Cuffed & Claimed

by Lori King

  “But…”

  “Nope. If I have to, I’ll stay in my car, but I’m not leaving the grounds.” She crossed her arms, and storm clouds gathered in her eyes, but he didn’t care. He was waiting for the explosion but instead the storm passed.

  “You’d really do that for me. Sleep in your car?”

  “Of course. How many different ways do I need to show you how much I love you before you start to believe it? Has no one in your life ever put your well-being first?” He expected a quick retort but instead tears welled in her eyes, and threatened to fall.

  The tears were his undoing. Before she could say another word he was on his knees next to her chair and pulling her into his arms. She didn’t make a sound just tucked her head under his chin. He wouldn’t even have known she was crying except his t-shirt got wet from her tears. He rocked her and let her cry, and he wondered how long she’d held it in.

  7

  Monday morning arrived way too early. Usually, Anna woke refreshed and ready to tackle the new week, this morning not so much. For the first time in forever, she hadn’t prepared for the week, instead crying herself a river in Ethan’s arms before he led her to the bedroom and made love to her most of the night. She’d never felt so loved and cherished in her entire life. But she was paying the price this morning. There wasn’t going to be enough coffee on the planet to make her perky.

  “We’re agreed, right? You’re going to be hyper-vigilant until we catch this guy. Any sign of him or the truck and you’re going to call me. Or Steele if you can’t reach me. Which won’t happen. Oh and I programmed Steele’s number into your phone.”

  “Yes, boss,” she answered with a yawn. Two cups of coffee down and they’d had no effect whatsoever. Ethan smacked her on the butt as he grabbed an apple and then dropped a kiss on her lips.

  “I mean it, baby. No risks is your motto. Got it?”

  “Yeah, yeah. And what about your motto? You take more risks than I ever have.”

  “I’m a man. I’m equipped.” That was ballsy, but she knew he was trying to lighten the mood, and it had worked. She laughed and tossed a banana at his head.

  “Hey, that’s gonna leave a bruise.”

  “Awww, did I hurt the big bad police detective?” She knew she was in trouble before the sound of her words dissipated. Ethan grabbed her around the waist and swung her around so fast she thought her coffee was going make a speedy return.

  “If we had more time, I’d show you just how big and bad I am. Although, after last night, I am surprised you need a reminder.” The mischief in his eyes should have warned her, but she was either too slow or too tired, and next thing she knew she was laying on the kitchen island, and he’d lifted her shirt and blew raspberries on her stomach. Then he stood her on the floor, kissed her soundly and was gone.

  “Holy crap. That man is full of surprises.”

  “I heard that, and don’t you forget it,” he called from the front room before she heard the click of the door closing. Then the alarm dinged when the door was reopened. “And don’t forget to set the alarm. Later, my sex goddess.”

  All of a sudden the house seemed way too quiet. It seemed like every time he left, whether he was there for ten minutes or in this case almost thirty-six hours, he took all the happiness with him. Was her life really that dull? Had she let all the happiness drain away to keep herself insulated from hurt? It sure as hell seemed like it, and she was more than ready to live again. Exhaustion be damned, today was the first day of the rest of her life, even if it meant lots of stress and worry, it was okay. She felt alive, really alive for the first time in years.

  It didn’t look like she’d have time to stop by the police station before work, Ethan would just have to get over it. She’d see if she could make it at lunch or after work it would have to be. Monday’s were usually her busist days, and she’d be swimming upstream all day.

  Instead of being the first one in, she was the last one in to work. Greeting everyone as she headed to her office she smiled at the looks of surprise on their faces. She had a half hour before the Monday morning staff meeting, and a shitload of listings to go through, or not. Maybe it was time to start delegating. It’s not like it was complicated. That decided, she opened their in-house program, and she checked the status of everyone’s listings. Two sales on Saturday, excellent. Noting the information to discuss at the meeting, she still needed to figure out what if anything she was going to say about the rash of break-ins. Chances were if she’d seen it on the news so had at least a few of them.

  A knock at her door distracted her train of thought. “Morning, Anna. You looked like you could use this,” Jenny said as she put a steaming mug of coffee on her desk.

  “Oh hell yeah. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. How’d the open house go?”

  “We had a lot of traffic, I think Adria might have a sale this week, well except…” her voice trailed off when she remembered the robbery. Had they trashed the house? Was it even sellable at this point?

  “What’s wrong?” Jenny’s face showed concern, but there was something weird about her expression. Maybe she’d heard the news and was waiting to see if Anna would say anything.

  “I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. I think I’m just a little slow today,” Anna said with a laugh.

  “Too much weekend. Or maybe I should say, too much Ethan in your weekend?”

  “Maybe.” Anna grinned, it wasn’t out of character for her and Jenny to discuss any of this, but after Ethan’s warning, she second guessed everything. “How about you? Did anything come up while I was out?”

  “Nope, it was all quiet. I think the weather was just too nice to spend the weekend inside. I hung out with some friends, ate pizza, drank beer, and just chilled. It was good.”

  “Sounds like it. Good for you. There’s a lot to be said for chillin’.”

  “What kept you at home?” Adria said from the doorway.

  “I think that’s my cue, meeting in ten.”

  “Thanks.” Was there something off with Jenny today or was it just Anna being “hyper-vigilant” for weirdness. Ethan was going to turn her into a paranoid mess before this was through. “I might have had a house guest,” she said after Jenny closed her office door.

  “No way! Ethan stayed over? Hot damn. It’s about time.”

  “Actually, he stayed Saturday night too.”

  “Holy crap, woman. When you finally give in you really go for it.”

  Anna laughed. Yeah, she guessed she did and that part of the weekend was amazing. Then she remembered Ethan and Steele would be trying to get warrants for the phone taps and some of the sunshine of her morning dimmed. “I guess I did or do. Depending on how you look at it,” she said with a forced smile. But Adria was so excited for her Anna didn’t think she noticed. She was going to have to tread carefully today, being extra tired was going to make it more difficult to not slip.

  “I want details. I have to live vicariously through you.”

  “No you don’t, you’re just even more stubborn than I am.”

  “But Scotty…”

  “Don’t use Scotty as an excuse. He’s in junior high now, do you think he wants to have to worry about his mom when he’d rather be hanging with his buds? You’re just scared, and trust me I know all about scared.”

  Adria sighed and leaned back in the chair. “Maybe, but…”

  “No buts allowed, and I think I found the perfect guy for you too.”

  “Oh God, no. No blind dates.”

  “You’d be missing out if you couldn’t see. He’s hotter than…”

  “Who is?” Ethan said as he opened the door to her office.

  “Doesn’t anyone knock anymore? Damn. And none of your business.”

  “You must be talking about me then,” he said smugly. Adria laughed.

  “I think we need to pick this up later. How about I pick up lunch, and we eat in today?”

  Anna glanced up at Ethan and saw the slight shake of hi
s head. Damn he was going to press her to go see the sketch artist. “Umm…”

  Ethan cut her off, while she tried to figure out how to respond. “Actually, I called dibs on lunch first thing this morning. But tomorrow she can be all yours.”

  “Oh, I see how I rate. Gotcha,” Adria said but couldn’t hold her straight face. “See you at the meeting. Bye Ethan. Have a nice lunch with my best friend.”

  “What’s up? I have a meeting.”

  “I wanted to make sure you got in okay.”

  “Unless I’m wrong, you have a phone with text messaging that works just fine.” The look on Ethan’s face proved she was right, he had an ulterior motive for being there.

  “I was hoping you’d let me talk to your staff at the meeting. Steele and I think that stirring the pot might help trigger a response if one of your employees is involved.”

  “That might not be such a bad idea. Does that mean you didn’t get the warrant?”

  “We don’t know yet. Oh and Steele is here too.”

  “Is he here for the meeting or to dig up dirt on my employees?”

  “Relax, we’re not going to cause trouble—yet. But if something or someone doesn’t seem right all bets are off.”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Of course you do. We can’t force you to help us, but I’d think you’d want to know as much as we do. Especially if all of your people are innocent, then they’re in danger too if it escalates. We’ve been lucky so far that no one’s been hurt or worse.”

  She’d been thinking that herself, and he had a point. “Okay. Let’s go it’s meeting time.”

  * * *

  He’d taken a chance by just showing up, Ethan hadn’t wanted to give her a chance to say no. After what she’d told him about the guy watching her, he was more convinced than ever that someone in this office was involved. And he wanted to close this case as soon as possible before it got worse.

  When they’d told the LT everything they’d found out he called the DA himself and asked him to get them a warrant, but he hadn’t lied either. He didn’t know if they’d been successful or not in getting one. Until then, he and Steele were going to work every angle they could. That meant showing up at Anna’s office and hijacking her staff meeting.

  They decided Ethan would do the talking and Steele would use his keen sense of observation on everyone in the room, his words not Ethan’s. It was as good a plan as any. When everyone was gathered, he explained about the robberies, and what they needed to do to make sure they stayed safe. They were recommending that no agent go out alone until the culprits were caught.

  A low rumbling in the room let him know they didn’t like the idea. He understood they were in competition too, working on commission, but there was money, and there was safety, and most if not all of Anna’s employees were probably innocent. Although he really liked Hugh Johnson for it, even if he didn’t seem like the brainiac type.

  “I’m going to leave our cards at the front desk with Jenny. If any of you see anything suspicious, or you think of anything give either myself or Steele a call. It’s imperative that you all are careful until we catch these guys. So far no one’s been hurt, and we don’t want that to change.”

  He leaned against one of the walls as Anna finished her meeting, going over the sales stats and delegating some work. He couldn’t have been happier to hear that either. It meant she was going to ease up, and that was a plus as far as he was concerned.

  After the meeting, he and Steele talked to Anna for a bit before they headed back to the station. She’d agreed to come over and work with the sketch artist, he told her she’d be rewarded with another Dixie’s roast beef sandwich and he’d been rewarded with a million-dollar smile. All in all, even though he was worried about her and the case, he couldn’t remember when he’d been happier.

  It turned out she remembered more details than he’d expected and the sketch turned out well. Lunch went well until Rob Martin, the assistant DA, showed up with the warrant. Apparently, the judge wanted this cleared up quickly since it was an election year and both he and the DA were up for reelection. Gotta love politics.

  Anna wasn’t happy but by now she’d accepted that they needed to do anything in their power to solve the case. He reminded her to watch for anything suspicious in the office with any of the employees, not just Hugh or even Adria. They were all suspects until they weren’t at this point. Before she went back to her office, he pulled her into the breakroom.

  “I’m really sorry you have to deal with all of this, baby.”

  “Me too, but it’ll work out, right?”

  “Of course, we always get our man,” he said with a laugh and false bravado. There wasn’t a lot of high crime in Willow Haven, some minor drug busts, stolen cards and shoplifting were the majority of his cases.

  She looked tired, and it was his fault, but he wasn’t one bit sorry. Every minute he’d spent loving on her last night had been magic. Which reminded him.

  “Are we staying at your place again or mine?”

  “What?”

  “Did you forget what I said last night? I’m not going to leave you alone until we catch this guy or figure out what’s going on.”

  “Aren’t you overreacting a bit?”

  “Nope. Nothing I do to protect you would ever be too much.”

  “Damn, you’re tough. Fine. My place is bigger and has a better kitchen, so you come over.”

  “You got it. We can go out for dinner, or I can cook.”

  “I’ll let you know when I have a better idea how late I’m working tonight.”

  “Okay, that works. Text me when you get back to the office.” He slid a finger along her cheek and under her chin, tilting it to kiss her. He hadn’t intended to do anything but give her a light kiss, but she was a witch, and all it took was one small touch to set him off. Only when Steele came looking for him did he break off the kiss.

  He wanted to go all Tarzan when he saw the dreamy expression in her eyes which had gone all molten chocolate with desire.

  “Um, the LT is looking for you,” Steele said after clearing his throat to let them know he was there.

  “Okay.”

  “I need to get back to the office. I’ll see you later.”

  “Don’t forget to let me know you got back.”

  “Yes, dad,” Anna replied as she shook her head.

  “Bye, Anna.”

  “Bye, Steele. Do some real work will you?”

  8

  Monday became Tuesday and then Wednesday and soon the entire week had passed and they’d fallen into a routine. Anna was surprised how quickly she got used to having Ethan around. As much as she wanted him to solve the case, it would mean he could go home. She had a decision to make about their future living arrangements. But she wasn’t sure if she was ready to take the next step. Although really there wasn’t a decision to make, since he’d been staying with her since last weekend. And if she were honest, she’d have to admit she didn’t want to go back to seeing him a few times a week instead of waking up in his arms every morning. She’d forgotten how wonderful being in love felt. And yes, she was definitely in love with Ethan, she just hadn’t said the words out loud. She had a pretty good idea he knew whether or not she actually said the words.

  Ethan and Steele were both disappointed that their visit to her meeting hadn’t turned up anything, and it was looking more and more like it wasn’t an inside job after all. Anna wanted to tell them I told you so, but she still had a niggling feeling she was missing something. She also hadn’t seen Mr. Creepy Pants again, but she could have sworn she’d caught the truck in her rearview one or two times. She was a good girl too; she’d told Ethan as soon as she’d gotten home. It was too bad Florida didn’t require front license plates, or she might have had a chance to get more than just the first two letters.

  The week flew by, and they still hadn’t solved the case. Now it was Saturday again. Would there be another break-in? Or had Ethan’s investigation scared the
m off? Hoping for a nice quiet evening, they decided to stay home, order pizza and watch the movie Deadpool. Unfortunately, their luck didn’t hold out. The phone rang at eleven-thirty. Anna was half asleep leaning on Ethan, but the ringing was like an instant ‘On’ button.

  “Damn.”

  “I know. I was hoping, too.” It was Steele, he’d gotten the call first and was passing on the news which wasn’t all that good. Again it was a Willow Haven Realty listing that had been hit. That much she’d figured out from listening to half of the conversation, but the look on his face scared her. An ominous feeling turned the pizza and beer in her stomach into a roiling bucket of acid.

  “Got it. I’ll be there in about ten minutes. I don’t have to tell you if the press shows up we have no comment, right? Did someone tell his wife? Okay.

  Tell his wife? It really didn’t sound good. What the hell happened? Had one of their clients been home? But why would the wife have to be notified then?

  Ethan disconnected the call when his eyes met hers she knew. She wasn’t sure how she did, but she knew.

  “It’s Hugh, isn’t it?”

  “I’m afraid so. Did he have an open house today?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Apparently, he didn’t bring a ‘buddy,’ and his wife called the station when he didn’t come home for dinner or answer his phone. It was too soon for her to file a missing persons’ report, but given the circumstances, they’d decided to check it out. Before they could send a unit to his house, they got a call from one of the neighbors who had just returned from the movie. The lights were on, and the front door was open.”

  Dizziness hit her like a wave and if she hadn’t been sitting she’d probably have fallen over. “Why was he there alone?”