He really couldn’t remember having more fun at work. There was last year when he ran off the previous occupant of that desk, but that was completely different. He hadn’t enjoyed f**king with him, well, yeah he had, but his reasons had been simple then. He’d just wanted the little whiner out of his office. With Marty though, he was really enjoying the challenge.

“Are you going to send me to a strip club to pick up your lunch again?” she bit back.

He chuckled deeply at the memory. Since she was supposed to be his assistant, thanks to Hank, Tristan decided to see how far he could push her. He heard the Fluffy Bunny had good ribs, not that he’d ever go to one of those places much to Shayne’s dismay, but he thought it would be funny to send Marty there to pick up his lunch.

She came back an hour later glaring at him through slits. Without a word, she dropped a huge paper bag in front of him and stormed off. The ribs were dry as hell and tasted like leather, but he’d sat there smiling while he ate them.

“Or are you going to trick me into getting out of the car again and then ditch me on the side of the road, leaving me to hike back to the office?”

“I came back for you!” he said, laughing harder.

*-*-*-*

Marty watched him laugh, forcing herself not to smile. She really loved it when he smiled or laughed. It reminded her of the time they used to spend together when they were closer than any two people could be without having sex. If his little pranks made him happy, then she’d let him have them. They really didn’t bother her that much since it made him smile and of course she always got back at him.

Like with the ribs.

The girls in the kitchen did her a favor by giving her three-day-old ribs and fries that she may have poured salt on, and soured coleslaw, but he ate it all up just to rub it in her face. He paid for it later, she mused with an inner smile, remembering the two bottles of antacid that he’d drank.

“You snuck through the woods and scared the hell out of me! I thought you were a bear, you jerk!” She still couldn’t believe that he’d been able to sneak up on her like that. He had his arms around her waist and growled in her ear before she knew what was happening. She may have screamed…a little.

*-*-*-*

“Ah, good times,” he mused with a chuckle. He really loved working with her, which he really shouldn’t. She couldn’t stay, but until she left he didn’t see why he couldn’t have a little fun. There was no harm in that.

Someone knocked at the door, making Tristan sigh. It was time to get back to work. Of course that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t consider the next trick he’d play on her. There was always the interrogation room. He chuckled at the memory of her pacing the room while glaring daggers at the one-way mirror where she knew that he was watching her.

Granted, she hadn’t known that he had half the force in there with him drinking soda, eating chips and pizza while they watched her rant and rave about what an ass**le he was and what she was going to do to him when she got out. It really was better than watching a game, the guys agreed. Hell, even Hank pulled up a seat and a slice as he watched the show.

“Come in,” he said.

Stacey, a uniformed officer in her early thirties, opened the door and walked in, holding a large pile of dull yellow letter sized envelopes. Tristan walked over and took them from her. He’d been waiting all morning for them. As she pulled back her hand, she ran her fingers suggestively over his.

“Thank you,” he said absently, hoping it would be enough to send her on her way. He hated dealing with her. She always came on too strong and wouldn’t take the hint that he wasn’t interested. She knew that she was beautiful and any guy here would be happy to have her. The problem was that more than half the guys already had and he wasn’t interested in joining their ranks.

If that wasn’t enough to keep him from asking her out, the fact that he felt like he was cheating on Marty anytime he so much as looked in the direction of another woman was. He couldn’t explain it, but he’d never been attracted to another woman. A few times he’d forced himself to try, but they’d all ended with failure and left him feeling like a cheating ass**le for simply taking a woman out to dinner.

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Detective?” she practically purred.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Marty watching this little scene intently. Interesting. Maybe he should play on it to piss her off. She looked really cute when she was jealous and jealous she was. He didn’t have any doubts on that account. She wanted him, but not as much as he wanted her. That was simply impossible.

He would never purposely hurt her. Jealousy was a bitch that messed with your mind and tore at your heart. He knew that all too well since she made him crazy with jealousy about a hundred times a day. That was another reason she had to go.

“No, I’m fine. Thank you, Officer.” He purposely didn’t say her name, knowing that any familiarity would only encourage her.

Her smile slipped, but she still managed to send him an inviting look before she left the office. Tristan tossed the pile of envelopes on his desk and sat down.

Marty cleared her throat delicately. “She was pretty,” she said, then felt really stupid. What was wrong with her? She only said and did stupid things around him. She cringed at how that just sounded.

He looked up with a knowing expression and grinned. “Jealous?”

Yes! “No,” she scoffed.

The bastard just chuckled as he opened the envelopes and pulled out thick stacks of paper.

“What are those?” she asked, well, more like demanded. She was a bossy little thing he’d come to realize over the last couple of weeks.

Tristan sighed. This was really going to set her off on one of her little rants. “The files of the missing girls from Massachusetts, Vermont and a few towns south of here.”

“What? I thought we were going to look at those together?” She was already pushing away from her desk before the last word was out of her mouth.

Again, he sighed. “Marty, I don’t have to do anything. This is just a hunch I’m playing out, nothing official. Therefore, I do not have to include my little stalker in it,” he answered her evenly as he spread out the files, preparing to create a database from them. He could have seen the files online, but he always preferred to see the pictures and field notes on paper even if they were just copies.

“I’m helping,” she stated, not asked.

“No.”

“You still can’t type that well with your left hand. You need me,” she pointed out, sounding so damn smug that it took everything that he had to bite back a smile. She was definitely a bossy and manipulative little thing.

“I can type fine. Besides, I’ll be doing most of the work at home.”

*-*-*-*

As she watched him organize the files something in her snapped. She was sick of his highhanded ways and keeping her from doing her job. It was time that she put her foot down.

“I’m helping,” she said firmly. “I was not hired simply to drive you around, pick up your food, and put up with your bullshit, Tristan. This is part of my job and I’m going to do it. Now you can just suck it up, because you do not have a choice in the matter.”

His hand stilled on the file he was moving as he looked up and met her glare. Perhaps she’d gone a tad too far. Yeah, definitely too far this time. He dropped the file on the desk and sat back in his chair, never taking his eyes off her.