“And you’re sure he is not here?”
“Unless he got fired for his latest excessive use of force.”
“What does that mean?”
Taylor glanced over. “A police officer has a certain right to use force, even killing someone, in the line of duty. But when they cross the line and use force when it’s not necessary or even close to necessary, they can get into trouble. Even be charged with a crime.”
“And he has done that before?”
“Several times,” she answered, looking at the house again. “This one was for punching a suspect in handcuffs.”
“Meaning he was restrained?”
“Yep.”
“I am guessing your mate—husband—is not a very nice person.”
“Nope. And we are not married. I started seeing him more than a year ago. Started to fall in love, as he seemed like the perfect guy. Sweet, considerate, loving. Then he urged me to move in with the girls. So, I did. Not even a month later, he beat me up.”
“And has tied you to him with threats.”
“You got it.”
Kane shook his head. “I do not understand people.”
“That makes two of us.”
Reaching across her belly, Taylor opened the door with her right hand. Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she got out even as Kane did. “You don’t have to walk me to the door.”
She took one look at the stubborn set to his lips and laughed. “Like I am going to stop you, right?”
“Right.”
Unlocking the door, Taylor flipped on the porch light and the foyer light. Both illuminated a great deal of the house and yard as she stepped inside. “I’d invite you in for a while,” she said, her voice revealing her regret, “but if Craig came home early—”
“I understand,” Kane replied with a smile. “You need to take your pain pill and get some sleep.”
“Will you call me?”
“Sure.”
Feeling lonelier than ever without the twins, and now watching Kane walk toward the street, Taylor fervently wished Craig would do something to get himself arrested and incarcerated. She closed the door and leaned against it for a few seconds, thinking of Kane’s godlike handsomeness, then abruptly opened it again, the words to call him back on her lips.
Kane was gone.
Blinking, Taylor stepped out of her house and looked up and down the street in both directions. No Kane. Just then, something blotted out the starlight for a brief moment, and instinctively, she looked up. Nothing. A shiver ran down her arms and her gut told her something very weird had just happened.
Going back inside, she locked and deadbolted the door and left the porch light on.
The bedside clock read nearly eleven when Taylor woke. Groggy from the pain killer, she lay on her back for a while, listening to the tiny creaks of the house. Rubbing her arm, she found the swelling had subsided, but once she got up and moved around, the pain would return.
It always did.
She finally got up, sitting on the edge of the bed while considering the usefulness of even bothering to rise and shower. But if Craig came home and found her in bed—
Yawning, her eyes gritty, Taylor opened the drawer of the nightstand and reached for the small hidden compartment. If Craig opened it, he’d find a mix of odds and ends that meant nothing to him. Yet, the drawer was smaller than it should be. The back of the drawer came loose with just the right tug, and Taylor extracted her cell phone.
Not the one Craig called her on, the one she gave out in case of emergencies, and the one Jackie called when it didn’t matter if Craig checked the call log. No, this one she kept secret from him. And right now, the only people who had the number were Jackie, for times when neither of them wanted Craig to know about their conversations.
And Kane.
Turning it on, Taylor yawned while it booted up, then she put in her personal code. One far different than her other phone, which Craig had access to. When it came on, Taylor found she had two messages. She clicked the button, then held the phone to her ear.
“It’s me, honey,” Jackie said. “I’m worried about you. The girls are fine, they’re asleep. This is bad, Taylor. I need you to consider finding a way to leave him. This cannot go on. I saw how much pain you’re in. Call me when you get time and privacy.”
Taylor deleted the message, then listened to the next, expecting her mother again. A pleasant shock filled her when Kane’s voice, hesitant, unsure, said, “Uh, hello, I just wanted to, you know, call. I don’t know much about these things. So, I guess, call me back. This is Kane.”
Delighted, Taylor deleted that one, too, then hit the call back button. It rang on the other end—one, two, three—times, and she thought he wouldn’t answer. Then his breathless and hesitant voice asked, “Taylor?”
“Yeah, hi,” she replied, smiling. “Got your message.”
“Were you sleeping?”
“Yeah, I just woke up.”
“How’s your arm?”
“The swelling has gone down, so it’s on the mend.”
“Good.”
Kane hesitated, and Taylor heard him clear his throat. “I was wondering, that is, when it’s safe, you know, that we might, um, see each other. I’d like to meet your daughters.”
“And I’d like them to meet you.” Taylor couldn’t stop grinning. “You’ll love them.”
“I get so bored,” Kane admitted. “I have nothing to do.”
“You don’t have a job, I take it.”
“I need to find one. But I fear I have no skills.”
“Neither does Craig and he’s a damn cop.”
Kane laughed. “Then maybe I can become a cop.”
“You’d make a good one.”
Taylor pondered for a moment. “Want to try for tomorrow? Craig is off the day after, so that won’t work. We can take the girls to the park. They haven’t been in ages.”
“I’d like that.”
“Cool. Look, I have to shower, then go get them. Listen, can I call you later?”
“I’ll try to fit you in. After all, I have sooo many social engagements.”
Taylor laughed. “Right. I forgot. Bye for now.”
“Bye.”
Kane hung up before Taylor remembered his very weird vanishing act in the wee hours of the morning. And the strange thing that briefly blotted out the stars. She considered calling him back to ask about it, then shook her head. Taylor shut her phone off, put it back behind its false wall, and closed the drawer.
Standing, she stretched, trying not to annoy her sore arm into protest, then ambled to the bathroom to take her shower, humming under her breath, thinking of Kane and Jackie’s urgent message that she risk everything and leave Craig. Absently wondering if Kane might help her in some way, Taylor pondered the pros and cons of actually leaving him.
The shower curtain abruptly swung back with a rattle.
Surprised, Taylor swung around. Craig, his expression bleak, angry and deadly, gazed at her. He didn’t look at her naked body but at her face.
“Why are you showering so fucking late?” he demanded.
“I had trouble sleeping,” she answered. “I took a pain pill.”
“And the girls?”
“At my mom’s.”
He snorted, turning away. “They spend way too much time at that old bitch’s house.”
Taylor’s anger rose at the slight to her mother, but she swallowed it and turned the water off. Stepping out, she grabbed a towel and dried herself, observing the tension in Craig’s body, the simmering rage beneath the surface.
“What’s wrong?”
Craig glared at her as though it were her fault. “That fucker Johnson assigned me to a desk,” he snapped. “I might get fired this time.”
His dark eyes met hers. “The brotherhood is turning against me.”
Taylor shivered. She knew what that meant. If his fellow officers no longer supported him, did not consider him one of their own, then Craig might do a
nything. He had little to lose. If he lost his job, then there was nothing to stop him from killing her, then Lila and Megan, and finally himself.
“That’s not true,” she exclaimed hastily. “They like you; you’re one of them. You’re just going through a tough time, that’s all.”
Craig’s upper lip lifted into a humorless grin. “You think so? What makes you so sure?”
“You’re a good cop,” she replied without hesitation. If she hesitated, he’d sense the lie. “Johnson knows it, too. He’s just being pissy.”
Finally, the deadly spark left his eyes, and his shoulders rounded. “Yeah, he is. I’m better at the job than he is, cuz he’s too chicken shit to demand respect.” Craig tapped his chest. “I demand respect, and I get it, see?”
“Yeah. I do see.”
Craig looked her up and down with disgust. “Get dressed and fix me something to eat. I’m hungry.”
Chapter Eight
Their rust-colored hair in braids, Megan and Lila shrieked as they chased one another across the grass in their filmy princess costumes. Taylor had crowned them each with a tiara, yet in their exuberance, they hadn’t noticed when the silver plastic had fallen off their small heads.
One of them, Kane couldn’t tell one from the other, fell down. She set off a wailing, her small face scrunched into a tearful, red mask, only to forget she had fallen down when she caught sight of a tiara in the grass.
Kane laughed. “It doesn’t take much to make them happy, does it?”
“Nope.” Taylor watched them with a critical eye, making sure they didn’t wander too far away. She gestured across the park. “I don’t like coming here when people let their dogs off the leash.”
Kane looked. A couple of largish canines romped with a dish-shaped flying object, chasing it only to return it to their handlers for them to throw again. “You think there’s danger from them?”
Taylor shrugged. “They’re big dogs to my very small daughters. That makes me paranoid.”
Relaxing in the mid-morning sunlight, happy to be with Taylor and her daughters, as well as to be out of that stifling hotel room, Kane yawned. “They won’t harm your children. Not while I’m around.”
They sat together on a bench in the shade of a big tree with spreading branches, close enough that their legs and shoulders often brushed when one of them moved. Kane liked her nearness, the scent of her hair, the green of her eyes. She turned them on him now, eyeing him with amusement.
“Are you saying you can halt a dog attack before it happens?”
“Of course.”
“How? Dogs have four legs, you have two. You’re saying you can be faster than they are?”
“Yeah. And stronger.”
Kane flexed his right bicep with a grin. “No dog stands a chance against me.”
“You’d get ripped up before you did anything.” Taylor gazed across the park at the frolicking dogs. “They train police dogs to take down big men like you.”
“Canines are afraid of guys like me. Even police dogs.”
Taylor frowned. “How so?”
He smiled. “I’m a bigger predator than they are.”
He saw she meant to say or ask something, but Taylor got distracted by a twin falling to the ground and sending up a harsh cry. “Oh, dear,” she murmured.
Rising, she went to the fallen child and picked her up, soothing her with words and kisses. “Why don’t you sit with Kane for a little while?”
“Okay.”
The small child rubbed her teary eyes as Taylor set her in Kane’s arms. “Which one is this?”
“This is Lila.”
Kane stood her on his thigh, balancing her with his hand, then brushed her hair from her face. “Hi, Lila.”
“Hi.”
“Did you fall down?”
“Uh-huh.” Lila pulled her lavender gown up to expose the tiniest legs Kane had ever seen. “There.” She pointed to a small red mark on her knee.”
“Are you going to be all right? Should I take you to the hospital?”
“Nooo.”
Okay, then how about I tickle you?”
Lila giggled and pulled away from him as he ran the tips of his fingers up and down her stomach, her giggles turning into shrieks. Dancing on his leg, Lila whooped and laughed, Kane laughing with her. He glanced up at Taylor.
“You’re so good with them,” she commented.
Megan dashed over to see what the fuss was about and climbed awkwardly onto the bench. “Me, me, me,” she shouted.
Thus, Kane held them both easily and tickled small bodies, conscious of his strength. A twin sat on each of his legs and they regaled him with some story about queens and princesses, of which he understood perhaps one word in five.
“Lila, Megan,” Taylor said, taking them from him and setting them on the grass. “Go play for a while. Let Kane and I visit.”
Happy, the twins chattered at one another, then sat down to take off their shoes.
“How do you tell them apart?” Kane asked.
“Megan’s hair is slightly darker,” Taylor replied. “And Lila’s eyes are more green than hazel.” She smiled. “Plus, a mother just knows.”
“I expected motherhood was part of it.”
Laughing and screaming, Megan and Lila picked up small sticks from the grass, then played some game that entailed throwing them in the air to find them again.
“Can you imagine being that young and small?” Taylor asked with a grin. “We were all that little once.”
Kane started to nod, watching the loose dogs as they chased the flying disks. The game had wandered closer to the tree Kane and Taylor sat under, and the pair of dogs paused to stare at Lila and Megan. Sharp whistles cut through the air, and the young men who handled them called words that Kane suspected were the dogs’ names.
The dogs ignored them.
Kane instantly knew the dogs sensed prey, and the twins’ behavior had triggered that instinct. Their body language screamed it; they crouched low with their ears back, their dark eyes intent on the twins who, in their game, were now closer to the dogs than they were to the bench.
Taylor saw the dogs at the very moment the animals charged. She leaped to her feet with a sharp cry. Kane, off the bench, ran in long strides to intercept the dogs. The young men screamed, frantic, panicked, yelling the dogs’ names as they, too, ran to catch their animals before disaster struck.
Kane roared, a long guttering cry filled with rage and death. He rushed between the girls and the dogs a fraction of a second before the animals reached the now silent and still twins.
The dogs, running too fast to stop, skidded into his legs. Thinking to reach down and snap their spines before they could escape him, Kane instead roared again. Panicked, the dogs scrambled to run away, crying in high pitched ki-yi-yi-yi yelps as though scalded with boiling oil.
Bolting, they ran past their still shouting handlers, the young men stopping in their tracks to gape as their dogs fled. They stared at Kane, who glared at them, silently challenging them to quarrel over how he had frightened the dogs away from their attack on helpless children.
Taylor grabbed his arm, and Kane felt her shaking in fear and anger. “Keep your fucking dogs leashed,” she screamed at the men. “They attacked my kids. I outta fucking sue your asses, you stupid shits. If I had a gun, I’d shoot them both and you.”
Kane put his arm around her, still staring at the men as they backed away. Relief and fear crossed their faces as they spun and trotted away, whistling for their dogs. Turning with Taylor still yelling threats at their backs, Kane took her with him to check on the twins. Taylor dropped to her knees, gathering them in close.
Obviously, they had no idea what had happened, and Taylor’s fears were quickly transmitted to them. They, too, started crying as Kane glanced around the park. Onlookers stared at them, most likely having witnessed the entire event. Kane sighed. No more anonymity yet again.
Chapter Nine
Her mouth dry no matter ho
w many times she worked saliva into it, her inner shakes still quivering, Taylor drove the minivan toward Kane’s hotel. In their car seats, Megan and Lila slept, the result of playing hard and too much crying. She tried to wrap her head around what had happened.
And failed.
Unable to get the sound of Kane’s roar out of her mind, nor the sight of the dogs fleeing in terror, Taylor, for the first time, wondered what she had gotten herself into with Kane. His accent, his lack of knowledge on things she took for granted, and the sound, more like an enraged lion than a man, that had erupted from his mouth.
“You’re upset with me.”
Taylor glanced sidelong at him. “No.”
His expression, sad, defiant, and lost tore at her heart. “I’m not,” she added. “You saved my girls.”
He said nothing but stared out the window at the passing traffic, the strip malls, restaurants. Taylor glanced over her shoulder briefly, seeing the twins still sleeping, and wondering what more there was to say. Plenty. “How did you do that?” she asked. “Scare those dogs?”
His smile made her shiver. “They recognized me for what I am.”
“And what is that?”
“Meaner and deadlier than they are.”
Taylor stared at him until forced to turn her attention back to the street ahead of her. “I don’t believe that.”
“Believe it.”
Taylor shook her head, trying acquaint his obvious integrity, his protectiveness, his gentle way with Megan and Lila, and couldn’t. “I’m just glad no one got hurt.”
“Yes.”
She got the impression he planned to say more, but, instead, he turned his head to once more look out the window. Neither of them spoke as she pulled into the parking lot of his hotel and came to a stop outside the door. Kane glanced at her.
“I suppose you don’t want me to call you anymore,” he said softly.
“I’ll be mad if you don’t,” Taylor replied and meant it.
Kane smiled. “Then I will.”
“Good. Maybe we can get together again soon.”
“I want that.”
He closed the door and walked into the lobby; his hands jammed into his pockets. He didn’t look back. Troubled, not really knowing why, Taylor put the minivan in gear and drove out of the lot. She made a left turn and headed past Teddy’s Bar and Grill. As she did, it occurred to her to ask Ted to let her look at the security footage from that night.
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