LITMIR.BIZ

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search for her in the police computer. Or, ask someone else to do it. Police property, even his own office, was off-limits to him thanks to the Internal Affairs investigation. His desk temporarily belonged to that IAD idiot William Dietz. Kane refused to put his officers in the position of sneaking him in the building.

      Josh sprawled in the kitchen chair across from her. One arm hung over the back. With his other hand, he tapped a pen against his front teeth.

      “Annie is fine.” She wrapped her fingers around a coffee cup, then turned her attention to Josh. “Can you stop that noise?”

      Click, click. “It calms me.”

      “Drives me nuts,” she said.

      “You’re not alone,” Kane mumbled.

      “It’s not any better down here,” Derek said.

      Josh kept right on tapping. “Do you have something to hide, Annie?”

      She looked down into her cup. “No.”

      Kane tried. “Is your name really Annie?”

      “Yes.”

      Click, click. “You’re acting like a lady with a secret. If the name is real, something else is wrong.” Josh tapped a few more times.

      “We all have secrets,” she said before gulping down her coffee.

      “Most of us have secrets that don’t matter to anyone but the people involved. This is different. You say you have amnesia; then you remember your name. Annie, those aren’t the actions of an honest woman,” Josh said.

      Kane had seen Josh’s act a thousand times over the years. No one would know from his loose tie, wild hair and lazy smile that his ability to track down and destroy a drug ring was legendary. That steely determination and forget-the-rules attitude put Josh at odds with his superiors at the Drug Enforcement Agency all the time.

      The bureaucracy. Yeah, Kane didn’t miss that part of being with the DEA. Of course, if he’d known that the police job would come with an investigation into his personal life and monthly bills from lawyers, he might have sucked up the government bullshit and stayed where he was.

      “Done.” Derek got to his feet, then slid into the chair next to Annie. “Feel better?”

      “Fine. Thanks.” She flashed the younger man a sweet smile.

      Kane tried to ignore the byplay. “Why are you in Kauai?”

      “Sightseeing. Kauai is as beautiful as everyone says.”

      “Sightseeing underwater, were you?”

      She shoved the mug aside. “Look, I know what’s happening here.”

      Kane glanced around the kitchen. “We’re sitting.”

      “The interrogation.”

      “I thought you didn’t believe I was a police officer.”

      “Chief or not, you plan to blame the missing yacht on me. You’re fishing, trying to gather information and then pin this whole thing on me.”

      Kane had to admit that she wasn’t exactly wrong. He’d found her naked and soaking wet. She’d lied to him. She wouldn’t tell him anything. A yacht just happened to go missing right about the time she’d floated onto the beach. A guy didn’t need years of training at the Police Academy to know something strange was happening.

      “I want a lawyer.” She delivered her ultimatum, then clamped her mouth shut.

      Kane felt a nerve in his cheek twitch. “What?”

      “Oh, boy,” Derek said as he moved his chair a few inches away from Annie.

      “Have you ever noticed how the guilty ones always ask for an attorney just when the questions get interesting?” Josh stopped tapping and started scribbling in his notebook. “Happens every damn time.”

      “What are you writing?” she demanded to know.

      This woman could make even the sanest man lose his mind. Between the hot looks, pouty mouth and sharp tongue, Kane couldn’t decide whether to admire her or strangle her. In the last few minutes, the strangling idea had edged ahead.

      Somehow, he kept his hands at his sides. “Annie, let’s be adult about this?”

      She shook her head.

      “You can’t ask for a lawyer.” Kane tried to reason with her. The task would have been easier without Derek’s laughing and Josh’s loud scratching of his pen against the paper.

      Kane took a deep breath and fought for patience. “You’re not under arrest.”

      She shrugged.

      “This is a bit juvenile, don’t you think?” Kane asked, hoping to tweak her ego and get her talking.

      She stuck out her tongue.

      So much for tweaking “Another fine comeback by Ms. Annie No Last Name.”

      She did it again.

      “Does this mean you’re done talking?”

      She tried to take a sip of coffee but stopped when she figured out the cup was empty. Kind of ruined the effect of ignoring him.

      Josh leaned forward in his seat. “I say we skip the chitchat and arrest her.”

      Her eyes bugged a bit, but her mouth stayed closed.

      Kane thought the idea had some merit. “Tempting, but probably wouldn’t be fair to the other inmates to stick them with her.”

      That one earned him a glower. Her green eyes flashed with fire. He doubted the red specks on her cheeks meant she was warm. Ticked off was more like it.

      Since she’d opened her eyes in his shower, she hadn’t closed her mouth. Kane figured it must be killing her to keep quiet now.

      “Okay, new strategy.” Kane stood up and dumped their empty mugs in the sink. “Derek, you’re going to do some shopping.”

      “And miss this? Screw that.”

      “She needs clothes.”

      Derek’s jaw dropped. “Damn, Kane, you can’t mean—”

      “Watch your language. Just because Annie swears doesn’t mean you should.” Kane noticed how her hands balled into fists at that comment.

      Kane glanced at the phone. He could continue to play this game, or he could call his officers and let them figure out what was going on. With six days left until he found out whether or not charges would be filed against him relating to the officer-involved shooting, he needed something to fill the hours. Annie qualified as being far more interesting than his planned house-rewiring project. Probably more dangerous, too.

      “Come on, Kane. Why me?” Derek’s voice stayed just this side of a whine.

      “This will teach you not to cut classes,” Josh said.

      Kane grabbed the pen and Josh’s notepad and dropped them in front of Annie. “Make a list of what you need. Personal stuff, clothes, whatever.”

      She frowned up at him.

      “You can make the list or I can guess your size.” He looked her over, pretending she could be anything other than a small. “Do you need an extra large or something bigger?”

      She snatched up the pen and scribbled hard enough to carve lines into his wooden table. Two words. Not a clothing size on there anywhere, but a comment that was more of a temptation than she knew.

      Josh read upside down. “I see the ‘you’ but can’t see the first…Oh, now I get it.”

      “Fuck you,” she said before she closed her mouth again.

      “Nice language,” Josh said with mock shock.

      “That

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