Countdown To A Kiss (A New Year's Eve Anthology)

  ***

  Leo didn’t go home with Mandy. He didn’t go home at all. Instead he went back to the Pit, swiped his security card, and spent forty minutes trying to beat the stuffing out of a leather punching bag. The bastard bag defeated him. His arms felt like spaghetti noodles when he finally tossed the gloves aside, but he still hadn’t succeeded in easing the knot in his chest.

  “I haven’t seen you this wired since right after New York.” Roy Baxter’s voice caused him to jerk his head around. Baxter was sitting against the wall of the weight room, legs stretched out in a relaxed pose, bottle of beer in hand.

  “How long have you been here?” Leo bent to grip his thighs and pulled in a couple of deep breaths. Then he straightened and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the towel he had stuck in the waist of his sweats.

  “I came in about fifteen minutes ago. I drove by on my way home from the Pub and saw your car in the lot. You want to tell me what’s got your panties in a twist?”

  “No.” Leo walked over to the water cooler and filled a paper cup full of water.

  Roy didn’t take the hint and shut up. “Your little consult with Devine didn’t have anything to do with vampires did it?”

  Leo shot him a frown. “What the fuck are you talking about? How much have you had have to drink?”

  Roy grinned. “Not enough to blur my vision. I saw you sucking at her wrist. And she looked a little pale when you walked away.”

  Devine. That’s what this was all about.

  “Mandy wasn’t too happy with that little performance either, but that won’t stop her from saying yes the next time you ask her out.” Baxter looked disgusted. “What is it about you, Ramos?” He frowned. “Must be the whole Latin Lover vibe you’ve got going. Women go for that shit. And Wolfram’s got the whole Viking Marauder Vibe. Why the hell is that sexy? I had to wipe the drool off Roberts’s chin. Hell, if––God forbid––I tried to toss Roberts over my shoulder to ravish her, she’d cut off my balls, yet the Big Bad has her panting.” He shook his head, took another drink. “The real problem is that dudes with German heritage don’t have any vibe going for them. Unless it’s the whole Anal-Retentive Vibe, which, I gotta tell you, isn’t a chick magnet. My degree is in accounting, you know. That got me no mileage in college.”

  “Jesus, Baxter. Do I have to put a two-beer limit on you? What the fuck are you talking about now?”

  “Shit.” Baxter looked as if he suddenly had a light-bulb moment. “You’ve got a thing for Devine, haven’t you?” He knocked the heel of his hand against his forehead. “Of course.”

  “No.” Leo said the word forcefully.

  “Anal-retentive people are very good at small details.” He shot a look at Leo. “Which makes us very good lovers, in case anyone asks.”

  “Why would anyone ask me how good a lover you are?”

  “Well, the least you could do is start the rumor. Shit, tell Roberts. It’ll be around the entire Bureau by Christmas.”

  “Devine.” Leo refocused Baxter. “What small details?”

  “You were the only one who went to see that romantic comedy with her last month. Even Roberts wouldn’t go.”

  “Devine went to see the Kurosawa retrospective with me. I owed her.”

  “You know she doesn’t like to sit next to Jagger when we play poker so you always take that seat.”

  “Jagger eats M&Ms all through the game. Devine can’t resist them if they’re in front of her and then she feels guilty all weekend and only eats lettuce.”

  “She volunteered to take the field interviews over at the Lakeland Senior Home two weeks ago, even though Carter originally had you going. You told her how difficult going into those places is for you since your grandma’s dementia, didn’t you?”

  “Carter had me down for those interviews?”

  “And when she went on the late beer run last Friday, she bought the Bell’s Hopslam, your favorite, even though she’s a wheat beer girl.”

  “She said she wanted to expand her palate.”

  “I’ve been blind. True love has been blossoming before my very eyes.” Baxter put a hand to his heart. “Are those violins I hear playing in the distance?” His blue eyes lost some of their humor. “She’s family, Ramos. Treat her like shit and you’re a dead man.” No idle threat. Baxter was their best man at the firing range.

  “There is no Devine and me.” If he said it enough, he might believe it. “You know why that isn’t going to happen.”

  Baxter’s face went totally sober. “Are you thinking about New York? Dill was totally fucked up. Nothing that happened was your fault.”

  “She’s dead, Baxter.”

  “So? Death doesn’t make her a saint. Didn’t Hawk say she had some kind of personality disorder shit? Anyway, that was years ago, man. Move on.”

  Move on. Hawk’s words, too. Accept the past and leave it in the past. He rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly bone-tired. “Wolfram asked Devine to join his task force.”

  Baxter whistled. “Devine’s good, but she’s not tested yet. Has he got a thing for her?”

  The knot in Ramos’ chest tightened. He’d had no business visualizing Wolfram’s face on the punching bag. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, good for her, bad for us. I’ll miss her here in Washington.” Baxter’s gaze was steady. “Sucks for you.”

  “She hasn’t given Wolfram an answer yet.” She’d be crazy to turn him down.

  Baxter watched him. “You going to give her a reason not to go?”

  “There is no reason not to go. I told her to take his offer.”

  Baxter set his beer aside and lumbered to his feet. “That’s that, then.” He picked up his jacket. “You didn’t eat much dinner. Let’s go get some nachos.”