"I take it congratulations are not in order," he commented.

"Damn straight they're not," Harrison snapped. "I paid for a cacti and succulent nursery, lock, stock and barrel. I didn't pay for some freaking boneyard," he bit off in complete disgust. "Can't you and that dour-faced former cheerleader take these damn bones and do whatever it is you have to do with them somewhere else? I've got a nursery to get ready to open," the man complained unnecessarily.

"I'm afraid nothing's happening on that end until all the evidence is bagged and tagged, and we can determine whether or not this was the actual scene of the crime-or if the victims were killed somewhere else."

Though he kept his expression deliberately neutral, Malloy had to admit that he rather enjoyed putting a pin in the man's balloon. He'd never cared for people who were filled with their own sense of importance-especially if they felt that gave them a reason to throw their weight around.

His answer did not sit well with the new nursery owner. Harrison's scowl became almost fierce as he waved a hand angrily in Sean Cavanaugh's general direction. The latter was standing in the distance, working alongside his team.

"I overheard that old guy say that these bones have been in the ground for maybe two decades. What the hell difference can it make now where you look at them?" Harrison demanded. "They're old."

"It makes a great deal of difference," Malloy told the new owner, his voice deceptively calm. "And that 'old guy' you just referred to happens to be the head of the crime scene investigation lab-and my uncle," he added crisply. "So maybe you could find it in your heart to show a little respect for the man and his considerable knowledge. Who knows?" Malloy added "pleasantly," his obvious contempt for the owner beginning to show through. "You play your cards right and the chief actually might find a way to shorten the time."

Harrison already looked infuriated to find himself stymied in this manner, not to mention that he highly resented being rebuked by someone he obviously felt was beneath him.

The next moment, Harrison took out his wallet, his implication clear as he tugged on a larger bill, having it peer over the top of his credit cards. "What can I do to make this go faster?"

"Not bribing me would be a good start." Malloy flashed a completely phony smile at the offensive nursery owner. "Hang tight, Harrison. I'm going to have some questions to ask you in a few minutes." But before that happened, he needed to check in with the CSI team first. "Now, about that 'former cheerleader' you mentioned-"

A barely veiled sneer curved Harrison's thin lips. "Let me guess, another relative?"

Malloy had just spotted the woman the new owner had to be referring to. She was the only female in the area, and, from what he could see at this distance, whoever she was, the slender blonde was nothing short of a breathtaking knockout.

All memory of Bunny, the woman he'd spent his extremely energized weekend with, completely vanished.

"Lord, I hope not," Malloy commented under his breath. "I'll get back to you," he added without sparing the owner another look.

"Who can I call to make this go away?" Harrison asked.

"You don't," Malloy answered with finality, tossing the words over his shoulder.

Putting the abrasive owner temporarily out of his thoughts, Malloy made his way toward what was the only center of activity within the area-if he didn't count a neighbor's rooster.

The lone fowl was housed in an opened coop facing the northern perimeter.

Flapping his wings and moving about in what could only be called an agitated manner, the rooster crowed intermittently despite the fact that the sun had long since been up and the current hour was quickly approaching noon.

Obviously the rooster's inner clock needed some adjusting, Malloy absently thought.

For the moment, his attention was not on roosters, or the dead bodies. It was strictly and exclusively on the attractive woman with the killer figure. Despite her appreciative male audience standing a few feet away, watching her every move, the woman appeared to be absorbed by the bones she and two of the CSI agents were digging up out of the ground and arranging on a long, extended roll of burlap.

The annoying owner had been right, Malloy noted, scanning the immediate area. The construction crew Harrison had hired really were, for all intents and purposes, immobilized, no doubt ordered to remain that way by his uncle.

But the crew definitely didn't appear to be suffering any discomfort because of that edict.

Instead, the idle four men looked to be quite entertained as they took in every nuance, every movement made by the young woman studying the various excavated bones.

Malloy approached the young woman and placed himself between her and the sunlight that had, until that moment, been highlighting the collection of bones she had been assembling.

"Hi, I'm Malloy," he told her.

The voice and sudden distracting shift of light caught her attention. After a couple beats, Kristin finally looked up.

If the exceedingly handsome, exceptionally confident-looking man with the sexy grin momentarily threw her off her game, Kristin Alberghetti gave no indication of that reaction.

Instead, her eyes met his, and she silently waited for him to explain why he was here blocking her light.

The name he offered nudged at something in the back of her mind. After a moment, recognition set in.

Malloy Cavanaugh. One of the Cavanaughs.

His reputation had preceded him.

"Of course you are," she replied, turning her attention back to her work.

"And you are?" he asked after several seconds went by and she still didn't volunteer her name, even though he had given her his.

"Busy," Kristin answered crisply without looking up. "And you're in my light," she added rather impatiently.

"Funny, I would have thought that you cast enough light on your own to brighten up anything you needed to look at," Malloy observed.

The blonde looked up again, her expression telling him that the remark-and his charm-left her more than just merely cold.

"Sorry, no," she replied. Ice chips formed around each word. "Would you mind stepping to the side? I got the impression that the owner of this nursery wanted me to be done before I even got here, so if you move out of the light, I can try to accommodate him."

"Sorry," Malloy apologized, following her request. "My bad."

"I imagine you probably say that a lot," Kristin commented, sounding as if she were addressing the observation to herself instead of to him.

Feisty, Malloy thought. Ordinarily, he probably would have backed away. This was, after all, a case, and he wasn't the type to waste too much time trying to break through a woman's barriers. For one thing, life was too short. For another, he was being paid to be a detective, not a lover. And there were a great many willing women out there to choose from.

But, on the other hand, there was a certain appeal to the concept of "feisty," especially when it was coupled with someone who looked the way this woman did.

Exactly who was she?

What was her official position in the department, and how did he get her to open up to him?

"You're new," he said, hoping to initiate a conversation.

Kristin spared him just the minutest of glances before she went back to her work. "Actually, I'm not," she told him.

"I haven't seen you around," he told her. "And I always notice beautiful women."

"Well, I guess you missed one this time," she responded, carefully separating two bones that looked as if they had been fused together by grit and time.

Rather than annoying him, the flippant way she'd answered what was clearly a line-he hadn't been trying to be subtle-seemed to oddly attract him to an even greater extent.

Crouching down beside the woman, he said, "Let's start over."

The look she gave him would have withered a lesser man.

"Maybe later. I'm working now." Her expression turned impatient. "And you're in my light again."

"Right."

To accommodate her, Malloy rose to his feet, taking care to allow the sunlight to stream over and bathe the bones laid out before her.

This one, he told himself, was going to be a tough nut to crack.

And he couldn't wait to get started.

Copyright 2016 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella.

ISBN-13: 9781488005053.

Books by Karen Anders.

Harlequin Romantic Suspense.

Five-Alarm Encounter.

To Protect and Serve.

At His Command.

Designated Target.

Joint Engagement.

Her Master Defender.

A SEAL to Save Her.

The Adair Legacy.

Special Ops Rendezvous.