Hope Flames: Hope Book 1 (29 page)

Just the thought of that moment when she leaned over and kissed him was enough to send her up in flames.

“Your face gives you away every time, Emma,” Jane said.

“The room practically went up ten degrees as you sit there, sipping your wine with that smile on your face.”

Emma shifted her gaze to Jane. “It does, doesn’t it? I can’t help myself. And I swore I wasn’t going to get involved with Luke. With any man, for that matter.”

“Why?” Chelsea asked.

“Because of the clinic. I have my hands full with my job. I just don’t have time for romance.”

“I think that’s a crock,” Chelsea came back. “Seems to me you have plenty of time for romance. Or you’ve been making time. And it doesn’t seem to have hurt your work at the clinic any.”

She didn’t answer.

“Is that really the truth, Emma?” Jane asked. “Or is it something else that’s been holding you back?”

She so wanted to confide in her friends. Her family never discussed her abusive relationship because they knew how hard the past had broken her. Her mother thought she was fragile.

Maybe at one time that had been true. When it had first happened, when she’d first broken away, she’d felt ancient, so brittle and unstable that if someone had looked sideways at her, she would have crumbled.

But that had been years ago. She’d grown stronger, had renewed her confidence. Getting back into school had helped. Working in her chosen field had helped to get her bearings back.

She wasn’t fragile anymore, but she knew her parents felt a certain responsibility for what had happened, though she had never blamed them. Still, she couldn’t talk to them about it, because they felt so guilty, and Molly hadn’t been around when it had happened.

Molly had enough of her own demons to deal with, whatever those might be. If Molly didn’t feel comfortable enough talking to Emma about whatever kept her away from Hope, Emma didn’t want to burden her with what had happened so long ago.

Which left only Chelsea and Jane. She trusted them.

“Emma?” Chelsea asked.

“It’s kind of a really long story. And an ugly one. I don’t come out of it looking at all heroic, or like a strong, confident woman.”

Chelsea grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Honey, we all have something in our past we’re not exactly proud of. Do you think Jane or I would judge you? We’re your friends, and real friends stand by you, no matter what.”

Jane nodded. “We’re here for you. For the bad parts as well as the good.”

It was then Emma knew she could trust them with the ugliness.

So while Jane poured them all another glass of wine, Emma started talking.

Chapter 22

LUKE WAS FRUSTRATED as hell, and tired of working on a case that was going nowhere.

Typically, he closed cases the same day they broke, but this rash of break-ins was scaring the people of his town.

He couldn’t blame them. Who knew where the perpetrator—or perpetrators—would strike next. Just because they’d only been hitting local businesses so far didn’t mean they wouldn’t start breaking and entering people’s homes next.

No avenue they’d explored had turned up any leads. The perps had left no prints, and there was no video on whoever had been hitting these businesses. Any recent parolees or those with drug-related crimes in their backgrounds had all alibied out.

Which left them at square one. And the suspect hadn’t struck again in over a week. Luke supposed that was a good thing, but if they could flush this guy out, they’d have a chance at nabbing him.

Which gave him an idea. Since he was on patrol and close to the precinct, he drove to the station and went into his
captain’s office. Pete was at his desk on the phone but motioned for Luke to come in and take a seat. He waited, looking at the awards and certificates on Pete’s wall.

Luke supposed this is what he should aspire to someday—being a captain, leading a team. But he enjoyed being out on the street with Boomer, chasing down perps. This just seemed like a damn lot of paperwork and sitting behind the desk. Maybe his priorities would change several years down the road, when he was tired of walking a beat. He’d like to be a detective someday. But a desk job? He didn’t see that ever appealing to him.

The captain hung up so Luke focused his attention.

“What’s up, McCormack? Aren’t you supposed to be on patrol?”

“Yes, sir. But I had an idea about these drug burglaries and wanted to run it by you.”

Pete slid back in his chair. “Okay, hit me.”

“They’ve targeted places that are well stocked. What if we set them up?”

“Set them up, how?”

“Get one of the local pharmacies to agree to a massive drug restocking. If someone’s casing these places, they’ll know, and it’ll be a prime target. We wait inside and catch them when they come in to snatch the drugs.”

Pete leaned forward and steepled his fingers. “Your idea has merit, but you realize there’s no guarantee they’ll bust in for the drugs just because a place has been recently stocked.”

“I know, sir, but we have no leads at this point, and I think it’s worth a shot.”

His captain seemed to consider the idea, mainly by staring intently at Luke. “All right. I’ll make some calls and let you know what we can work out. Get back on the street.”

“Yes, sir.”

Feeling better now that he’d suggested a plan, Luke headed back out to the parking lot.

“Hey, McCormack. What are you doing here?”

He walked past Evan Ashbrook and Steve Fortran, a couple
of his fellow cops. “Hey. Just stopped to talk to the captain about something. You guys coming on duty or getting off?”

“Coming off working a double, just like you,” Steve said. “This whole burglary thing is chapping my ass. And it’s making my wife cranky.”

Luke laughed. “Yeah, I can imagine she’s not happy.”

“Not with three kids at home who miss their dad, and her having to juggle her job plus day care and the kids at night. There’s going to be hell to pay if we don’t find this asshole soon.”

“Have you got anything?” Evan asked.

“Nothing. No leads have panned out yet.”

“Shit.” Steve raked his fingers through his hair. “I keep hoping I’m going to come on duty and the captain’s going to tell me they caught him, and we can go back to life as normal.”

“This guy can’t be that fucking smart,” Ev said to them. “We’ll corner his ass soon enough.”

Luke nodded. “I agree.”

“Speaking of asses, we’d better get inside before the captain has ours. I have reports to file. See you, Luke,” Steve said.

“Later, guys.” Luke headed out to his vehicle and let Boomer out of the backseat, taking him for a walk around the property. There was a park right next to the precinct, so Boomer got to stretch his legs. After about fifteen minutes, he and Boomer got back in the cruiser.

He checked his watch. It was Thursday, the night Emma kept the clinic open late so people could bring their animals in after work. He could stop by, see how she was doing. He hadn’t seen her in a while.

Or he could just go do his damn job and stop thinking about Emma. She was busy, and so was he.

He drove by the clinic and her parking lot was full, so he went past. He’d call her later.

He got called to the scene of an accident, and he forgot all about Emma as he worked the two-car rear-end vehicle
collision. The girl who’d hit the minivan had been texting, and when he’d come on the scene she was sobbing, complaining that her dad was going to kill her since he’d already lectured her once about messing with her phone while driving.

Luke didn’t have much sympathy because he saw plenty of people texting and sending e-mails instead of paying attention to the road like they should. The girl was lucky the woman driving the minivan was on her way to pick up her kids and only had a sore neck, and that her children hadn’t been in the car, which was exactly what he’d told Missy Davis, teenage texter.

“You don’t understand,” she said, tears still streaming down her face. “My dad will take my keys away. I won’t have wheels ever again. He’ll probably even take my phone.”

The last two words were spoken at a high decibel level, followed by another round of racking sobs. One would think Missy’s entire life was over. Of course being seventeen, she probably thought it was.

When Missy’s father arrived at the scene, the girl’s eyes widened. Dad didn’t look happy at all.

“Officer, I’m Howard Davis, Missy’s father. Can you tell me what happened?”

Luke explained the accident, and Mr. Davis’s face grew more grim the further Luke got into his recounting of the scene.

“I see. Thank you.” Mr. Davis turned and headed toward his daughter, who appeared to have shrunk several inches as she leaned against the car. Luke kept an eye on the two of them to make sure no violence broke out. But all Mr. Davis did was hold out his hand. Missy dropped her car keys into it. He said a few more words, Missy opened her mouth as if to object, but then gave Mr. Davis her phone and dejectedly headed over to her dad’s car.

Maybe she’d learn a lesson from this. Luke hoped, anyway.

By the time the wrecker came and removed both vehicles from the scene, it was past eight and Luke was dragging.
He stopped at the local convenience store for a cup of coffee, then headed down the main town highway to do a patrol.

That’s when his radio started squawking. The dispatcher came on with a burglary-in-progress code, the location not too far from where he was. He got on his radio and indicated he’d be heading there, one minute out. He hit his sirens and stepped on the gas.

It was the urgent care center, just across the parking lot from Emma’s vet clinic. A quick glance at the time showed that Emma should be just closing up. He hoped she and her staff were still inside. And safe.

He was the first car to arrive and reported his arrival, then slid on his bulletproof jacket and grabbed his rifle.

No alarms were going off, at least not audibly, which didn’t mean a silent alarm hadn’t been triggered. Backup was due to arrive in less than a minute. He hauled ass out of his car, opening the back door for Boomer. He gave Boomer the appropriate commands, indicating they were in search-and-stealth mode. Boomer stayed right by his side. The dog knew his job.

The front door of the clinic was locked since they closed at seven, so he hurried down the sidewalk of the shopping center so he could head around the back.

He could see Emma’s clinic from where he stood at the side of the shopping center. And just as he shifted around the corner, she came outside, by herself, no doubt locking up.

Something must have caught her eye, at the same time Luke heard a sound from the back. Emma’s gaze tracked the sound and Boomer emitted a low growl.

Luke gave him the command to silence. Now Luke hesitated, warring between wanting to shout out to Emma to go back inside and lock her door or staying quiet so he could continue to stalk the perp. Emma’s safety was paramount. She stood frozen to the spot, and that’s when Luke spotted the dark figure darting into the woods behind the shopping center.

He gave the Go signal to Boomer, who tore past him and into the woods at high speed. Luke called in that he was in
pursuit, gave his location, and headed out after Boomer. He held up his hand, waving at Emma to go back inside. When he was sure she was going to follow direction, he took off after Boomer and the suspect.

He heard the sirens pull up at the front of the urgent care center, communicated his location as he entered the thick wooded area. Boomer barked, as he was trained, giving Luke the ability to track his whereabouts. Left, about fifty yards ahead. Breathing heavily, sweating under his Kevlar jacket as he ran like hell, Luke pushed through the dense brush, not wanting to use his flashlight in case the suspect had doubled back.

“Location, McCormack.”

It was one of his fellow officers; Luke gave his best guess as to where he was. “I’m not using my flashlight. Keep an eye out in case the perp doubles back out of this brush. I have Boomer in here with me. I sent him in when we saw the guy make a break for the woods.”

An hour later, there was no sign of the suspect. Luke, Boomer, and several of the Hope police force had combed the area, to no avail. The perp either had a foolproof escape plan or a car hidden nearby. Hell, maybe he’d hopped into the river and taken a boat. With all of them tramping through the woods, forensics likely wouldn’t be able to get decent shoe impressions.

His captain had shown up to review the scene, inside and out. This time the perp had set off the silent alarm. With the rash of burglaries lately, the urgent care center had beefed up its security, and cutting the outside alarm system had set off a backup. So when he broke in, the silent alarm had gone off.

They’d also wired in additional video surveillance, so they’d finally have something to look at, once the tech guys were able to download it.

In the meantime, Luke told his captain about Emma standing there watching the whole thing go down.

“A potential witness?” Pete asked.

“And a former victim of this dickhead.”

“Go talk to her.”

Luke nodded and headed across the parking lot. He pulled on the door, which Emma had wisely locked, so he knocked. Daisy came running to the door first, followed by Emma, who unlocked the door and let him in.

She was wide-eyed and pale, just like that night when she’d been burglarized. He wanted to put his arms around her and tell her everything was going to be all right, but he was on duty and there were other cops milling about outside who could see them.

“Are you all right?” he asked as she led him into her office.

She nodded, took a seat in one of the chairs across from her desk. “Yes. How about you? I saw you and Boomer run like crazy into the woods after that guy. Did you catch him?”

He shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. But we’re closing in. This is the first time we’ve gotten close enough to him to catch him in the act.”

“Except that one time he actually burglarized my place while I was here,” she reminded him.

“Yes. There was that. Too bad you’re not a cop.”