“There was a picture of you on top of the equipment.”
She seemed shaken, but doggedly refused to believe Steve would be capable of such things. She got up and walked to the porch rail. “I might have given him one at some time.”
“Laney,” Cooper rose and crossed to her. “You know you didn’t. This was a picture…a very candid picture—”
“I don’t want to hear this!” She started to walk away, but he grabbed her arm.
“Laney, I’m sorry, honey, but you have to know this. He took a picture of you while you were sleeping.” She shuddered, but didn’t speak. “Guido confirmed the equipment that was in the closet worked with the tracking device we found in your phone. I think Steve’s been jumping from his balcony to the roof and then down on your balcony. I did it myself. It was very easy—”
“Cooper, no.” She shook her head weakly and tears formed in her eyes.
“Laney, he murdered your sister.”
“No!” she shrieked, her body beginning to shake.
“I’m sorry, honey. I know this hurts, but you need to know. You need to know what he is capable of.”
“But why?” she shouted. “Why would he do that to Sydney? It makes no sense! It makes no sense.” At the end, she sounded like she was pleading with him.
“I’m not sure about that, but I have an idea. I think…maybe, of course, I would have no way of confirming this until I talk to the scumbag…but I think it’s possible Sydney caught him at it—caught him in your room—and she was going to tell you about it. In fact,” an idea occurred to him as he was speaking, “maybe that is one of the things she was coming to tell you that night at Phat Jack’s.” Cooper continued to speculate, thinking out loud. “He followed her there, and strangled her with a karate belt, maybe he even had his Gi on at the time—”
“With his belt?” Laney reached down to feel for her seat before sinking into it. He sat beside her, watching her. She put her face into her hands. “Oh, my God, maybe you’re right.” She sobbed. “Syd…oh, no!”
“What is it?”
He could barely make out what she was saying through her gasps, her voice muffled by arms as her head sank lower. “Sh-she was going to g-go t-to my house that day. Sh-she wanted to borrow…oh, this is all wrong!” She lifted her face, shouting in anger and pain. “He killed her because of me! Because of me!” The realization seemed to rip through her like a machete. The sister she adored had been killed because her neighbor was obsessed with her. The look on her face pained him.
“I wish I could have spared you this. I wish I could do something to help you.”
Her face became savage. “You say they have him? The police have him?”
“Yes. In Buenos Aries.”
“I want him to pay for this. For what he did to Sydney. I want him to pay!”
“He’ll pay. I’ll make him pay. You can be assured of that.”
That, at least, seemed to offer her some measure of reassurance.
Cooper held her that night, knowing she was fragile, and it was many hours before either of them could sleep.
“Cooper?” she murmured in the darkness.
“Mmm?”
“Thank you. Thank you for figuring it out.”
“It’s okay, baby,” he mumbled, flipping over on his side so he could hold her better. “You don’t have to thank me. Sleep now, honey. You have to be tired.”
“I am,” she sighed. After a few minutes she said, “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me, too, baby. Me, too.”
Mercifully, the night claimed them both, and they drifted off to sleep.
* * *
In the morning, he awoke to the sound of the shower running.
“You’re up,” he said, surprised, when she stepped into the room wrapped in a towel, a second one turbaned on her head.
“Yes, I’m going to work.” She sat on the end of the bed, and bent her head down to free it from its towel. She rubbed her hair with it while he watched a few drops of water wander down the middle of her back and become absorbed in the other towel. Her skin looked so fresh and dewy, and she smelled incredible.
He sat up and chased another droplet of water down her back. “Why don’t you come back to bed?” he asked, his implication clear.
She leaned back into his arms and pulled his head down to kiss him. Just when he thought she had decided to take him up on his offer, she sat up. “I can’t.”
“And why not?” he asked, pretending to be hurt. “I’ve got to go to work.”
“Work?”
“Yes.”
He thought about this. Since Steve was behind bars, maybe it would be okay for her to go in for awhile. Maybe it would take her mind off of things.
“Well, in that case,” he said, pulling back the sheets, “I guess I’d better get going, too.”
When he finished his shower, a warm plate of French toast and bacon was waiting for him. She was quiet over breakfast, until she laid her fork down abruptly and commented, as if the discussion from last night had been ongoing, “What I don’t understand is…Steve is so...” She seemed to search for the words to describe him. “One time he hit a squirrel,” she explained, “just ran over him in his truck on accident. The squirrel zipped in front of him, and he swerved—but you know how kamikaze those squirrels can be—and Steve was upset for weeks about it. How does a guy like that do…the things he’s done?”
Cooper reached across the table to take her hand. “I wish I could help you make sense of it all, but sometimes it doesn’t make sense.”
Laney frowned, clearly not satisfied by the answer.
Minutes after, Cooper had gone into the laundry room to iron his shirt, and there was a knock on the door.
“Mr. Sullivan.” Laney stood dumbfounded as the big man stood on her doorstep, his hands behind his back, shuffling his feet.
“Uhh…hi.” The pair stood looking at each other for a few seconds, but then Laney threw her arms around him.
“I’m so glad you’re here!” She beamed. “Come in, come in.” She stepped back to clear his way. “I’m sorry…I was just so surprised and happy to see you.”
“Really? I was afraid you might not be.”
“Nonsense! Cooper’s in the—”
Thad’s face lit up when he saw the amazing interior of the house and he whistled. “Nice place! Oh!” he said, refocusing. “I’m not here to see Cooper.” The warm glow inside her dimmed. “Not yet anyway. I wanted to talk to you.” He took her hands in his large, weathered ones, and seemed to speak from the heart. “I want to apologize for the way I acted yesterday. You see, we Irish do everything with passion. We love with passion. We fight with passion. We sing with passion. Hell, we even drink with passion. But having said that, it’s still no excuse for my behavior yesterday. I was a lout, as my dear Livvy would say, and I only hope you’ll forgive me.”
Laney didn’t hesitate. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his leathery cheek. “Done. And I’m sorry I ran out yesterday. We British aren’t very good at handling our emotions. We’re tight-lipped, and annoyingly stoic—”
“That’s not how I see you.”
“I’m glad. But we are nonetheless. We may stay cool on the surface, but we burn just as hot underneath. So, I understand your reaction completely.”
As she talked to the retired police officer, she saw him shift his attention to the living room below, where Cooper had stepped out into the hall, still tucking in his shirt.
“What are you doing here?” he said, his voice cool.
“I came to apologize,” his father responded in his rough way.
“What? What was that?” He put his hand to his ear in an exaggerated manner to indicate he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Thad grinned, and whispered loudly to Laney as he traipsed down the steps behind her. “He gets his wise-acreness from his mother.”
She laughed. “Yeah, right.” The two men stood at a distance from one another uncertainly. “I’ll finish gathering my s
tuff and let you two gentlemen have a talk.” As she passed Cooper, she caught his hand. “Be good!” she said in a low voice.
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Always am,” he said with a sexy little wink that sent shivers up her spine.
The men were silent, eying each other until they heard the soft click of the bedroom door shutting. Cooper knew for a fact Laney had nothing to gather in the bedroom, but he appreciated the privacy she had given them.
“You were saying?” He raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest.
“Boy! You never make this easy, do you?”
He unfolded his arms, holding them out, palms up. “This? I don’t believe this has ever happened before. So excuse me if I enjoy it a little.”
Thad gave him a crooked grin. “You sure are some piece of work, you know that, Cooper Sullivan?”
“Yeah. I heard I take after my old man.”
Thad grunted. He studied Cooper and then took a deep breath. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry, okay?” He spit it out, like a dog spitting out its chew toy after fighting over it, with great reluctance. “I just don’t want you to make the same mistakes that I made.”
“Man! You even know how to make an apology insulting.”
“Insulting? Insulting?” he yelled. “What the hell did I do now?”
“Are you calling Mom a mistake?” Cooper enjoyed his look of surprise. “Mom told me how you and she met.” He walked over behind a sofa table, running his hand over a piece of statuary there. “All these years and you never told me you met on the job? And then you call it a mistake?”
“Now, son, you know I love your ma, and she’s, without a doubt, the best thing in my life…and for some strange reason, she’s been under the delusion for the past forty some odd years that she loves me. You know I understand how lucky I am to have her.”
Cooper turned back to him. “Yeah. I know all that. I was just trying to give you a hard time.”
“Oh, you were, were ya? You know, Cooper, I may be old, but I can still whoop your ass.”
“Oh, you can?” He grinned, folding his arms again and lifting his chin. He walked back over to stand in front of Thad. “I’d like to see that.”
“Oh, yeah!”
Cooper feinted to the right, but his dad anticipated his move and the older man grabbed him in a headlock and proceeded to grind his knuckles into the younger man’s head. Cooper howled as Laney stepped out into the hall.
“Oh, no! Mr. Sullivan, don’t!”
Both men looked up in surprise, then realizing what it looked like, backed off, explaining at the same time.
“I was showing him I could still whip his butt, if I had to.”
“We’re just goofing around, honey.”
They were both panting from their roughhousing.
“Ugh!” She put a hand over her heart. Then her face colored. “You, two…IDIOTS!” She stared at them both, hands on her hips.
“Oooh! She sounded just like your ma there,” Thad said to Cooper. Then he turned to her. “Good job.” He punched her shoulder lightly. “We’ll get some Irish brewin’ in you yet.”
She frowned at him. Then rolled her eyes. “I give up!” She turned and walked back to the bedroom.
“Whoops! Just when we had made up.”
“Don’t worry, Pops,” Cooper said, catching his breath still. “I think she’s nervous about returning to school today. To tell you the truth, so am I. We have her sister’s murderer in custody in Buenos Aires, but I’d feel better if we had him on U.S. soil.”
“Do you want me to walk by there today? Keep an eye on her?”
Cooper thought about this. “No. I’ll talk to the security there and stop by myself at lunch. She’ll be fine. I’m being a little…overprotective, I guess.”
“If the guy put those bruises on her, I would be, too.”
“Oh, you noticed those, huh?”
“Once a cop, always a cop.” He headed toward the door. “Well, call me if you change your mind. I’ve got nothing else going on today.”
Cooper followed him. “Okay, I’ll do that, Pops. Thanks for coming by.”
“Sure thing.” He gave his son a bear hug before leaving. “Don’t forget…I can still kick your butt.”
“Yeah, right.” He leaned forward, to whisper exaggeratedly, “Rematch?”
“Anytime, kid,” he answered with a grin. “Anytime.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
At first, Laney’s chest was tight and she jumped at the slightest noise. But by third hour, she was back into the swing of things. During lunch, she decided to eat at her desk in order to catch up on some neglected lesson planning, and, if she was honest with herself, to avoid the questions and sympathetic statements of colleagues. She wanted to pretend it was a normal day. It felt good being back.
As she sat leafing through her planner a huge apple came down on her desk. She looked up. Cooper was leaning on her desk with a grin. The bright, blue shirt he had picked out earlier in the morning was giving his eyes an even more devastating gleam than usual. The corners of her lips turned up a little, but she raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you have a pass, young man?”
“Ooh!” he responded, leaning in to press his lips to hers. “I love it when you get all teachery with me!” He took the kiss deeper and she found her heart beat beginning to race. She pulled back, aflutter, feeling the heat rise in her face and chest.
“Why do I suddenly feel like this is the Apple of Temptation?” she asked, pushing back in her rolling chair to put some distance between them.
Cooper picked it up and tossed it up and down. Watching the apple, Laney didn’t realize how close he had gotten until he snatched the apple out of the air, and laid it back on her desk, bringing him within inches of her. “You can call it anything you want,” he said with a wicked smile. She tried to back up again and rammed her back into a tall, metal filing cabinet. He burst into Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” and air-guitared away from her, hopping on one leg.
Now that she was able to breathe, his proximity making it difficult before, she laughed. “Don’t give up your day job, Sullivan.” She sat back down and pretended to be engrossed in adding grades to her grade book, running her finger down columns and marking in it.
He strode smoothly back over to her desk. “S-o-o-o,” he said, running the back of his finger down the side of her face as he leaned against her desk. “You’re telling me you’re not in the least bit turned on right now?” His voice was almost a low purr.
She trembled, and looked up. “Okay. Maybe a little by the visitor’s badge.”
He chuckled and cupped his hand under her chin, lifting her head and bringing his mouth down on hers savagely. He was in the process of kissing her breathless, when they heard someone clear their throat.
A tall, rail-thin, African-American student in baggy clothing and a baseball cap sauntered in, laughing in a falsetto voice. “Ooh! You go, Ms. E.!”
Laney pulled away and straightened her clothes, though Cooper hadn’t even touched them, she’d only wanted him to. “Oh, Truman! I didn’t see you there.”
He raised his brows, his eyes laughing. “That’s ‘cause you were too busy—”
“Uh-uh-uh. I do not want to hear whatever colorful phrase is about to come out of your mouth—”
“—doin’ the tonsil tango with Mr. G. Q. here.”
“And there you have it,” she said, resigned. “Truman, this is Cooper. Cooper, this is Truman Trueheart, and yes, that is his real name.”
“My momma’s funny.”
Cooper couldn’t help but hear the George Thorogood lyric running through his head, Now you funny, too! but he kept it to himself, offering his hand to the young man. “Nice to meet you.”
Truman clasped Cooper’s hand with his right, then, slapped the back of it with his left. “Way to go, man! Ms. E.’s one hottie, ya know what I mean?” He pretended it was only for Cooper’s ears but said it loud enough for Laney to hear and blush.
“Yes, she is.” Cooper pulled the kid in closer. “But she’s my hottie, got it?” he said as a pseudo-threat.
“Yeah, man, I got it! You look like you work out,” he added. “You a cop or somethin’?”
Laney laughed, but then pretended to cough when Cooper shot her a look. “I’ll let you get back to ‘work,’” he said, hanging invisible quotation marks in the air. “What time you want me to pick you up today?”
“Can we make it late? I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I’ll take you out to dinner before we head back to Malibu.”
Truman pretended to be perusing his textbook, which would have been more convincing if it looked like the spine had ever been tested. She knew he was listening to every word, no doubt ready to start the rumor wheel next hour.
“Sure. I’ve got some paperwork of my own to catch up with, down at the precinct house.” He made his statement especially loud
Truman made a show of waving him off and turning his back on them as if still engrossed in the book, which she noticed now was upside down. Before she could protest, Cooper bent in and gave her one last quick, but heart-pounding kiss and left her feeling slightly dazed.
“Oooh, Ms. E.! You got it bad!” Truman said with a whistle. Laney reached back and whipped an eraser at him. “And you’ve got bad aim, too!” he teased.
* * *
Cooper worked late, logging in entries from his notebook he had neglected to put in his file lately. When he got up to leave, turning off the lamp on his desk, he saw Aidan exiting the locker room. “Hey, bud. You eat yet?”
“Nah. Thought I’d grab something now. You?”
“I was going to pick Laney up and go out for something. You want to join us?”
“I don’t know, man. Isn’t three a crowd?”
“Not when it’s you. Besides, we could pick up Jenna if you want to.”
“No. She’s working an ambulance shift tonight to pick up some extra coin, but I’ll join you. If you’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
They walked out together and hopped in Aidan’s sedan, since the Vette was too small. Night had fallen when they had been under the false daylight-like glow of fluorescent lights inside. Minutes later, a call came over his radio. “Aidan, you know where Cooper is?”
THE HEART TEACHES BEST (REAL ROMANCE COLLECTION Book 2) Page 19