He gave her a skeptical look. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
But this time, she wasn’t about to try to win him over. She became serious. “Sorry, Cavanaugh. You know I can’t give up my sources or else they won’t give it up to me. All I can do is pass whatever I get on to you when I get it,” she told him.
This made him think that the woman had seen one procedural too many. She obviously thought this was a game. He had no patience with games.
“Look, any tip we get, we’re going to have to vet,” he told her.
Rather than back off, the way he thought she would, or just give up altogether, Toni said, “Then I guess it’s going to be a long time between tips, at least on my end.” She pressed her lips together for a moment, choosing her words carefully. “Look, how about if I promise that whatever I do pass on to you is legitimate? I’m not about to do it for brownie points, Cavanaugh. If what I give you turns out to be bogus, I know that you’d dump me.”
Dugan never hesitated. “In a heartbeat.”
That only proved what she was saying. “I know that, you know that, so there won’t be any phony leads just for the sake of leads.”
Dugan felt his patience beginning to slowly evaporate. He sighed. “So, after all that, do you have anything?”
He still half expected her to lie. Instead, she spread her hands wide. “No, not right now. But you’ll be the first to know when I do.”
He looked at her for a long moment, and then something occurred to him. “These leads that you get...” he began.
“Yes?”
He watched her expression the entire time as he asked, “Do they have anything to do with that gun you had on the passenger seat that night?”
The wide smile she’d had up until that moment faded. A serious expression came into her eyes. The whole tone of the discussion changed.
“They might have,” she told him guardedly.
“Anything you want to talk about?” he asked her, waiting for her to give him something to work with.
Instead, she said, “No.”
He tried another line of questioning. “Are you still carrying that gun?”
Dugan saw her raising her chin defiantly. He had his answer before she said another word. “I have a permit.”
“So I take it that’s a yes?” Whether or not she said anything, he knew that it was.
There was silence between them for a moment. And then Toni changed the subject. “Why don’t you tell me what you plan to do next with this investigation?”
He had questions he wanted to ask her. Questions that had to do with why she was doing something so ultimately dangerous when there were so many other things she could be writing about. Questions about why someone as savvy as she seemed to be would have gotten herself into a situation where she had wound up trusting the wrong man, as she obviously must have done, given the fact that he’d found her in an alley, about to give birth, instead of somewhere with her husband or boyfriend being taken care of.
Questions filled Dugan’s head that had absolutely nothing to do with why she was standing here beside him right now.
But she was standing here with him right now and he had to deal with that first and everything else, no matter how curious it made him, second.
He forced himself to focus on the case he’d been working on for over eighteen months. “We round up the people caught in the most recent drug busts and talk to them to see if they’d heard anything about the next shipment.”
“Just like that?” Toni asked him incredulously. Was he that naive?
“Well, I might be leaving out a couple of steps,” Dugan granted. “Like maybe their little brother or sister was picked up on drug charges, too. And maybe we could make that go away. Or make their second possession with intent to sell be knocked down to a misdemeanor if they have anything to trade.”
All right, now he was talking, Toni thought. It was beginning to make sense to her. “Do you have anything like that?”
“I’d have to check my roster,” he told her, unwilling to say yes or no. He continued looking at her for a moment, then he shook his head. “Do you realize that you’re about to salivate?”
Rather than be embarrassed or say that he was imagining things, she boldly told him, “Just looking forward to seeing you in action, Cavanaugh.”
His smile was slow, making her heart flutter once it was out in full force. “Well, if that’s the case,” he told her, “maybe we can see what we can do about that after my shift’s over.”
Just for the slightest second, there was a zap of electricity that traveled between them. She could hardly move. But then she rallied, backing away—gracefully, she hoped.
“Sorry, I have a baby to see to once I’m through here.”
He was wondering when she would get around to mentioning the baby. He’d started to think that maybe she’d given the baby to someone to watch over while she was on this assignment. She certainly didn’t act like any new mother he’d ever come across.
“Maybe I could drop by to see her,” he said, inviting himself over without a hint of embarrassment. “She’s got to be what, two months old now?”
Toni had to admit that he’d surprised her. Most men didn’t keep track of anything but their favorite team’s standing in whatever league they were in. When it came to anything else—babies, occasions, the women they’d gone out with—their minds were, for the most part, blank slates.
This made him different, she thought.
“Two months,” Toni repeated with a nod, then almost as an afterthought, added, “Maybe someday,” regarding his request to see the baby.
“Sure,” he answered. “Just name the day, I’ll be there.”
Okay, she had to ask. “You’re serious,” Toni said, more in wonder than to confirm what he’d just said.
“Sure,” he answered. He didn’t understand her question. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
She thought of her daughter’s father. The moment he had found out that she was pregnant—and that she wasn’t about to terminate the pregnancy—he had dropped out of the picture completely. He’d made it clear that he preferred not to know anything about the details, including if she’d had a girl or boy or a cockatiel. As far as he was concerned, they’d never even been together. She hadn’t heard from him in almost a year.
“Most men aren’t interested in babies,” she finally said.
To her surprise, Dugan laughed, then really laughed. Not at her, but at her statement.
“What’s so funny?”
He’d almost had tears in his eyes. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he said, “I was just thinking that I was going to have to introduce you to the men in my family.”
Right, like that’s going to happen, she thought. The only time men talked was when they talked about women.
“Let’s start out with something simple,” she told Dugan, changing the subject for the second time in less than half an hour. “Like one of those drug arrests you mentioned.”
There was more to her than just being an annoying investigative journalist, he thought. There were layers to this woman. Layers he was going to enjoy peeling back when the time came.
But for now, she was right. His case had been stalled for over a week and it was time to shake a few trees and see what fell out.
“Okay,”