Totally, Sweetly, Irrevocably

by Kira Archer

  “Hey, you said it’s stolen equipment. Which means it wasn’t the department’s anyways. So it’s no skin off anyone’s teeth, right?”

  He ignored that. “Stealing aside, it’s dangerous up here. There could be actual criminals lurking anywhere, and you were way too close to the edge for safety.”

  “Did you say ‘lurking’? I feel like I’m in some comic book.”

  “Miss Silvano—”

  “Would you stop with the Miss Silvano stuff, already? My name is Gina. If you are going to insist on talking to me, call me by name.”

  “Fine. Gina. Will you please—”

  “No.”

  “Excuse me?” he asked, frowning.

  “You are going to tell me to stop spying. I’m heading you off and saying no. We’ve had this conversation already, and I’m really not interested in having it again. Now, pardon me…”

  She took up her position at the edge of the roof again and trained the binoculars at her truck. Her enhanced gaze swept up and down the street. She was so intent on what she was doing her entire body got in on the action. When her head swiveled right, her ass swayed to the left, and vice versa. She reminded him of a friendly puppy who couldn’t control the wagging of its tail. Only Gina wasn’t remotely friendly. And she was a hell of a lot cuter than a puppy.

  “Gina,” he started, but she shushed him again.

  “If you don’t stop with all the talking, you’re going to scare him off again.”

  Rick shook his head, trying to keep from laughing. Far from finding the situation disturbing as he should (after all, the woman was trespassing, loitering, and possibly stalking, and she’d stolen from him), he couldn’t help but find it amusing. And intriguing.

  He dropped down next to her, leaning his back against the wall. She paused in her surveillance long enough to give him a surprised look.

  “All right,” he said, “explain it to me. From the beginning.”

  Her eyes narrowed as if she couldn’t decide if she could trust him or not.

  “I’m not going away until you tell me what’s going on,” he said.

  She released a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. If you must know.”

  She went through the whole thing again. The ex-boyfriend. The messed-up truck. The signs that someone had been breaking into her truck to have a good time and the reasons she thought it was her ex. And by the end, he almost hated to admit that he got it. And that she was right. It probably wasn’t the type of thing the department would give priority to. After all, while technically a crime was being committed, no one was being hurt, nothing was being taken, and nothing was being damaged. The “vandal” was entering the truck, making a mess (and probably having a very good time) and that was it.

  “So,” she said, “you see why I needed to deal with it myself?”

  Rick watched her for a second, taking in the determined slant of her chin, the spark flashing in her eyes, and the fact that she seemed to have zero fear of anyone or anything. That fact alone scared the shit out of him. She was a statistic waiting to happen. He certainly didn’t want her afraid of every shadow on the street, but it wouldn’t hurt her to have a healthy concern for things that could go bump in the night.

  He ran his hand through his hair, making up his mind. “Fine. I get it. But,” he said, forestalling her I told you so spiel, “if you’re going to do the whole vigilante stakeout thing, I’m going to do it with you.”

  He was pretty sure her jaw cracked with the force of it dropping open.

  “What do you mean, you’ll do it with me?”

  He bit off the automatic sexual innuendo response that popped into his mind. Totally inappropriate, though impossible not to think of with the fiery ball of passion bristling right in front of him.

  “I mean, you’ll be better off with my help. I’ve actually been trained to do this kind of thing.”

  She glared at him. “I think I’ve been doing a pretty decent job of it on my own.”

  “Really? You’ve been out here twice. The first time someone called the cops on you before you could call us on him and the second time someone would have been calling the cops for you if I’d been anyone but me. I was able to get the drop on you before you even knew I was here. That could have been very dangerous. Plus, what are you going to do when you catch him?”

  She frowned, thinking. “Aside from making sure he won’t be able to use his favorite body part in the defilement of my truck anymore, you mean?”

  Rick laughed. “Yeah.”

  She shrugged. “I hadn’t gotten that far.”

  “That’s what I thought. Look, I can help, okay? If I’m here, you can use my equipment, legally, and I can watch your back. There’s a reason why cops have partners.”

  She watched him for what felt like forever and then finally nodded.

  “All right. You can help.”

  He gave her a wry smile. “Gee. Thanks.”

  “What’s in it for you?” she asked, ignoring his sarcasm.

  “It’ll save me a month’s worth of paperwork when you get caught and they haul you in for trespassing, voyeurism, and theft.”

  She rolled her eyes and muttered, “Whatever.” But a small smile played on her lips.

  He stood up and reached a hand out to help her up. She just looked at it.

  “He’s not coming back tonight. If it was your ex, and he was planning on breaking into the truck, the commotion from earlier spooked him. He won’t make another try tonight. We’ll have to come back another night.”

  She blew a frustrated breath out but nodded. “Fine. Tomorrow then.”

  She surprised him by actually taking his hand. He pulled her to her feet. And kept her hand in his.

  “Don’t come back by yourself. Wait for me to get off shift. I’ll meet you at the bakery.”

  “Fine,” she said, though she didn’t look like she enjoyed agreeing.

  He helped her gather up the rest of her stuff and then escorted her back down the fire escape and through the alley until they were on the main street. His car was parked in the opposite direction of where she lived.

  “All right. I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he said.

  Gina nodded and turned to walk away.

  “Try not to break any more laws between now and then,” he called after her.

  She gave him a brilliant smile that damn near took his breath away. “I’m not making any promises. But I’ll try.”

  He laughed and shook his head. “I guess that’s as good as I’ll get.”

  He watched her until she was too far away to see and then headed back to his car. He’d never looked forward to a stakeout so much in his life. Somehow he didn’t think sitting in the dark with Gina would be quite as boring as it would be if she were Joe. In fact, it might become his new favorite pastime.

  He did need to be careful, though. She was definitely a bad influence. She’d made him bend rules and break his routine already.

  And heaven help him, he liked it.

  Chapter Four

  Gina dumped another packet of sugar into her on-the-house coffee—another perk of working with Nat, who could brew coffee like nobody’s business—and focused on stirring it in, trying very hard to ignore the amused face of the man sitting across from her. Jared Crew. The pain in the ass Gina had had to deal with since his best friend married Gina’s BFF. Gina would never admit it, but she’d kind of gotten used to Jared being around. They’d even hooked up once upon a drunken time. They’d quickly realized they were better off as frenemies. He’d become the irritating older brother she never wanted. Lucky her.

  “So, you and a cop, huh?” he said.

  “Don’t start with me, Jared. I’m not on the clock, so I’m not being paid to put up with you at the moment. I came in here for a coffee because Nat loves me and gives it to me for free. Not so you could bust my balls, okay?”

  “Hey, I’ve repeatedly offered to give it to you for free. Not my fault you keep turning me down.”

  Her eyes
narrowed in an attempt to force some intimidating irritation through her amusement at his juvenile innuendo. She really shouldn’t find that remark funny. But damn it, she did. Despite her better judgment, Jared could always weasel a smile out of her. She glared harder.

  He held his hands up, though the twinkle in his eye suggested he was barely containing himself.

  “I’m just sayin’. You and a cop…kinda weird.”

  She took a sip of her coffee. “We aren’t hooking up. He’s helping me out.”

  “Yeah, but come on, Gene. He’s a cop. Cops aren’t exactly your favorite people. And you just volunteered to hang out all night with one. In the dark. Under the stars. Multiple nights, maybe. All kinds of opportunities going on there.”

  She threw her stir stick at him. “Suck it, Crew.”

  Jared laughed. “Don’t get mad at me. I’m not the one cozying up to my archnemesis.”

  “You seriously need to grow up. There’s more to life than comic books, you know.”

  Jared shrugged. “Says you.”

  She rolled her eyes. “He’s the means to an end. I want to find out who’s messing with my truck. And it would be really nice to not get arrested in the process. He said he’d help. End of story.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I say so. Now go away. Don’t you have some work to do?”

  Jared chuckled again and gathered up his coffee. “Always. But that’s the beauty of being my own boss. I can set my own hours. Though I do have two logos to design and an instruction manual to format.”

  “Guess you better get on that then.”

  “Eh. I’ve got two days to finish those. I’m good.”

  Gina shook her head. “You take procrastination to a whole new level.”

  “Well, it’s always good to be the best.”

  She smiled despite herself. It was hard not to. “Get out of here.”

  He stood and came around to her side of the table. “I’m only going because I do actually have a job to finish before midnight.” He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Have fun.”

  He scooted out before she could throw anything else at him. Jared always knew which of her buttons to push, but she knew she was being a little overly sensitive. Cop or no, Officer Boyd was hands down the hottest thing she’d ever seen. Spending a few hours in the dark with him could be a whole lot of fun. And that was a problem.

  She really didn’t want someone getting in her way and hanging over her, telling her what she could and couldn’t do. But she couldn’t catch Tony from a jail cell, so playdate with a cop it was. She grabbed her gear and called out a good-bye to Natalie, her best friend and business partner. After getting married, Nat mainly hung out at the bakery while Gina drove the truck. It was an arrangement that suited them both pretty well. Gina would go crazy stuck inside the bakery all day, and Nat was happy being able to hang out with her financial-consultant-turned-baker husband Eric.

  Nat hurried out from behind the counter with one of the bakery’s signature bags in her hand. “A few treats to keep you going tonight.”

  “I’m going to gain a hundred pounds before I catch the jerk if you keep force-feeding me this stuff,” Gina said with a frown, though she took the bag eagerly. The scent of chocolate heaven was already wafting out of the bag, and her mouth watered. “Ooh, did you put those brownies in here?”

  Nat laughed. “Yes, and Eric made a special batch of baklava, just for you. The chocolate kind. With extra nuts.”

  “You better kiss that man for me. Yum!”

  “I put extra in there so you can share with your friend.”

  Gina glared at her. “Don’t you start, too.”

  Nat shrugged. “Come on, you can’t blame us. You wouldn’t let any of us help you out, and now you’ve got some cop playing stakeout with you. It’s…unusual, that’s all.”

  “It’s irritating as hell, is what it is. And he’s not playing stakeout with me, he’s babysitting me. Afraid I’m going to go all vigilante and start busting up the city and terrorizing innocent citizens or some idiocy like that.”

  “Yeah. Sounds like something you’d do.”

  Gina’s lips twitched. “My reputation doth precede me.”

  “Doth?”

  “Yes. Doth.”

  Nat giggled and gave her a little shove. “Go on. Go take your cop his doughnuts. Er, baklava. Whatever.”

  Gina sighed and waved at Nat, not bothering to respond to that last little dig. She loved her friends but freaking hell, they needed to give the whole cop thing a rest. She was doing what she had to do to get what she wanted. Simple as that.

  Officer Boyd was lurking around the truck when she came out of the bakery. Gina cocked an eyebrow at him.

  “Whatcha doin’ over there?” she asked.

  “Checking things out.”

  Gina did some quick checking out of her own. If Officer Boyd was hot in his uniform, he was downright dead sexy out of uniform. Well, in normal people clothes. Totally out of uniform and she’d be drooling.

  The well-worn, faded jeans he wore looked soft and comfy but fit him to absolute perfection. Baggy enough that he didn’t look like some hipster, but tight enough that they conformed to his ass like plastic wrap on a bowl of leftovers. The dark T-shirt he wore also managed to be both loose enough to look comfortable but tight enough to leave very little to her imagination. The man was ripped, and her fingers itched to trace every line and ridge of him.

  He looked over and caught her staring. A smile stretched across his full lips, and Gina turned away, fiddling with the bag in her arms.

  “If you’re so worried about someone breaking into this thing, why don’t you park it inside?” he asked.

  “Gee, what a great idea, Officer,” she said, laying the sarcasm on thick.

  “My name is Rick,” he said, giving her a seriously? look. “I’m off duty. You don’t have to keep calling me Officer.”

  “All right. Rick.” She gave him a little smile and the surprised widening of his eyes let her know exactly how big of a bitch she’d been. She should probably lighten up. The guy might be a pain, but he was here to help her. And it wasn’t his fault she was embarrassed over being caught ogling him. She sighed.

  “We have the delivery van parked in there. There isn’t room for both yet. Eric, the owner of the bakery, is expanding the garage but is having some permit issues. So until we get the addition, we can only park one vehicle inside. The van is a total custom job and would cost more to fix if it was vandalized. And would cost us more business. If the cupcake truck is out of commission for a day or two, it’s a pain, but not that big a deal. But if we can’t deliver someone’s wedding cake on time, we’ve got major long-term client problems.”

  He nodded. “Good point. You set up some security cameras or something?”

  “Yeah. But they haven’t done any good so far. Whoever it is knows where they are and has made sure their faces are never seen. Which is another reason why I’m so sure it’s Tony. But my swearing up and down that it’s him is my word against his.”

  “And you really think he’d do something like this?”

  She let out a sharp laugh. “In a heartbeat. He likes the little thrill of danger. Public places really do it for him. Being able to get back at me is icing on the cake for him. Pun totally intended.”

  He might have grinned, but he turned his head too fast for Gina to tell for sure.

  “I even stuck a nanny cam in there,” she said, following him around to the other side of the truck. “But he hasn’t been back since I installed that. Not sure how well it’ll work, anyway. I’ve got it set for night vision, but going by how much of a mess the weasel likes to make, he’ll probably knock it over, or something’ll get shoved in front of it. It won’t do me much good unless he’s in the perfect position.”

  “Yeah, I guess it wouldn’t. Good thinking, though.”

  “Thanks,” she said, unexpectedly pleased by the compliment.

  “So.” He shoved his h
ands in his jean pockets and hunched his shoulders a bit. “Shall we head up to the roof? We can’t catch him if we’re hanging around the bait, after all.”

  “True.”

  He reached for the bag and for a second she thought about refusing to let him carry it. She wasn’t some helpless damsel in distress. She could carry her own stuff. But it was a good climb to the roof, and she was lugging the rest of her stuff as well. She handed him the bag and readjusted her backpack.

  “Ready? Hey!” she said, when he immediately opened the bag and started riffling through it.

  “Sorry, it smells so good. You brought me some cop food? I could go for a doughnut.”

  She laughed and shook her head. She seriously doubted he spent much time munching junk food.

  “Sorry. No doughnuts. There’s some brownies in there and probably a couple cupcakes. Hands off the baklava, though. That’s mine.”

  “What, you mean this stuff?” he asked, grabbing a piece of baklava and popping it in his mouth.

  “Hey!” She swatted at his rock-solid arm. “You don’t get bag-carrying privileges if you are going to steal snacks.”

  “Sorry.” He licked some honey from his lips, not looking sorry in the least. “Damn, that was good.”

  “That’s the only one you get, so I hope you enjoyed it.”

  “Yep. I did. But since I’m the one holding the bag…” He popped another piece in his mouth.

  “All right, we’re trading.” Gina snagged the bakery bag from him and shoved her backpack into his hands. “Let’s go.”

  His chuckle followed her all the way across the street, but he quieted when they reached the fire escape. He caught the lowest rung and pulled the ladder down, waiting for her to scramble up before following. They ascended as quickly and quietly as possible. The last thing Gina wanted was to alert Mrs. Bogetti to their presence. It sucked they couldn’t camp out on the fire escape outside her window. It really was the perfect spot. But the roof would have to do. At least they could see if anyone was coming.

  Once up top, Gina grabbed the lawn chair she had brought up the night before and made herself comfortable.