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"What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded.

His tone was about as friendly as a malcontented pit bull's.

"I could ask you the same thing," she tossed right back. Neither of them appeared inclined to lower his or her weapon, which was fine by her. She didn't trust this guy…yet. Damned if he wasn't wearing another of those rumpled suits. This one in navy. The color accented his eyes. Dammit. Just her luck. He looked even better this time than he had the first time she'd had the displeasure of running into him.

"Lieutenant Ryan," he said tightly, "must I remind you that this is my case?" He lowered his weapon, his movements every bit as stiff as his tone as he holstered it. "Now, what are you doing here?"

Reluctantly, Kayla lowered and holstered her own weapon. It might have been easier to simply shoot him, but then, she didn't want to have to explain that one to her boss. Besides, she often reminded those she collared of her favorite motto, Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. She had a daughter to raise. Going to prison for killing an arrogant detective wasn't on the agenda.

Neither was sleeping with one.

Where the hell had that thought come from?

Kayla shoved aside the stupid conversation going on inside her head and focused. That he unsettled her like this pissed her off. "I'm investigating Lorraine Carrington's death," she said bluntly. Why beat around the bush? Her intent must be obvious. "I have permission from Marshall Carrington, as well as the senior law partner of this firm to be here. How about you?"

Detective Hadden considered her comment a moment then said, "I have a warrant."

So he'd one-upped her again. Swell.

"That means you'd better come clean or the sheriff will be getting a call."

Kayla's gaze narrowed suspiciously. "I thought we were going to make like team players on this." Jerk. She should have known better than to trust a guy who looked good in a rumpled suit. Especially the kind who could loosen his tie and the top button of his shirt and still look sophisticated.

He leaned against the wall and folded his arms over his wider-than-she'd-noticed-last-time chest. Okay, so the guy looks damn good. Get over it. He's probably a rob-ho detective. The only thing worse than robbery-homicide detectives were the narcotics guys. Narcs were way over the edge. Either way, he'd likely long forgotten what it was like to be a real cop.

"All right, Ryan. Give it to me straight and we'll do the team thing."

She moistened her lips and bit back the first hit of sarcasm that sprang to her tongue. She'd just see how serious this guy was. "Maybe I don't have any real proof for why I'm here. Maybe it's just a hunch." She knew better than that…felt it in every single cell of her body. The intruder at the Carrington home, then at the morgue. Stuff like that didn't go down without reason.

He shrugged, one of those aloof, male gestures that meant he didn't know what else you wanted him to say.

She planted her hands on her hips and gave him what he wanted. "Someone killed my friend. I don't know how or why, but I intend to find out."

He considered her blunt statement a moment, his face impassive. "The Carringtons appear to be financially secure."

Ah…the good detective was fishing.

"That's right. Rainy is…was a lawyer. This firm is one of the best."

"And Mr. Carrington is an archaeology professor at the University of Arizona," he stated.

"Right again." There was something smug in his voice when he spoke of Marshall. Kayla didn't like that. It made her more suspicious of him.

Without another word he moved past her and into Rainy's office. "You said that there were personal files missing from her home office. Is anything missing here?"

"Not that I can tell. But that doesn't mean anything." She ventured into the suddenly too-small space behind him.

"Don't play games with me, Lieutenant." He swiveled on his heel and glared at her. "Just answer the question."

Kayla resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I'll tell you what, Detective, let's make this a little more equal. You tell me something, I'll tell you something."

He propped a hip on Rainy's polished mahogany desk. "Fair enough, I suppose."

She wondered if fair would play into this in the end. Most detectives she knew didn't want regular cops horning into their territory.

"I'm concerned that there are facts about Ms. Carrington's accident that don't make sense just yet."

"Such as," Kayla prodded when he was slow to continue.

"Such as the seatbelt's malfunction. Of course, that in and of itself wouldn't be sufficient evidence to warrant my uneasiness with the facts." He scrubbed at the five o'clock shadow on his chin. The move made her shiver just like before, and she wanted to kick herself for the reaction. "My turn."

"Shoot." She glanced at his weapon. "No pun intended."

He didn't smile. "Why did you have Ms. Carrington's body moved without asking my permission?"

He kept his expression carefully schooled but Kayla didn't miss the barest flicker of irritation or impatience.

"I didn't need your permission." Why pretend? It was the truth.

He nodded, his lips pursed in open admission that he'd been one-upped this time. "Let's cut to the chase," he said, after mulling over her response. "Why are you doing this?" He held up a hand to stall her so he could add, "I know she was your friend, but there has to be some reason you feel a personal responsibility to investigate this case yourself. You know that being personally involved distorts your objectivity."

There were things she couldn't tell him. Like the affair Marshall had mentioned and Rainy's nonexistent appendectomy. Not yet. She didn't have enough information herself. She certainly wasn't about to cast doubt on Rainy's reputation or possibly that of Athena Academy until she did. But she had to give him something if she intended to keep a spot on his team.

"More than ten years ago," she began, giving in and relaxing a bit in spite of herself, "Rainy and I were in school at Athena Academy together. There were seven of us who were especially close." She shrugged. "A team." She blocked the memories that instantly bloomed. Couldn't go there just now. "Anyway, we made a special promise that we would always be there for each other, no matter what, and would come to help if called, no questions asked."

"Like sorority sisters," he suggested, his own stance softening a little. That rugged profile not quite so flinty.

"Right," she allowed. "A few days ago Rainy called all of us. She didn't give any details, but she said she needed to invoke the promise. Her tone was distinctly urgent. So we came together at the time and location of her choosing, but it was too late."

It took every ounce of strength Kayla possessed to keep her emotions at bay. The memory of Rainy's call, the urgency in her voice…the utter desperation.

"So you believe because she called all of you together for this promise that it means something about her death is amiss?"

Kayla looked him square in the eyes. "I don't believe, I know. Something is wrong here and I intend to find out what."

Detective Hadden straightened, pushing off the desk to his full height. "Then I suggest you come completely clean, Lieutenant, because I can't help feeling you're holding back on me."

Her cell phone beeped, giving her a reprieve. "Excuse me," she said to the detective before turning away. She flipped open the phone. "Ryan."

"Kayla, this is Marshall. The Millers and I are here with the funeral director."

"Yeah, Marshall, is there something I can do?"

"I've tentatively scheduled Rainy's service and I wanted to run the date and details by you."

The rest of the conversation was pretty much a blur of information, and only one thing stood out in Kayla's mind. The day that Rainy's body would be lowered into the ground. She almost lost her hold on her emotions before the call ended, but she managed to keep it together. She had no intention of showing that kind of vulnerability to this stranger.

When she'd ended the call she turned her attention back to the man waiting for her response to his question. She wanted to get this conversation over with. She had to call the Cassandras…had to find a way to complete her search of Rainy's office computer without him hovering over her. They might have to work together on this case since, technically, he had jurisdiction for some reason, but she wasn't ready to surrender all she knew just yet.

She locked her determined gaze onto his intent blue one. "You're just going to have to trust me, Detective. I'm basing part of my certainty upon a promise I made more than a decade ago." She wanted to demand how he'd wrangled jurisdiction and why. Wanted to know why he'd labeled the case priority. But those questions would only give him an excuse to push her for answers she wasn't prepared to give just yet. But, make no mistake, she would know all there was to know about Detective Peter Hadden before this was finished.

He searched her eyes, her face, for three beats before relenting, "You don't leave me much choice, Lieutenant." He shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to assume that if you'd go to all this trouble to make good on a promise that old, you wouldn't hold out on me unless you felt it was absolutely necessary."

Damn but he was good. He knew she was holding out on him in spite of her best efforts to make him feel otherwise.

"Then I guess we understand each other," she offered.

"Well." He glanced around the room. "I'll let you get back to your hunch."

Startled at his complete about-face, Kayla followed him into the corridor, then all the way back to the lobby. She saw Josephina taking a smoke break outside. Kayla would just bet that Hadden had told her to wait there. The only question was, who had tipped him off that she'd be here?

He hesitated before leaving. His gaze settled onto hers one last time. "I'm counting on you keeping your promise, Lieutenant."

Before she could respond, he walked out into the fading Arizona sun. The door closed behind him, leaving Kayla undecided as to whether he was friend or foe.

One thing was certain. He needn't worry. Nothing would stop her from keeping that promise.

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