Authors: Tori Carrington
L
INC’S ADRENALINE LEVEL
shot through the roof as he rushed inside the Colorado Springs Police Operations Center. When he’d checked his cell locator and saw Regina was there, he’d raced to the station, his mind filled with anxiety.
He took in the open area with one glance and then headed for a familiar desk sergeant.
“Dodson, Regina. Where is she?”
Bruce blinked at him. “Hey, Linc. You look like you just ran a marathon. What’s up?”
Linc was a familiar face around the precinct because of Lazarus. He’d made a point of introducing himself in the beginning, and then business had brought him in occasional contact with precinct personnel.
But right now, he suppressed the desire to grab a man he’d always seen as a friendly by the shirtfront. “A client is here. Regina Dodson. Where is she?”
Bruce frowned, apparently picking up on his impatience. “Oh, you must be talking about that attempted kidnapping case…”
Linc’s ears started ringing and his mind filled with a string of curse words. Attempted kidnapping?
Good God in heaven, what had happened in the short time span he’d been otherwise occupied?
Johnson. He had no doubt.
“She’s in the back with Jensen.”
Linc rounded the desk and headed for the office of the lead detective.
“Hey, you can’t just—”
He gave the guy a warning glance. The round man held up his hands even as he reached for the radio transmitter hanging on his front shirt pocket presumably to call for backup. But Linc reached the small, enclosed office before the desk sergeant could get out his first word.
He froze just inside the door. Regina was sitting huddled in one of the two visitors’ chairs, by herself in the room. Relief rushed through him at seeing her safe.
Then she looked up at him and he felt as if he’d just stepped on an IED.
She knows…
The detective came up from behind him.
“Hey, Williams, what are you doing in here?”
“I know the lady.”
The man glanced at Regina and then back at Linc.
“Funny,” she said quietly. “I’m not sure I know you at all…”
D
ETECTIVE
D
AN
J
ENSEN
asked Linc to go to the public waiting area and he did so reluctantly. He wanted—no, needed—to talk to Regina now. Find out what happened. Make sure she was okay.
Beg her forgiveness.
He paced back and forth and forth and back in the front room, wishing he was anywhere else but there in that one moment. He didn’t mean physically, although he would prefer not to be standing in a police station. Rather, he didn’t like the situation he was in—keeping Regina in the dark as to his true intentions from the onset.
And as a result of his silence, she’d suffered at Johnson’s hands.
“Whoa, buddy,” the desk sergeant said. “You look two spits away from a full brawl.”
Linc stared at him.
“Make that one.”
He stared at his watch and then craned his neck to try to see down the hall where the detective’s office was located. It had been a half hour since he’d been ousted. What could they be talking about?
The detective came out and handed a file to a nearby clerk.
Linc caught his eye. Dan frowned and came over to the front desk.
“Are you going to be done soon?” Linc asked.
“We finished about ten minutes ago. Miss Dodson requested to go out the back way. One of my guys took her home.”
Damn, damn, damn!
He stormed from the precinct.
R
EGINA SAT IN THE MIDDLE
of her couch, lights off, her arms wrapped around her knees, rocking back and forth. Her throat felt raw, her nerves frayed and her heart as if it had been turned inside out.
How could Linc have lied to her?
Considering all that had happened in the past couple of hours, she found it surprising that’s what hurt the most. It helped that a squad car was parked at the curb, watching the apartment. But she didn’t think a lone cop would be much of a deterrent to Billy, should he decide to come after her again. And she was sure he would.
Still, not even fear of her ex could squash the pain she felt at Linc’s betrayal.
He’d known. He’d known Billy had escaped from prison. Known he’d come after her. And he’d never said a word.
She discovered she was shivering and pulled a throw from the side of the sofa to cover her knees. Her new mattresses wouldn’t be delivered until tomorrow, which meant she’d be spending the night there anyway. That is, if she managed to get any sleep at all. A prospect she found highly doubtful. How was she supposed to sleep when there was a madman after her, bent on taking a long-nurtured revenge? And when the man she was falling in love with had hurt her more deeply than her ex?
A hot teardrop rolled over the side of her nose and onto her hand where her check rested against it, followed by another.
She recalled every moment since the time their gazes first met at the club. The smiles…the hot kisses…the soft moans…his strong arms around her making her feel sexy and safe.
A knock at the door caused her to jump.
“Regina? It’s Linc.”
She slowly lifted her head to stare at the closed and locked barrier, taking in the red-and-green glowing lights connected to the security system he’d installed. She knew all he had to do was use his key and bypass everything.
Another knock.
“I really don’t want to have this conversation through the door,” he said.
She sat for long moments, as if caught in some sort of strange time warp. She hurt, she was numb and when she moved it appeared to be in slow motion.
Finally, she managed to rise from the sofa and walk to the door. Her heart pounding in her chest, she opened it a crack and held out her hand palm up.
“Look at me,” he said.
She bit hard on her bottom lip and shook her head.
The
beep beep
of the countdown on the security system sounded.
He placed his copy of her house key in her hand.
“Is that the only one?” she asked.
“It’s the only one.”
She quietly closed the door and the automatic lock slid home.
L
INC RAISED HIS HAND
to knock again…but instead brought it to rest softly against the door, the metal cold against his palm. The pain on her beautiful face, the telltale signs she’d been crying, ripped him to shreds.
Knowing he was responsible shredded his soul again.
“Just so you know,” he said through the door. “I’m going to stay out here all night.”
No response. Not that he expected one. Hell, he’d be lucky if she didn’t call in his unwanted presence to the squad car parked at the curb and have his sorry ass carted off.
He leaned back against the wall next to the door and crossed his arms. There was no way he was going to leave her alone with that son of a bitch on the loose somewhere.
On the drive over, he’d picked up the details via phone on the attempted kidnapping. It was an easy task considering the abductor was an escaped convict who’d crossed state lines, which made it a government matter, more specifically the U.S. Marshals office. His FBI contact easily obtained the information and relayed it quickly.
He checked his cell again, hoping for a follow-up call outlining stolen cars, possible sightings and reports of robberies within a fifty-mile radius that fit Johnson’s M.O. Something, anything that might afford him a clue as to the bastard’s whereabouts.
Damn. He should have been paying closer attention. He should have known Johnson would do what he had. Instead, Linc been so distracted, he’d barely been able to concentrate on anything other than needing to be near the woman inside the apartment for reasons that had nothing to do with protecting her…yet everything to do with it.
“Have you eaten?”
He was surprised by the words said through the door. He suppressed the desire to ask her to repeat the question for fear she wouldn’t. Then he cleared his throat and answered honestly. “No.”
Linc leaned his head back against the wall and took a deep, fortifying breath. When the door opened a few minutes later, he quickly stood upright to face her. But she still refused to meet his gaze.
She looked a little better. She’d apparently washed her face and pulled her hair back, making her look years younger than she was.
She held out a plate containing a sandwich. He took it.
“Thanks,” he said.
She nodded and began to close the door again.
“Regina, wait.”
The door stopped a few inches shy of home, but he could no longer see her.
“I just wanted to say… I mean, all of this was never… It’s important that you know…”
For a man renowned for getting to the point, he seemed to be having a hard time of it now.
He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry.”
No response, and then the door softly closed again.
Damn.
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn.
He considered the sandwich in his hands and then the door. Just then, he’d have had trouble eating lobster, his appetite was so low. But if it killed him, he was going to eat this. Solely because Regina had made it for him. And the fact that she had was evidence that she might be able, at some point, to forgive him…
I
T WAS THREE
o’clock in the morning and Regina still sat in the dark on the sofa, unable to sleep, unable to shut her mind down, unable to forget the fact that Linc stood outside her door like a stubborn oak, refusing to leave.
She got up, looked out the window at where a new squad car sat. The police had changed shifts around midnight. Then she stepped to the door where a glance through the peephole told her Linc was still there, only part of his left arm where it was apparently folded over his chest visible.
Disarming the alarm, she kept on the chain and then cracked open the door. He immediately filled the space with his tall, handsome frame.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Everything was far from okay, but she knew that wasn’t what he meant, so she told him it was.
She slid to sit on the floor by the door and then leaned her back against the wall directly across from where he had been leaning on the other side. “Talk to me.”
She wasn’t sure what she wanted him to say. He’d already apologized. Although she wasn’t entirely clear what it had covered. Was he sorry he’d been caught in the lie? Sorry he hadn’t been able to stop Billy?
Sorry for getting involved with her?
“Thanks for the sandwich.”
She tucked her chin into her chest, finding it impossible to believe he’d made her smile.
“You’re welcome.”
Silence.
Which was okay with her. She felt better just knowing he was mere inches away. And she could hear him move as he presumably sat down too.
“I am sorry,” he said quietly.
She found it difficult to swallow, the hollow air around her heart expanding.
“Regina?”
“What?” she whispered.
“Do you forgive me?”
She considered her response for a moment. “I don’t know.”
She heard him shift again.
“I can understand that, I guess,” he said.
She heard a car drive past on the street, somewhere a dog barked.
“It might be easier if I knew what you were apologizing for,” she said so quietly she wasn’t sure if he heard her.
“Where do I begin…?”
She fought the urge to say “the beginning’s always a good place,” and instead rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes, waiting for him to continue.
“That night, at the club, I never expected your friend to approach me…”
She half smiled at the memory as well as the fact that he was starting at the beginning.
“I intended to ignore her. But then I saw you.”
She swallowed hard. “But you already knew who I was?”
She heard him take a deep breath. “At that point, I’d been following you for two days.”
She leaned over and peered through the crack, catching sight of his handsome profile.
“I never expected to go home with you,” he said. “And after that first night, I never expected there to be a second.”
“But you were still watching me…”
A pause. “I was still watching you.”
Silence settled between them and she rested against the wall again.
“Is it true?” she asked. “That you originally apprehended Billy?”
He shifted again. “Yes.”
“Did you know about me back then?”
“No. I mean, I knew what was in his file, but there was no picture. Only the basic information. Name, D.O.B., parents’ names…”
She winced.
“I never had to go beyond that because I caught up with him before the next step was necessary…”
She considered that. “When did Billy escape?”
He told her.
She recalled the sensation of being watched, of something being wrong. But was that a result of Billy’s prison break? Or of Linc’s tailing her, hoping to catch Billy?
“Why didn’t you tell me, once we became…familiar?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Because you were afraid I’d be upset?”
“Because I was afraid you’d stop looking at me the way you did.”
The sweet words seemed to have double the impact coming from such a big, rough-and-tumble guy.
“I know, it sounds corny…”
She reached around the door and placed her hand on his arm. “No, it doesn’t sound that way at all.”
He placed his other hand over hers, holding it there.
“Regina…can I come in? Please?”
She sat without saying anything for a long moment.
“My ass is starting to hurt.”
She laughed. Then she slid her hand from under his and moved away from the door. A moment later, she held out a throw pillow to him.
“Not exactly what I had in mind,” he said, accepting it.
“It’s all you’re getting.” For now.
She didn’t say the words, but she might as well have.
Truth was, she knew Linc was as sincere as they came. She may have questioned her judgment when it came to men and relationships once. Solely based on her experiences with Billy.
But now, she had something to compare him against. And was coming to understand that though she’d always held out hope Billy would change, she’d always seen him for who he really was.
And she had seen and was seeing Linc for who he was. There was no need to change him.
Well, mostly.
“Did…keeping me in the dark bother you?” she asked.
“Tied me up in knots. Especially when I got news Johnson was circling closer and…”
“And I was placed in harm’s way.”
He took a deep breath. “Yes.” A pause. “Only it wasn’t supposed to happen that way. I was supposed to be there to protect you.”
Now that she was dealing with the pain inflicted by his deception, the day’s earlier events crashed back on her like a violent gust of wind. Her hand went to her neck, feeling Billy’s fingers there all over again. Hearing his hateful words ringing in her ears. Smelling the stench of his breath…
He could have killed her without batting an eye. And in the absence of an adrenaline rush, or the fight-or-flight instinct that went with it, her blood ran cold.
Had she really loved him once? It seemed impossible to believe given present circumstances. She supposed her mother had been right when she’d said living in a small town had limited Regina’s options. She needed to see what else was out there.
And finally she had. Which threw everything else into stark relief.
She shivered.
“Cold?” Linc asked.
She blinked to find him peering in at her. “It’s still ninety degrees out.”
“I’m guessing you still may be suffering the effects of shock.”
She nodded. “Probably.”
Then a thought occurred to her. She pushed away from the wall and knelt to face the crack and him.
“How did you know he’d come for me?” she asked.
He began to disappear, presumably to lean back against the wall out of sight.
“Don’t. Face me and tell me.”
He hesitated and then honored the first part of her request, although he appeared to have trouble with the second.
“At this point, I can’t imagine what you’d be afraid to say.”
She watched him grimace in the dim light from an outdoor wall sconce. “The missing money.”
Regina’s breathing slowed. She’d guessed what his answer might be—she just hadn’t worked out how she’d respond to it.
“He told his cellmate you had his cash and he was coming after you to get it.”
She looked down at where she worried her hands in her lap.
She vividly recalled her prison visit to Billy. His asking her to close up his apartment, give his things to his father…but to keep something for him. Since calls and visits were monitored, he hadn’t specified what the “something” was. He’d said she’d know what it was when she came across it.
She had never anticipated it would be a bag full of cash, presumably from the bank robbery that had placed him behind bars.
“Do you think I have it?” she asked Linc quietly.
She felt his gaze on her face and blinked up to meet it.
“The money. Do you think I’m in possession of it?”
“That’s not important. What is, is that Johnson thinks you are.”
Not the answer she was looking for.
She shifted until she was leaning against the wall again, falling silent.
“Regina?”
She didn’t answer.
And she didn’t know if she would…
L
INC LIGHTLY KNOCKED
the back of his head against the hard brick of the wall. An internal alarm bell went off the instant he’d responded, telling him “wrong answer.”
He had answered honestly enough. It
wasn’t
important. She hadn’t been charged or convicted of a crime. Billy Johnson had.
But her sudden silence told him it wasn’t the answer she was looking for.
He recrossed his arms over his chest. While he was glad she hadn’t closed the door or moved away from it, whatever headway he’d hoped they’d made in the last little while was slipping away.
At this rate, he was never going to get back into her apartment.
His cell phone vibrated. He took it out and read the screen.
Damn.
This was the absolute worst time for him to be leaving. But if he held out any hope of this thing with Johnson ending anytime soon, he had to.
“Regina?” he said again.
She didn’t answer.
“I’m going to get a couple of Lazarus guys to watch after you. I’ll let the local uniforms know.”
He got to his feet, surprised when he found she had opened the door.
“Are you leaving?”
He nodded. “I’ve got a line on Johnson. I’m going to check it out.” He looked over his shoulder at the squad car. “My guys will be here in less than a half hour. Until then…”
He took his own .357 out of his hip holster.
“It works just like the one you used today. Just point and shoot.”
She appeared hesitant.
He reached out and took her right hand and then placed the weapon in it.
“Don’t argue. If you’d taken the one I offered earlier…”
He didn’t finish the thought. He didn’t have to. He could tell by her grimace her thoughts were venturing in the same direction.
“Ground,” he reminded her.
She automatically pointed the barrel downward.
“I have little doubt you’ll hit whatever you take aim at.”
He watched a swallow work down her elegant throat. He found himself wishing he could follow the movement with his lips against her skin…and prayed she’d trust him enough to allow him the privilege again.
“If you need anything…”
“Police are watching the place.”
He nodded. “Still.”
“I have your number.”
He squinted at her. “Wish you would have called me earlier.”
She offered up a ghost of a smile. “Trust me, you wouldn’t have liked what I would have called you.”
He chuckled. “No, I probably wouldn’t have.” He reached out and touched the side of her face. “But I would have deserved it.”
She turned her head away and he let her. What other choice did he have?
“All right, then…”
“All right.”
“Good night.” It seemed like a stupid thing to say; he doubted “good” would factor anywhere into the equation.
“Good night,” she returned quietly.
He forced his feet to carry him away, listening as she closed the door and rearmed the alarm system.