He started to lie, to tell her he was thinking about the investigation. But it would have been such a big lie that it probably would have gotten stuck in his throat.
So, no lie.
Just the truth. And he’d show her what he was thinking.
Shaw tossed his sandwich onto the table, reached out, clasped the back of her neck and hauled her to him. He caught her slight sound of surprise with a kiss.
Oh, he was going to regret this.
He knew it. Sabrina knew it.
But that didn’t stop him.
He kissed her, hard, and pulled her onto his lap.
Chapter Nine
Sabrina didn’t have time to think. Nor did she want to. The only thing she wanted was Shaw, and apparently she was going to get him.
Finally!
Judging from the heat of the kiss, he didn’t intend to stop.
She certainly didn’t intend to, either. Sabrina went willingly when Shaw moved her onto his lap. Her belly prevented them from having full body contact, but it didn’t stop the fiery kiss that Shaw was delivering.
The fire wasn’t just in his kiss. It slid right through her, from her mouth all the way to the part of her that wasn’t covered with panties. She got an interesting reminder of that when she felt Shaw’s thigh press against her there. Mercy. Here she was again. Barely a touch, and she was ready to have him inside her.
Shaw didn’t make a move to unzip his pants and give her what she wanted. Instead, his mouth left hers and went to her neck. He dropped a flurry of kisses around her jaw. On her throat. But when the kissing exploration made it to the base of her ear, Sabrina moaned. He took the cue and gave her a French kiss there that had her moaning for more.
More was difficult to get.
She tried to wiggle closer to him, so that his sex would touch hers, so she could finally have some relief from this burning ache that was too hot to control. But again, her belly got in the way.
Shaw stopped the neck kisses and pulled back so they were eye to eye. For one horrible moment, she thought he was going to say this had to stop. She thought he was going to move away from her.
That didn’t happen.
Sabrina sat there, waiting, with her breath gusting and her heart racing out of control.
“Shh,” he said. His voice was soothing and slow.
So was his hand. He slid it from her neck to her breasts. And he circled her right nipple with his fingertips while he watched her.
Sabrina had no choice but to watch him as well, even though that touch caused her to moan again, and her eyelids fluttered, threatening to close.
“Shh,” he repeated. His hand went lower, sliding against her, and creating little fires wherever his fingers touched.
He stopped for just a moment when his hand reached her thigh, and with the fire blazing in his blue eyes, he pushed up her dress.
His gaze never wavered. He remained focused on her face. And his fingers trailed up her thigh. Then, over.
To just the right place.
The pleasure speared through her. Instant. Hot. Intense. So intense she had to close her eyes, and she angled her hips forward so that his clever fingers would go deeper inside her. They did, and with a few of those well-placed strokes, he had her right at the edge.
Sabrina forced her eyes open, and she shook her head, questioning him. They should do this together, with his sex inside her.
But Shaw shook his head as well, and he leaned forward to kiss her. It was French. And perfect. The kiss from a man who knew exactly what he was doing. And what he was doing was taking her to that edge. Alone.
Sabrina wanted to fight it. She wanted to pull back and coax him into joining her. But the kiss continued, hard and deep. So did those maddening strokes with his fingers. Each one, faster.
Harder.
Deeper.
Until she couldn’t fight the sensations. She couldn’t hang on. Her body betrayed her, and she felt the climax ripple through her.
She slumped forward, because she had no choice, but Shaw caught her and buried his face against her neck. They stayed there, pressed together, until Sabrina could gather enough breath and strength to pull back.
The corner of his mouth lifted. Then lowered just as quickly when he apparently saw her expression. “Oh, no. We’re not going to have that argument.”
Maybe it was the post-climactic fog in her head, but she wasn’t sure what he meant. “Argument?”
“The one where you try to convince me that we should have full-blown sex. Or some other form of pleasure that will end in me having what you just had.”
Sabrina blinked. Yes, that was the argument she had been about to launch. She decided instead to get her point across without words. He was hard and huge behind his zipper, so she pressed her hand against him.
A hoarse groan rumbled in his throat, and he moved her hand away. “Tempting, but it can’t happen. I need to think, and I can’t think if we’re having sex.”
“We could make it fast.” And she was only partly joking. She was still punchy from the climax. “I just want to make you feel the way I’m feeling.”
“I am,” he assured her. It didn’t seem like a lie, either. He leaned in and brushed a kiss on her mouth. Then, he eased her off his lap. “Watching you was incredible.”
It didn’t feel incredible. Sabrina suddenly felt a little awkward. She’d never had sex that particular way, and Sabrina didn’t like the idea of her getting something that Shaw was denying himself.
“Don’t overanalyze it,” he mumbled. “This wasn’t about pity. It wasn’t about all the old bad feelings between us. I just wanted to watch you.”
How could she argue with that?
Besides, she was too mellowed out with the aftershocks still humming through her. And she didn’t want to argue. There had already been too many disagreements between her and Shaw to add another one.
“Now eat,” he insisted. He got up and walked to the bathroom. “Then, rest.”
Sabrina fixed her dress, pulling it back down in place. She fixed her position, too, and moved so she was sitting rather than leaning into the space where Shaw would hopefully soon return. Then, maybe they could talk.
Or not.
Sabrina thought about that. They were light-years ahead of where they’d been just days earlier, and it was probably best if she didn’t push things.
He’s Fay’s husband.
That old label flashed through her head again, and she felt the guilt return. Oh, mercy. When was this going to stop?
“You okay?” Shaw asked.
She glanced up to find him staring at her. “I’m fine,” she insisted.
He looked as if he might challenge that, but he didn’t. He came back to the sofa and started in on the sandwich that he’d discarded prior to their make out session. He took exactly one bite before his phone buzzed.
Shaw pulled out his cell from his pocket, glanced at the screen and answered it. “Lieutenant O’Malley.”
The officer he trusted. Sabrina only hoped he was trustworthy and good at his job. They needed in formation.
She ate while Shaw listened. She couldn’t hear what the lieutenant was saying, but judging from Shaw’s suddenly intense expression, this was an important call.
“Where’s the baby now?” Shaw asked.
She remembered there was a missing newborn. Shaw had said an Amber Alert had been issued. Maybe this call was to tell him the child had been found. She prayed that was the case anyway. Even after all the hell she’d been through, having her baby disappear would be much, much worse.
“I want that umbilical cord tested ASAP,” Shaw continued before he started another long round of listening.
The minutes crawled by, punctuated only by Shaw’s occasional question.
“Repeat that,” he said. And his expression tightened even more. “No. You go ahead and question him. I think it’s safe to say that it’d be a conflict of interest for me to do it. Record the interview, of course. I want t
o hear every word.”
Shaw ended the call, slipped his phone back into his pocket and blew out a long breath.
Sabrina had so many questions, but she started with the obvious one. “You found the missing baby who was taken from the hospital?”
“No. This is a different baby, one not involved with the hostages.” He shrugged. “Well, maybe it is. We just don’t know at this point. The tech guys were able to retrieve the deleted file and were able to match it to a DNA request that was generated right here in SAPD four days ago.”
Just three days before they were all taken hostage. The timing was certainly suspicious. “Whose DNA?”
“The missing baby’s. His birth mother was missing as well, but then her body was found. She was murdered. And the baby wasn’t with her. None of her friends and relatives know where the child is, but a family member stated that the dead woman had had some problems with the baby’s birth father. He’d made threats about taking the child.”
“And the father’s name?” Sabrina asked.
Shaw shook his head. “We don’t know. Neither did the family member because the dead woman had kept the relationship a secret. That’s why the DNA test was ordered. The birth mother had had the baby’s cord blood stored at the hospital, so we were able to get a good sample to try to identify the father. Because obviously the father is a murder suspect.”
Oh, mercy. Another murder. Another missing suspect. Except this might be the same person who’d created all this havoc. “Will the techs be able to recreate the missing file?”
“No. It had been corrupted, probably on purpose. And the baby’s cord blood was missing from the hospital storage room.” Shaw paused. “This might be the motive for why the hostage situation happened.”
Of course. A birth father who didn’t want his identity known because he’d murdered the mother of his child. Sabrina prayed he hadn’t done the same to the baby.
She eased her hand over her own child and gave him a reassuring rub. “How will you find this monster?”
“We have several ways. We’re trying to track down the dead gunman’s brother, Danny Monroe. It’s possible he was the second masked gunman who took the hostages. Or he at least might know if his brother was the baby’s father.”
“Or he could have just been the hired gun,” Sabrina pointed out.
Shaw nodded, looked at her. He smoothed his fingers over her bunched up forehead. “Don’t worry.”
“Right.” She nearly laughed. “I want this person identified and found so that our baby will be safe.”
“I want the same thing,” he assured her. He sat there with his own forehead bunched up.
“There’s more,” she said. “What?”
“Two things.” But then he paused again. “I’m having your OB, Dr. Nicholson, checked out. It’s just routine,” he added quickly. “She had access to your medical records, and I want to make sure she didn’t leak that info to anyone.” His eyes came to hers. “Did you know that she’d once been romantically involved with Officer Keith Newell?”
“No.” Sabrina took a moment to let the surprise settle in. “But then she doesn’t talk about her personal life. How involved were they?”
“Involved. They’ve known each other since high school. Turns out he listed her as one of his references when he applied to the police academy.”
Sabrina gave that some thought, as well. She also thought of how supportive the doctor had been. “That doesn’t mean Dr. Nicholson has done anything wrong.”
“No. It doesn’t.” Shaw shook his head, cursed under his breath. “But the report I just got from O’Malley could point the guilty finger right at one of my own men.”
Chapter Ten
Shaw stood in the shower and let the scalding hot water spray over him. It didn’t help unknot the muscles in his back. Probably nothing would except for an arrest.
Thankfully, that might happen soon.
Not so thankfully, he might have to arrest a cop.
Lieutenant O’Malley had gotten back Newell’s financials, and there was an unexplained ten thousand dollars that had been deposited into his account the day before the hostage incident. Ten grand wasn’t a fortune by some people’s standards, but it was a lot to a cop. And it was a red flag since there weren’t any other similar deposits over the last few years. It also didn’t help that the money had been transferred into his account from an offshore bank.
Shaw was still waiting to hear Newell’s explanation, and by God, it’d better be a good one.
He bracketed his hands against the tiled wall and leaned into the shower spray so it’d hit the back of his neck. He didn’t stay in that position long. He couldn’t. He needed to finish up and get back into the flop room with Sabrina.
She’d been asleep when he turned on the shower. And the flop room door was locked from the inside. Newell was in Lieutenant O’Malley’s office and would stay there until the lieutenant got some answers. So, Newell wasn’t running around the building, ready to strike, but Shaw didn’t want to leave Sabrina alone too long.
He dressed in the jeans and black T-shirt he’d had brought to him from his locker. They weren’t exactly his normal work clothes, but they’d have to do for now. He didn’t have time to drop by his house and pick up his usual dark pants and dress shirt.
Shaw quickly brushed his teeth and used his hand to comb his hair. He opened the door, ready to tiptoe back into the room, but Sabrina was there, standing right in front of him, dressed in the paper-thin gown that’d been among the loaner clothes. Her dress was tucked beneath her arm.
“Anything new on Newell?” Sabrina immediately asked.
Shaw shook his head. “Lieutenant O’Malley said he would call as soon as he got to the bottom of this.”
She grumbled something under her breath and pushed her hair away from her face. “I fell asleep,” she said as if that were the last thing she wanted to do. “Did you?”
“I napped on and off throughout the night.” But it felt as if he hadn’t slept for days.
She lightly touched her fingers to the bruise above his eye. The injury he’d gotten when Burney Monroe bashed him in the head with his gun. “It’s turning purple.” The corner of her mouth lifted. “The color goes well with your eyes.”
He wanted to smile, wanted to share this softer moment with her, but he glanced down at the bruises on her wrist. Burney Monroe was responsible for those, too.
Sabrina must have noticed where he had his attention because she shifted the dress, hiding her hands beneath it. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “Well, other than having to use the bathroom.”
“Oh.” He stepped out of the way, but not before brushing against her. As usual, his body started to beg for something it wasn’t going to get.
Not now, anyway.
It wasn’t a matter of if sex with Sabrina would happen, it was now a matter of when. It was amazing how much forty-eight hours could change things.
While Sabrina was in the bathroom, Shaw decided to go ahead and call O’Malley. Yes, the lieutenant might be at a crucial point in his interview with Newell, but Shaw didn’t want to wait any longer.
“I was about to call you,” O’Malley said the moment he answered Shaw’s call. “I just finished up with Newell and need to head home for a while so I can take a nap, wash up and change my clothes. Nadine Duggan’s memorial service is today. But I can talk while I’m walking to my car.”
Nadine. Shaw mentally groaned. He would have liked to go to the service, to pay his respects and give Bo some support, but it was too risky to take Sabrina out like that.
“Where’s Newell right now?” Shaw wanted to know.
“He’s on his way to the memorial service, too. Or at least that’s where he said he was going. I couldn’t hold him, Shaw. He said the money came from online poker winnings. Of course, the poker site is offshore and not exactly eager to cooperate with the police in San Antonio. Still, Newell was able to go to the Web site where he won the money.”
“Not exactly. He showed me a screen name, and that person had indeed won a large sum of money, but I can’t be sure Newell and the winner are one and the same. But I haven’t given up yet. I’m still working with the poker site to release the financials. In the meantime, I have a uniformed officer tailing Newell.”
Good. The uniform would remind Newell that he was under investigation, and the cop could report back any suspicious activity. But that didn’t make Shaw feel any better about Sabrina.
“I need a safe place for Sabrina to stay for a while,” Shaw explained. “And after what happened in the hotel, I’d rather not use anything put in place by Special Investigations. Newell probably has a lot of buddies in the department who might not understand he could be a dangerous man.”
“I have an idea. A good friend owns an apartment on the Riverwalk, and he’s out of town. I’ve been keeping an eye on the place for him, but it’s yours if you want to use it.”
“Thanks. I’ll take you up on that.” It would get Sabrina out of headquarters so that she wouldn’t run into Newell. It would also free up the flop room. Shaw had dozens of officers pulling double shifts, and he didn’t want to tie up the room any longer, especially when there was a safer alternative.
“The address is six-eight-eight Commerce, apartment four-C. I’ll put the key in an envelope and leave it with the motor pool dispatcher. You can get it on your way out. Good luck, Captain. Call me if you need me.”
Shaw jotted down the address and checked his watch. It was barely 5:00 a.m. and still dark outside. Probably a good time to move Sabrina to the apartment. Shaw was about to tell her that when she stepped from the bathroom, but she spoke before he could say anything.
“You have to feel this.” She had a big grin on her face when she walked to him, and she took his hand and plopped it on her belly. She no longer wore the gown. She had on the blue dress she’d worn the day before.
He immediately felt the kicks. Unlike the last time, however, these were nonstop.
The Baby’s Guardian Page 10