Lasting Pride (Pride Series Romance Novels) (14 page)

“No,” It was a whisper over the line.

Then, he asked the question he knew the answer could end up breaking his heart.

“Does Katie belong to Dad?”

More silence, “Ric, please I can’t do this now. I… I have to go, please, don’t tell your father or Katie. I’m coming home, I-I’ll take the next flight. Please don’t say anything until I get there.”

When the line went dead, he laid his head on the cool wood of his desk and for the first time since he was a young child, he felt like crying.

There was only one way to get what you wanted. You either got it yourself, or you hired competent people to get it for you. So far, he wasn’t having any luck finding someone who could do the job right. If this kept up, he was going to have to take care of Ric himself.

He’d waited long enough, longer now than he’d had to wait in his entire life. After all, bloodlines were very important to him, he had a job to do and he’d make sure he completed his task soon. Even if he had to accomplish it himself.

The little side project of getting his hands on the pretty detective was just the added bonus he was looking for. After all, it had been years since he’d had his hands on a woman he wanted. The last time was before he’d come to America. He’d be damned if he was going to wait much longer.

Rob had managed to bum around with Tom for the first part of the day. No one in the office would dare rat her out to her superiors. She knew which buttons to push, punch, or who to avoid. But she had to sneak out of the building just before noon, when she had seen Brian coming into the office. Brian was her least favorite person on the force, because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. If you wanted to know the latest gossip, Brian was usually spouting it off to someone within minutes.

Leaving the building, she was more cautious this time. She figured she had a few hours left before she was supposed to be at Ric’s and might as well do a little shopping. She hated shopping. She wasn’t the kind of shopper that went into a store and could walk around for hours and not buy anything. No, when she walked into a store, she usually walked out broke.

She supposed it was a side effect from having nothing when she was younger. She even had to start limiting her shopping sprees to one credit card, just so she didn’t spend too much. It wasn’t that she was the kind of person who bought anything and everything. No, her one weakness was shoes. Not just any shoes, boots. Boots of any kind and color. She had over a dozen of them and in the last three years had spent more than… well, she didn’t know exactly how much, but she had maxed out her credit cards twice, so far.

She’d forgotten to eat lunch again and by the time she had entered the mall, her head had been throbbing. She knew that she needed to eat something before taking her next pills so she steered herself towards the food court and her favorite Chinese noodle place.

Two hours and one pair of boots later, she made her way back to the caramel apple store she frequented.

This was one more of her weakness, caramel. Most people loved chocolate, Roberta Stanton was no chocoholic, she was a caramel-oholic. If there was such a word.

She was standing at the counter, when the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Positioning herself so that she could see out the front windows from a small mirror that sat behind the counter, she watched as one of the men who’d been in on the robbery, stood just outside the glass watching her.

Acting like nothing was wrong she walked over to the clerk behind the counter and pointed to a display of apples.

Taking out her cell phone she speed-dialed the office. Tom answered on the first ring.

“
Hey Tom, I’m down here at Washington Square Mall getting a caramel apple, I was going to stop and get you some shoes and was wondering what size you wore.” She used their code, knowing he would immediately get her signal for backup.

“Be there in five. Are you secure?”

“Oh, yeah. Size eleven. Thanks, see you in a bit.” She punched a button on her phone and slipped it into her back pocket, still connected to the line. She knew that he would trace her phone and most likely have the geek squad recording anything that might happen. When she exited the store, she kept her eyes on her apple and pretended not to see the man standing down the way just behind a large potted plant. Taking her time, she walked slowly, swinging her bag with her new boots inside. She’d taken a few bites of her apple when he approached her from behind.

“Keep walking Ms. Stanton.” She felt the gun at her back and faked a gasp. “Just do as I say and you won’t get hurt, no one needs to get hurt.” He pulled her arm tight and pushed her closer to him. He was a lot taller than her and he had about eighty pounds on her as well. She gauged her chances and decided to wait for backup, she didn’t need another bump on the head.

“What do you want?” She tried to add stress and fear to her voice.

“My employer would just like a word with you. Nothing more. Just a word.”

“Your employer? Who’s your employer?”

“Just follow my directions and no one needs to get hurt.” He started pulling her towards an employee exit that she knew led to the parking garage.

“
This exit is for employees only and leads to the parking garage.”

“Just be quiet,” he pushed her down the long darker hallway.

“What is this all about? You’re Robbie Bender aren’t you?”

“I said shut up,” he pulled her arm farther behind her and she dropped her caramel apple. They entered the parking garage and he pushed her towards a dark sedan. The windows were tinted, and she thought how nice it would be to catch him and his employer, all while she was on admin leave.

They approached the car slowly and just then, Tom’s squad car and two others stormed into the parking garage. Robbie Bender chose that moment to point his gun at her partner as he was exited his car.

Rob did a move she’d only practiced a hand full of times. By the time her partner stood over her and Robbie Bender, her eyes were teared up and she was feeling as if she’d just given herself another concussion. But, it had worked.

Her partner helped her up.

“That’s for pointing a damn gun at my partner, scum-bag.” She watched as the man was yanked on to his stomach and handcuffed by another officer.

The other officers had stormed the dark sedan, only to discover it had been empty. A cell phone sat on its leather seats. Walking over, she picked it up and listened.

She could hear breathing, then a deep accented voice said. “I had hoped you would cooperate Ms. Stanton. But, it seems you don’t want to play the game fair and square. Your choice.” There was a long pause. “Oh, I’ll say good bye to Mr. Derby for you.” Then, the line went dead.

“Shit,” she threw the phone back in the seat. “He’s got Ric. Send units to his apartment and the gallery. I’m taking this car.” She ran towards the squad car blocking the exit and then punched the gas once she was out of the garage.

Taking her cell phone out of her pocket, she punched Ric’s cell number. It rang three times and then went to his voice mail just as she saw a large plume of smoke and a fire ball coming from his apartment building three blocks away. The tall building’s windows had blown out completely on his floor, she could see smoke bellowing from what she knew would be his apartment.

“Shit, shit, shit!” she screamed as she dodged a truck and narrowly avoided hitting a couple pedestrians who hadn’t heard or seen her sirens and lights. Her hands gripped the wheel as she took a corner at thirty miles an hour. Please god, please.

She hit redial on her phone praying for the first time in her life.

R
ic had left work early to prepare for Roberta’s arrival. He’d made a run to the market to get fresh Salmon and other items he would need to cook dinner. He was looking forward to a quiet night with her and had big plans for them tonight. Neither of them were suffering from concussions and he wanted nothing more than to get her in his bed, this time with him in it. He’d just opened the door to his apartment when his phone rang.

Before he could answer it, he smelled something and knew immediately what it was, then he heard a click. Not wasting a second, he ran towards the stairs just as everything exploded.

His ears were ringing and looking down at his hands, he realized it was actually his phone, which was sitting next to him on the ground, that was making the sound. Picking it up off the floor of the stairwell, he answered it.

Nothing, Ric shook his head, he’d heard nothing. Either his phone was dead or he’d lost his hearing momentarily. Moving his phone to the other ear he finally heard her screaming “Where are you?”

“I’m in the stairs at my apartment. The place just blew up.” He coughed a few times taking stock in his body. “I’m okay, I’ll come down the stairs.” The smoke was quickly filling the stairway. He looked up and noticed the door had been jammed opened by a large chunk of cement which had fallen from the floor above his. Then he realized he’d been tossed down half the flight of stairs. Standing up, he made sure his legs were steady, nothing seemed to be broken or bleeding so he took the stairs two at a time and didn’t stop until he hit the ground floor. Roberta was waiting for him when he got there.

Four hours later, Ric watched Rob as she paced in front of the two-way mirror. On the other side was Robbie Bender. The man looked paler than before, if she had to guess, he was scared.

Tom was questioning him on the other side of the glass. The sergeant and even the commander sat next to Ric. He’d been checked out and they had determined that he didn’t even have a new scratch on him from the whole ordeal. Two of his neighbors hadn’t been so lucky. One was still in surgery the other was at the morgue.

Roberta wasn’t going anywhere until she had some answers and she wasn’t letting Ric out of her sight until they had them.

“I told you, I didn’t know anything about killing that man.” Robbie pointed to a picture of Mark Walker on the desk. “Or him neither.” He nodded to a picture of Kenny Sorvillo. “Last time I saw him, he was with Jose.”

“Jose?” Tom leaned on the desk.

“Jose, you know, Jose. I don’t know his last name. Jose is the one that got me this job.”

Tom set down a picture, taken from the gallery’s surveillance cameras. “Is this Jose?” He pointed to the larger Mexican man.

“Yeah, Jose got me this job,” he repeated.

“Who is your boss?”

“Shit, I don’t know. Only Kenny and Jose knew. I was just suppose to help load some shit into a truck. Then yesterday, Jose called me and told me to grab the pretty detective and bring her out to meet the boss.

He tried to wipe sweat from his forehead, but the handcuffs which were attached to the desk prevented him.

“Shit, I swear. I didn’t know Kenny was going to whack that guy.” Roberta could see the wheels working in his beady little eyes. “Hey, if you’ve got these,” he pointed to the photos from the tapes, “then you know I had nothing to do with shooting that guy. I mean, I freaked out when Kenny pulled that gun and shot the man.”

Roberta knew it was true, Robbie had indeed freaked. Actually, she’d noted that in her files that he had complained so much that Kenny had pulled the gun on him and he’d completed the task under duress. It didn’t account for the fact that less than five hours earlier the man had shoved a loaded gun in her back.

Less than another hour later, she and Ric sat in the commander’s office. She had an empty cup of burnt coffee and a stale doughnut in her stomach. Ric had just sat quietly and drank a bottled water, not really saying anything during this whole process. After the interrogation was over, he’d stepped into the hallway and made a few calls. She assumed to his parents or sister.

Tom had stopped by her place and checked up on Jack. Her apartment had been untouched. He’d taken Jack to his place and assured her that Tammy, Tom’s wife was happy to watch him until things settled down. She didn’t need the extra stress and worrying about her baby during all this mess.

Tom had packed her a bag and had tried to convince her that she was going to stay at his place. The truth was, she didn’t know where she was going to go, but wherever she went she was sure Ric was going with her.

“That settles it,” her commander, Wallas Steinkeller had been the only person in her ten years there, that she hadn’t gotten to know personally. She thought he liked to keep his personal life quiet and knew that he had two daughters. Their identical smiles showed in the many pictures displayed around his office. Rob didn’t know if he was married or not.

“What is sir?” She leaned forward and stifled a yawn. It was almost midnight and the office was on night mode. Sure, the nights were sometimes busier than the days, but tonight wasn’t one of them.

“You and Mr. Derby are going under ground for a few weeks.”

“What?” She jumped out of her chair. “You can’t do this to me. I’m lead in…”

“You were lead,” the commander broke in, “It says here you’re on admin leave for two weeks. Sit down detective.” When she sat again she felt defeated.

“Do you have someplace in mind for us to go “underground” to?” Ric asked calmly. How could the man be so calm? His apartment had just blown up. Everything he owned was gone. Damn, she was going to miss that jacuzzi tub.

“Not yet, I can pull some strings…”

“May I make a suggestion?” When the commander nodded, he continued. “I have some friends, it’s not a well known connection. No one would trace us there. It’s close enough we could be back in the city in just over two hours. It’s quiet and the locals would notice anyone strange in town. Plus, I’ve already made arrangements.”

She looked over at him and was shocked to see a smile on his face.

A few hours later, just as the sun was starting to make its appearance in the East, Roberta sat back in the car and watched Ric drive the country roads with ease. Didn’t he need sleep? She was working on four cups of coffee, two diet cokes, and a snickers bar. The sugar rush had helped her finish the long meetings, but now the sugar high had dissipated and she felt herself starting to doze off several times during the long drive.

She’d never been this far south before. Her father and her had spent their whole lives in Portland. With the exception of her quick journey overseas, she’d never really been anywhere else. For most of the trip it had been too dark to see anything. But, now with the sunlight brightening up the sky, she could just make out the shapes of trees, barns, and opened fields.

They hadn’t talked much during the drive. The bag that her partner Tom had packed for her was sitting in the back seat along with a small suit case belonging to Ric. One he said had been packed and left in the trunk of his car for emergency trips.

They were supposed to stay out of touch for two whole weeks. No calls and no contact with the main office, except emergencies. She’d never been away from her family for that long. She’d been given back her service weapon, under the dire circumstances, the commander had revoked her admin leave and placed her on protective services instead.

Her main focus for the next weeks was keeping Ric Derby and herself alive while her friends found out who Robbie Bender and Jose’s boss was.

She must have dozed off for a while. When the car stopped she jumped.

“
Easy,” Ric said, smiling at her, “we’re here.” He nodded to a large white house.

“We’re staying here?” she was shocked. The place was huge. The
large two-story house had long green shutters which sat on either side of the picture windows which lined the whole front of the place. A huge covered porch ran the entire length of the front and there were wicker rocking chairs and a swing that sat on the porch.

“No, this is Megan and Todd’s place.” He smiled as he got out, then walked around the car to open her door. “We’re staying in the honeymoon cabin.”

She looked at him and noticed that his smile got bigger. Just then, a tall, very pregnant blond woman walked out of the front door holding a little girl.

“Ric,” the woman said as he walked up the steps. “It’s so good to see you again.” She walked into his waiting arms. Roberta could feel the raw emotions from both of them as they hugged. He placed a light kiss on her cheek.

“Me too,” the little girl puckered her lips and Ric kissed them and took the girl from the woman and spun her in circles.

“How is my Sara bug?” He kissed her chubby cheeks, causing the little girl to squeal with delight.

“I’m three,” she held up four little chubby fingers and smiled. Roberta’s heart did a little spin. She was, by far, the cutest little girl she’d ever seen.

Ric just laughed and kissed her again. “Megan, this is Roberta, Rob, this is Megan Jordan and her daughter Sara.” He looked around. “Where is my little buddy, Matthew?”

“He’s at school, first grade. Can you believe it?” Megan sat down on a chair and patted the seat next to her for Rob to sit.

Rob had only been this close to a pregnant woman once before, in an elevator. She’d worried the entire time that the elevator would breakdown and the woman was going to go into labor. Like the scenes she’d seen in so many movies.

“I’m not due until later next month.” Megan said laughing. Feeling a little uncomfortable, Rob sat next to the woman.

Ric sat in the swing with Sara and kicked off, causing the little girl to squeal in delight.

He looked good with a kid next to him. She thought he was a natural and that he’d make a really great father. She’d never really thought about kids herself since her career had always been first priority. After being raised the way she had, she questioned if she would would ever want kids.

“I moved a few things around, but the place is yours for as long as you need it.”

“Thank you, Megan.”

“Lacey came over and stocked the kitchen earlier. Robert agreed that the less people who know that you two are here, the better. If you need anything, just let us know. We can deliver meals, groceries, whatever. You can also call down to the restaurant and they will let Iian know what you want.”