Page 62 of Her Ruthless Protector

14

Focus, Lancaster. Focus.

All she’d been able to think about for two days was Kane McNamara, and that was not helping her to do her job and she couldn’t afford it. The Mayor’s Dinner was the day after tomorrow night. She diverted her attention to the man in front of her.

The attractive Omani police official was definitely making a play for her. Two days after having the best sex of her life and she somehow was putting off some kind of pheromone that was attracting men like bees to honey. Even Old Sex Snake had come over to her trailer twice, once with the exact bottle of scotch she liked to drink. She was going to kill Kane McNamara when she saw him.

From behind suave Rashid Harthy, Shelly was struggling to contain her laughter.

Wench.

“You remind me of my mother. She too took on a role of authority at a young age. She was one of the youngest heart surgeons in our country,” Rashid said.

“That’s very interesting,” A.J. said politely. “As I already said, I’m late for a meeting. Why don’t you talk to my assistant?”

Shelly deserved to be thrown under the bus.

“I have appreciated your cooperation with our investigation, your breadth of knowledge about this show is remarkable. Perhaps we could discuss your insights over coffee.”

“No, she couldn’t,” a harsh voice interrupted.

A.J. turned and found a furious looking Cullen Lyons standing behind her. She bristled.

“Cullen, you’ve met Rashid, haven’t you? He’s the Omani detective in charge of finding out who is behind the sabotage here at the contest.”

“I know who he is, he’s questioned me and Asher.”

“Then you know—”

“I know that he needs to be questioning Chet and Mohammad. They’ve been waiting for him over at the press booth for the last twenty minutes. I need to talk to you for a moment, A.J.” Cullen glared at Rashid as he gently pulled A.J.’s arm and walked with her toward a less crowded spot away from the smaller stage area.

“What in the hell was all that about?”

“You tell me? Why am I seeing you flirt with that asshole the first time Kane has his back turned?”

A.J. saw red. “Did you just say that to me? First of all, the only person who would get to ask me that question would be Kane McNamara. Second, you dumb son-of-a-bitch, if you could get fitted for a pair of glasses you would see I was trying to extricate myself from that situation. Third, I want to know what is wrong. You and Asher have been acting weird since you got here. Spill it.”

Cullen’s face was granite.

A.J.’s blood ran cold. “It’s not Kane is it? He’s all right. Tell me he’s all right.”

“He’s fine,” Cullen clipped out.

A.J. looked at him. It had to be bad, whatever it is. Then it hit her. “Who isn’t all right? Did one of your teammates die? Is that what happened?”

There was a barely perceptible flinch near Cullen’s right eye. “No. Who? Who died?” Kane had told her about all of the men on his team their night together. It was clear they were all like brothers to him.

“Nobody died. But it was bad. He’s in ICU on the ship.”

A.J. stood there. She shut her mouth when she realized it was hanging open. “They operated on him on a boat?”

“A ship. An aircraft carrier. They have a fully functioning hospital on board the USS Mason.”

“Who?” she asked again.

“Dante Zaragoza,” Cullen answered.

“Zed? The man with the little girl named LuLu?”