Love Against the Law

by Justine Klavon

  Sammi was in a panic and her hands were shaking as she tried to hold her phone and get into the contacts screen. It was all suddenly so real. Before she could scroll down to Mack’s name, Kodi came back into the room and headed for the door, asking Sammi if she was ready to go without looking at her. Not wanting to draw attention to her newfound belly, Sammi composed herself while she pocketed her phone and followed Kodi out of the room to meet up with the boys.

  The four friends ended up grabbing lunch at the hotel bar before sitting by the pool to discuss everything they wanted to see while they were in California. While they lounged around outside by the pool, Sammi noticed a gorgeous surfer-type guy with shaggy blonde hair staring at her. His hair was slightly shorter than Eli’s, but it was wavier. They made eye contact about a dozen times before the shirtless muscular man made his way over to introduce himself.

  “I’m sorry, but you are the most incredible-looking Sheila I’ve eva’ seen,” the beach boy said directly to Sammi in an unexpected Australian accent. “And now that I see the rings on your finga,’ I feel like a fool.”

  “No, you’re fine,” Sammi replied kindly, blushing and holding back a giggle. “I’m Sammi, by the way.”

  “Well, hello, Sammi,” the Australian responded with a bright, big-toothed smile. “I’m Christopha.’”

  “Maybe I’ll see you around, Christopher,” Sammi told him, retuning his smile.

  Christopher looked back to smile at Sammi twice as he walked away, blushing slightly himself. As soon as he was out of sight, Sammi burst into laughter while her friends looked at her in shock.

  “You’re mean!” Eli gasped.

  Sammi continued to laugh, feeling better than she had in four months. Flirting with a stranger had taken her mind off Mack and the fact that she was almost five months pregnant. The flattering attention from the attractive Aussie kept her distracted the rest of the day and night, and she forgot all about the need to call her husband.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Laying Me Low

  Eli, Howard, Kodi, and Sammi spent the next ten days seeing everything they wanted to see throughout California. They visited the different cities and spent time on the different beaches, taking it all in. Eli had been the only one of them who had ever even left New York and the others were just happy to see that a place existed that wasn’t as grey and suffocating as New York was. Sammi was instantly infatuated with Hollywood and Los Angeles, which didn’t surprise any of her friends since she’d been talking about those cities since they’d known her.

  But by the end of the ten days, the team had seen everything they wanted to see and Sammi’s friends were ready to go home. Kodi missed her boyfriend, Howard missed his home, and Eli just hated California because it was too sunny and too pretentious for his taste; he was a New Yorker tried and true. Sammi hadn’t said anything, but she was in no hurry to get back to New York.

  During the ten days of exploration, Sammi ran into Christopher a few times around the hotel, always in passing. The two of them would always exchange a smile and a wave or even a wink when they were feeling good about themselves. Having gone four months without a word from her husband, Sammi was really enjoying the attention.

  When Sammi woke up the morning after their last day of sight-seeing, Kodi was already awake and packing up their stuff from the bathroom. Surprised, Sammi ran over to ask her what she was doing. All that remained unpacked by the sink were Sammi’s toothbrush and hairbrush.

  “We have to be out of the room before noon,” Kodi informed her as she zipped up her own bag.

  “What? Why?” Sammi asked, panicked. “I thought we had the room for another week!”

  “We all want to go home, Sam,” Kodi told her. “There’s nothing out here for us.”

  “Then you guys can go,” Sammi said plainly. “I’m not going back to New York.”

  Sammi then walked out of the bathroom and grabbed her room key and cellphone off the nightstand before storming out of the room. She headed downstairs and quickly realized she was dressed in just her sweatpants and tank top that she had slept in. Feeling discouraged, she just sat down in one of the chairs in the hotel lobby. Holding her phone down in front of her to look busy, she scrolled through her old messages, contemplating reaching out to somebody.

  “‘Ello, Sammi,” came a kind Australian accent from in front of where she sat, causing her to look up.

  “Hey, Christopher,” Sammi replied, trying to sound cool but she couldn’t hide that she was upset.

  “What’s wrong?” Christopher asked sincerely.

  “My friends are ready to go back to New York,” Sammi told the stranger, “and I’m not.”

  “Come on, let’s do somethin’ fun,” Christopher offered as he also offered her his hand.

  “Let me go change first,” Sammi said, taking his hand and standing up. “Meet you back here in fifteen?”

  “You got it, gorgeous.”

  Sammi dashed back upstairs to her room where Kodi was sitting on the bed with her cellphone in her hand and her luggage beside her. Ignoring her friend, Sammi walked to her own bag and dumped all of its contents onto her side of the king-sized bed. Grabbing a black mini skirt and a blue halter top to match her eyes, she skipped into the bathroom to change.

  After Sammi finished getting ready, she exited the bathroom and found Kodi standing in front of the hotel room door. Sammi knew she was blocking her way out on purpose, but Sammi wasn’t in the mood to humor her. She avoided looking in Kodi’s direction as she walked back over to the bed to get her wallet. Once she had everything she needed, she finally turned her attention on Kodi.

  “Well, have a safe trip,” Sammi said with a slight shrug of her shoulders, avoiding eye contact.

  “Where are you going?” Kodi asked aggressively.

  “Christopher and I are going out for the day,” Sammi told her and Kodi sighed.

  “Sammi, what are you doing? You are married and have a child on the way.”

  “I’m done, Kode. Mack won and I have nothing to go back to.”

  Finally saying those words out loud brought tears to Sammi’s eyes. She turned back toward the bed and sat on the edge of it with her head down. Kodi dropped her guard by the door and went to comfort her best friend. She sat next to Sammi on the bed and pulled her into a hug, letting her cry on her shoulder.

  “Sammi, just call him one more time,” Kodi spoke softly as her friend’s sobbing quieted. “Just give him one more chance.”

  Sammi nodded and forced herself to be composed as she opened the screen on her cellphone. Taking deep breaths, she scrolled down to Mack’s name and pressed on it to make the call. It rang all the way through to voicemail just like it had every other time over the past four months.

  “Mack,” Sammi spoke quietly to her husband’s voicemail, still holding back tears, “I’m guessing you don’t want me to come home and I’m trying to be okay with that. But, uh, I can’t just stay in California without telling you what I’ve needed to tell you for four months now. Mack, I…I’m pregnant. Please…please just call me back.”

  With a disheartened sigh, Sammi hung up the phone. Kodi felt sad for her best friend, but she was also realizing how furious she was with Mack for acting as childish as he was. As badly as she wanted to go home to Anthony, she couldn’t make Sammi go with them and she couldn’t leave her in California on her own.

  “I’ll talk to the guys,” Kodi said, almost whispering as she rubbed Sammi’s back to comfort her. “Maybe we can stay a bit longer.”

  “You guys don’t have to stay. I’ll be fine,” Sammi told her, hopping off the bed and fixing her skirt.

  “If you must hang out with that gorgeous Australian, just don’t do anything you might regret,” Kodi replied with a distrusting look. “Stay out of trouble.”

  Sammi giggled as she crossed the room to the door. She stopped with her hand on the door handle to look back at her best friend.

  “But I’m always getting into trouble,” S
ammi said with a wink before disappearing into the hallway.

  *

  Back in New York, Mack had consumed himself with the job. Captain Hobbs had been convinced by the department to keep his position after Sammi turned it down and abandoned the precinct. And Mack’s already difficult attitude had only gotten worse, making him impossible to work with and forcing Palma and Mazzeline to pair up without him.

  Without a partner, Mack was practically working seven days a week and either sleeping at the station house or driving home to Long Island only to turn right back around and return to work without any sleep. He wouldn’t admit it, but he hated being in that house without Sammi and he was avoiding it every way he could. Mazzeline and Palma were too afraid to try to talk to him, but Hobbs had tried, only to discover that Mack partly blamed him for chasing Sammi away.

  “Have you even talked to her?” Hobbs asked, trying to ignore Mack’s accusation.

  “There’s nothing left to say,” Mack replied coldly, sitting casually in front of his Captain’s desk.

  “You are acting like a child, Johnson!” Hobbs yelled and slammed his fist down on his desk. “Your wife didn’t ask for the promotion she was offered and refused. She was the only damn colleague who was rooting for you! I obviously wasn’t the biggest fan of your relationship, but she loved you, you jackass.”

  “If she loved me, she wouldn’t have left,” Mack replied, trying to hide the pain in his voice. Then he got up and walked out of the Captain’s office.

  Mack knew that Sammi had never wanted the Captain’s promotion, but he couldn’t let it go. He resented her for being a thief—for stealing his heart and stealing his job. Every time his phone rang and it was Sammi, his heart ached as he was torn about wanting to answer it. But every scenario he played out in his head ended with him asking her to come home and her demanding her space to complete her trip of thievery. And he just couldn’t handle that rejection.

  Even though Mack acted like Sammi had just up and left him, Sammi had actually left him a schedule of where she would be and when. The itinerary ended with the date she was expected to return home and Mack hoped that day would come but he couldn’t be so sure anymore. He realized that his refusal to talk to her wasn’t helping his chances, but he wanted to see her, not just hear her over the phone. And he would learn to be okay when she didn’t come home.

  The last voicemail from Sammi came while Mack was passed out on the cot in the officer’s lounge where Sammi had spent the night after getting out of the hospital after Eli tried to kill her. He thought about that night every time he slept in the lounge and how it was where he first told Sammi that he liked her. It had bothered him that it didn’t faze her because she was so used to guys falling all over themselves for her. But then he’d think about how she married him instead of any of those other guys and he’d start missing her like crazy. It wasn’t much that he had to offer her, but it had been enough.

  When Mack woke up and found the missed call from Sammi and the accompanying voicemail on his phone, his heart sank. It had been weeks since her last call and he had gotten comfortable with the silence. Staring at his wedding band on his left ring finger, he put the phone to his ear to listen to his wife’s message just as Captain Hobbs burst into the room.

  “Mazzeline’s been shot!” Hobbs announced in a frenzied panic. “Palma’s gonna need your help on this one.”

  “Is he okay?” Mack asked as he jumped up and pocketed his phone with the unheard message.

  “He’s being taken to the hospital as we speak,” Hobbs told him. “He and Palma were at a crime scene and the suspect was still in the building.”

  “Sammi’s going to be really upset if he dies,” Mack muttered more to himself as he walked past Hobbs and out of the room to get the address of the crime scene.

  *

  As Sammi entered the lobby to meet Christopher, Christopher took one look at her and a clownish grin spread across his face. Sammi blushed as she smiled at the floor before greeting Christopher with a quick hug. Christopher then led her outside to where the valet already had his bright yellow Jeep Wrangler waiting and opened the passenger door for her.

  While Christopher drove them into Los Angeles for the day, they chatted in the car and took turns playing music. During a break in conversation, Sammi looked down at her hands with her eyes drawn to her wedding rings. She checked her phone, giving Mack one last chance to have come through for her, and saw that he had not. So, she slid the two symbols of her marriage off of her still slender finger and tucked them securely into a pocket of her wallet.

  Christopher and Sammi had fun in the city, but it was obvious right away that Christopher was younger by his lack of life experience. Sammi was attracted to him, but his lack of depth made her miss Mack more than she ever had. She missed her life in New York for the first time since leaving and even surprised herself by talking fondly of her time on the force as they discussed what they did for a living.

  “Wait, I didn’t think cops made a lot of money,” Christopher speculated as they sat across from each other over dinner. “How can you afford the Langham for such a long stay?”

  “Says the guys who runs a surf shop!” Sammi scoffed at his rude assumption.

  “Yeah, but my parents are loaded,” Christopher told her. “Is your police officer husband kind of like that Will Smith movie where he’s just a cop to be cool even though he’s got so much money he’s ruining Ferraris without thinking twice?”

  “First of all, he’s a detective,” Sammi corrected him. “And he’s more like the Bruce Willis sequel where he’s a cop with a little bit of fame, but definitely still has to work for a living.”

  “So, come on, how can you afford the Langham?” Christopher pushed the issue.

  “Prove to me that I can trust you,” Sammi offered in a flirting manner.

  “Fine. We don’t just have surfboards at my surf shop,” Christopher told her.

  “Snorkels?” Sammi asked and giggled at her own smartass response.

  “No,” Christopher said, getting serious and starting to whisper, “try cocaine and ecstasy.”

  “Oh, so you’re a real gangster,” Sammi replied with a mocking tone, rolling her eyes at him.

  “What would you know?” Christopher asked, visibly offended.

  “I’m a thief,” Sammi stated with a slight shrug of one of her shoulders.

  “Shut up, you are not. You’re way too hot to have to steal anythin.’ You can’t tell me any man has eva’ denied you anythin’ you’ve asked for.”

  Sammi didn’t owe this guy an explanation so she changed the subject and never mentioned her career again. After dinner, she and Christopher walked the city streets in the warm night air. She didn’t fall in love with another man that night, but she did fall in love with another city. She fell in love with the lights that shined brighter than the ones in New York, she fell in love with the warm breezes that refused to cool off even after the sun went down, and she fell in love with the person she could be in California.

  After such a long day, both Sammi and Christopher were quieter as Christopher drove them back to the hotel. Sammi put her Cavo playlist on the radio and sank into the passenger seat of the Jeep to daydream about starting a new life in Los Angeles.

  Back at the hotel, Christopher and Sammi said goodnight in the lobby. As Sammi moved in for a hug, Christopher quickly tilted his head and bent his knees to catch Sammi’s lips with his own. Sammi froze in a sudden wave of panic, not having expected this guy to make a move on a married woman. But it was a fantastic kiss, so passionate and so forceful that Sammi chose to go with it. She angled her face up to meet his and buried her hands in his glorious sandy blonde hair.

  “I’ll see ya tomorrow,” Christopher whispered, pressing his forehead to Sammi’s and looking down into her crystal blue eyes with a genuinely happy smile on his face.

  “Sleep well, Christopher,” Sammi replied quietly and rubbed his arm before letting him walk off first.

 
Sammi wasn’t smiling like Christopher was. She knew that her only attraction to Christopher was a physical one and she felt guilty for leading him on and guilty for kissing another man behind her husband’s back. And that kiss, as great as it was, wasn’t the kiss she wanted. It wasn’t Mack’s kiss.

  Knowing Kodi was up in the hotel room, Sammi wasn’t in a hurry to return. She wasn’t ready for the conversation about Christopher and she definitely wasn’t ready to tell her best friend that she was staying in California. Turning slowly toward the elevators, she finally looked up, and her eyes met those of a tortured Eli.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Avalanche

  The hurt look on Eli’s face was like a kick in the teeth to Sammi. She couldn’t think of a word to say before Eli hung his shoulders in defeat and retreated into an elevator. As badly as Sammi wanted to chase after him, she knew he needed space before he’d be ready to talk to her, so she headed slowly for her hotel room, feeling like the cruelest human on the planet.

  “I got the guys to agree to another week,” Kodi said as soon as Sammi entered the hotel room.

  “No, you guys should go,” Sammi said quietly and rolled onto her side of the bed with her back to her best friend.

  “What’s wrong?” Kodi asked, walking around the bed so she could see Sammi’s face.

  “Eli saw me kiss Christopher,” Sammi told her, her voice filled with guilt. “I think he finally hates me.”

  “Why were you kissing the Australian?!”

  “Not the point, Kodi!”

  Sammi leapt off the bed and walked into the bathroom. She slammed the door shut with as much force as she could and slid down the length of it so that she was sitting with her back against it. Knowing she was about to have an emotional meltdown, she had one last thing to say.

  “I’m not going back to New York,” Sammi called through the door, hardly even raising her voice.

  Having said what she needed to say, Sammi buried her face in her hands and allowed herself to break down. At first, she was crying over Eli and how she had probably just lost one of the best friends she had ever had. But there was a deeper reason for her breakdown, a more distant cause of pain. Sammi never would have imagined that this would be the way she and Mack ended. Even when she knew that he didn’t support her career choice, she always thought they’d be able to talk about it. After everything they had been through, Mack had always at least talked sooner or later. But now even the life growing inside of her that they had created together couldn’t break his silence.