“What about the woman? If she pressed charges that would change the game.”
“She can’t do that without blowing her cover.” At least X didn’t know about their undercover operation. They weren’t undercover when he’d accosted Cole. Since then they’d been living under aliases. Still, X had been savvy enough to put them together, and have them terrorized in an alley. Which meant X or the people he was paying were watching Scott’s every move.
That sent Scott’s temper flaring a few degrees. It was like he was a damn lab rat, watched for his reactions to stimuli X applied.
“What about the task force?” Dave’s pale face seemed to float forward, free of his body. “You could put that in jeopardy if you go after X. You can bet your ass Lattimore will have something to say about it.”
“I’m not telling him anything, unless I have to.” Scott shoved a hand through his hair. “I’m the expendable part of this operation. I can be replaced. But that doesn’t mean X will back off from my partner.”
“What’s your number one priority here?” That had been Dave’s favorite phrase three years ago when he thought Scott was about to screw up because he’d become too passionate about an idea or a cause.
“The job.” Scott’s tone gave nothing away. Protecting Cole was actually his number one priority. But that wasn’t something Dave needed to hear.
“Then act like it. Let me handle X. You complete your mission and then we’ll talk to the right people about this.”
Scott nodded but they both knew it was only to move the conversation along. “I need you to dig deeper into X’s background. There’s something we’re missing. Not even the Pagans would dare go publicly after a cop. He’s after me. Yet I haven’t been knifed in the dark. I need to know why.”
“Maybe he’s just a sick twisted sumbitch. He doesn’t need a reason for what he does.”
“Screw that. Even crazy has motivation. I need to know what kind his crazy is.”
“Meanwhile?”
“I’m going to have a little talk with the ass wipe. What’s his parole officer’s number?”
Dave shook his head like a disappointed parent. “Let me know what you’re going to do before you do it, just so I can keep the paperwork current.”
Scott punched to end the call and stared out at nothing while his thoughts rearranged themselves.
Eventually the park and Cole came into focus. She was on the far side of the green lawn park where they’d come so she could exercise Hugo in an Agility-ring-sized environment for the competition tomorrow in Baltimore.
She wore shorts and a tee that read AGILITY: BE THE DOG. As she ran, taking Hugo over the three jumps she set up, he could hear her voice offering her partner encouragement. Hugo’s happy barks carried back to him more clearly than her words but he understood them both. They were in sync. The running and sudden swerves and double backs were a game. The flash of tan legs caught his attention for a while. Then he let her laughter echo in his ears like some sort of goddamn sultry siren wind chimes.
He had thought what might bring them back together would be the sex. Damn. It was better than before, if that was possible. Cole had become a woman very sure of herself and her needs, and of how to get what she wanted.
He’d learned something else last night, after every lustful feeling had been satisfied. Standing in that alley in that awful moment when he realized his actions had put her in jeopardy, he’d understood what he had only given lip service to before. She was a good police officer. Afraid, sure, but she still unconditionally had his back.
And he knew now he would willingly protect her life with his.
Not just because it was his sworn duty to protect and serve. Not because it was the right thing to do. Not even because he was responsible for their trouble.
I love her. That simple. No greater reason.
He’d known it all along but buried it so deep he thought he could live with it thumping underground like an undead thing. Yet the moment he heard her voice on the phone a month or so ago, those feelings shot from the earth like a phoenix from the ashes of their marriage. And now he knew something more.
He wasn’t going to make it without her in his life.
Even her blistering anger was a hundred times better than the bitter lonely regrets that had gnawed at him these past two years. The first time she set eyes on him in Lattimore’s office, it had been like she’d set fire to him. He felt fully alive for the first time since she walked out. This feeling wasn’t something he would willingly give up again.