His home away from home.
Todd headed for this small desk, directly opposite his partner’s. He’d barely taken two steps when Colin’s head suddenly snapped up and his gaze zeroed in on him.
No damn way he heard me. Not with all this racket going on. Todd stared back at his partner, saw the slight flare of Colin’s nostrils, then the abrupt tightening of his jaw.
He knew what that telltale clenching signified. Colin was furious, and from the look on his face, that anger was directed straight at Todd.
A sigh broke from his lips. Okay. He was tired of the guy’s attitude. He’d put up with enough shit from Colin. It was time to clear the air once and for all—
“Have a good night, partner?” Colin murmured when Todd reached the desks.
His eyes narrowed. “Good enough.”
Colin glared at him. “You know you could be f**king up the case.”
He knew. Todd didn’t know how the cagey bastard knew, but Colin realized that Todd had spent the night with Cara. “She’s not a suspect anymore.”
Another flare of the guy’s nostrils. “You sure about that?”
Very deliberately, Todd placed his hands on top of the old, wooden desk and leaned in over Colin. “It wasn’t too long ago when you were screwing a suspect, too, buddy.”
“Emily was never a suspect! She was working with us and—”
“—and for a while she looked guilty as hell.” His hands shoved harder against the desktop.
“But she wasn’t!”
“Neither is Cara!” Not guilty of the murders, anyway, but—
“Gyth! Brooks!” The whiplash of Captain Danny McNeal’s voice cut through the fire of Todd’s anger. He glanced up, realizing too late that he and Colin hadn’t exactly been having a quiet conversation. Most of the eyes in the station were on them, particularly the glaring gray stare of the captain.
Shit.
“In my office,” McNeal growled, his completely bald scalp gleaming as he inclined his head toward the open door. “Now. ”
Todd straightened. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
The wheels of Colin’s chair rattled as he shot to his feet.
They didn’t speak as they crossed the room to the captain’s office. Not really much to say at that point.
McNeal slammed the door shut behind them. Marched to his desk. He didn’t sit down. Just glared at them, tension evident in the thick muscles of his body.
Todd knew that Captain Danny McNeal had been with the Atlanta PD for over twenty years. The guy was in his early forties and in better shape than most of the men in the precinct. He ran every day, and could be routinely found in the PD’s gym, tossing cops over his shoulder and onto the cushioned blue mats.
The guy was a real hardass. Smart as a whip. And known for his fiery temper.
According to the rumors, he’d also been heavily involved with Smith at one time.
But, of course, those were just rumors, and Todd had never really been able to imagine the gorgeous doctor pairing up with the ass**le cop.
Just didn’t fit for him.
“Are you going to f**king stare at me all day, Brooks, or are you going to tell me why the hell my best two detectives were yelling at each other like two twelve-year-old girls in the middle of my bull pen?”
Oh, damn. Todd winced. The first time he’d ever been compared to a twelve-year-old girl. “I lost my temper, Captain. Sorry.” He wasn’t going to point any fingers at Colin. Not his style.
McNeal grunted. “Well, learn to keep your damn temper in check! Understand, Brooks?”
“Yes, sir.” Though McNeal really needed to learn the same coping skill.
“I got the shit-for-brains mayor and the dumbass DA breathing down my neck right now, yelling about another serial killer being on our streets—I don’t need this crap from you two!”
“Understood.”
Another growl from deep in McNeal’s chest. “Is this partnership working?” He asked bluntly. “Do I need to reassign—”
“No,” Todd answered immediately, and saw Colin stiffen slightly from the corner of his eye.
“Hmm.” McNeal’s gaze shot to Colin. “What do you say?”
“There’s no problem with us, sir.”
“Just stupidity,” McNeal snapped, then finally dropped into his chair. “All right, screw it. You’ve been warned. Stop acting like f**king idiots and tell me the status on these damn cases.”
Todd had to fight the curve of his lips. McNeal was a tough bastard, but he respected the guy, and in other circumstances, he would have even called him a friend.
Instead, he called him boss.
And ass**le—behind his back, anyway.
Colin cleared his throat. “Smith put a rush order on House’s toxicology screen—”
“And?”
“I just got the results.” A pause. “Negative. The guy’s system was clean.”
“Shit.” McNeal’s bushy brows snapped together. “So what’s the cause of death, then? How’s Smith calling him?”
Now Colin looked real uncomfortable. “Uh, Smith actually said she’d be down for a briefing on this and—”
“How’s she calling it?”
A light tap sounded on the captain’s door. “I’m busy!” McNeal yelled instantly. “What the hell? Does a closed door look like I want company?”
The closed door opened. Smith poked her head in, frowning. “I know you did not just yell at me.”
McNeal jumped to his feet. “Smith, I-I didn’t know it was you.” His voice seemed to drop, just an octave, so that it was no longer a bear growl. Something softer. More intimate.
Well, I’ll be damned. Todd studied the captain with barely contained curiosity. Maybe there was a bit of truth to those rumors about the guy and the ME.
Smith’s dark stare flashed to Colin. Held for just a few seconds as she said, “I told you I needed to be here for this meeting. I’m not going to be cut out of another case.”
“Neither am I,” Todd added at once, memories of the last serial killer swirling through his mind. The captain had put Colin in charge and basically sidelined Todd while his partner worked day and night with Dr. Drake.
No. Definitely not happening again. This time, the killer was his.
McNeal’s chin lifted. “It’s not a matter of cutting you out—either of you. It’s a matter of doing what’s best for the department.”