Page 5 of Deadly Attraction
Chapter Two
The woman who answered the door wasn’t at all what Mitch expected.
Her brown hair was forced into a clip on top of her head, a couple pieces of hay sticking out of it and random strands stuck to her neck. Her face was devoid of makeup and sporting a healthy smear of dirt on her cheek. She clutched the edges of a worn plaid robe close to her neck, her short fingernails showing traces of caked mud. Beneath the hem of the robe stretched sexy bare legs, slender ankles, and Barbie-pink toenails.
Mitch fought to take his eyes off her shapely calves and bring them back up to her face. “Is Dr. Collins home?”
The porch light gave her face a subtle yellow glow. He couldn’t be sure about the color of her eyes. They looked brown one moment, then flashed a hint of green the next when she glanced behind him as if she expected the boogeyman to be in the shadows.
Maybe she did.
“I’m Dr. Collins. What is this about?”
“You’reEmma Collins?”
Those eyes of hers flashed again, but she replied evenly. “Dr. Emma Collins, yes. And you are?”
Damn. Definitely not what he expected a forensic psychologist to look like. Shouldn’t she be…older? More buttoned-up with a bun and glasses?
Maybe that was just his librarian fantasy getting in the way.
Mitch flashed his ID and she examined it. “Agent Mitch Holden. National Intelligence. Currently on loan to the Southern California Violent Crimes Taskforce. May I come in?”
She was a good six inches shorter than him, and her focus swung upward to his face. “I’m not in the habit of letting strange men into my house, Agent Holden, so no, you may not. Not until you tell me what this is about.”
Brown. Her eyes were definitely brown with specks of green in them. The specks caught the light like a cat’s eyes.
Get it together, Holden. Quit analyzing the woman’s eyes and get down to business.“Chris Goodsman escaped a transport out of the Hills today.”
Her face blanched. “What?”
She obviously hadn’t heard the news yet. “Victor Dupé asked me to get you to a safe house. He’s been trying to reach you, but with the wildfires and all, landlines have been overloaded and some of the local cell towers aren’t working.”
The mention of Dupé seemed to wipe away her hesitation about letting a strange man into her house. She stepped back and motioned him in, her pretty eyes once more scanning the shadows over his shoulder.
Two Labs, one black and one white, rushed Mitch, sniffing and wagging their tails.
“Hope you’re not allergic,” Collins said, closing the door behind her.
“Nah.” Cold noses met his fingers. They, too, had dirt on their faces and hay in their short coats. “My brother and I always had dogs growing up.”
Collins snapped her fingers and the Labs retreated, heads down, tails still wagging. They flanked her, one on each side like bodyguards. She absently petted their heads, the V of her robe falling open enough for him to see tan skin and freckles dancing across her collarbone. “How did Chris escape?”
Chris. Sounded funny for the doctor to refer to the actor—a man she’d labeled a sociopath—by his first name. “The transport van was run off the road. Goodsman escaped, the driver was killed, another guard’s in serious condition. I don’t know all the details, but I’m sure Dupé can fill you in when he meets us at the safe house.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Have you been drinking?”
Shit. “Not enough to affect my reasoning or judgment skills, Dr. Collins. I assure you, I can keep you safe.”
Pushing off the door, she headed for the kitchen, a brightly lit room off to his left. “I’ll make you some coffee.”
Coffee sounded good. The tone in her voice—like she was reprimanding a kid about skipping school or not washing behind his ears—didn’t. “I had two sips of whiskey, that’s all, before I got the call to come protect you.”
He found himself following her into the kitchen, his gaze drawn to her ass as she reached up to grab a bag of coffee from a rough pine cabinet. “The holidays are hard on all of us,” she said.
So now she was presuming to know he hated Christmas and the emotional shitstorm it brought on? Yeah, maybe he did feel that way, but it was still annoying that within two minutes, she seemed to see right through him.
One of the Labs nuzzled his fingertips. Gritting his teeth, Mitch did his usual trick when someone probed into his personal life—turned the tables on them. “How is it hard on you? Your boyfriend dump you right before Christmas or something?”
