How to Seduce a Cavanaugh. Marie Ferrarella
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manner that not even the most critical of people could find fault with.
“Then, once that chip is removed, maybe we’ll have a shot at working together a bit more smoothly.” Or at least she could hope that would be the outcome of the proposed venture, Kelly silently added.
The look he gave her was far from happy or even mildly approving. “This is as smooth as it is going to get.”
“You underestimate yourself,” she told him. Adding, “As well as me.”
He’d tried, he’d really tried, Kane thought. But there was a time when you just had to recognize that the deck was stacked against you. It was time for him to cut his losses and just withdraw.
“I have no estimation where you’re concerned,” he told her in a distant, removed voice. “As for me—no offense—but I just don’t like having a partner.”
“None taken,” she responded cavalierly. “And I kind of picked up on the fact that you are less than thrilled about this arrangement. But you know what, Durant? There’s a reason the department sends their detectives out in pairs, so you might as well get used to it.”
She didn’t think he would come up with an answer so fast, but he did. “It cuts down on the number of cars they have to provide.”
She stared at his profile, rather amazed at the way Kane’s mind worked. “Wow, you really are cynical, aren’t you?”
He continued watching the road as he went. “Never claimed to have a sunny disposition.”
And this woman was nothing if not a Pollyanna, Kane thought. Pollyannas required a happy, hopeful atmosphere around them. That just wasn’t him and it never would be.
“If you want to ask for another partner, I won’t contest it,” he said.
“Contest it?” she echoed. Just how dense did the man think she was? “You’d probably break into a happy dance.” The momentary mental image of the solemn, handsome detective suddenly swaying to some melody only he heard had Kelly grinning. “And that is something that I would actually pay to see,” she admitted. “But not enough to break up this beautiful friendship we’ve got going here between us.”
“What beautiful friendship?” he all but growled.
“The one I’m laying the groundwork for,” she replied cheerfully. “Pay attention, Durant. And FYI, I’m not a quitter. That means that I don’t take off at the first sign of a problem—or the promise of a difficult partner,” she deliberately added. “You’re just going to have to get used to that.
“So, if you were hoping to get rid of me by giving me a sample of your sunny disposition, sorry, it’s not going to happen. By the way, the answer to the question that I asked you earlier about why the department pairs up detectives, it’s so that they can have each other’s backs. I figure you’re too good a cop not to have mine, and I sure as hell am going to have yours,” she told him in no uncertain terms.
“As for the rest of it, you want to sulk and behave like some dark and brooding character out of one of Byron’s poems, go right ahead. Be my guest. But you’ll be missing out on some pretty terrific conversations,” she predicted.
The look he spared her was nothing if not skeptical. “Meaning with you?”
If he was trying to get her to back down or to intimidate her, he was going to have to work at it a lot harder than that, she thought. “I don’t see anyone else in the car. So, yes, meaning me.”
Kane laughed shortly. “Think a lot of yourself, don’t you?”
She raised her chin ever so slightly, which was the only indication that she might have found the question combative.
“What I just said has nothing to do with whether or not I think a lot of myself. I just happen to know my strengths and my limits. That’s all.
“And if you’re wondering,” she continued, “I have inside knowledge—no pun intended—on the way the male mind works. I grew up with four brothers who were anything but docile. They supplied me with my education, and I diligently took notes,” she told him completely straight-faced.
Without her realizing it, they had arrived at Valhalla.
After Kane showed his badge, the man at the club’s entrance reluctantly opened the gates to allow them to drive on to the grounds.
“Let’s see if you can put those so-called notes you took to good use,” Kane challenged her as he headed to the clubhouse.
The route to the impressive structure was marked with a great many expensive, well-cared-for vehicles. The most conservatively priced of the lot turned out to be a silver Mercedes.
“Never understood it,” she murmured, taking in the sea of pricey automobiles. The comment was more to herself than her partner since she just assumed Durant wasn’t paying attention to a word she said, anyway.
Kane surprised her by asking, “Never understood what?”
She managed to recover without missing a beat. “Pouring so much money into something that could so easily be totaled in the blink of an eye. Whether a car’s a Ford or a Ferrari, they’re both just a heartbeat away from becoming a mangled heap.”
Kane shrugged. Expensive cars meant nothing to him. They’d never moved him, not even as a young boy. Life had been far too serious for him to be infatuated with an automobile.
“They’re status symbols, I suppose,” he said.
She took in the groups of golfers on the course just before they reached the clubhouse. “I know that, but this crowd doesn’t strike me as the type to be impressed by someone dropping a quarter of a million on a Lamborghini.”
Thoughts of his father suddenly popped up in his brain. On those rare occasions when his father hadn’t been taking out his frustrations on him or his mother, his father had told him that if he ever won the lottery—the one that he was always faithfully buying tickets for—the first thing he’d intended to do was buy a fancy car. The kind that would make everyone sit up and take notice.
“I’d get my due respect then,” he’d said. “Not like now.”
Usually right after that, the scenario would disintegrate into his father blaming everyone else for his misfortunes. And shortly after that, Kane would be on the receiving end of a particularly vicious beating. That had seemed to be the only way his father could cope with the events in his life, by taking out all his frustration on either his wife or his son. Or both.
Thinking of that now, Kane regarded the pricey vehicles. “You’d be surprised at what does the trick for some people. To some people, it’s all about the kind of vehicle they drive. The flashier, the better.”
Not him, Kelly thought. Durant wasn’t the type to go for flashy status symbols. She would bet on it.
But someone in his life, past or present, had valued flashy status symbols, she decided. She could tell by the way his tone had changed when he’d mentioned it.
Kelly waited half a beat before falling in step directly behind Kane. She meant for him to go first. To her surprise, he deliberately slowed his pace just enough to allow her to catch up.
She was about to thank him, then decided that Kane probably didn’t want her thanks. The less said on the subject, the better was probably the way he liked it. He was going to cause her to reevaluate her whole approach to partnerships, Kelly mused.
“Is there something I can do for you?” a very tanned, very polished looking man in his midforties asked politely as he walked up to them. His clean cut looks and the touch of silver at his temples, in addition to his manner of carrying himself, all pointed to him as being someone in charge.
And he was.
“Detectives Durant and Cavanaugh,” Kane said, taking out his wallet and holding it steady to