Falling: PAVAD: FBI Romantic Suspense, #15

By Calle J. Brookes

SHE ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE. 

 

Dr. Mia Ripley isn't even supposed to be a part of the FBI, let alone working for the best division in the nation. Since her transfer to PAVAD, she's been nearly burned alive by a madman and then shot by a cult leader's lackey. She's lucky she survived--either attack.

 

EVEN PAVAD ISN'T SAFE FOR HER. 

FBI Agent Evan Stephenson has found his place with PAVAD, and it is where he belonged, even after a rocky start. Now he has people in St. Louis who care about him—including friend and next-door neighbor, Mia Ripley. 

But now someone wants Mia dead, and won't stop for anything. Evan promises to protect the one woman he has ever loved. But Evan isn't the only one. Someone else wants to protect Mia. For Evan. Someone who isn't entirely sane.
 

Someone who's just far too dangerous for the girl-next-door...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Calle J. Brookes
• Release date: Nov 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540189639

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

SHE had spent most of the day cutting open a man’s penis. He’d been dead, but still. She’d cut open a man’s penis, making clinical notes and observations that she knew would one day be discussed in open court. She’d probably have to get up in front of a room full of people and testify about how she had cut open a three-inch penis to retrieve the mini memory card the deceased had surgically implanted into his own penis so that his bosses wouldn’t find the information he was systematically stealing from them. The fact that his genitalia had shown evidence of that type of implanting for years was one of the strangest things Mia Ripley had ever encountered.

As she walked out of the forensic pathology lab, memory card in sterile envelope clutched in her hand, she contemplated just how many penises she had seen in her years working for the forensics department of the FBI. She’d started off as an intern at twenty-one, then worked in forensics while going to med school. After she’d graduated, she’d skipped the whole hospital experience and gone straight into forensics under her mentor, the best pathologist the FBI had ever had, Julia Bellows. She’d done her internship and residency in pathology and hadn’t dealt with a living patient in her entire career.

When Jules had transferred to the Prevention & Analysis of Violent Acts division of the FBI, she’d asked Mia to go with her.

Jules had been the closest thing to a friend that Mia had had. PAVAD was the appointment of a lifetime—she doubted she’d have gotten there without Jules paving her way. Jules had wanted Mia to go with her to PAVAD, not any of the other dozen assistants that had worked with Jules at the time. So Mia had done it. Changed everything about her life to come to St. Louis.

St. Louis, where she’d been almost burned alive, been shot by a cult leader’s minion, and now she’d cut open a man’s penis.

Just one of the hundreds of dead penises she’d seen in the last few years. This was the first time she’d ever pulled a memory card out of one, though. First time for everything, right?

The Computer Forensics department was located across the hallway from the Blood and Pathogens lab—she now had samples for both of them. Then she’d head up to the Complex Crimes Unit and track down someone from Team Four. They’d been the ones to pull the Penis Packer case, as Jules had snarkily called it earlier.

Complex Crimes Unit—synonymous with Completely Creepy Unit. At least, that was the way it seemed to her. CCU4 was her favorite team. St. Louis may have earned her some seriously nasty scars, but she’d also gained something priceless. For the first time in decades, Mia had people she considered close friends.

She dropped off her samples amidst the inevitable jokes about where the card had been found, then headed toward the elevators. Team Four should still be upstairs. She had been told that they were looking at a local angle for this one. At least, in the state of Missouri, anyway.

Most times, the CCU teams—and there were five—were sent to various states at a moment’s notice. Local cases were rare.

The man she’d hoped to find was at his desk when she walked into the CCU bullpen. There were more than two dozen desks arranged in a central bullpen, but each team occupied a certain area. Team Four was near the back, with their team leader’s office on the landing directly above.

Mia smiled. Evan Stephenson always looked too big for his desk. He was around six four, she thought, and muscled with it. He just seemed to dwarf others, though he wasn’t as large as his boss, Ken. Ken was a former pro football player and was built exactly like one would expect a football player to be.

Evan wasn’t much smaller. He looked up at her and smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Mia pushed the concern away for a moment—sometimes Evan got reflective, quiet. Lost in his head. He was more of an introvert and an intellectual, most times. A romantic, Southern gentleman dreamer—that’s how she thought about him now. It was just how he was.

She loved how his mind worked, but most of all, how kind his heart was. Mia had run from the man for more than two years after he’d transferred to PAVAD, but now...

Whenever she had a problem, Evan was the first person she ran to. He was the closest friend—and the only male friend—she had ever had.

She worried PAVAD was too much for him at times. She knew it was too much for her, most times. But she dealt—how could she not?

PAVAD had provided her with the only real human connections she’d ever had in her life. Now the division was so much a part of her life; she didn’t think she’d ever leave.

Her parents were so messed up in their own ways that they’d done a great job of messing her up for the first twenty-six years of her life. It was only now at almost twenty-nine that she finally had a handle on who she was—scars and all.

Scars. She looked down at her hands, at the burn scars there. Scars and all.

Evan’s father was responsible for the moderate but visible scars that covered all of one arm from two inches above her elbow to her fingers and covered about half that on the other arm. She had nerve damage beneath the skin of her nondominant hand and partially limited functionality. She would never forget that night.

Never.

She’d never even met Evan’s father, hadn’t spoken to him in passing or anything. He’d just become obsessed with her boss Jules, and things had escalated until he’d started a hotel fire that had destroyed the hotel and nearly killed her.

She’d been the worst injured that night, but had been back on the job as fast as she could. Thankfully, no one had died.

Mia had had a hard time looking at that man’s son after he’d been assigned to PAVAD.

Mia? Evan noticed her and stood. He always stood when she—or any woman—first entered a room. Old world manners, something almost courtly—that was Evan through and through. Just another one of the things that made him different from most of the men she knew. Evan viewed the world through a different lens than most people. He’d have fit right in with the knights of old. Just one of the things she loved about him.

Hey, I found something. I sent it on to Computer Forensics and Blood and Pathogens. Mia slipped into an extra chair that always seemed to be floating around the CCU bullpen. Where’re the rest of your team?

Headed out for the night. I knew you were finishing up the autopsy, so I figured I’d wait around to get the results—and to give you a lift home.

Evan, I’m perfectly capable of driving myself home.

Conserving energy, that’s all. Besides, it’s late, and they’re predicting an early snow tonight. I know you don’t like driving at night. He grabbed his coat and bag quickly—he had been waiting for her, hadn’t he?

Which is why I planned to call a cab.

"Stephenson Car Service at your service, ma’am. He tipped an imaginary hat. And have you eaten? I’m starving."

I’m not really all that hungry, Ev. I was going to heat up leftovers. You’re welcome to join me.

She had his cat. Henley stayed with her whenever Evan was going to be out of town for too long. She had his cat, he had a spare key to her place, he fixed her car when it needed it, and she fed him leftovers. It just worked for them.

Without Evan, she’d spend most of her time alone in her townhouse, and she knew that.

She had friends; Shannon was one of the people on Evan’s team. Leina was married to Evan’s boss Ken and was a part of the Runaway & Endangered Youth Division. Kyra lived two buildings down from her and was a member of the PAVAD Internal Affairs division. Even Jules was a friend, though they didn’t socialize together all that much.

Mia wasn’t much of a socializer. Just with Evan, Leina, Shannon, and Kyra. That was it. And the three other women were so busy with their own divisions that they had little spare time together when they could all be together.

There was always Evan.

I’ll walk you back to your office. Grab your things. Then we’ll head out. The Steakhouse is still open. Or there’s always Smokey’s. Why don’t you let me take you there?

She’d never been. In the years she’d been in St. Louis, she’d never stepped foot into the bar that was the favorite for most of the CCU, and PAVAD in general.

Mia didn’t do well just hanging out like that. She’d never had the opportunity when she had been younger, and when she was an adult, she’d never had the courage to try it.

And it did take courage. Going around people, especially people she worked with, and making small talk was so difficult for her. She could talk about any part or process of the human body, but talking about casual topics—just not something she knew how to do. Will it be very busy?

With the weather turning colder, it shouldn’t be too bad. Come on, little chicken. I’ll buy you your first Smokey Jo’s onion rings. Evan smiled, sending two small dimples flashing in his cheeks. This time the expression reached his green eyes. Evan wasn’t classically handsome, like many of the men in PAVAD were, but he was strong, intelligent, compassionate, and very well built.

Many women thought he was attractive; Mia wasn’t blind to that. She’d even had a few snide comments directed at her by some of the PAVAD administrative staff when she and Evan had first become friends. Now everyone just knew she and Evan were only friends.

That’s all they were ever going to be. Mia knew how it was—men, especially men like Evan, didn’t see her as the lover type. Kid sister was more like it.

She’d never be more than the girl next door, and she was perfectly fine with that.

Girl next door. That’s exactly what she was.

Literally.

EVAN held her hand, half expecting Mia to bolt for the door at the first chance she got. The woman was more than just shy—she was obsessively reluctant to go around people. Even her friends. He and his teammate Shannon had discussed it recently after they’d both noticed how Mia had reacted at Ken and Leina’s wedding two months earlier. She’d had a small panic attack just walking into the reception hall—with Evan right beside her. It got him thinking and Shannon talking. They’d been able to piece together a theory.

Mia’s father had been controlling, and Ken suspected he might have been abusive as well. Mia had spoken of long hours being forced to study, with her father—a noted surgeon in Washington, DC, who had actually treated two US presidents during Mia’s childhood—standing over her, ensuring she got every answer correct.

Her mother had been quiet and shy and easily cowed, to the point of being almost a nonentity in Mia’s childhood. Those were Mia’s exact words when Evan had asked why she didn’t visit any family when she got a chance.

She’d visited an aunt once after a case she’d worked with the Complex Crimes Unit. They’d been in a town near where her aunt had lived, and when Leina had been injured during that case, Mia had volunteered to stay in town until Leina was released from the hospital. She’d driven Leina home to St. Louis, and the two had been fast friends ever since.

The aunt was the only family Mia mentioned. And even that was rare.

She had no family, few friends, and a townhouse she guarded like a Doberman. He doubted anyone other than Kyra or he had been inside that townhouse. Shannon hadn’t, and he doubted Leina had either.

He didn’t think there was any real pathology there; he just suspected she was shy and inexperienced at making personal connections.

Evan pulled her closer, wanting to protect her as the small crowd shifted and blocked their way to the table near the back he was aiming for. Mia clung, her fingers wrapped tight around his. He squeezed back, though he doubted she felt it. She’d lost some sensation in the outer area of her left hand—her dominant—thanks to the fire.

A rush of extra protectiveness shot through him. And guilt.

He had a hard time fighting the guilt he always felt when he thought of what his father had done to PAVAD, to Mia and Jules and some other people Evan had grown to like and respect.

But mostly Mia.

He hated seeing the marks on her skin where his father had hurt her.

Mia. The one woman he doubted had ever hurt anyone else in her entire life. Mia had the sweetest soul of anyone Evan had ever met.

She deserved a family loving her, surrounding her with connections and love and people who cared. She deserved so much more than that isolated townhouse and a job cutting up the dead.

Why couldn’t she see that?

Evan? She looked up at him. Mia was about eight inches shorter than he was, and he was more than double her weight. You ok?

Just thinking. He kept his hold on her hand and led her around the local Missouri State Police crowd.

Smokey’s catered to law enforcement. With the three-hundred-plus PAVAD, the Missouri State Police, the local St. Louis FBI field office, and the rest of the law enforcement that peppered St. Louis and the county, Smokey’s could get pretty crowded.

Most times Evan didn’t mind, but he knew, if it was too thick, Mia would be on edge.

He looked back at her.

She usually wore a ball cap with FBI: PAVAD Medical Examiner printed on the front while on the clock, with her long chocolate hair pulled through the back or hanging in two braids down behind her ears. She’d removed it earlier. She had hazel eyes that looked darker brown in the low lights of the bar. The pale pink scrubs she wore made her skin look a bit paler than usual and creamy smooth. She wore no makeup, so she didn’t contaminate the autopsy with it, and her lips were soft and pink. Mia had a very pretty mouth; Evan had thought so before.

Scrubs hid the figure he knew was there somewhere, too. She was his Mia, sweet and quietly pretty. Shy and kind, easily overlooked by the crowd.

When he left PAVAD at the end of the day, the only living creature waiting for him was his cat, a battered old stray that had shown up at his old place, looking for a warm bed and a handout and nothing else. Henley had made that nothing else very clear. Until Mia. The cat had thawed to her, too.

Now, when he went home, he knew she would be waiting. Ready with a smile or a meal or a simple—if rare—hug when things in the CCU got too bad. All he’d have to do was go next door.

And he did more nights than not.

He pulled her even closer until he could wrap a hand around her shoulder and tuck her close to his side. She stiffened but didn’t pull away like he knew she would have only a year ago. Mia didn’t handle casual touching very well. Especially affectionate touching.

Damn her father.

And damn his for making her even more reluctant to let herself get close to people.

The way those two men had hurt Mia truly pissed him off. And probably always would.

CHAPTER 2

EVAN was lost in his head again.

Mia slipped into the chair he held out for her and studied him. They’d eaten out together several times over the last year. Just the two of them visiting the places St. Louis had to offer. For both of them, it was the first time since neither were native to the city.

It was nice to have someone to play tourist with.

He’d even taken her to the zoo once. Mia had greatly enjoyed that. They’d both needed it after a case she’d worked with his team had turned deadly for a group of teenagers caught up in something they had no business even knowing about at their ages. The zoo had been cathartic for both of them.

Ev, what are you thinking? You’re making me nervous here.

He stared at her for a long moment. I’m thinking you’re too pretty to be here with someone like me.

Mia felt heat hit her cheeks. Sometimes he’d say something like that, and she’d not know how to answer. He meant it, too. She covered her embarrassment with a question. Like you? What’s wrong with you? I know Karyn in human resources thinks you’re just to die for.

He snorted softly. "Karyn likes anyone with the term Supervisory