Love at High Tide (12 page)

Nice to know she had faith in him. But a magic fricking wand he didn’t have. “Help, yes. Guaranteed, no. I’m not up on my immigration law, but I think she’d need to be enrolled in a school first, in order to apply for an extension of her visa.”

“That’s the easy part. I’ve been in school for a very, very long time. I know how to work the system, and I have connections. If that isn’t good enough,” she swallowed hard and grimaced, “I’ll force my parents to use theirs. But frankly, I think Ilona would be a catch for any university. Think of the good publicity if they take in a woman who was brave enough to stand up to a criminal. Brave enough to leave her family behind to come here and get an education. A woman who’ll be receiving the thanks of a grateful government. I can’t think of a college in the state who wouldn’t do everything possible to not only enroll her, but give her one heck of a scholarship.”

“That process won’t happen overnight,” Coop warned. Better she keep her expectations low and realistic.

“I know. The bureaucracy of higher education grinds almost as slowly as governmental bureaucracy.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets, already distancing himself in case the answer didn’t swing his way. But the question had to be asked. “Won’t it be tough to pull all those strings from Africa?”

“Impossible, I’d say.” Darcy bit her lips into a thin, white line. Then rolled them into a wide, sparkling smile. “Good thing I’m not going.”

Good thing, indeed. Coop nailed his feet to the ground with resolute willpower. Her simple announcement made him want to push her against the wall and smother her in kisses. But he knew she wasn’t turning her life upside down for a guy she’d know for three days. Three eye-rolling orgasms notwithstanding.

“Just like that?”

“Not exactly. I’ve been waiting for someone to talk me out of it. You helped me straighten out my priorities. Help my parents’ careers? Or build one of my one? Once I took my enormous piles of fear out of the equation, the choice was obvious. I emailed them a very polite rejection about an hour ago. Figured I’d better do it before I started second-guessing myself.”

“See? I was right. You are incredibly brave.”

Darcy wrinkled her nose at the compliment. “Some might say stupid. Or too impulsive. I’m sure the words willful and selfish will come up once my parents decide to email me their disappointment. They certainly won’t pay exorbitant international rates to call and discuss this. Which I’m okay with. I can just skim an email.”

“So you’re really sure?” Coop wanted to hear the words, her utter certainty one more time. Just to watch the sweet mix of relief and elation wash across her beautiful face.

“About giving up a sure thing? I was about ninety percent sure. But now, after meeting Ilona, I’m beyond positive. I’ve got to contribute to society, not just study it.”

He cupped her jaw, stroking his thumb along her cheekbone. “I’m proud of you for making the hard choice. You’ve got brass balls.”

“A high compliment, indeed.” She laughed.

“Come around later tonight and I’ll show you just how much I admire you.”

That raised one of her eyebrows. “Later?”

And the realities of dating a cop intruded already. “I’m going to take point coordinating the different agencies. It’ll take a while.”

“During which Trina and I will be right by Ilona’s side.”

“No.” Coop dropped his hand to her shoulder. “I’m sorry, but as much as you want to soft pedal it, this is a criminal investigation. You can hold her hand through dinner. Explain to her we’re looking out for her best interests. That she can trust us. Swear up one side and down the other that she’s not in trouble. But then she’s going to have to sit in a room alone with agents for a long slew of questions. Unless you sprout a law degree, you won’t be allowed in there.”

“You’re such a buzz kill, Hudson.” But her steady nod indicated her acceptance of the facts.

“Once everything is squared away, we’ll send Ilona back to her apartment for the rest of the night.”

A waiter rushed by them into the bathroom. He left an aroma of fried everything in his wake. Darcy waited until the door slowly snicked shut to continue their conversation in a more hushed voice. “That doesn’t sound safe. What if he comes looking for his next installment? Can’t she stay at Trina’s condo?”

“Nope. We don’t want her to change her pattern at all. Work, friends, bars—all the usual routine until the sting is in place. We’ll put undercover protection in place, though. She’ll be locked down safe and sound.”

Darcy stared down at her hands, locking them together. “I feel like we’re abandoning her in a very scary situation. It sucks. I mean, I understand why. I just hate that she has to be alone.”

Yup. This woman had a caring streak wider than the Chesapeake Bay. “She won’t be alone for long. We’ll want to push this through as fast as possible.” But he could extend a small compromise that should make them both feel better. “How about we hook her up with a disposable cell phone? You can text her all the time, let her know you’re in her corner.”

“It’d be like a security blanket. That’s a good idea, Coop.” Her head popped back up, and his reward was another shining smile.

“So...speaking of blankets and being alone?”

Darcy snickered. “You’re about as smooth as a pothole. But I’m also very willing.”

“Hmm—very willing. We’ll add that to your list of credentials.”

Shimmying off the stool, Darcy winked at him. “Call me when you’re finished?”

“Darcy, for God’s sake. You’re not a booty call. I’ll come over and pick you up. Knock on your door and everything. Maybe even bring some ice cream along to apologize for showing up so late.”

“I’ll pull out two spoons.”

Coop bit back a groan. “Honey, for what I have planned, we won’t need spoons.”

Chapter Twelve

“Captain Riggs himself congratulated me. Not just Cooper or Brad, or one of their friends from the Staties.” Trina danced a little jig along the sidewalk to their condo. The slap of her sandals echoed in the deep stillness of night.

The first round of police, from Ocean City, arrived as they finished dinner. They’d confabbed with Coop and Brad in the parking lot for a while. Darcy and Trina used the time to explain to Ilona that the police in America weren’t evil and corrupt like what she was used to in Moldova. It took a brownie sundae and another round of drinks to bribe/convince her.

All of them trooped to the station house, then waited for the rest of the alphabet soup to arrive. Sure enough, at that point Trina and Darcy were thanked, but politely shown the door. Almost midnight now, they were both wide awake. Although Darcy’s alertness probably had a lot more to do with the potential for another slide between the sheets with Coop. A walk along the beach had done little to mellow either of them out.

“The Staties? You’re down with the lingo already?” Darcy teased.

“I’m a fast learner.”

Uh oh. “No. Do not tell me you’ve changed your mind again. Do you want to be a police officer now?”

“No way. They wear uniforms.” Trina sniffed her disdain at the very idea. “As a private investigator, I’ll get to maintain my own, personal sense of style. Except for when I’m undercover.”

“Sorry I ignored the obvious there.”

“Besides, Coop said he’d hook up me with that investigator in Baltimore. Learn the ropes from a pro. I think I’ve got a real knack for sniffing out the scum of society.”

Darcy wasn’t convinced. The chances of Trina stumbling ass-backward into another criminal were slim. But Trina’s happiness was paramount. And as long as she stayed under the supervision of a real investigator, Darcy would be able to sleep at night.

“Look, Darcy, I’ve got to apologize.”

That came out of left field. “For what?”

“This trip hasn’t exactly been a nap in the sand vacation like I promised you. Now that you’re cutting it short to help Ilona, I feel like I’ve ruined your one shot at relaxing.”

“Hardly. Spending time with my best friend, no matter what we’re doing, is always a good thing.” Not to mention the fact that everything that had happened allowed her to visualize a future without Africa in it. Years of career freedom stacked up pretty well against missing a few hours of napping in the sand. Darcy threw an arm loosely around Trina’s shoulders. “Plus, I met this really cute boy.”

“Yeah, you did!” Trina said approvingly.

“But if you really want to make up for the most unusual vacation ever—”

“I do.”

“—then turn the television up kinda loud in your bedroom. You know, once Coop comes over. I won’t be able to relax knowing you might be listening to us.”

“Eww.” Trina wrinkled her freckled nose. “I won’t be able to sleep knowing I might accidentally hear something. If you’re going to have wild monkey sex, go do it at his house. The place has like six bedrooms. With Brad on a different floor, it’ll be like you two are actually alone.” She unlocked the front door and walked inside.

“You won’t be scared? To stay here by yourself?” Darcy toed off her sandals and left them lined up on the mat. They tried to do everything possible to keep the apartment sand-free. The floor mat was sort of a quarantine zone for shoes and bags.

“Nah. I’ve got my mace. Well, your mace. I should really buy more. Anyway, there’s no way Pavel knows where we live. I’ll be fine.”

Trina clicked on the lamp on the end table. The pop of light revealed Pavel sitting at their round kitchen table. His eyes were still red and irritated. Darcy wondered if the ice crystals she’d tossed at him had scratched his cornea, or if the sugar had kickstarted an infection. Either way, she hoped it was twice as painful as the cut he’d inflicted on Trina. Pavel wore a black tank, armholes gaping but the belly fabric stretched taut, almost to the breaking point. Loose black jogging shorts, wide-strapped sandals. Oh yeah, and a fat, blunt gun in his right hand, pointed square and steady, straight at them.

Darcy took all this in fast, like when she scanned a textbook a page at a time. When they’d confronted him before, the element of surprise had been a factor in their favor. This time, Pavel held that card. Of course, the bigger point was that he held a gun. An oh my freaking god gun. Three months ago, when a lion had skirted the edges of the Fulani village, Darcy thought she’d been scared. Maybe so, but right now was far worse. Now she was terrified.

Mace wasn’t much of a weapon from halfway across the room versus a gun. They couldn’t get at any of the kitchen knives without crossing past Pavel. And picking up the vase in the corner, running over and managing to bash him over the head all before he pulled the trigger seemed highly unlikely. So no weapons. No chance of imminent rescue, either. When they’d just left Coop, he foresaw at least another couple of hours at the police station.

“What are you doing here?” Darcy blurted out. Playing innocent was worth a shot. Not that she could think of any alternatives, if he didn’t buy it.

“You girls are trouble.”

“How did you find us?” Trina voice was strong. Like he’d pushed her around once too often, and she wouldn’t take another round lying down.

“You tail me? I tail YOU!” he thundered. “You think I don’t see you at beach? Hiding behind binoculars that reflect sun into my eyes all day? When you leave the beach, I follow you here. But daylight no good for taking care of business. So I wait until you leave, until is dark. Easy to jimmy lock.”

How is it the man didn’t know enough grammar to use articles, but he knew the word
jimmy?
Not that there was a real lock on the sliders to the deck. It was a simple latch. She could push it open with one finger. Except that the slider was wide open. Only the screen was shut. Darcy realized she was concentrating on the trivial. Time to pull it together and figure a way out of this mess.

Trina perched on the edge of the flowered couch cushion. “We’re really not trouble. In fact, we’re leaving tomorrow morning. Darcy has to fly to Africa to start her new job. How much trouble could she really be, all the way over in Africa?”

“Don’t care. Care about trouble you cause here. You follow me, you listen to me talk to my girls. You know too much.”

“We don’t know anything.” Playing innocent hadn’t worked. Maybe playing stupid would. “It was just a game. Like playing tag. See how close you can follow someone without getting caught. We followed an old lady earlier in the week for three days. She never noticed us. Obviously, you’re much more observant.”

“A game? That was why you dressed up in wig?”

Ohmigod, had he bought it? Could it be that easy to get this maniac out of their house? “Uh huh. Just a fun vacation game.”

Pavel surged to his feet. “You think I’m stupid? Both of you too old for games.” Waving the gun, he indicated Darcy should move in closer to Trina. Damn. That made them a single target, instead of two. Trina grabbed her hand. Okay, that was comforting. Better to be shot holding her best friend’s hand than just standing in a doorway. Huh. When they’d filled two solid pages with hopes for the future in each other’s senior yearbooks, dying together from some crazy Russian had not once come up as a possibility.

“Tell me what you know. Why you follow me. What you hear,” he demanded.

No ideas came to mind. No lies. The truth wouldn’t do them any good. Now what?

“Why should we tell you anything?” Trina jutted her chin in a stubborn pose usually reserved for refusing to pay for extra packs of barbeque sauce at a drive-thru.

“Because he has a gun,” Darcy hissed. “Try not to piss him off any more, please?”

He barreled forward, his tree-trunk legs shaking the floor. God, they’d already proven they could outrun his slow fatness twice. If only they were outside. Of course, that was as useful as wishing they were at Radio City Music Hall watching a show.

“You tell me,” he stopped right in front of Darcy, “or I hurt one of you. Bad.” Pavel lowered the gun to point at her knee. Just far enough out of reach that she couldn’t kick him. Close enough that he could probably shatter her kneecap with one bullet and both eyes closed. “When she passes out from bleeding, you and I will have some fun. Then you will talk.” He aimed a twisted leer at Trina.

“Um, okay, wait. Don’t shoot anyone. Seriously. I pass out at the sight of blood. If we’re both passed out, you still won’t learn anything, right?”

“No problem.” Pavel swung the gun wide to now point at Trina’s trembling knees. “I shoot you first.”

A twanging noise filled the room. They all swung their heads to the deck. The screen door burst from its frame, because Coop had launched himself straight through it. He slammed straight into Pavel. As they fell, his gun arm flailed. Darcy screamed. Maybe Trina screamed, too? She just knew there were screams, lots of them.

She pushed Trina to the floor. Diving onto her stomach, Darcy tipped over the coffee table as a makeshift shield. The men thrashed, rolling around. Grunts and swearing layered over their screams. Two gunshots rang out. She threw her hands over her head. Time stopped as she waited for the bullets to fall out of the air and pierce her skin. Darcy braced for the pain.

It didn’t come. Instead, the sound of one final smack of flesh against flesh. Then quiet. Nope, yanking and squeaking noises. Nothing she’d classify as dangerous. Peering over the edge of the coffee table, she saw Coop, widespread bare feet straddling an unconscious Pavel. He’d tied Pavel’s feet together with the phone cord, and was in the process of tying his hands together with the cord from the lamp they’d knocked off the end table.

Coop’s blond mop of hair was disheveled, midnight scruff roughened his jaw, and blood dripped from a cut over his eyebrow. His chest heaved beneath a torn navy tee. She’d never seen a sexier man in her entire life. Coop looked up as he viciously tightened the knot at Pavel’s wrists. A cocky grin quirked up one corner of his mouth.

“Darcy Trent, you really make a man jump through hoops just to take you to bed.”

* * *

The ocean shimmered with fifty shades of gray. At its very edge, between sky and surf, a thin line the color of a pearl shimmered, slowly widening its way toward dawn. A trio of tan pipers poked their beaks in and out of the sand. Darcy breathed it all in. The peace of the beach settled over her. It calmed her much faster than the valium shot the paramedic had offered both she and Trina.

Coop stroked his fingers through her hair. “My plan is to get you breakfast from the Fractured Prune. Best donuts on the planet. They’re hot, and you get to pick a glaze and toppings. My favorite’s the Pebble Beach, with honey glaze, cinnamon sugar and mini chocolate chips. I need at least six dollars for that.” He paused their slow stroll to shake his head. “Sorry. I get a little spacy at dawn o’clock. This is all the long way of saying I can only offer you about a dollar fifty for your thoughts.”

“Mmm. I’ll pass on the dollar if it’ll buy me an extra donut.” She leaned her head into the hollow of his shoulder. “I guess I’m trying not to think about it. Who wants to mull over their first time being held at gunpoint? But I can’t let it go until it’s clear in my head. We didn’t have any chance. No escape, no clever way to talk him down. And then you hero’d your way through the door. You said you’d be tied up for hours with Ilona. What happened?”

“My captain sent me packing.”

Righteous anger swamped her. How could they do that to Coop? She tilted her head up to look at him. “Why? You hand delivered him a huge case. How could he force you off of it?”

“Just the opposite. Because this is so big, Captain Wolff wants everything by the book. Right now, I’m technically on leave of absence. He wants me to get a final clearance from the department shrink to bump me back up to active duty. You know, to be sure the whole Secret Service thing didn’t crush my spirit.” He made air quotes with his fingers around the last three words.

He said it lightly, but Darcy wondered if he really just shook off the disappointment. Two years of a single focus erased in a moment. “Did it?”

A deep sigh, followed by a long, slow exhale between pursed lips. “Yeah. I mean, of course it did, when they gave me the news. After Doug died, I thought the only way my death in the line of duty would matter—if it ever happened—was if I protected someone worthwhile.”

Noble. But misguided, none the less. “Have you realized that day to day police work can still change and save lives? That everyone is worth protecting, not just one man?”

“Smarty.” Coop gave her a gentle hip check. “It took talking to Ilona today to tip me back to that point of view. Hell, we might’ve changed the course of her entire life today. For the better. I can’t turn my back on that. But if you’d gotten in my face with all that three days ago, I’d already have my gun back on my hip by now. Next time, don’t hoard all the good advice.”

Next time? Darcy couldn’t let her thoughts go there. Not when he was about to throw himself back into his work. “How did you know we were in trouble?”

“I didn’t. In case Trina was asleep, I didn’t want to bang on the door. So I came around the beach side of the house. Figured you’d have the screen open to the deck. I didn’t expect to see a guy holding you at gunpoint. I punched 911 into my phone, left the line open and dropped it on the deck.”

“For that, you’ll always be my hero.” Darcy stood on tiptoe to press a soft kiss into his cheek.

“Hold on to that thought. I’ve got an idea I want to run past you.”

Darcy had had enough of ideas and plans this week. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed and keep on kissing Coop until they fell asleep. Or until they got too hot and bothered to worry about sleep. “Sounds serious.”

“Could be seriously good. Or you might tell me I’m seriously nuts.” Coop started walking again, swinging their joined hands together as they continued along the shore. “My sister Candace works for the Baltimore County school district. Their superintendent has been on a tear for about five months. They’re looking for someone to head up a study on former gang members, and kids transitioning from juvie.”