Page 12 of Cooper’s Passion

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Cooper entered the men’s room and locked the door behind him. He pulled his cellphone from his pocket and tapped on the number for the Scanguards command center.

Nicholas answered on the first ring. “Scanguards. State your emergency.”

“It’s me, Cooper.”

“Hey, I already fed the fingerprints into AFIS,” Nicholas said quickly.

“I’m not calling about that. I need you to do a background check for me as soon as possible.”

“Sure.”

“Okay, the name is Anita Diaz. She’s a deputy with the Elko County Sheriff’s Department. That’s in Nevada. I need to know whether she is who she says she is. And see if you can find out what she’s doing in San Francisco. She claims she’s working a missing person’s case.”

“Okay, got it.”

“Thanks. If I don’t answer my phone, leave me a detailed voicemail with whatever you’ve found.” He was about to disconnect, when he remembered something else. “And one other thing: send somebody to clean the interior of my car—there’s blood all over the seats and the dashboard.”

“What happened? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Let’s just say that drinking one of Sebastian’s Blood Splatter concoctions after the bottle has been in a moving car, isn’t a good idea.”

A suppressed chuckle came from Nicholas. “Where’s the car?”

“In North Beach. Use my GPS location. And when it’s clean, have somebody park it at Wesley’s house.” After all, he couldn’t very well allow Anita inside his SUV in the current state it was in. “Thanks. Talk later.”

“Later,” Nicholas replied, and Cooper disconnected the call.

He washed his hands and double-checked his appearance in the mirror. There wasn’t much he could do on the case of the exsanguinated woman right now, and there was no harm in having a few drinks with a beautiful woman. The way Anita had looked at his naked torso had pleased him. She wasn’t immune to his charms. Besides, it was best to keep her close until he could establish if she knew anything about the dead woman. Sure, he could take her to Scanguards right now to identify the body, but this move wasn’t wise until he’d checked her out and was sure that she wasn’t a danger to him or Scanguards. She wouldn’t be the first person who’d infiltrated their community and turned out to be a bad guy. Better safe than sorry.

Back at the table, the waiter set two glasses of wine down, when Anita reappeared. Cooper barely recognized her. The determined sheriff’s deputy who’d arrested and handcuffed him was gone and had made way for a blue-eyed seductress who was well aware of her sex appeal. She’d not only taken off her jacket, but also her thick sweater, and hung both over her arm. She now wore a simple pink T-shirt, accentuating her well-formed breasts. Her hair hung loosely over her shoulders, making her face look even more feminine. Only now he realized how tall she was, five foot eight or nine, if he had to guess. Tall for a woman, tall and athletic. Her long legs seemed to be endless, and he could already imagine what it would be like to feel those strong thighs wrap around his hips once he got her into bed.

Damn, just thinking about that made his cock harder than a crowbar. He was glad that he was sitting on the bench with the table hiding his lower body, or she would have instantly seen what he had planned for tonight.

Anita sat down on the half-moon bench and placed her handbag, jacket, and sweater next to her, preventing him from scooting closer to her. Maybe it was better this way, so he wouldn’t be tempted to slide his hand onto her thigh while they were engaging in conversation.

“Feeling better?” he asked and lifted his glass.

“Much better now.” She reached for her glass and clinked it to his. “I’m sorry for falsely arresting you.” Her blue eyes sparkled, and a smile formed on her lips.

Cooper smirked. “You don’t look very sorry.”

He took a sip of his wine, and watched her do the same, while she lowered her eyelids as if timid.

“You didn’t seem to mind the cuffs that much.”

“Are they in your purse now?”

“Yes, why?”

He leaned closer. “So I know where they are when I need them later.”

“Don’t you have your own? I mean, you work for the police.”

He recognized a fishing expedition when he saw one. And Anita was definitely fishing for information. “Actually, the company I work for has a contract with the police to help out with investigations that require our expertise. But let’s not talk about me. Tell me about yourself. Is this your first trip to San Francisco?”

“It is.” She took another sip from her wine. “It’s an impressive city. Did you grow up here?”