Cop Appeal (7 page)

“I was done living a lie and I wanted him to
know it. He slapped me. Hard.” She paused and touched her cheek as
if remembering how it felt. “He’d yelled, threatened and threw
things, but he’d never hit me before. I didn’t feel pain, all I
felt was anger. I fought him. Scratched his face. He pushed me down
and he… the look in his eyes, Luke. He was going to kill me.”

He closed his eyes. It was all he could do
not to grab his car keys and search for the fucker. But he knew
Sarah needed him. Needed to get this out.

“So I screamed. I yelled out his name and
badge number, over and over again. When he covered my mouth, I bit
him. There was no one in the parking lot up to then, but I saw
headlights appear. He ran away. Then the phone calls started,
followed by notes. Sick declarations of his love. Claims that my
life belonged to him and that if he couldn’t have me, he’d make
damn sure no one else ever could.” The fear came back with full
vengeance, and a tear slipped down her cheek. “He started
threatening my friends. Even you. He said he’d hurt anyone I cared
about if I breathed a word of what he’d done. I believed him, for
awhile.”

He pulled her into his arms, practically
crushing her with his hug.

“I was so scared that I even left town.” She
shook her head. “I thought if I got some distance I’d feel safe,
but it didn’t help. He’s insane, Luke. I think he’d find me
anywhere I went. Then, I heard you were back in town…”

Thank God she’d had the good sense to
finally go to the police and confess everything to Noah. Thank God
she was safe. “When did he assault you in the parking lot?”

“Two weeks ago.”

“Right around the time my mother called me
and started hounding me to come back into town.”

“She did?” She tensed against him. “Do you
think your mother knew?”

The timing seemed strange, but he doubted
it.

“I’ve run into her a couple of times…” she
said. “She was always pleasant.”

“She knows how crazy I was about you.” And
his parents had been pretty crazy about her. Granted, they’d only
met her once before Sarah had broken up with him, but they hadn’t
cared about her past or believed what people said about her. They’d
seen how happy she made him. It was too bad Sarah hadn’t.

A tense silence followed his statement until
she sniffed. Panic surged through him. Had he said the wrong thing?
Driven her away again with careless words? “Hey, that wasn’t meant
to make you sad.”

“I know. It’s just, I’ve been such a fool.
Four years we could have been together, all wasted. How can you
ever forgive me?”

“Easy,” he said. “Just spend the rest of
your life making it up to me. You can start in bed, of course, but
we can work our way around the house—”

His breath whooshed out of him when she
elbowed him in the gut. He laughed and rubbed his side. “Man, you
can be mean.”

“If you’d rather, when you piss me off, I
can try withholding my, er, sexual favors instead—”

He pulled her in for a swift kiss. “The
elbow’s good. I love the elbow. Come on, do it again…”

She shrieked with laughter and pounced on
him, smothering him with kisses. When she was done, she trailed her
fingers over his body, once again paying particular attention to
his tattoo. It obviously fascinated her. “Tell me about your job. I
bet you’re a wonderful cop. Have you been careful?”

His hesitation wasn’t lost on her.

“Oh, Luke…” she cried.

He pulled her into his arms again. “Shh. I’m
fine. I’ve been doing undercover work. Often dangerous undercover
work. But I’m not foolhardy.”

“Just not careful,” she concluded. “No
wonder you got that tattoo. When you play with bad boys, you have
to mark yourself as the biggest, baddest one in the bunch.”

Damn she was smart. And beautiful. And sexy.
“I didn’t have much reason to be careful before. That’s different
now.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.” And he meant it. Of course,
being a cop would always be dangerous, but he didn’t have to
volunteer for the riskiest ops every single time. Not even his
partner, Ty, did that anymore since he’d finally won over the love
of his life, Claire Fullerton. Hell, he was getting old anyway.
Maybe it was wiser to leave those kinds of heroics to the younger
guys. Most of the time, anyway…

“Because if you give me all this pleasure
again and tell me you love me only to abandon me by getting
yourself hurt, Luke, I swear it’d kill me…”

“Shh.” He smoothed his hands over her hair,
hating the panic and desperation he could hear in her voice. At the
same time, she obviously felt she had a stake in what he did or
didn’t do, which was incredibly arousing. “How about just trying to
kill me yourself—with pleasure,” he suggested.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Challenge
accepted.”

“Oh really?”

He hadn’t meant to challenge her. At least,
he didn’t think so. But with her snarling at him about being
careful and looking like she meant business, his cock had gotten
mighty hard mighty fast.

He knew it was ridiculous. As many times as
they’d had sex in the past few hours, his dick should have been a
wrinkled, cowering piece of flesh, ready for a year-long sleep.
Instead, it was pounding its chest and giving a Tarzan yell, raring
to go another round.

And Sarah appeared more than ready to do the
same.

She was his perfect match. Strong of heart,
pure in integrity, and kinkier than a box of springs.

Only she hadn’t returned his declarations of
love.

He knew she loved him. But he still wanted
to hear her say it. Mostly because that would mean she’d finally
accepted that he wanted her.
All
of her—her past, her
present, and her future, forever and always.

He didn’t want to coax it out of her,
however. Not something that important.

He wanted her to give it to him all on her
own.

Freely. Openly.

Lovingly.

A few hours later, Luke’s cell phone rang.
When he looked at the screen, he cursed.

Sarah’s stomach churned. “What is it?” she
called over her shoulder from the kitchen counter, where she’d been
preparing to make them pancakes and hot chocolate.

“It’s Noah.”

“Oh. Well, maybe he just misses me,” she
joked, trying to hide her anxiety. “I
am
pretty
intoxicating, you know. You only have yourself to blame if—”

But for once, Luke ignored her. His
expression was grim as he spoke to Noah. “Okay. Good. You know what
to do. Yeah, we’re going to nail the bastard to the wall.”

The spoon she was holding slipped from her
grasp and clattered onto her kitchen counter. Fear slithered
through her, as slick and insidious as a serpent. “Luke…” she
whispered.

He ended the call. “Richard’s here, outside.
He just parked his car down the street.”

Confusion mixed with fear. “But how—”

“Noah’s been posted outside with a couple of
his men. He never left. We knew chances were good Richard would
make his move today.”

She watched him as he moved toward the
bedroom, the came out and tossed her some clothes. “You were
expecting Richard to show up? Why didn’t you tell me?”

He frowned at the way she fumbled with her
button-down shirt. Brushing her hands away, he did the buttons up
himself, then helped her get into her jeans. He gave her a swift
kiss. “It was just a hunch, not like I extended an invitation. I
figured with us getting out of the house yesterday, he might hear
about it. Besides, I wasn’t taking any chances. I knew we were
going to be…distracted…and I wanted to make sure you were
protected.”

“And Noah didn’t mind sitting out in the
cold while we screwed inside?”

The edge to her voice was nasty, but she
couldn’t help it. Just how many cops knew that
Sure-Thing-Sarah
had been blowing Luke when her ex had come
over to take what he thought was his?

“Stop it,” he snapped. “I swear if you refer
to yourself like that one more time, you won’t like what I do. I
mean it, Sarah. You will not talk about the woman I love that
way.”

Her eyes rounded in shock. She hadn’t
realized she’d been speaking her thoughts out loud. Her face
flushed at the careless way she kept revealing her insecurities to
him. She turned away. He gripped her arms firmly but gently, making
her face him. “All they were told was to keep an eye out for that
scum bag. That’s all, Sarah. I swear.”

Of course she believed him. Luke had never
lied to her. She sighed and nodded. “I’m sorry. Old habits, I
guess. What now?”

“Now I want you to lock yourself in the
bathroom and stay there.”

“No! I’m not hiding from him anymore. I’m
not hiding from
anything
anymore, certainly not while you
place yourself in danger for me.”

“I’m good at my job—”

“I don’t care!”

“Sarah—”

“No. I…I love you, Luke. I
love
you!
I can’t lose you now.”

Obviously stunned, he stared at her, then
pulled her into his arms. He hugged her tight and released a shaky
laugh. “Good. I’m glad to hear that. So damn glad. But right now, I
want you safe. I’m a cop, honey, plus I’ve got a vested interest in
this. I’ll be fine. I’ve got major back up that Richard doesn’t
know about. I need to know you’re safe so I can take down this
bastard once and for all. Let me take care of this, Sarah. Listen
to me. Please.”

“But—”

He shook her, his expression hardening.
“
Now
, Sarah. Get in the bathroom.”

She glared at him, but she couldn’t keep
arguing when Richard was outside. Noah and his men were expecting
Luke’s help. She had to let him do his job, but she couldn’t stand
the possibility of losing him. “Fine, I’ll go. But you’d better not
get hurt. I mean it. And don’t think this means you can order me
around all the time now. This is an exception.”

When she turned towards the bathroom, he
patted her ass. “When Richard’s taken care of, you can order me
around all you want. And I promise to do exactly what you say,
Monday through Sunday. So long as we’re in bed.”

***

As soon as Sarah locked herself in the
bathroom, Luke
retrieved the duffel bag from her
front closet that Noah had stashed there earlier—it contained a
radio, a bullet-proof vest, a flashlight, and a standard issue
revolver
. Of course, Luke bypassed the revolver for his own
Glock. He strapped up, then activated his earpiece. “Sarah’s secure
but I still want an officer on the house at all times. What’s the
bastard doing, Noah?”

“He’s sitting in his car. His head’s back
and his eyes are closed. From the way he was driving, he’s probably
shit-faced and passed out.”

“Or he just wants us to think that.” And
maybe when the opportunity was right, he’d open fire on the first
person who tried approaching him. “From what Sarah told you, the
guy’s not all there. We’ll do this right. No taking chances. I
don’t want some overzealous union attorney claiming entrapment and
I don’t want anyone getting hurt if we can avoid it. That includes
Walters. He’s a bastard, but Sarah’s had enough to deal with.”

“I hear you,” Noah confirmed. “Come out.
We’ll cover you.”

Taking Noah at his word, Luke stepped
outside and moved towards Richard’s car, a pretentious Ford pickup,
parked two blocks down the street. He kept his gun within easy
reach. When he was about ten feet behind Richard’s car, Luke turned
on the flashlight, and shined it on the driver’s side. “It’s
Detective Luke Anderson, Richard. IA Detective Noah James and his
men are nearby, just in case. Sarah told me what’s been going on.
I’d like to talk to you.”

Luke practically choked on the civilized
request, but he knew, just as Richard did, that he had no legal
authority to detain or arrest the man. Hell, he couldn’t even
compel Richard to talk to him, but that didn’t mean the prick
couldn’t talk to him voluntarily. The question was, would he?

The driver’s side door opened and Luke
tensed, ready to draw his weapon at any sign of aggressive
movement. He needn’t have bothered.

Richard stumbled out, eyes glassy and red,
reeking of alcohol and slurring his words. “Stupid bitch…Told her
not to…to…talk to no one.” He glared at Luke. “Mother fucker…it wuj
always you see—she wanted…”

Luke couldn’t rip his head off for calling
Sarah a bitch—not if he wanted to do things by the book—but man, he
really
wanted to. “Come and get him, Noah,” Luke gritted
out.

Now they had cause to arrest him because
he’d obviously been driving drunk. But when Noah’s men came towards
him, he screamed obscenities, not aware or just not caring that his
own spit peppered his chin. Weaving, he punched and kicked, missing
his targets by miles. They got him in a patrol car in under three
minutes, then searched his car. Inside, they found lock-picking
tools, his service revolver, and a hunting knife.

It was the knife that compelled Luke to
divert from his “by-the-book” intentions. While Noah and his men
occupied themselves with other tasks, Luke strolled to the patrol
car, opened the door, dragged Richard out, and slammed him against
the side. Leaning down so the man got a good look at his face, Luke
told him in graphic detail what he’d do if Richard ever thought
about Sarah again, let alone came within fifty feet of her.

Luke meant every damn word.

He’d do anything to protect the woman he
loved.

Richard knew it, too, which was why he
pissed his pants minutes before Luke shoved him back inside the
patrol car.

After Noah and his men took Richard away,
Luke rushed back to Sarah. His eyes rounded when he saw the
bathroom door open. He cursed when he found the bathroom empty.
“Damn it, Sarah…”

He opened the bedroom door and nearly came
in his jeans at what he saw.