Trouble with a Badge

by Delores Fossen

  “Something else has you worried.” Alexa touched his face, right between his eyebrows. “What is it?”

  It really wasn’t something he could keep from her, and it was news they’d expected. “Scottie’s already out of jail.”

  Alexa took a deep, weary breath. “Is there any way we can find out who he phoned from the sheriff’s office? Because he could have ordered the attack with that call.”

  Levi agreed. “We’re getting a court order for his phone records.” Though he hated to tell Alexa that if Scottie had indeed triggered that attack, then he’d probably used a prepaid cell or some other phone that couldn’t be traced back to those hired guns.

  Of course, even if Scottie had actually made the call to his attorney and not a pair of gunmen, that didn’t mean he hadn’t given the order to his lawyer to put the attack into motion. Still, a court order might unnerve Scottie a little.

  “Chase is doing okay?” she asked.

  Levi hadn’t expected the question. Not because his brother hadn’t been on his mind. But with everything else going on, he was surprised Alexa had remembered that only a few weeks ago Chase had been knifed by the Moonlight Strangler.

  “He’s recovering,” Levi settled for saying. Like him, though, Chase had this need to catch the killer. “When Violet no longer needs protective custody, then Chase will almost certainly go on the hunt again for the Moonlight Strangler.”

  She lifted her eyes, met his gaze. “And Jax and you will join him.”

  No sense denying the obvious, so Levi just nodded. “You will, too?”

  Alexa nodded, as well. “As best I can. If I’m in WITSEC that limits how much I can do without drawing attention to myself. Then again, I might not have to look for long. After all, the Moonlight Strangler found me once, and he can find me again.”

  Definitely not a comfortable thought. It didn’t matter that the killer had said he would leave her alone, because there was no way she would trust him. No way would she get a decent night’s sleep until he was either behind bars or in the grave.

  Levi checked out the window again, and this time Alexa noticed. She turned, her attention landing on the road where Levi kept glancing.

  No one was there.

  “You’re expecting the worst,” she said.

  “I just want to be ready if something goes wrong again,” he corrected. “I nearly got you killed today.”

  She huffed. But it wasn’t exactly a huff from anger because tears watered her eyes. “No. I nearly got you killed. And your brother. Heck, everyone in the sheriff’s office.”

  The tears didn’t stay in her eyes. They spilled down her cheeks, and Levi did something he was certain he would regret. He pulled Alexa into his arms. Despite the cruddy situation and those tears, he felt the very thing he didn’t want to feel.

  The heat.

  Oh, yes. It was there mixed with all the fresh emotions and spent adrenaline from the latest attack.

  “You don’t want this,” Alexa whispered.

  Even though she didn’t qualify what she meant by this, Levi made a sound of agreement. He didn’t want the problems that could come from the attraction he was feeling for her.

  But he did want her.

  And he did something about it when she leaned back to look at him. He slipped his hand around the back of her neck and kissed her.

  No tug this time. It felt like a truck had hit him in the chest. Oh, man. He hadn’t wanted her to taste like something he was certain he could never get enough of. He’d wanted the kiss to satisfy this need stirring inside him.

  Didn’t happen.

  The need soared.

  Alexa did her part to make that happen. She certainly didn’t move away or stop him. She kissed him right back, along with making a silky little sound of pleasure that Levi was sure could be his undoing.

  For a moment he thought the buzzing sound he was hearing was from the buzz he was getting from the kiss. But it was his phone. He snapped back from her so he could take it out of his pocket, and he saw Jericho’s name on the screen.

  Probably not good news.

  That was why Levi started to get up and move away from Alexa. That and he needed a second to cool down his body, something that wouldn’t happen if he stayed so close to her. But she took hold of his arm.

  “Please, put the call on speaker. I need to hear what Jericho has to say,” she insisted.

  Well, she certainly had a right to hear it since it would likely involve her in some way, but Levi had hoped to be able to buffer the news. But she was right. She would need to hear this. And deal with it.

  “Just got a call from Junction Ridge,” Jericho greeted the moment Levi answered. He glanced through some notes he’d taken. “The dead body is Tasha.”

  Alexa’s breath trembled. So did she, and Levi sank back down beside her.

  “They’re sure?” Levi asked, already knowing that the answer would be yes.

  “They got a confirmation from dental records. We’ll run the DNA to double-check. We can get Tasha’s DNA from that amnio test that you mentioned she had a while back and compare it to the body.” Jericho glanced at the notes again. “The cause of death was the gunshot wound to the back of the head.”

  Just as Alexa had said.

  “All the other wounds, including the two additional gunshots, happened after her death,” Jericho explained.

  “Overkill,” Alexa whispered.

  Yeah, it was, which would point to Scottie. But that seemed almost too convenient unless Scottie was going for some kind of reverse psychology.

  But Levi wasn’t ready to take Lockwood or Marcos off that list.

  Lockwood could have hired those goons to go after Alexa, and they could have killed Tasha by mistake.

  “I’ll have to let Child Services know,” Jericho added. “But that doesn’t need to happen today. It’s not as if I don’t have plenty to keep me busy.”

  True, and Levi wished it was safe enough for him to be there with Alexa. “Anything yet on the two dead gunmen?”

  “No. The ME’s finishing up, and I’m about to head out to examine the scene.” Jericho paused. “Lockwood’s still here, too.”

  “Why?” Alexa immediately asked.

  “To hell if I know. I haven’t exactly put out the welcome mat for him. He’s making calls and doing a lot of pacing. When I get off the phone I’m giving him the boot. He can find another place to hang out until I’m dead sure he’s not trying to kill us.”

  “Good idea. Email me whatever reports I can do here,” Levi said. “I’ll use Dexter’s computer.”

  “Just do your statement and take Alexa’s when you can. Everything okay there?” Jericho asked.

  Levi purposely didn’t look at her. Or her mouth. “Fine.” It wasn’t anywhere close to the truth, and Jericho likely knew that. “We can talk more after you’ve had a chance to examine those dead gunmen,” Levi added, and he ended the call.

  Silence followed.

  He could hear Alexa’s breathing. It was too fast, and the blasted tears were within seconds of starting again. She had a reason to cry. A reason to fall into a thousand little pieces, and Levi wasn’t sure how to stop it.

  So, he kissed her.

  It barely qualified as a kiss. More of a peck of reassurance, the kind that people who’d been in a relationship for a long time gave each other. In other words, definitely not their kind of kiss.

  Alexa looked at him, and he couldn’t be certain but she seemed thankful he’d delivered that peck. Thankfully, he’d stopped the tears. At least, that was how the look started out.

  Then it changed.

  Big time.

  Levi wasn’t sure which of them made the first move. They seemed to come together at once. Her, putting her arms around his neck. Him, dragging h
er to him. He kissed her again. Same taste.

  But different from that other real kiss.

  Everything was different.

  After nearly dying, this didn’t seem like such a big mistake, but it was. Knowing that, however, didn’t stop him. Levi snapped her closer until she was plastered right against him, and he deepened the kiss.

  This need for her wasn’t what he wanted. Far from it. He wanted to feel the calm detachment that would have made his life so much easier. Didn’t happen. No detachment. Instead, the kiss turned to fire, a fire so hot that kisses were only going to fuel it even more.

  He dropped some of those kisses on her neck. And went even lower. Until that wasn’t enough, either, and Levi shoved up her top. She helped, not that it was actually helping, but Alexa opened the front hook of her bra, and her breasts spilled out into his hands.

  That was a game changer.

  Of course, he lowered his head and kissed her breasts. Despite the urgency building between them, he took his time. When he was done, when Alexa’s breath was ragged and her hands working hard to touch him, he circled her nipples with his fingers and went after her mouth again.

  She didn’t just slide right into the kiss, though. Alexa fought first with his shoulder holster. When she couldn’t get that off him, she went after the buttons on his shirt. And she hit pay dirt when her mouth landed on his chest.

  Oh, man.

  So not the direction he should be going.

  Knowing that didn’t stop him or slow him down. Levi went after the zipper on her jeans. She helped without breaking those maddening kisses she had now taken to his stomach.

  “Take off your jeans,” he insisted.

  This would have been a really good time for her to say they needed to stop. She didn’t. “You take them off.”

  Because he was obviously stupid right now, that was exactly what he did. Not just her jeans, either. Levi pulled off her panties with them.

  “Don’t change your mind,” she said.

  It was advice Levi knew he shouldn’t take. But he just kept moving this forward. Just kept escalating it. And he didn’t exactly do it with a lot of finesse, either.

  He should pick Alexa up and take her to the guest room, but his body was urging him on and he didn’t want to waste the couple of minutes it’d take him to do that. Instead, they maneuvered around on the sofa while Alexa unzipped him and freed him from his boxers.

  Levi didn’t change his mind. He pushed into her, the pleasure slamming into him. He had to take a second to catch his breath. And nearly lost it again when he saw her face.

  She was beautiful, and it wasn’t the sex talking. Alexa was a knockout, and she was looking up at him as if giving him permission to explore every inch of her with every inch of him. Levi started to do just that.

  And then he stopped.

  “No condom,” he somehow managed to get out.

  Alexa shook her head as if it didn’t matter, but then her eyes widened. “I’m not on the pill.”

  “Hell.” And because he couldn’t think of anything else to say, he repeated the one word a couple of times.

  Making the mistake of having sex with someone he was protecting was one thing, but getting her pregnant would take this to new realms of stupidity. Thankfully, it was enough to get him to move off her.

  Way off.

  Levi dropped to a sitting position on the floor, because he figured it would only add to the stupidity if he was still touching her.

  “I’m sorry.” Alexa sat up, too, and immediately started grappling to get back on her clothes.

  Good.

  Because seeing her naked wasn’t going to help this, either. Levi fixed his jeans. Not easy to do with his erection demanding that he finish what they’d started. The demand was so strong that Levi considered running to Dexter’s medicine cabinet to see if he had any condoms.

  Talk about fanning a flame that shouldn’t be fanned.

  But Levi didn’t have to resist that particular temptation, because his phone buzzed. It was Jericho again, which meant it had to be important. Levi answered it, and hoped his brother wouldn’t pick up on the weird vibes there were now in the room.

  “We might have found something,” Jericho said. “I’ve got to process the evidence and that’ll take a while, but if it tells me what I think it’s going to tell me, we should be able to make an arrest.”

  Levi had plenty of questions but went with the obvious one. “Who?”

  “Marcos. We finally might have something to put him in a cell for the rest of his scummy life.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Alexa wasn’t sure she could sit still much longer and wait for Marcos to arrive. Everything inside her was twisting and churning, and she had nowhere to aim all that nervous energy.

  Unlike Levi.

  Since they’d arrived at the sheriff’s office, he’d been at his desk working. Either talking to someone on the phone or writing up reports about the attack in the parking lot. Actually, that was what he’d been doing since the day before when Jericho had first called about the possible evidence he’d found against Marcos. Levi certainly hadn’t jumped into a conversation with her about what’d happened on the sofa.

  And Alexa wasn’t sure if she should be thankful for that or not.

  It’d been a mistake, even if it hadn’t actually felt like one. They had so many more things that should have their attention, and their lives were still on the line. The last thing they should be doing was having sex. Or rather attempting sex.

  No way should that happen.

  Alexa repeated that reminder to herself and forced her attention off Levi. That didn’t last long at all. Her gaze went right back to him.

  Of course, she’d always known he was attractive. Hard not to see that then and now since she was seated only two desks away from him. Levi had definitely inherited those hot Crockett genes. But he’d also been hands off because of the bad blood between his family and her. That bad blood, though, hadn’t been enough to stop the attraction from boiling over, and now Levi was clearly trying to put as much emotional distance between them as possible.

  And it was working.

  Well, it had been until he lifted his head and their eyes met. He only held the connection for a few seconds. More than enough for her to feel the heat again. More than enough for him, too, since he glanced away, but not before looking thoroughly disgusted with himself.

  Alexa was so focused on him that she got a little jolt when someone plopped a disposable cup of coffee with her name written on it in front of her.

  Jax.

  Like Jericho and Mack, Jax had been at the sheriff’s office when Levi and she had arrived. It made sense, after all, because he was a deputy, but Alexa didn’t think it was her imagination that his family had made sure Jax didn’t have to spend too much time around her. However, Jax hadn’t avoided her.

  Now she was the one who did some gaze dodging. It was hard for her to look Jax in the eyes and not be reminded of what’d happened to Paige.

  “It’s decaf,” Jax said, tipping his head to the cup. “I had it delivered from the diner. We only have the rocket-fuel coffee here in the office, and you didn’t look as if you needed any more caffeine. Levi said you take it black, so that’s how I ordered it.”

  No way could she dodge his gaze after that. “Thanks. I am pretty wired up already.”

  He made a sound to indicate he understood. And he no doubt did. Marcos would be there any minute. Of course, she could hide in Jericho’s office—something both Jericho and Levi were insisting she do—but Alexa wanted to hear what Marcos had to say about what’d been found in the hired gunmen’s vehicle.

  Some cash with Marcos’s prints on it.

  And one of the gunmen had scrawled Marcos’s private phone number on his ha
nd. It was enough evidence for SAPD to pick up Marcos and escort him to Appaloosa Pass for an interrogation, but it might not be enough to convict him.

  “Marcos will find a way out of this.” Alexa hadn’t actually meant to say that aloud, but Jax made another of those sounds to let her know he understood. And agreed with her.

  “He’ll say it’s a setup.” Jax had a sip of his own coffee. “It certainly smacks of one. He’s not stupid.”

  “No, but maybe the hired guns were. Maybe they weren’t supposed to write down that number, bring the money. Or get killed so we could find those things.”

  “So, either a setup or dumb killers.” Jax shrugged. “Either way, we get another shot at interrogating Marcos. Levi’s going to have a go at him this time. Maybe Marcos will lose his temper and admit to everything. That way we can lock him up and you’ll be safer than you were when you woke up this morning.”

  Jax’s tone was actually hopeful. Something Alexa wasn’t feeling. And he wasn’t scowling at her. She hated to spoil the moment, if it was indeed a moment, but she was confused as to why he wasn’t avoiding her. Or scowling at her.

  “I’m sorry about your friend, Tasha, being killed,” Jax continued. “Sorry about the baby, too.”

  Violet. She was never far from Alexa’s mind. Never far from her fears, either. She’d already called Marshal Walker twice this morning. All was well at the safe house, but Alexa couldn’t help but worry that the worst could, and would, happen.

  “Jericho said there weren’t any family members who’d stepped up yet to take custody of the baby,” Jax added.

  “No. We’re waiting to hear back from two aunts.”

  “But you want her.” Not a question exactly. Nor was there any condemnation in Jax’s voice.

  “Why are you being nice to me?” she asked.

  Jax glanced at Levi. “Because of him. Want to talk about what’s going on between my brother and you?”

  “No.”

  The corner of Jax’s mouth lifted. “That’s what Levi said, too.”