A Cop's Promise

by Sharon Hartley

  Chip had figured out what he wanted to do with his life because of his collaboration with Lana.

  Lana. The image of her smiling face, her dark flashing eyes acted like a punch to his gut. He didn’t want to see her. Seeing her would only make him want her again. Time to let go of that old dream.

  He was happy for her. She could finally move on from Danny’s death and start living her life. She didn’t need him as a constant reminder, dragging her into painful memories. He loved her too much to do that to her. She’d been through enough.

  And she’d be relieved he didn’t press her. He’d sleep on the couch at his parents’ again tonight. He’d eventually explain to his family that it hadn’t worked out. They’d be disappointed but would understand.

  Chip stood and gathered his gear. Maybe someday he’d understand, too.

  * * *

  LANA HURRIED UP the steps to the front porch of the Peterson home and knocked on the door. Chip still hadn’t returned any of her messages, and she was a little nervous about coming here. What had he told his parents about them?

  She glanced next door to the house where she and her family had once lived. Different roof, different paint color. The trees were huge now. Seemed like a million years ago that she’d lived in this neighborhood and had been terrified of her father.

  So much had changed. Including me.

  The cruelty of her father had caused a cascade of violent events that had disturbed so many lives. Her father had beaten her mother, so Dan had hit Cindy, which ruined Lana’s friendship with Chip. Dan’s treatment of Gary had made him mean, so he had beaten his own wife.

  Violence was never the answer to anything, and she was tired of thinking about the whole sick mess.

  Chip’s mother opened the door. “Lana. How are you, dear?”

  “I’m fine, Mrs. Peterson. How is Mr. Peterson?”

  “He’s coming along.” She smiled, but Lana sensed worry behind her blue eyes. Eyes that reminded her of Chip. “Thanks for helping out. Are you still coming in the morning?”

  “Of course,” Lana said.

  “Do you want to come in?” Mrs. Peterson asked.

  “Actually, I’m looking for Chip. Is he here?”

  “No, he’s at campus, doing some sort of makeup work. Didn’t he tell you?”

  “Well, no,” Lana said.

  “Peterson men.” She sighed, as if exasperated. “You’ll have to get used to that, Lana. They never remember to tell you about a change in schedule.”

  Feeling awkward, Lana grinned at Chip’s mom. Apparently she had no idea Chip was avoiding her. Interesting. “Thanks for the tip.”

  “Is something wrong?” Mrs. Peterson asked. “Can I help?”

  “No, no,” Lana replied quickly. The last thing she wanted to do was cause this woman more worry. “I just need to tell him something.”

  “It must be important.”

  “Yes,” Lana said, still smiling. “It is. Thanks. I’ll find him.”

  “See you tomorrow.”

  Even though she knew finding Chip would be a long shot at best, thirty minutes later Lana drove into in the visitor lot of the University of Miami campus, parked and headed for The Bricks. When she didn’t spot him anywhere in the courtyard, she released a frustrated breath. Where the hell was he?

  She decided to hang out at a table in case he showed. She wasn’t crazy about having their discussion in a public place, but at this point she was out of options and she didn’t want to wait any longer.

  She hurried inside the food court to see if he was grabbing coffee, but the place was deserted. Deciding to wait in case he was in the restroom, she wandered over to the bulletin board, where she’d seen him before, and idly scanned the notices.

  Her eyes narrowed on the newest posting.

  “Bedroom for rent in quiet neighborhood near campus. Washer and dryer. Kitchen privileges.”

  The number listed was Chip’s phone.

  What the hell? Lana jerked the notice from the bulletin board and stared at it in disbelief.

  Chip was moving out.

  How could he advertise his bedroom for rent without telling her?

  Well, she’d see about that. And she now had one foolproof way to get him to talk to her. Although she couldn’t use her phone.

  Who would help her? She called Dale, who was on duty, gave him the information and asked him to set an appointment with Chip to see the house.

  “Insist on this afternoon,” she said. “And don’t use your real name. He has a good memory.”

  “What’s going on, girl?” Dale asked. “I heard you’d solved the murder of your brother.”

  “I did,” Lana said. “This is about something else.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHIP CURSED WHEN he arrived home and saw the marked Miami-Dade County police cruiser in the driveway. What the hell were the police doing here? Lana must have given them a key in case they needed to return to the crime scene, but this timing sucked. He was meeting someone interested in renting her room in ten minutes.

  Could that potential new roommate be a cop? He hoped not since they might know Lana. But what were the odds a cop would see his message on the campus bulletin board? No, this was about Gary’s assault on Lana. Exiting his truck, Chip hoped he could convince whoever it was to come back later.

  When he entered the house, he noted a familiar fragrance of garlic and tomato that smelled suspiciously like Paoletti’s sauce. Sure enough, one of the familiar take-out bags sat on the kitchen pass-through.

  “Hello?” he yelled. “Is somebody here?” Were the cops planning a picnic in his home?

  Lana emerged from her bedroom. “Hello, Chip.”

  Chip froze as he drank in her appearance, searching for any signs of trauma from her close call with Gary. Seeing that jerk manhandle her had made him crazy. He fought the impulse to gather her close. He didn’t dare touch her or he might never let go.

  “Surprised to see me?” she asked.

  “I didn’t expect you to be home.” He motioned over his shoulder to the car in the driveway. “So that’s your cop car.”

  “No reason not to drive it home now,” she said.

  “I can’t argue with that logic,” he said carefully, surprised by her use of the word home.

  “Unbelievable about Coach Robby, huh?”

  “Yeah. Who knew?”

  “Certainly not me. I guess I owe you an apology.”

  “For ordering me to stop my investigation? Yes, you do.”

  “Hey, it wasn’t an order.”

  She folded her arms. “Sure sounded like one.”

  He nodded. “Maybe it was.” He’d been disappointed and angry that morning. “So I’m sorry for that, too.”

  “Apology accepted. What are you really sorry about?”

  Chip nodded. Better to get it all out right now.

  “For years I blamed you for not seeing Danny for the jerk he was. I can’t hold that against you when I didn’t realize my football coach was a drug dealer and a murderer.”

  “No one did,” Lana said. “He was never really on my radar.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks, but I couldn’t have done it without you.” She placed her hands on her hips. “You’ve been avoiding me, ducking my calls and texts.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I have.”

  “Why, Chip?”

  He’d been hoping to spare them both the pain of an awkward, emotional discussion, but apparently she wanted a clean break. And, yeah, maybe that was better. Rip it off like a bandage. Then they could both move on. Or try to, anyway.

  He spread his arms. “We’ve both got a lot going on these days. We don’t need to tear each other apart over what happened.”

  “What happened? You mean the fact that we made love?” />
  He nodded, fascinated by the color that had risen in her cheeks.

  “I thought what happened between us was wonderful,” she said.

  He smiled. “Yeah, it was pretty great for me, too.”

  She sighed and held up the advertisement he’d placed on campus. “Were you going to move out and not tell me?”

  “I’m not moving out.”

  “Well, I’m not, either.” She narrowed her eyes. “Won’t it get a little crowded?”

  “But you solved Danny’s murder,” Chip said.

  “Yes, I did. So?”

  “So there’s no reason for you to stay here now. No reason to pretend we’re lovers.”

  “We are lovers,” she said, moving toward him. “What happened between us was real.”

  “Was it?” he asked softly.

  Lana took a deep breath. Was she wrong about how Chip felt? No. Chip loved her. His exact words, which she’d never forget, were that he’d been crazy about her all through high school. Maybe he’d never said he loved her, but in her heart she knew that he did.

  She’d resented him trying to protect her, insisting she give up the investigation, but he’d been right about a lot.

  Like maybe she wasn’t quite as badass as she had believed. She was a rookie who had a lot to learn.

  “Don’t you want me to stay?” she asked.

  “Lana, you—”

  She stepped forward and placed a hand on his lips to stop his words. “Because I want to stay. I’ve loved living with you, knowing you’re here when I come home from a hard shift.” She lowered her hand and met his gaze. “I want our pretend relationship to become a real one.”

  Chip stared at her. His expression told her he didn’t believe her.

  She swallowed hard, knowing she had to say the magic words first. “I’m in love with you, Chip. Maybe I’ve always loved you but was too stupid or immature or young to understand how I felt. And then I was too afraid of making the same mistakes my mother did.”

  “Your mother? You’re nothing like your mother.”

  “I hope not.”

  She stepped closer to him and slid her arms around his waist. When Chip didn’t back away, she rested her face on his chest, loving the strong beat of his heart beneath her cheek. But still he didn’t touch her.

  “I was angry that you thought you needed to protect me when I should have been grateful. When my parents fought, whenever anything went wrong in my life, you were always there for me. You even defended me, fought with Danny and didn’t tell me. To help me, you agreed to move in with me here, even though you weren’t sure it was the right thing.”

  “Lana.” Chip groaned her name and pulled her tightly against him. She closed her eyes. Finally.

  “You were my best friend, and still are.” She lifted her face to meet his gaze. “Who better to fall in love with?”

  A grin split his face. “Sure took you long enough.”

  He lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss began gently and felt like a solemn promise for their future, for the children she hoped they’d have. Then he brought both hands to her cheeks and kissed her so thoroughly that she wondered if she’d melt into a puddle. Yeah, some tough cop she was.

  He lifted his head and stared into her eyes. “You’re all I’ve ever wanted.”

  “And you love me?” she prompted.

  “I’ve loved you since I was eight years old.”

  “I don’t know why,” she whispered.

  “It was that funeral for your parakeet.”

  Happiness threatened to choke her, and she had to swallow again. Only Chip would remember that. Chip knew all of her silly secrets and loved her, anyway.

  He lifted her off her feet and whirled her in a circle. She laughed, throwing her head back, and realized he was guiding them toward his bedroom. No, it was their bedroom now, she realized giddily.

  “I’m going to make love to you again,” he said.

  “Good.”

  When he lowered her to the floor, she felt like she was still floating in the air.

  “And there will only be two people in our bed,” he growled.

  “That’s all there ever was,” she told him. “And I promise that’s all there ever will be.”

  * * *

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  Guarding His Fortune

  by Stella Bagwell

  Chapter One

  Savannah Fortune struggled to hide her impatience as she gazed toward the opposite end of the study where her father, Miles, was standing in front of a massive cherrywood desk. Tall and tanned, with short graying brown hair, he made an imposing figure in a gray suit and power-red tie. Next to him in a plush armchair, her mother, Sarah, dressed impeccably in a white dress and pearls, waited for her husband to address the family.

  “This is ridiculous.” Savannah’s hushed voice was directed at her younger sister, Belle. “Why has Dad called this urgent meeting in the middle of the day? Couldn’t he have waited until dinner this evening?”

  Belle slanted her a droll look. “Urgent means he wants his children to focus on him. Not the boudin kolaches and gumbo we’re having for supper.”

  Miles rapped his knuckles on the desktop and everyone in the room turned their attention to the patriarch of the New Orleans Fortunes.

  “I’m glad to see everyone is here,” he spoke, his strong voice reverberating around the room. “I’ll try to make this as concise as possible.”

  A few steps away, Savannah’s older brother, Austin, held up a hand. “Sorry to interrupt, Dad, but Nolan isn’t here. Shouldn’t he be privy to this family meeting, too?”

  “Nolan has already been informed of everything I’m about to relay to all of you.” Turning slightly, Miles picked up a large manila envelope from the desktop and held it up for his family to see. “Earlier this morning I received this detailed report and as much as I hate to alarm all of you, the news is jarring.”

  Jarring? Now that Savannah was taking closer notice, her father appeared drawn and pale. What was in that envelope? As far as she knew, Fortune Investments, her father’s massive banking business, was as lucrative as eve
r.

  Leaning closer to Belle, Savannah whispered in her sister’s ear. “Has the stock market crashed or something?”

  Belle made a hands-up gesture to say she didn’t have a clue as to what might be going on. Across the room, their older sister, Georgia, was arching a questioning brow at their brother Beau. From the lost expressions on the faces of Savannah’s siblings, it appeared all were a bit mystified by this meeting.

  Miles cleared his throat and continued, “The news is conclusive. The Fortune family is being targeted.”

  This wasn’t exactly breaking news, Savannah thought. Especially the kind that warranted a family meeting.

  Apparently, her brother Draper was thinking along those same lines. He said, “I don’t mean to sound like a snob, but being wealthy has always made us targets, Dad.”

  Miles nodded. “You couldn’t be more correct, son. However, this situation is different. Someone is deliberately trying to harm members of the Fortune family. As you all know, there’s already been an arson in Austin that came close to being deadly, a cyber-attack at Robinson Tech and a real-estate sabotage in Houston. We have no way of knowing who or what might be next. We do have reason to believe that Charlotte Robinson is behind all these incidents.”

  “Do you know this for certain?” Georgia asked. “It seems strange the woman would want to hurt her own children.”

  Miles pecked a finger against the manila envelope. “As you all have learned, my half brother Kenneth Fortunado in Houston has a son, Connor, who’s a highly skilled private investigator. Connor has continued to dig up information about Charlotte and he’s recently discovered the divorce between her and Gerald recently became final.”

  Austin quickly countered. “Why should we be concerned about this? We’re not a part of the Austin Fortunes or the Houston Fortunes. Undoubtedly, we’re related to them, but we’ve never even met most of them.”

  Austin’s remarks matched the ones going through Savannah’s head. The other Fortunes were strangers. In fact, only a few months had passed since Miles had admitted to his children that he was actually an illegitimate son of Julius Fortune, the man who’d also fathered Gerald Robinson aka Jerome Fortune. At that time, Miles had beseeched his children to keep the secret under wraps. However, it wasn’t long afterward that the long-buried truth had somehow gotten back to the Austin Fortunes and from there it had spread.