Her Man in Manhattan

TWENTY-THREE



By the time Tyler returned to his partner and the rookie detective who’d been attempting to fill his shoes, the stake-out wasn’t a stake-out any more. ‘Can’t believe you were gonna start the party without me...’

‘ESU just got here. You haven’t missed anything.’ He frowned. ‘Where’s your vest?’

‘In my locker,’ Tyler replied. ‘Tell me it’s him.’

He wanted the day of reckoning out of the way so he knew if he had a future to plan.

‘Arrived on the heels of a large shipment—we’ve got him this time. There’s nowhere to go.’

As they silently approached the warehouse with their weapons drawn Tyler forced any thoughts of Miranda to the back of his mind. He knew she was safe, that had to be enough, even if he regretted not telling her how he felt when he had the chance. It was better he hadn’t, he reasoned, especially now.

The raid was textbook, communication made with hand signals to place everyone in position before a countdown of fingers indicated when ESU would break down the door. Once they were inside it went equally smoothly—Tyler’s voice joining the others to identify them as cops to the gang of men unpacking boxes. As they raised their hands in the air his gaze searched their faces and shifted in time to see a couple of men disappearing into the back.

Tyler ran after them, slowing his pace when the chase led into abandoned machinery and piles of empty crates.

His partner caught up to him. ‘You see them?’

‘Not yet.’

They split up, working as one to search high and low.

‘One over there.’ Tyler pointed when he heard a noise and saw a figure too short and stocky to be the man he was after. ‘I’ve got the other one.’

‘Don’t do anything stupid.’

The warning fell on deaf ears, the dark side to his nature taking over as he stalked his prey. Tyler didn’t fight it. He welcomed its arrival, embraced it and challenged it to do its worst. It was the only way he would know how far he could go. To fuel the need for revenge he summoned the image of a broken body to the front of his mind, saw the unnatural position of her limbs and thought about how much she’d suffered.

Then he rounded a corner into a narrow alley of crates and saw Demietrov standing a few feet away.

A slow, cold smile appeared on the man’s face.

Tyler frowned, the gun wavering a little in front of him. Restlessly shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he locked his arms into place and looked down the barrel with determination. He could feel the weight of his finger resting on the trigger, but even when looking his nemesis straight in the eye he couldn’t take the shot.

Something wouldn’t let him.

When he spoke his voice rang around the empty space with the kind of conviction that came from doing the right thing. ‘Andrei Demietrov, I’m placing you under arrest for the trafficking of illegal substances and the suspected murder of Candice James.’ The darkness shrank within him, folding in on itself until it became the manageable part of his personality it had been before his life got so screwed up. ‘You have the right to remain silent—’

As he stepped forwards the man reached out and tumbled the nearest pile of crates to the ground, creating a domino effect that forced Tyler to jump out of the way before he continued the chase. There was the sound of a door slamming shut. When he got to it and swung it open he discovered it was raining outside. He checked each side of an arch of security lighting and took a step forwards...

The impact knocked him backwards a second before he heard the shot and felt a searing heat blaze through his shoulder. There was another shot in quick succession—he felt a second burn in his upper arm—and then there was a hail of gunfire and a body slumped onto the ground. As he staggered backwards Tyler knew he hadn’t fired his weapon. The ESU guys had done what he couldn’t.

Sickly warmth soaked his shirt as his back hit the wall beside the door and his knees gave out.

He stared at the body as his partner appeared and swore succinctly while prying the gun from his hand. ‘This is Detective Ramirez, we have an officer down—I repeat, officer down. I need a bus at—’

As he rhymed off the address—presumably over the phone—Tyler felt a sense of peace wash over him. When it came down to the wire he didn’t have it in him to murder a man in cold blood. Maybe he wasn’t as far gone as he’d thought. Maybe Miranda had pulled him back from the edge. He tried to focus past the pain while the warmth drained from his body. Getting shot hurt like a bitch. And he’d left Miranda handcuffed to her bed.

A rumble of laughter made him groan.

‘You want to share the joke?’ his partner asked as he took a look at the damage.

‘The one time I don’t wear a vest...’ he mumbled back.

‘Murphy’s Law...you’re Irish...work it out.’

Tyler swore when he added pressure to the wound on his shoulder. ‘Don’t think that’ll help,’ he gritted through clenched teeth as his vision blurred. ‘I think that one went through.’

‘Here’s hoping. If it’s gone through they won’t have to dig it out. What about your arm?’

‘That one they’ll have to dig out.’

‘Just as well you’re right-handed, isn’t it?’

Tyler frowned. A few feet back, to the side of the ESU’s tactical guys as they checked the body lying on the ground, a silent figure stood in the pouring rain. Her face wasn’t covered in blood any more and she was smiling at him. How could she be happy he’d failed her—wasn’t the whole point of haunting him to keep him focused on avenging her death? ‘I’m sorry.’ It was the first time he’d told her that. ‘I screwed up.’

‘You’ve got nothing to apologize for,’ his partner replied, obviously under the impression Tyler was talking to him. ‘Can happen to the best of us.’

When he blinked the raindrops off his lashes Candice was replaced by another woman with long dark hair and while she was smiling, too, she was also shaking her head. Why was he seeing Jo? She wasn’t dead. He blinked again, the movement taking more effort than it had before.

‘Stay with me,’ his partner’s voice said.

A woman with tumbling tresses of flame-red hair appeared in Jo’s place and even in the rain Tyler could see she was crying. His heart twisted. She should never have to cry because of him, even if part of it was alcohol related. He wanted to make her happy, hear her laugh every day and see the fire in her eyes when they argued. He didn’t have to keep his foot on the brake any more. The obstacles standing in their way weren’t insurmountable. If they were then he wouldn’t feel the way he did.

Not that he had any control over it.

‘Stay with me.’

She’d said that, too, and he’d never wanted anything more. If they’d been born in an earlier time he’d happily keep her barefoot and pregnant and protect what was his, keeping them safe from marauders. He’d have been good at that. All the touchy-feely modern-day stuff that said a guy was supposed to embrace his feminine side and emote, not so damn much. Tyler didn’t have a feminine side. Karl Jung could take his theories on human psychology and—

‘Ty, snap out of it.’ A hand smacked his cheek a few times. ‘You gotta stay awake.’

Damn, it was cold. He should have worn a jacket. Screw the jacket, he should have worn his damn vest and then he wouldn’t be ruining a perfectly good sweater.

‘Anyone on your team an EMT?’ his partner yelled at the ESU guys. ‘Get him over here!’

Excellent—someone else to fuss over him. Anyone would think he was the first person in the world to get shot.

‘I’ll call your family when we get to the emergency room,’ his partner said in a lower voice.

‘You do that I’ll kick your ass.’

‘Anyone you do want me to call?’

‘No.’ Since shaking his head took too much effort, he frowned again. ‘Don’t want to worry her.’

‘We all need someone who does that.’

‘You’d like her.’ His voice slurred.

‘Can’t be that good a judge of character if she likes you...’ His partner moved to make room for someone else. ‘We need to stop the bleeding.’

‘I’m on it,’ a voice he didn’t recognize said. ‘Stay with us, brother.’

With his eyelids growing heavy Tyler used up some of his waning energy on what probably looked like a sappy smile. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve it but she did like him. Unless he was very much mistaken—and he prayed he wasn’t—she liked him a whole heap. Way he saw it she was his—he just had to find a way to make her believe it, too. Jo hadn’t been his one who got away. But if he was dumb enough to let Miranda go without putting up one hell of a fight she would be.

They just needed a little more time....

‘Stay awake, Ty. Where the hell’s that bus?’

It was the second time in less than twenty-four hours he found his ass on wet ground while he wondered when he’d fallen for her. The first had been the ‘there you are’ moment that identified her as the one he’d been waiting for all along. He’d even laughed with joy. She was the reason he’d been emotionally unavailable to other women. She was the reason he hadn’t told Jo how he’d thought he felt. At times she drove him nuts but she was smart and funny and gutsy and sexy as hell. It shouldn’t have been such a great surprise he wanted to hold on to her. Any guy would. But they could forget it. She was his.

‘Tell her,’ he mumbled.

‘Tell her what?’

Somewhere along the way she’d got under his skin and crawled inside, filling him up until everything else was pushed out. It didn’t matter if it was too soon or that there was still so much for him to learn about her. It was just there...like air...without it...

He couldn’t breathe.

‘Ty, come on, man, you gotta hold on.’

He hadn’t known love could be so...big. He felt crushed under the weight of it. If he knew she could feel the same way it would lift him up higher than he’d ever been before. But until they got a chance to talk he just needed a little nap—he had to be at full strength to fight for her. Forty winks should do it.

With sirens sounding in the distance she was the last thought on his mind as he passed out.