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  Saxon must have heard the edge to her voice because he frowned. “If you remember nothing else from this conversation, Brie, remember this: You are in charge. Tanner is a rookie, as far as I’m concerned. The moment he disobeys you, he’s done.” He opened the file. “And I intend to make that particular point very clear to him, believe me. I won’t have you hassled in any way.”

  Her shoulders sagged, and suddenly feeling the stress of the last three months, Brie wearily sat down. “You don’t deserve my anger or frustration over this whole thing.”

  “It’s all right,” Saxon admitted unhappily, also sitting. “At sixty-five, maybe I’m getting too old to handle this job any more. It used to be that a haz-mat spill was bread and butter. Now, with a probable murder of one of my best people, the rules of the game are changing. I feel like a fish out of water.” He folded his hands and gave her a sober look. “I was a fire chief for thirty-nine years, Brie, not a cop. And with this situation, we need law-enforcement direction. Fire fighters aren’t policemen. John Holcomb’s death has proven that.” He released a long sigh and sought out her intelligent gaze.

  “Look, Tanner comes with top recommendations. Maybe the FM’s right: you need a more mature, older partner. John was three years younger than you, Jeff is four. Tanner is thirty-three to your twenty-nine. He’s been around. Here, take a look at his file.”

  Brie reluctantly took the file and settled back in the chair. She groaned, giving Saxon an I-don’t-believe-it-look. “Ex-Marine lieutenant? Oh, wonderful, Chief. Now I know he’ll be a male chauvinist hunting for me!”

  “He was a mine and explosives expert in the service, though,” Saxon pointed out, but that angle didn’t soothe her distress.

  Brie gave him a flat look. “There’s no war going on, Chief. We aren’t hunting bangalores, land mines or rockets. Just hazardous material.”

  She knew Saxon wasn’t so sure with the powerful criminal element in the Youngstown-Cleveland area, which was part of her territory to protect and cover. And despite all her objections, she could see Saxon only wanted her safe at any cost. After the explosion in Cleveland, Brie had been in a coma for nearly five days before becoming conscious. Saxon must have seen with brutal clarity the third-degree burns that had scarred her back, right shoulder and arm. She had also suffered internal injuries and had spent three months recovering in a hospital.

  Brie couldn’t hide from Saxon the emotional scars that had resulted from the incident. He’d felt it best to get her a new partner in order to take her mind off the horror. Jeff Laughlin’s youth, idealism and lack of chauvinism had helped her get back on her feet. Still, she knew the chief worried.

  “Tanner does have a good background,” Brie grudgingly admitted, handing the file to him. The initial resentment in her voice had disappeared.

  Saxon breathed a sigh of relief. “If it makes you feel any better, Brie, I know how hard it’s going to be on you dealing with two trainees at once.” He spread his hands in a gesture of futility. “I tried to reason with the FM on this assignment, but he’s made up his mind.”

  With a grimace, Brie leaned back in the chair. “Instead of sixty hours a week, it will now be seventy,” she uttered tiredly.

  “Maybe after the first month, you can get a couple of days off and let Jeff run the show with Tanner.”

  Brie pursed her lips. “By that time, I’ll probably need it.” She cast him a grin, rising to her five feet, eight inches. “So when do I meet Superman?”

  Saxon opened his appointment book and peered at it through his bifocals. “Next week. Tuesday to be exact. Meet us over at Lock 24 Restaurant for lunch at noon, and I’ll introduce him to you.”

  “You buying?”

  He matched her grin. “Sure.”

  “I think I’m gonna have a cardiac arrest. This Tanner must really be important or you’d never spring for lunch, Chief.”

  Saxon escorted Brie to the door and opened it for her. “Now you’ve went and hurt my feelings. I occasionally buy you lunch when you get down our way.

  Brie was barely able to suppress her growing smile. She felt her tension dissolving in the good-natured teasing. “Okay, I’ll see you next Tuesday. Fair enough?”

  “Fair enough.”

  Brie swung her white leather purse strap across her shoulder. At this time of year, when the May weather was turning mild and sunny, Brie usually wore pretty sundresses that showed off her shoulders and back. But since the explosion, she never wore anything that might expose her scars. She knew she’d retreated into a shell. Would she ever emerge?

  As she began to walk away, Chief Saxon called out, “Hey, be careful out there.”

  “Yes, sir, boss,” she said, throwing him a mock salute and a halfhearted smile. The smile disappeared almost immediately as she stepped through the air-conditioned modern building that included the Ohio State Fire Academy and the FM’s office. Brie gave the place a tender look. She had taken her two hundred hours of fire training here. She had loved every minute of the grueling and demanding classes that turned her into a fire fighter. That was so many years ago.

  She went out into the sunny afternoon, and a breeze ruffled her hair. Her mind swung to Linc Tanner. She formed his name on her lips, saying it softly. She could often get a feel for the individual by rolling the name off her tongue. His was a strong name, one that had no obvious weak facets, not like her name or how she felt presently. The murder of John had destroyed so much of her confidence. She wished she could change her name to connote a stronger facade. Maybe Gertrude. Now that was a strong, immovable name. Or Dagmar, another name that vibrated with strength. A gleam came to her eyes as she opened the door to her silver Toyota. At least her sense of humor had survived the explosion.

  She slid in and closed the door, hungering for the warmth the sun provided. She dug the sunglasses from her purse and put them on. The headache throbbing in her temples was increasing: another gift from the explosion, she groused to herself, starting up the Toyota then backing out.

  It was a long drive to her small house near the outskirts of Canton, and as Brie pulled into traffic, she wondered what kind of man Linc Tanner was. She prayed he had a streak of humanity in him because if he didn’t, she wouldn’t be able to cope with him.

  * * *

  Linc looked discreetly at his wristwatch. He had learned a long time ago to mask his impatience. Chief Saxon sat next to him at a table for four in a sunny corner of the restaurant. He gave Linc an apologetic look.

  “Brie must be running a bit late,” he said.

  Like every woman I’ve ever known, Linc countered silently. “I think it’s part of the female mystique.”

  Saxon’s gray brows drew downward slightly. “Brie is normally on time to the second.”

  Strike one, Linc warned himself. He had met the grizzled, white-haired chief only a half hour ago, and he wasn’t sure where Saxon stood on the subject of women in men’s careers. It appeared Saxon was not a chauvinist, despite his age. Folding his hands and leaning his elbows on the table, Linc tried to cover his tracks. If Williams wasn’t going to show up on time, he might as well buttonhole Saxon and find out the lay of the land a little more.

  “It must make things a little more interesting having a woman in the ranks, chief.”

  “In what way, Mr. Tanner?”

  Careful. Linc shrugged his broad shoulders beneath his red polo shirt. He was damned if he was going to climb into a business suit to meet Williams. He wore a suit to impress his date, not his boss. “I would imagine Ms. Williams adds a different perspective to things around here.”

  “Oh.” Saxon grunted, reducing his defensiveness. “Brie gets along with everyone. The men in the haz-mat unit treat her like a sister.” Saxon chuckled. “To her, they’re like brothers.” His voice lowered. “Do me a favor, Mr. Tanner?”

  “What?” Linc never promised anything before hearing what the request was.

  “Don’t mention John Holcomb’s death to her. I know you and the FM had a closed
-door meeting earlier, and I don’t know what was discussed, but Brie is still very sensitive to John’s death.”

  I wonder why? Was she his lover? Linc mentally cataloged all the possibilities. A woman didn’t grieve like that without it having a sexual angle. “All right,” Linc agreed slowly.

  “If she brings it up, fine. But don’t hit her on it. Frankly, I’m worried about Brie. I’m afraid you’re meeting her at the worst possible time, and that’s not fair to either of you. Brie is—well, how do I put it? She’s a confident person with plenty of experience to back her up in the haz-mat area. There are few who can equal her savvy, enthusiasm and dogged adherence to principle.”

  Linc’s brows fell. “What principle, Chief Saxon?”

  Saxon watched the door, waiting to see Brie appear. “Northeast Ohio is the armpit of toxic waste problems mainly because it’s the most industrialized part of the state. A lot of steel mills, chemical companies and tankers transporting the stuff make it a highly active area. Three years ago when she agreed to head up that quadrant, she made a promise to me. Brie knew of the waste disposal problems and the cheating that goes on up there by many of the companies. She wanted to clean them up.”

  Wonderful, now I have a raving fanatic on my hands to boot. “Go on.”

  “She and John made a great inroad on that promise. She has a list of chemical companies and facilities that use chemicals that she visits every month. Of course, none of the officials for any company are going to deny her access to their records because she can get a court order at the drop of a hat and force them to show her their files. They’re running scared of her now. It used to be that some of these companies would send out their trucks loaded with toxic waste and order the drivers to dump then in some unsuspecting farmer’s field, a roadside ditch or in a stream in the middle of the night. Reports of that kind of activity have fallen off almost seventy-five percent since Brie has put the pressure on these companies to produce records of when a truck hauling toxic waste is sent out and where its destination is, and then checking that destination to make sure it arrived and dispensed with the chemicals on its bill of lading.” He smiled grimly. “Brie has handed out a hell of a lot of citations, and the attorney general of the state has backed her to the hilt and prosecuted these companies. The fines these companies have had to pay run into the millions, and now they’re wising up and deciding to play by the law and not get caught dumping illegally. They can’t afford it anymore.”

  Linc rubbed his jaw. “Maybe that’s what got Holcomb killed.”

  Saxon gave him an unhappy look. “There are over a hundred people whom she’s had heavily fined. Holcomb’s death could have been an act of revenge, a warning, who knows? She’s too valuable to our continuing efforts to clean up waste disposal and toxic substances in our state. Oh, here’s Brie now,” Saxon said, and rose.

  Linc tried to mask his surprise as a tall, slender woman made her way through the heavy noontime trade of the popular restaurant. Her sable-colored hair gleamed with gold highlights; wispy bangs barely brushed her brows. The one-piece uniform of dark blue sporting patches on both arms, a gold badge over her left breast pocket and gold name tag over the right one made her look like someone in authority, Linc decided. His gaze moved up to her face, and he decided to modify his first opinion. Although Brie had a square face and that stubborn-looking chin, he found himself staring into her huge dark green eyes, which appeared almost catlike. And when his gaze dropped to her delicious mouth, he felt his body tighten with unexpected heat.

  Shocked at his initial response to her, Linc maintained an unreadable expression on his face. What a mouth, he thought: full, corners softly curved upward and lushly red. When he realized she wore no makeup and that was the natural color of her lips, he gave himself an internal shake. He’d thought there wasn’t a female alive who didn’t plaster herself with foundation, gobs of mascara for almost nonexistent eyelashes, rouge for cheeks and lipstick. Brie had a natural flush on her cheeks, which emphasized her large eyes. And her lashes were so thick and long that at first Linc would have sworn they were false. But they weren’t. Brie Williams wasn’t like other women, he grudgingly admitted, and grimaced, displeased with his physical reaction to her. There wasn’t much not to like about her upon first meeting: nice body, attractive in an arresting fashion, and she moved like a gazelle. What the hell was she doing to him?

  Brie risked a glance at the tall, ruggedly built man in a red polo shirt and faded, well-worn jeans that emphasized his superb build. He was scowling at her, and she tried to gird herself against his obvious dislike of her. She turned her attention to Saxon.

  “Hi, Chief,” she said breathlessly, “I’m sorry I’m late. There was a tanker on I-76 without placards indicating what chemicals he was hauling, and I pulled him over.”

  Saxon patted her hand. “See, Mr. Tanner? I told you there would be a reason our Brie was late.”

  Linc slowly inclined his head toward her. He saw a great deal in her suddenly darkened eyes: distrust, wariness and fear. Why fear? Did he look like an ogre to her? More than likely. He managed a sour smile. “So you did, Chief Saxon, so you did.”

  Brie matched his scowl, immediately on guard against the insinuation in Tanner’s carefully modulated voice. Had he accused her of being late because she was a woman? Brie felt anger surge through her, and she swallowed hard, holding his dark blue gaze.

  “Brie, I’d like you to meet Linc Tanner, your new partner. Linc, this is Brie Williams.”

  Linc extended his long, tapered fingers. “Ms. Williams.”

  Brie slid her damp hand into his, very aware of his blatant maleness. “Mr. Tanner.”

  The waitress came up, shattering the icy tension. “Something to drink?” she asked them, smiling warmly at Linc.

  “Coffee for me,” he said.

  Brie hadn’t missed the waitress’s moon-eyed reaction to Tanner. He wasn’t pretty-boy handsome. No, his face had been molded by experience. Harsh experience, she would bet. There were deep lines at the corners of his eyes and grooves on either side of his well-shaped mouth. Despite his unshakable arrogance, Brie found herself liking Tanner’s mouth because it wasn’t as hard as the rest of his rugged features, which could have been hewn out of stone. “I’ll have a vodka gimlet,” she told the woman. It was one of the few times that she would use alcohol to settle her taut nerves. One look at Tanner’s disapproving look and her stomach automatically knotted.

  “Drinking on the job?” he queried softly.

  “It’s my day off, Mr. Tanner. Do you object?”

  Linc heard the warning in her husky voice. Strike two. “I’m not your keeper, Ms. Williams. You drink whenever you feel the need.”

  Brie gave him a sizzling glare, locking with his cobalt eyes. The arrogant bastard. He was gunning for her. And right in front of the chief. Pulling the napkin into her lap, she fixed a brittle smile on her lips. “I’m glad we agree on one thing, Mr. Tanner.”

  “So am I, Ms. Williams.” He wanted to kick himself. He had stepped into it with her and he hadn’t meant to. Most women wouldn’t have challenged his innuendo. But she had. A part of him admired her gutsiness. Not many women—or for that matter, men—took him on.

  Saxon cleared his throat, thanking the waitress when she returned with their drinks and the menus. He gave Tanner a warning that spoke volumes. “Brie works fifty to sixty hours a week, Linc. It’s rare she gets a day off. And when she does, she’s on twenty-four-hour call for haz-mat accidents up in her quadrant. She made a special trip down here today to pick you up and take you to Canton to start looking for an apartment.”

  Linc inclined his head, a hint of amusement in his eyes. “I owe the lady an apology then, plus thanks for going an extra yard on my benefit.” The car he had driven from the East Coast had developed transmission trouble. The garage said it would take at least a week to repair, leaving Linc without any transportation. An auspicious start, he thought, to the whole assignment.

  He saw her eye
s widen momentarily, as if shocked by his sudden good manners. Good God, he wasn’t an animal! And when Brie quickly averted her gaze and picked up her drink to take a healthy gulp, Linc felt a tinge of guilt. He missed nothing from being an agent for so many years. The fact that her long fingers trembled made him feel like a heel. He was supposed to protect her, get her confidence, not make life rough for her. If Cramer saw how he was behaving, he’d yank him off the case. Fortunately, Cramer wasn’t around to see his spectacular hoof-and-mouth act, and Saxon didn’t know his true identity, so he was safe. This time.

  They ordered lunch, and Linc noticed Brie wanted nothing but a salad. The uniform she wore hung loosely on her, telling him she had lost weight. Of course, if he had been nearly killed, he wouldn’t have much of an appetite, either. There were hints of shadows beneath Brie’s eyes. She didn’t get much sleep. Was it due to the trauma or just the fact that Saxon was working his people to death?

  Linc folded his hands, resting his chin on them. “Fifty or sixty hours a week is a lot,” he said to no one in particular.

  “It doesn’t do much for your personal life, either,” Brie said, sipping her drink and hoping he would take her comment as a joke, which would ease the tension between them.

  He met and held her nervous gaze. “Do you have one?”

  He was taking her seriously! “If I did, it wouldn’t be your concern, Mr. Tanner.”

  “Call me Linc. I don’t like standing on formality any more than necessary.”

  “I would think with your military training, you’d enjoy it.”

  He picked up his cup, holding it to his lips. Saucy, aren’t you? He took a sip of coffee. “What I learned in the military can’t be applied too much in civilian life, Ms. Williams.” Linc waited for her to drop her guard and ask him to call her by her first name just as he had done. But she didn’t.