Hero Undercover: 25 Breathtaking Bad Boys

by Annabel Joseph

  “But I do want you! You have to let me explain!” His eyes were wide and he kept running his hands through his hair.

  Picking up my suitcase required both hands, but I managed. He was in front of the door which meant I would have to walk by him. As I moved towards him, he didn’t budge, and looked determined not to.

  Why wasn’t he getting this? Tired of being gentle with him, I let my rage at what he had done to me, override my broken heart.

  Dropping my bag on the floor, I leaned in and poked him hard in the chest. Gritting, my teeth to keep from shouting, I spat out the words, “No, I don’t need to let you explain. You lied to me, after I told you everything about my past. I let you see me in my most vulnerable state and you crushed me.”

  “Chloe, I’m so…” he started to speak and reached out for me.

  I jerked away. “Shut up! You don’t get to say sorry! You don’t get to say anything. I hate you, and I never want to see you again.”

  Giving him a shove barely budged him. He stared at me for a moment, then silently moved out of the way. I didn’t hesitate. Hefting my luggage again, I got out of there.

  There were cops mixed with guests in the hallways. I ignored all of them, too numb now to give a rat’s ass about what they thought of me. I headed to the only place I thought would be safe.

  When I knocked on the door, it was flung open a minute later by Belle.

  “Can I stay here for the night,” I asked, tears falling freely from my eyes.

  I could tell by the look on her face word had spread. “Sure, honey, come on in.”

  She stepped aside revealing her Daddy behind her. Seeing them together made my heart hurt even worse. He rushed forward and grabbed my bag as Belle slipped an arm around my shoulders and helped me in, using her foot to close the door behind us.

  Chapter 7

  Four weeks later…

  I looked around my new office. I should have felt happy to be here, instead I felt depressed. After my bust at The Little Resort, my dream had come true. I was now Detective Murphy. One of the perks of the job was this new office. No longer was I stuck with a flimsy desk in the bullpen with all the other officers. Being detective granted me a small, yet awesome office. It had a great view, was painted a decent shade of blue, and even had room for my own coffee maker. No longer would I have to wait in line to get my morning dose of goodness. But none of that mattered anymore.

  Everything was perfect. I had finally attained the position I’d wanted ever since I joined the force, except for one thing. I wasn’t happy at all. None of this mattered to me when the only thing I truly wanted was a woman whose heart I had broken.

  We had spent six incredible days together. During that time, she opened my eyes to how absolutely amazing it was to have someone to go to bed with at night, and wake up to in the morning. I would give up anything to be back with her again.

  A knock on my door drew me out of my thoughts. My boss stood in the doorway.

  “May I come in?”

  “Of course, Cap. Got another case for me?” One positive that had come out of my heart break was I kept working, sometimes until my eyeballs refused to read another piece of documentation. That’s when I went home, grabbed a few hours of sleep, took a shower, and got back to work. As a result, I had solved five cases since taking the job. A new record for the force.

  “No, you’ve solved enough. You’re making us all look like sloths with all the cases you’ve cracked,” he said, taking a seat across from me.

  “Sorry about that, sir. Working is just easier for me right now,” I admitted.

  “You did this force and the community a heroic act by catching and arresting Edmund Burke. Because of you, there has already been a drastic decrease in drugs being sold on our streets. For that, the force will be forever grateful. But in the process of catching the bad guy, you lost your gal and it’s time for you to go get her back.”

  I sat there stunned. Was my boss, an old, grumpy man telling me to go after Chloe?

  “Wipe that dumbass expression off your face. I know you think I’m clueless when it comes to the fairer sex, but that isn’t true. My dear Kendra and I have been married for forty years. When you’ve been married for that long, you learn a thing or two. What I know is your dream job won’t mean shit if you don’t go after your girl.”

  “I’d love to, sir, believe me. But, even if I did show up at her door, she could never forgive me. Not after I hurt her as badly as I did by lying to her.”

  Cap’s face reddened and he smacked his fist down on my desk making the few items I had on it jump.

  “That’s a bunch of malarkey! I saw the way you two looked at each other. There was something there—hell everyone could tell. I’m not going to let you sit here working yourself to the bone.” He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. When he looked back at me, he appeared to have aged ten years. “I messed up, Murphy. I know Chloe heard my comments about you no longer having to act as a Daddy. I never should have said that. It wasn’t right or fair to judge the two of you. Please don’t let my big mouth be the reason you and your woman don’t spend many happy years together. You need to go get her, and that’s an order.”

  I was temporarily speechless. I couldn’t believe my boss was commanding me to go after Chloe. If only it were that easy.

  “Believe me, sir, I would track her down if I could, but I can’t. I was only told her first name. There are over one thousand women named Chloe in our state alone. I looked it up.”

  Cap reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to me. I opened it to discover all the details about my baby girl. I stared up at him in shock. For the second time in a matter of minutes, I was left speechless.

  “That should steer you in the right direction.”

  “How did you get this information?”

  “I might be old, but this old dog still has a few tricks up his sleeve.” With nothing left to say, he got up and started for the door, but stopped, turning back to look at me. “Don’t mess this up, Murphy. You only get one special lady in your entire life. If you lose her, you’ll regret it until the day you die.”

  “I won’t mess it up, sir. Thank you for this.”

  He nodded before heading out, leaving me to go over all the details on the paper. It listed Chloe’s full name, birthday, her home and work address, plus her cell phone number. Now that I had her information, it was time for me to go convince the girl of my dreams that I wasn’t the villain she thought I was.

  Glancing at my watch, I saw it was only ten in the morning. Most likely, Chloe was at work. Wanting to make sure, I gave her job a call only to find out that she had called in sick today.

  I grabbed my coat, deciding not to bother calling, but go directly to her apartment. If my little girl was sick, she was going to need her Daddy to take care of her.

  Two weeks had passed since that awful day when the man who I thought was totally different from all the others broke my heart. The morning after the raid, I didn’t see him, something I was glad about. If I had, I probably would have broken down in tears again. How could I have been so wrong about a person?

  I was eternally grateful to Paul and Belle for being there. Even though we had only known each other for a week, they took care of me. After sobbing out everything that happened, they busted out some ice cream they had in their mini-fridge. Together, we ate the entire carton while watching episodes of Family Guy. Sometimes, television shows that had no real point to them were the best in times of sorrow.

  When I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, Paul and Belle helped me to bed—their bed. They slept on either side of me. It really helped cuddling up next to the two of them.

  The next morning, we exchanged cell phone numbers and I was on my way back to my real life. I promised myself that no matter what, I wasn’t going to take another day off work for at least six months. I hoped staying constantly busy would help ease my grief. Sadly, I was wrong.

 
Now, not even two weeks after my horrid vacation, I caved, and called in sick. I just couldn’t put a smile on my face and deal with people today. Plus, it was raining outside. The perfect weather to stay in bed, eat Chinese food, watch television, and feel sorry for myself.

  Captain America was currently playing. It was my favorite movie in the entire Marvel franchise. There was nothing like watching a big, muscular man who had an excellent set of morals—unlike other men I knew—save the world.

  Just when it was getting to the good part, there was a knock at my door. I paused the film, and grabbed my money. I couldn’t wait to dig into some sweet and sour chicken!

  Walking to the door, part of me thought about putting a robe on to cover my pajamas which had cats all over them, but a bigger part of me didn’t care. I was going to be alone forever, so I didn’t have to dress up for anyone.

  Flinging the door open, I froze. The man I’d been trying so hard to forget stood in front of me with flowers, a box of chocolates, and a big brown teddy bear in his arms. He looked like he’d just come from work, still wearing a sports coat and tie. And he looked good, really good. Then I noticed his badge on his belt. Seeing it brought it all back: the hurt and the lies.

  “Hello, Chloe. I heard you weren’t feeling well so I stopped by to check on you. May I come in?”

  I stood there like an idiot, frozen to the spot. How could this man be here? After all he had done? All he had lied about?

  “Chloe? You okay?” He asked, his eyebrows furrowing in concern.

  That brought me back to reality. “No. No,” I said more firmly, “you can’t come in.” I couldn’t let him in my apartment. It would open up a can of worms that I was desperately trying to close.

  “Please, you have to let me explain,” he insisted.

  The shock of him being at my front door was wearing off, anger replacing it. How dare he show up at my home uninvited. And I’d never given him the address. He must have used his police connections to look it up. That was downright disrespectful and full on stalker-ish.

  “What’s there to explain, Adam? You lied to me our entire time together and I found out. There’s nothing left to say. Goodbye.” I tried to close the door again, but with his big body in the way it was useless.

  “Please, Chloe. Give me five minutes to talk. If you don’t like what I have to say, then I’ll leave and you’ll never see me again.”

  Realizing he wasn’t going to give up and leave me in peace, I swung the door open all the way.

  “Fine, you have five minutes. After that, I never want to see you again.”

  “Agreed,” he said walking inside. I closed the door behind him and took the flowers out of his hand. There was no reason beautiful flowers should go to waste, even if they were from a dickhead. Thanks to the clip-clopping of his feet, I didn’t need to turn my head to see if he was following me or not.

  “Sit,” I ordered as I searched for a vase in my cupboards. Finding one, I filled it about halfway with water, before turning back to look at the man who had broken my heart. He hadn’t done what I commanded, instead he was standing by my counter watching me.

  “You look beautiful, Chloe. I’ve missed you so much.” I busied myself cutting off the ends of the flower stems and added in the little packet of food to the water as I waited for him to start talking.

  “You’re cutting into your five minutes.” I put the flowers into the water as I waited for him to start talking.

  “You probably don’t know this, but ever since Edmund Burke created The Little Resort two years ago, there has been a rising influx of cocaine and date rape drugs into our city. It was quickly deduced that Burke was distributing from his business. Despite knowing where source of the drugs, my colleagues and I could do nothing to stop it until we had proof. That’s when my boss asked me to go undercover to get close to Edmund and get him to confess to his misdeeds while I was recording him.”

  He was right. I hadn’t realized that the city had an increase of drugs, but it made sense. The crime rate was going up and if the availability of drugs in a place increased, the crime rate tended to rise with it.

  “I wasn’t pretending my interest in you, or the things we did together, Chloe. I’m an experienced dominant and have been a longtime member of a local BDSM club. I enjoyed very much playing with you, but in truth, I’d never acted like a Daddy Dom to anyone. In fact, I didn’t understand why men did it—until you.” He moved close, speaking earnestly. “It started out as an assignment. I thought I could fake my way through, act as your Daddy, get Edmund’s confession, then leave happy as a clam having made the arrest and getting my promotion, but things didn’t turn out that way.”

  His beautiful brown eyes were wide and it made him look vulnerable. Part of me was tempted to believe what he was saying, but once a liar, always a liar.

  Adam continued his speech. “When I laid eyes on you for the first time, I thought you were the sexiest woman in the entire world. Your long blond hair and blue eyes drew me in. Right away I wanted you to be mine. Then we talked, and you stuttered because you were so nervous, which increased my protective instincts. The sex between us was the best of my life, but there was more. Acting as your Daddy fulfilled a part inside me I didn’t realize was empty. Being able to see you so happy and carefree all because I promised to protect and cherish you made me feel joy I’ve never felt before about anything or anyone.”

  The words coming out of his mouth were exactly the ones that I wanted to hear, yet I couldn’t believe him. He had made no mention of his lying and I couldn’t bear to get my heart broken again.

  “That’s great, Adam. I’m happy that I could show you what you were missing in your life. Now, you know where the door is, leave.”

  I carried the vase and placed it in the center of my kitchen table. The yellow and pink carnations matched my decor in this room perfectly. Turning, I jumped to see that Adam had moved with me, and stood less than foot away.

  “You don’t understand, Chloe. I want you, I need you. Not having you in my life these past two weeks has been unbearable. You are the woman of my dreams.”

  “Yet, you lied to me, Adam. If I’m this so-called woman of your dreams, how could you lie to me?”

  He took a step back and ran his fingers through his hair, while looking up at the ceiling before his gaze focused back on me.

  “Don’t you understand how dangerous it would have been for you if I told you I was an undercover agent? If Edmund had discovered the truth, he would have killed me and probably you too. I couldn’t let that happen. I was only trying to protect you, not cause you any harm.”

  When he put it like that, I guess part of me could see why he hadn’t told me. In fact, if our situations had been reversed, I probably would have done the same thing. But, if he could lie so easily once, what would stop him from doing it again?

  “I’m sorry, Adam. I just, you know what I’ve been through. I don’t think my heart can be broken a third time by a man lying to me.”

  He closed the gap between us and took both of my hands in his. “Please, Chloe. I love you and promise that I will never lie to you again. Before you, I was just a man who went to work, his BDSM club, and to sleep. You’ve opened my life to a whole new world, a world that I desperately want you to be a part of.”

  “Adam, I-I don’t know.” Why was this so hard? Before the raid, I thought he was the one. Part of me truly wanted to believe him, but another part didn’t want to have to experience this type of pain again.

  “You’re analyzing this situation too much. I know I broke your trust, but I did it because I had an important job to do, but also to protect you. I promise, I will never lie to you again. I love you, Chloe. I can’t lose you.”

  Looking up into his big brown eyes, which were glistening with unshed tears, my heart broke all over again. Seeing my big, strong Daddy Dom moved to tears all because I was considering not staying with him made me come to my final answer.

  “Okay, Adam. I’ll give you
another chance.” His face lit up like a little boy’s on Christmas morning. The next thing I knew, his lips were on mine, and he swung me around in the air.

  Breaking our kiss, I laughed and said, “Fair warning though, if you ever do lie to me again, I will shoot you with your own gun.”

  “Deal,” he said, smashing his lips against mine and pulling me into an even tighter embrace. It felt beyond wonderful to be back in his familiar embrace.

  I was so happy, and of course, tears started to roll down my face. I was such a crier.

  He pulled back and wiped the tears away with his thumbs while he held my face in his hands. “Hey, don’t cry, baby girl. This is a good thing.”

  “I know. I’ve just missed you so much,” I said as I started to sob. He picked me up and sat down on one of my kitchen chairs with me in his lap.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart. Daddy’s here. I’m never going to let you go.”

  When I finally stopped crying, I was handed a tissue. “Where did you get this?” I asked, after I finished blowing my nose.

  He smiled. “I’ve learned with you to always have a few of these on hand. Want to meet the new stuffed animal I got you?”

  I nodded my head. He picked up the teddy bear he’d brought and handed it to me. It was super stuffed and smelled like my Daddy. I loved it immediately.

  “Thank you. He’s perfect.”

  “I’m glad that you think so,” Adam said, smiling down at me.

  “Promise to never leave me?” I knew we had just had this discussion, but a girl could never have too many reassurances.

  “I promise.”

  “Thank you,” I said, snuggling close to his chest.

  We stayed like that for quite some time, before my Daddy declared that I needed a bath. I didn’t understand why, considering I had taken a shower that very morning. When he announced he’d be washing every inch of me, I quickly understood his reasoning.