by Kira Archer
“I know, but…”
She turned the corner and the bakery came in sight. Sure enough, the truck was rocking. And she sure as hell was going to come knocking. The sound of something crashing came from inside the truck, and all thoughts of waiting for Rick to show up disappeared in the haze of fury that overcame her.
“If you’re on your way, you better step on it. The shit weasel is still in there and there’s no way in hell I’m going to sit here and watch while he trashes my truck.”
“Gina…”
“I gotta go.”
She disconnected the call before he could say anything else, shoving aside the guilt over breaking her promise. At least she hadn’t just gone barreling in. She’d called him and he was on his way. That was more than she would have done for anyone else.
She shoved her phone in her pocket and ran the last few feet to the truck. The padlock that had been on the door lay open on the bumper of the truck. It was new, replaced since the last break-in, and only she and Nat had a key. So whoever was inside had to have picked it.
Gina threw open the doors and jumped inside. Her jaw hit the floor.
There wasn’t enough eye bleach in the world.
Chapter Seventeen
The second the call came in over the radio, Rick knew what he’d find when he got to the scene. At least he thought he did. Gina had obviously not waited for him to get there, so he knew it wouldn’t be pretty. But nothing could have prepared him for the circus show taking place. With Gina center stage.
Mrs. Bogetti had called in about a noise complaint with a possible domestic disturbance. For a woman prone to exaggeration, she hadn’t even come close to the fiasco that was really going on. Gina stood in the middle of the street having a full on freak-out. A pile of clothes was at her feet and it looked like she was pouring syrup and chocolate sauce and whatever else she could find all over it while a man, wearing nothing but chocolate-streaked tighty-whities (at least Rick sincerely hoped that was chocolate) tried to dodge around her to rescue something from the pile. He managed to grab a shirt, and Gina whipped around, grabbing hold of it and pulling.
She and the man were nose to nose, shouting at each other. Another person was in the truck; a woman wearing nothing but a bra and panties similarly covered in chocolate and other odds and ends, from what Rick could see.
Looked like Gina had finally caught her ex red-handed. Or sticky-handed, as it were.
“Holy shit,” Joe muttered. “What the hell is going on here?”
Rick was pretty sure he knew. His heart sank. She’d broken her promise to him. And worse, the passionate fury in her face as she screamed at her ex seemed way too personal for it to be stemming only from anger at his break-in. You didn’t get worked up like that over an ex being with someone else unless you still had feelings for him. And where did that leave him?
He tried to shove his feelings down for the moment. He had a job to do. He waded right in, grabbed the shirt Gina and her ex were still fighting over and tossed it to the guy. Tony, if he remembered the name right.
Gina glared up at him. “What happened to five minutes?”
“Really? You’re going to get mad at me? You two are disturbing the whole block. Half the neighborhood has called in complaints.”
She blinked and looked confused. “I didn’t realize we were that loud. I was so pissed…”
“Yeah. No shit.” He turned back to Tony. “Get dressed.”
Gina’s gaze shot back to him at his tone. “Rick, you can’t let him go. He broke in and—”
“I’m not letting anyone go,” he snapped at her.
She stopped short. The hurt in her eyes broke a little piece of his heart, but she’d started this whole mess.
“Yeah, you’re right you’re not letting anyone go,” Tony said. “I want to press assault charges. She hit me with a jar of frosting, right in the face!”
She rounded on him. “I didn’t hit you with anything. It was rolling out of the truck that you were vandalizing and I was trying to keep it contained. It’s not my fault your face was in the way when I tossed it back inside.”
“Are you serious? No one is going to buy that line of shit. You’re jealous I’m with someone else and are trying to get back at me.”
Gina’s face went bright red and for a second Rick thought she might start swinging. Her fists hung at her sides but they were shaking. “Jealous?! Of what? You’re a pathetic, cheating loser. Getting rid of you was the best thing I ever did. Seriously,” she said, pointing to the woman who was still huddling out of sight, “she could do so much better. Why she is even with an asshole like you is beyond me.”
“Shut up, Gina! God, you are such a bi—”
“Enough!” Rick said.
Gina flinched. He was sorry for it, but he was barely containing his anger as it was. If Tony opened his mouth one more time, Rick was going to plant his fist in it. He needed to get the situation under control before he lost it totally.
“You,” he said to the woman still in the truck. “Come down from there.”
“Wait. Rick,” Gina said, grabbing his arm like she was trying to keep him from looking in the truck.
“I can’t,” the woman said. “My clothes are in that pile.”
Rick froze at the sound of her voice, dread running through him. He brought his flashlight up and shone it at her. She had her arms across her chest, though she couldn’t hide the fact that her chocolate-smeared body was covered with only a bra and panties. And lots of chocolate frosting. With sprinkles.
“Jenny?” he asked, staring into the truck.
Gina sighed and rubbed her hand over her face.
“Give her some clothes. Now,” Rick said, grinding out the words.
“You know him?” Tony asked the woman, his tone pissed. “Figures. You girls are all the same.”
Rick took a threatening step toward him. Joe must have sensed how close Rick was to losing it, because he took care of wrangling Tony. It was almost funny when Joe explained who the woman was in the truck. Tony glanced over at Rick with wide eyes and a pale face.
Yeah. The dickless bastard had a right to be scared. If it weren’t against the law to beat the shit out of suspects, Tony would be a bloody mess in the middle of the street. Might be anyway. At the moment, Rick’s love of the law and his job were starting to run a distant second to the satisfaction he’d get from rearranging Tony’s face.
Gina had gathered up Jenny’s clothes and taken them to her, closing the doors of the truck enough that Jenny could get dressed without everyone watching her. Rick pulled out his phone and called Stacy to come get their sister. She lived the closest to them. And she wouldn’t tell their parents what had happened.
Tony got dressed in his sticky, smeared clothes. And surprise, surprise, he no longer wanted to press charges against Gina. In fact, his whole demeanor changed from combative and insolent to overly respectful. And wary. I guess finding out your truck buddy is a cop’s sister has that effect on a person.
Joe cuffed him, read him his rights, and put him in the back of the squad car so they could take him in for breaking and entering. And destruction of property, from the looks of the inside of the truck. Or vandalism, at the very least. The place was a mess. Rick really didn’t want to dwell on why.
Gina came up to him, approaching him the way you would a wounded animal.
“Rick. I’m sorry. I tried to warn you—”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now. I’ve got a job to do. I’ll deal with you later.”
Her eyes narrowed and all the gentleness dropped from her. “You’ll deal with me? Seriously? I’m not some misbehaving child or problem you need to check off your list. I’m your girlfriend and I was trying to help.”
He was losing his tenuous hold on his anger. Between seeing Gina with Tony and finding his sister half naked and covered in chocolate (which made it all too easy to imagine what she’d been doing), Rick was ten seconds from going nuclear. And that wasn’t s
omething he could do. Especially not when he was on the job.
“We are not getting into this right now, Gina. Go home. You can come down to the station tomorrow to make a statement about what happened.”
“Write your own statement.”
She spun on her heel and stormed back to the truck to secure it. He wanted to follow her. But he had a breaking-and-entering offense and a hysterical, and thankfully now-clothed, sister to take care of first.
He hovered protectively until Stacy finally arrived to take a tearful Jenny to her house for the night. Then Rick took a deep breath and went to the truck. Gina was busily righting spilled containers and scrubbing the counters and floors with a strong-smelling concoction.
“I need to go. We’ll take Tony down to the station and book him for breaking and entering and trespassing.”
“Add destruction of property, vandalism, and being a nasty-ass son of a bitch.”
As pissed as Rick was at her at that moment, he still couldn’t help a flicker of amusement. When she was angry, the woman had a mouth on her worse than any trucker. Hell, even when she wasn’t angry. He kind of envied her that. He could let loose when he wanted, but for the most part he tried to keep things clean. His mother hadn’t raised him to swear every other word, and as a cop, he felt he should be more of an example. Joe cursed enough for the both of them.
“I’ll do that,” he said. “Will you be home later?”
She barely spared him a glance. “Maybe. I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to clean this mess up.”
“We need to talk, Gina.”
She looked up at that. “Yeah. We certainly do.”
Rick gritted his teeth so hard his jaw hurt. She sounded as angry as he felt, though in his mind she had far less reason. There was something else in her tone, though. Disappointment, maybe. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know why.
“I’ll see you later then.”
She got back to scrubbing. “Fine.”
As pissed as he was, he hated to leave her alone like that, cleaning up the mess Tony had made. Rick refused to think of his sister having any hand in it, no matter how delusional that might be.
“If you wait a bit, I’ll help you get this all straightened out.”
She didn’t turn around. “I don’t need your help.”
Her words stung more than he thought possible. “Gina…”
“I called Nat. She’ll be here soon with Eric and Jared. We’ll take care of it. You can go do whatever it is you do. As long as you make sure that asshole never comes back here.”
Rick gripped the side of the truck until his knuckles turned white. Walking away with so much left unsaid between them took every ounce of willpower he had. But he had a job to do, and now was not the time to get into it.
“Fine. I’ll see you at your place when I get off work then.”
“Whatever.”
He waited a moment to see if she’d turn back around. She didn’t.
He balled up his fist but managed to keep from punching the side of the truck. Barely.
It never failed. Things were finally going well in his life, and something had to come along to screw it up. It didn’t seem to matter how tightly he tried to control everything, some wild card always broke through and made a mess of things. This time, the wild card in question was in the back of Rick’s squad car, spouting off shit about how he was really the one who’d been wronged.
One look from Rick silenced him. Maybe the jackass had a few brain cells, after all. Rick needed to get him booked and get through the next few hours, and then he and Gina could have their little chat. Though Rick didn’t know what he expected from it. Or even what he wanted from it.
She’d broken her promise. She might have given him a head’s up she was doing it, but the fact remained. If she’d been anyone else, he’d have arrested her for the little scene she’d made back there. He couldn’t be with someone he couldn’t trust, someone who couldn’t even keep a simple promise. Or hell, keep from breaking the law, like any normal citizen.
For one of the few times of his life, Rick was well and truly conflicted over what he should do. Everything he was, or had been, up to that point in his life, said to walk away. They weren’t right for each other. They’d never make it work. Especially if she had unresolved feelings over her ex, as she definitely seemed to. The whole episode had been one huge glaring wake-up call.
But the thought of not seeing her again, of not seeing that smile of hers every morning or hearing her laugh, or even fighting with her, twisted his heart into a seething mess.
He’d better figure out what he wanted pretty damn quick. Because they needed to get things straightened out before both their lives got screwed up more than they already were.
Chapter Eighteen
Gina took a deep breath and immediately coughed. The sharp tang of bleach hung in the air, and while the gleaming surfaces in the truck probably thanked her for ridding them of Tony’s nastiness, her lungs weren’t so happy. She moved to the back of the truck and sat down, letting her legs dangle over the side. It was late. She was tired. Her friends had stuck around until everything was pristine and sanitary again but had left to get some sleep. Like she should do. But she couldn’t face going back to her apartment alone. She was alone in the truck, too, but it felt less lonely somehow than being where she could still smell the lingering scent of Rick’s soap, see the imprint in the pillow where his head had been just that morning. She needed a few more minutes before she had to deal with the fallout from this mess. Though she hadn’t realized how much time had passed.
Of course, her mind hadn’t really been on Tony, even while she’d cleaned up the mess he’d left behind. Instead, Rick had filled her every thought. Like he’d been doing since the moment she’d met him. She leaned her head against the side of the truck and sighed. She knew what she needed to do if she wanted to keep her sanity.
Rick must disappear from her life.
That was the only option that made any sense. Her life had been going along great until she’d met him. She had a job she loved, friends she loved, friends with benefits when she needed them. She’d been happy, carefree, doing what she wanted, when she wanted, without some by-the-book know-it-all ramming his restrictions down her throat. She’d seen the way he looked at Tony before he’d realized Jenny was even there. The way he’d looked at both of them. She’d seen that flicker of mistrust. That slight question in his eyes. There were a lot of things she could handle. A jealous and controlling boyfriend wasn’t one of them.
So why did the thought of telling him good-bye hurt so much?
And speak of the devil.
Rick approached the truck, his hands in his pockets, and came to stand in front of her. She hadn’t heard him drive up, so he must have walked.
He stood, staring down at her. Well, if he was waiting for her to say something, he’d be waiting a while. She had no clue.
“The truck looks good,” he said, leaning in a bit so he could check it out. “A little strong on the bleach, maybe…”
She gave him a small grin. “It’s too bad I can’t bleach my eyes.”
“Yeah. Let’s not mention any of that again.”
“Agreed.”
“I would have helped clean up.” He took another step closer, and Gina resisted the urge to back up. His being so close made her brain go fuzzy. She wanted to throw herself into his arms and pretend like the whole awful night hadn’t happened. Like they both didn’t know that they were headed for disaster on a fully loaded train.
“I know you would have. But my friends came. And even without them, I’m pretty used to taking care of things myself.”
“Just because you’re used to it doesn’t mean that’s the way it always has to be.”
She glanced up at him. Met his gaze and held it.
“We’re not talking about the truck, are we?”
Rick took a deep breath and rubbed his hand over his face. “No.”
“Look, Rick. I�
��I don’t know. I don’t know about anything anymore. Before tonight, I’d thought that maybe…”
“Maybe what?” he asked, though he looked like he already knew what she was going to say. And didn’t like it.
“Maybe we had a shot.” Wow. That hurt worse than she thought it would. But she pressed on. “I think we’re kidding ourselves.”
She could see his jaw muscle clenching, like he was gritting his teeth, the joint at his temple popping in and out. “Gina…”
“No. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. There’s really nothing left to say.” She climbed back into the truck and started packing away the cleaning supplies.
“Gina, would you stop for a second, please?”
He came inside with her, and she tried her best to ignore him. Impossible to do even if she’d had ten acres. But inside the small space of the truck, he filled her world, overwhelmed her. She leaned on the counter, her head hanging.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Rick. We had some fun for a while. Now it’s over and we move on. No harm, no foul. Why make something out of it that it’s not?”
He frowned. “Is that all I was to you? A temporary good time?”
She could hear the hurt in his voice. It surprised her. She wasn’t sure why. She’d known he cared, but…it never seemed like guys cared as much as she did. But then, Rick was different.
“No. That’s not all you were. I wanted it to be more. But I just don’t think this will work. I’m sorry if I hurt you…” she started.
“What is it? You’re still not over Tony, are you?”
Gina stared at him, surprised. “Where the hell did that come from?”
“It was pretty obvious, Gina. You were in the middle of the street screaming at him and dumping shit all over his clothes. You don’t get that worked up over an ex sleeping with someone else unless you still have feelings for them. So what did that make me? Rebound sex?”
“Of course not! That is unbelievably unfair, and completely untrue.”
“You were so upset you had half the neighborhood calling the cops!”
“I was upset because it was your sister he had in there. Because I knew how upset that would make you, and because your sister is a nice person who deserves a hell of a lot better than that jerk. And because he was trashing my truck. Again. It had nothing to do with me still having feelings for him. Because I don’t! Did I enjoy seeing him with another woman? No. But that’s only because he was with her in my truck. That I sell food out of. And she was your sister. Who I like. I think anyone would be upset under the circumstances.”