Before That Night: Unfinished Love Series: Caine & Addison, Book 1 (9 page)

Drew and Leo’s mother went into another downward spiral after that, not just in the neglect department, but in the physical abuse too. Caine himself was the officer who went to take Drew out of the dangerous hellhole his home had become.

Drew had only been twelve years old at the height of the abuse, but he’d been taking care of himself for far longer. He was smart as a hell, and socially fine, but emotionally scarred when it came to family figures.

It damn near broke Caine’s heart when he’d first seen Drew struggle with day to day family affection. It had been after Drew had finally gotten tested for his IQ. When Caine and his folks had tried to hug the kid after finding out he tested at genius level intelligence, Drew had nearly jumped out of his skin.

What kind of monster makes it so their own kid can’t make heads or tails of a hug?

Caine felt his hands curl into helpless fists just thinking about it all again.

He was often accused of getting too emotionaly involved with cases involving abused kids. But really, how could he not? They were innocent, just like the kid that had gone missing today.

Little Billy Baker. Just four years old.

God, some days it was harder than others to believe humanity wasn’t totally screwed up.

Caine was so lost in his heavy thoughts as he got ready to head on out that he didn’t even notice her standing there until she cleared her throat to get his attention.

“Addison?” He blinked. “What are you doing here at the station?” He closed the distance between them in half a second. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She pointed to the bags of food and boxes of to-go coffee cups sitting on the table in their break room. “That missing boy case has been on the news all morning so I brought some food and coffee. I figured you guys would be working around the clock.”

A lot of his buddies that should’ve already been heading home were still in uniform, wanting to help with the search. They were all gratefully digging into everything Addison had brought over.

“You’re amazing. I’m pretty sure everyone here worked right through their lunch breaks.”

She gave him a somber smile. “Glad I could help a little. We have more food and coffee ready to bring over if you guys need it. We know the little boy who was taken; he and his mom are regulars at the diner. So even if I’m on break, don’t worry, I’ve already instructed the staff to provide you guys whatever you need.”

Dammit, he wanted to kiss the hell out of her right now. “Thank you, sweetheart. This means a lot to us. To me.”

She handed him a tall to-go cup of coffee and a small brown paper bag. “My special brew, of course. And I packed you a sandwich you could eat in the car.” Stepping back to clear out of his pathway, she made a sweeping motion with her hand toward the door. “Sorry. I know you’re busy. Go on. I’m just going to go back to the breakroom to make sure I don’t need to bring in a second batch of food.”

He gazed at her soulful, empathetic eyes. And wrapped an arm around her to pull her into a hug.

They’d never hugged before this, but still, it felt like they’d been doing this their whole lives. She fit him perfectly. And filled some part of him he hadn’t even known had gone missing until now.

She squeezed him tight, and then pulled back slightly to look up at him. Her hands slid out of the bear hug and smoothed up his chest, before settling on either side of his face.

And just like that, she tilted her chin up and pressed a gentle kiss onto his lips.

The whole thing barely lasted a second, but he felt good and dizzy when she was through.

Feeling his heart thudding like a sledge hammer in his chest, and hearing his breathing deepening as if he were changing gears from a job to a sprint, he dropped his forehead down onto hers. “Issuing another dare, sweetheart?”

She gave him one of those soft smiles reserved only for him. “No. Just offering comfort, support.” She brushed another barely there kiss over his lips before taking a step back. “Call me if you need anything. Even if you just need to talk.”

Christ, he really didn’t want her to go. But they both had to get to work. “I will. Thanks again, sweetheart.” Taking a big, grateful sip of the coffee he was seriously in love with, he called out teasingly, “By the way, are you ever going to tell me what makes this coffee so good?”

She hesitated, then walked back to him and quickly recited, “Mix equal parts of two cheapo grocery store brands of coffee grounds, half dark French roast and half plain old American roast, with a handful of salt, a dash of paprika, and…two bags of oolong tea, the smokier and darker the better, and like a
teeny
sprinkle of saffron that I ‘borrow’ from the kitchen.” She nibbled on her lip. “
Buut
, to be honest, you could get rid of the salt, paprika, and saffron and still have a really great cup a joe.”

He blinked in disbelief. “So the big secret to your coffee is…tea?”

Nodding, she lifted her shoulders unapologetically, and held her hand up in a quick wave before turning to hustle over to the breakroom, where she immediately pulled out her trusty order pad from her waitressing apron and asked the guys if they wanted her to bring over anything else.

“Holy shit,” whistled Marco, another cop who’d transferred over to Creek Hills recently. “You and Addison? Seriously?”

They both watched her finish quickly taking orders, before heading to the counselors and social workers sitting with the missing boy’s mother and other family members and taking food and drink orders from them as well. “You are one lucky son of a bitch.”

Jesus Christ, was he ever.

CHAPTER EIGHT

ADDISON AND EVERYONE
in the diner breathed a collective sigh of relief when the local news anchor led the ten o’clock news with the a confirmed report that little Billy Baker had been found, crediting the Amber Alert that had been issued right after his disappearance this morning.

While the only thing that they could report was that Billy was unhurt and with authorities north of Flagstaff, and that his father, who had kidnapped him out of his mother’s home had been arrested. The reporter on scene noted that police from both jurisdictions had been crucial in tracking Billy’s father’s movements, but ultimately, it was an eye witness that helped track down their exact whereabouts.

Normally, they didn’t turn on the TV audio in the diner, but with so many regulars knowing the Baker family, and half the off-duty cops on the force stopping in to grab a quick bite, they’d kept tuned in for every update throughout the day.

Earlier, when a breaking news update had reported the start of a police standoff with Billy’s father, Addison had felt her stomach drop. She had no clue whether Caine was up there or not. Or if he’d been called out to an even more dangerous case.

Worrying about him was pretty much a nightly habit for Addison, but tonight, more so than usual.

The rest of the night seemed to move like molasses.

At one a.m. sharp, Addison turned the open sign on the door to closed, and spent the next half hour closing up, while the kids slept curled up on the small loveseat sofa in Joe’s office instead of out in the van.

Silly though it probably was, she’d felt compelled to keep Kylie and Tanner with her inside the diner the entire night. She just smiled and told everyone the kids had asked to stay at the diner since it was a Saturday night and that their aunt was having a boring old dinner party. Thankfully, Bernadette’s kids were still going strong with the delivered meals for Bernadette so even nearly two years later, Addison had yet to run into even a single scare over her cover story being blown.

For the kids, Joe’s office sofa was a nice change every once in a while. And last summer when the heat had insulated the van to the point of it being uncomfortably warm well past ten p.m., that very sofa had been a godsend. The swamp cooler that Addison ran off a generator she kept in the van usually did the trick in keeping the kids cool, but for about two weeks straight, the heat index had been so high, she hadn’t trusted leaving them out there.

Since it’d been a hectic night for the officers, conversely, it was a pretty slow night for them at the diner, so Addison had told Shirley to go on home a little early. Same with Ryan when she saw him smiling over a text from whatever lucky girl the Casanova was dating this week.

She was just about through tallying receipts and checking on supplies for tomorrow’s vendor deliveries when she heard a knock on the glass door. “Addison?”

She ran across the diner. “Caine?”

Addison quickly peeked through the closed blinds before unlocking the door to let him in. “Caine. What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” She quickly scanned him head to toe to see if she could spot any hint of an injury.

He looked perfect, as always.

“Billy’s safe,” he said straight away.

She nodded. “We heard. It was on the news.”

“Oh good. Yeah, I forget how efficient those reporters are. I wanted to make sure you knew.”

Touched, she squeezed his hand. “Thank you. We were all relieved that everything ended peacefully.” She frowned. “We heard Billy’s father might have been high. No officers got hurt, right?”

YOU didn’t get hurt right?

She covertly scanned him from head to toe one more time.

“No. Thankfully, everyone walked away without a scratch. A bunch of us were called out on cases closer to home so I wasn’t actually on the scene, but I know several of the officers who were there from sports leagues and things so I had a chance to check in with some of them afterward.” He exhaled heavily. “They said it was pretty hard to watch. Seeing parents on drugs with kids involved always is.”

“I can imagine.” Actually, she didn’t have to imagine—not that she would ever tell him that. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to take seeing those enigmatic eyes of Caine’s ever gazing at her in pity.

Noticing finally that her hand was still on his, she quickly dropped it and turned to pull out the nearest chair. “Are you hungry? I know Joe keeps some beer in his fridge in the back. I could grab you one and make you a sandwich or something.”

Caine shook his head, bypassed the chair, and kept on walking.

Toward her.

She backed up a few steps until she bumped into a counter stool. “Caine?”

“I don’t need a sandwich. And I don’t want a beer.” He slid a hand into her hair and dropped a kiss onto her forehead as he exhaled slowly. “The only thing I need or want right now is you.”

Good thing for the stool behind her because Addison felt her legs give out a bit, around the same time Caine picked her up and deposited her on the tall seat.

To bring her lips level with his.

“You kissed me today,” he murmured against her lips.

Words weren’t anywhere near the realm of possibilities right now, so she simply nodded mutely in response.

His arms came to rest on the counter on either side of her, effectively creating a hot as hell Caine cocoon that her body was responding rather dramatically. Partly due to the fact that Caine before his shift, and Caine after his shift were like two different people.

Caine before his shift was sweet, charming, and guy-next-door irresistible.

Caine after his shift was unbridled, magnetic, and bad-boy-on-the-hunt unescapable.

This Caine standing before her now also had an almost palpable aura of undiluted alpha energy rolling off of him in waves.

Oh, sweet lord, his eyes alone were conjuring some wicked, dirty thoughts in her mind.

“You kissed me twice,” he repeated. “So I was hoping it’d be okay with you if I kissed you back. Twice.”

Being that he was after-shift Caine, he didn’t wait for an answer.

He kissed her.

And what a kiss it was. His lips moved from her ear, to her jawline, down to the racing pulse at her neck. And back up again.

“That’s one,” he rasped against her skin.

Jesus Christ, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to survive number two.

It was a near thing.

His arms clamped around her and drew her flush against him mere seconds before his lips came crashing down onto hers. He wasn’t kissing her, he was having burning hot sex with her mouth.

And good God, for the first time in her life, she wanted, needed, craved
more
.

CHAPTER NINE

THE NEXT EVENING
,
Addison was
still
walking around with a fool grin on her mouth that just wouldn’t quit.

“You got lucky last night,” gasped Shirley, not even a minute into the start of Addison’s shift.

Her cheeks burst into flames. “No I didn’t,” she hissed back, peering over Shirley’s shoulder to make sure the kids were out of earshot.

“Bull. I know a five star satisfaction rating when I see one. And honey, you look like you even went back for seconds. Is it Caine? Is he as intense in bed as he is out of it?”