and he currently owes me one, a big one. He’s cutting through red tape to make that source I mentioned available. But only if we leave right now so we can arrive in the time frame he specified.”
“Where? Who is this source you think can tell you more about my brother’s case than I can?”
He arched a brow. “Your brother.”