Fever by Joan Swan Page A

think the question you wanted to ask was what does Luke see in me .”
    “Maybe. Since he broke up with ...”
    Teague shook the thought of Keira from his mind. He would have liked nothing more than to call on his long-time friend for help in this situation. She would have been there in an instant. But Keira had left the fire service for the F.B.I. months before, which only increased her risk of personal and professional catastrophe if she was ever connected to him. And unlike Luke, Teague would never put her in a situation where she would be forced to choose.
    “In recent years,” Teague continued, “he seems to prefer the meek, bombshell, save-me type.”
    “And since you see me as obnoxious, plain and independent, you don’t think he could find anything about me attractive.”
    Hardly. “You might be obnoxiously independent, but you are not the least bit plain.” A fact which pissed him off when he thought about it too much and led him to his next taunt. “You know he’s a player, don’t you? Doesn’t stay with any woman long and often goes back and forth between two or more?”
    The emotion that passed through her eyes appeared more relieved than surprised or angry. “So? What makes you think I’m not a player, too?”
    He shrugged, but something deep in his gut tingled the way it did when a situation wasn’t quite right. “Guess you just don’t strike me that way. How did you meet him if you work so much?”
    “Why the twenty questions?” she snapped. “What is it about Luke that you’re so obsessed with? What do you think you’re going to gain by keeping me?”
    That tingle in his gut grew into a burn. He paused mid-stitch and looked at her again. She answered too many questions with questions. She was too defensive, too evasive. Something she’d said earlier, something that had seemed offbeat at the time, popped to mind again. “What did you mean when you said I’d cut your professional throat?”
    “When?”
    “Inside, after that woman came up to us.”
    She heaved a breath and closed her eyes. “I’m competing for my job against someone else. This other guy is a total manipulator. By the time I get back, he’ll have wormed his way into making everyone believe they can’t live without him.”
    “You already have the job.” He knew at least that much from his hasty research, from the stories his teammates had told him on their occasional visits to the prison. “You’ve had it for two years. How can you be competing for it?”
    “They’re cutting back. Only keeping one of us, and he’s got seniority. They’re letting one of us go in two weeks.”
    “Where’s the competition? Seniority usually wins out. Why don’t they just let you go?”
    Alyssa shot him another angry look. “Because I’m better . Way the hell better. I work my butt off while he schmoozes.” The anger seemed to drain her energy. She closed her eyes and turned her head away. “He’s a frigging con man. No one like that is going to beat me.”
    He admired her fight. Saw his own reflection in her struggle. And felt guilty for interfering in this important piece of her life, not to mention all the trauma and injury she’d sustained in the last few hours.
    “Don’t worry.” He tied off the last stitch and cut the nylon. “I’ll have you back to your boyfriend and your job before you know it.”
    “Then what? Where are you going? What are you going to do?”
    Teague brought up an image of Kat’s face, those big, dark, sparkling eyes. He savored the idea of feeling her in his arms. The security of knowing where she was every moment of the day. The peace of having control over her safety, her growth, her well-being. The pure, unadulterated joy of hearing her laughter, experiencing her unconditional love.
    A smile started in his soul and ended up on his face. “Then I disappear, and you’ll never have to see me again. I’ll be like a bad dream.”
    She rolled onto her side and pushed herself to a sitting