Callahan's Fate (16 page)

The way he said it straight out,
Raine
knew Callahan lacked fear.
 
He sounded tough, like he believed he could
be invincible. “That terrifies me,” she told him. “I’m more worried about you
than I am about myself.
 
Can’t you arrest
him or something?”

He laughed without mirth. “I can’t
without a reason,” he told her. “I’m a lot of things, but a dirty cop’s not one
of them.”

“I never thought you were, honey. As
awful as all of this is, I’m glad you found some closure.
 
Are you dealing with your other brother’s
death, too? What happened to him? That night on the phone, you told me you were
responsible for both of your brothers passing away.”

His dark eyes met hers, and some of the
lines deepened in his face. “A few months after Anthony, hell, just a little
over a year ago now, Aidan overdosed on tranquilizers.
 
He took Anthony’s death really hard, same as
me, but he’d battled addiction issues for years.
 
Plus, he’d been drinking.
 
No one really knows if he meant to kill himself
or if it was an accident.
 
You’re
right,
I took the blame for that, too, thought I should’ve
been there for him more.
 
I thought if
I’d been paying attention, I would’ve known and could’ve prevented his death.”

“And now?”

Callahan shrugged. “Now I think I did
what I could when he was alive.
 
I tried
to get him into rehab, to get help.
 
So
I’m not beating myself up over it so much.
 
When I realized what happened to Anthony was tragic, but not my fault,
when I remembered what he said with his last breath, I let go. I’m always
gonna
mourn them and miss my brothers, but I can move on
now.
 
I
kinda
think they’d want me to, doll.”

“So what happens now? What do we do?”

With deft motions, he forked the last of
the roast beef and ate it. “Hell if I know,” he said. “But we’ll manage,
together.
 
I’ll figure it out.
 
I always do.
 
Try not to worry, all right? It’ll work out and we’ll be good.”

Raine
wanted to
believe it and she tried. “I hope so.
 
Are we going to ride the ferry now or what?”

The planned outing no longer seemed as
romantic or fun.
 
She wanted to hunker
down behind locked doors and hide.
 
As if
he knew her thoughts, Callahan shook his head. “No, not unless it’s what you
want.
 
If it is, then we will.”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t think I
want to go, not now.”

“Okay. So here’s my first idea.
 
We go to your place, you pack a bag, take
some clothes and whatever you need, and you come stay all night with me.
 
That way, I know you’ll be safe and don’t
have to eat my guts out worrying.
 
I
think they know where you live, but I doubt they have any idea where my
apartment is.
 
What do you think?”

Relief tasted sweeter than the last of
her hot sandwich. “It sounds like a plan.
 
I don’t think I want to be alone right now.”

“Good,” he said. “
’Cause
I thought maybe you should move in with me anyway.”

Surprised, she considered it and
realized she’d like it. “Callahan, I’d love it.
 
Are you sure you don’t mind?”

He shot her a glance and shook his head.
“I’m asking, aren’t I? Of course I don’t mind.
 
So if you want, this weekend we’ll move all your stuff.
 
Tell me your place is furnished, please.”

Raine
laughed. “Yes,
it is.”

“Thank God.
 
Are you finished eating? Yeah? Then let’s
go.”

Two hours later, after Callahan splurged
on a taxi, they carried her suitcases up the stairs to his apartment.
 
He made space in his closet for her things
and rearranged his dresser so they could share.
 
Raine
put her toiletries in the bathroom and
plugged her cell phone charger into a kitchen outlet.
 
When she started to take off her shoes, he put
out one hand. “Wait a minute. I know
its
kinda
cold, but would you like to go up on the roof for a
few minutes?”

“I’d like nothing better.”

They stood together on the rooftop,
dwarfed by the surrounding buildings.
 
The city stretched in every direction around them, illuminated and
almost magical.
 
The skyscrapers reminded
her of a fortress, and despite the threat they faced,
Raine
relaxed.

Callahan took her in his arms and held
her tight.
 
“You okay with all this?”

A nervous laugh climbed out of her
throat. “Do I have a choice?” she said. “Yes, I suppose I am, as much as I can
be.
 
Just tell me it’s going to be all
right, Callahan.”

“It will, doll,” he told her. “I’ll make
sure you’re safe.
 
You’re the one thing
that matters,
Raine
.
 
I’ve never said this to any other woman, but I love you.”

Her arms circled his neck and she clung
to him. “I love you, too, Cal.
 
Let’s go
to bed.”

His eyebrow lifted in query. “It’s only
a little after eight.
 
Are you tired,
baby?”

“No,”
Raine
told him. “I need you.”

This time, Callahan took his time, slow
and deliberate.
 
Raine
gloried in every caress and each kiss.
 
His mouth burned hers with unquenchable fire, and his hands as they
moved over every bit of her body, were tender yet tantalizing.
 
Long before he entered her, she ached for him,
and when he thrust his cock within her space, she locked her legs tight around
his torso.
 
Callahan rode her, and she
yielded to his mastery with wonder.
 
His
nimble fingers brought her nipples rock hard and he suckled on them, one at a
time, while he used his dick to turn her insides into mush.
 
Raine
moaned with
delight, and when she reached climax, they came together in a dizzying swirl of
sensual sensations.
 
She died and came
back to life, sated and sweaty, locked in his arms.

She had never known such intense
lovemaking, an act which went far beyond the physical and made them one, not
just in body but in spirit.
 
Callahan had
entered whatever inner sanctuary she might own and blended his soul with hers.
 
The sex leached away her fears for the moment,
and she lay drowsy in his arms until she slept.

When she woke once, deep in the dark
reaches of the night,
Raine
occupied the bed alone,
and she propped up on one elbow to find Callahan.
 
When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she
saw him standing at the kitchen window, staring outside.
 
In the dimness, his nude body shone as white
as a marble statue.
 
Her breath caught,
concerned he might be ill again or consumed with tension, but as she watched
for some minutes, she realized how calm he stood.
 

“Callahan?”

He turned toward her,
then
approached the bed. “What is it?”

“Come back to bed,” she said. “I’m
cold.”

Once they snuggled together, he ran one
hand down her back. “Are you warm enough?”

Raine
nodded. “Yes. I
wasn’t too cold, just lonely.”

“And now?”

“I’m content.”

“You’re home,” he whispered. “And you’re
safe.”

There was no place she would rather be
in those moments but here, in Callahan’s bed and arms.
 
No matter what happened, she had
now
.

Maybe it would be enough.
 
Maybe they would be lucky.

God, she hoped so.

Chapter Eleven

Saturday dawned overcast and cold.
 
Tonight, the city would teem with wee ghosts
and goblins, cowboys, and clowns, as kids marked the age-old observance of Halloween.
 
Callahan had been assigned a later shift than
usual, so he had promised
Raine
they would collect
the rest of her belongings early. Although she’d shared his space for a few
short days, he didn’t want to contemplate life without her.
 
She brought positive energy into his few
rooms and enriched his existence in ways he never imagined.
 
Sometimes, she drove him a little crazy, but
he loved her enough not to mind.
 
Her
long strands of golden hair tended to detach and end up on his shirts, in his
boxers, and on the windowsills like fine cobwebs.
 

Once in a while, she took what seemed to
be an ungodly time in the bathroom, and she showered until she used most if not
all of the hot water.
 
But she cooked
delicious meals, far more nutritious fare than he’d eaten in years, and her
smiles were worth a little aggravation.
 
When they made love, she gave him everything, and when he came home
tired or bummed out, she always managed a cheerful word of encouragement.
 
Hell, the woman even rubbed his back for an hour
one night when he bitched how much it hurt.
 
Life was good and would be damn close to perfect if the threat of Snake
Marsh and company didn’t hang over him like a thundercloud.

“What time do you want to go fetch my
things?”
Raine
asked.
 
She curled into one corner of the couch, feet tucked under, with a cup
of coffee between her hands.
 
With her
hair still sleep-tousled, he found her strikingly beautiful.

“Nine,” he said. “I told Jim we’d be at
the firehouse at nine to get the truck.”

She lifted one eyebrow. “We’re using a
fire truck to bring the rest of my stuff?”

He laughed. “
Naw
,
I guess I forgot to mention we’re borrowing their pickup.
 
I didn’t think lugging your boxes on the
subway would work very well.
 
We could, I
guess, but it’d be a real pain.”

“I suppose it would.
 
There shouldn’t be a whole lot more, though.”

Callahan resisted an urge to roll his
eyes.
 
“What’s left?”

Raine
cocked her
head, thinking. “Well, the rest of my clothes, my pillows, sheets, and
blankets, my knickknacks and pictures, plus the kitchen stuff.
 
There’s not too much of that, though—a couple
of pans, a skillet, two plates, silverware, some utensils, my coffeepot, and
some cups. Oh, and what little bit of food I had on hand.”

It sounded like a lot to him, and he tried
to imagine blending all of it into his compact apartment.
 
We’ll
manage, though,
he thought. “All right, we’ll get your stuff. It’s almost
eight-thirty, and it’s
gonna
take a few minutes to
walk to the fire station…”

“All I have to do is fix my hair and put
on shoes,”
Raine
said.
 
The way she stretched tempted him to forget
the truck and take her to bed, but he couldn’t.
 
“It won’t take me long.”

 
At straight up nine o’clock, his buddy Jim handed him the keys to a
bright red pickup truck. “Be careful with it, all right? I shouldn’t even let
you borrow it, but I trust you.”

“I promise not to crash it,” Callahan
told him. “You know I’m a good driver.”

Jim erupted in laughter. “I remember
that huge boat of a Chrysler your grandma drove,” he cried. “And you were
piloting it around Brooklyn like it was the fucking
Queen Mary.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember.
 
We
gotta
go ‘
cause
I work second shift today, but thanks, man.”

“Anytime, buddy,” Jim said. They fist-bumped
and then Callahan grabbed
Raine’s
hand.

“Let’s go, doll.”

Although Callahan didn’t own a car
anymore, he loved to drive.
 
Sitting
behind the wheel of the powerful pickup gave him a buzz. “C’mon,
Raine
, scoot over here,” he told her. “I want my woman
beside me as we travel the streets of the Big Apple.”

Her giggle pleased him. “I didn’t even
know you drove, Callahan.”

He pretended to be wounded. “I can’t
believe you didn’t know,” he said. “You took me for a New York native who
depends on the subway and bus and my feet.”