by L. L. Foster
Gary Webb, the mail clerk, came and went as he not only delivered mail, but coffee and the occasional sandwich or donut, too.
“Hey, Detective. Got a minute?”
While Luther continued to read, Ann looked up.
She went unnaturally still, and then brought her elbow back into Luther’s ribs. “Uh, Luther.”
“Yeah?” He lifted another paper, engrossed in the detailing of what sounded like heavy shackles found in the rubble.
“Luther,” Ann said again.
He lifted a finger, asking for her patience. Frowning, he read about an old freezer found at the house. An appliance to keep dissected body parts? Probably—but it had been empty when the fire took the place.
“Luther.”
He lowered the paper. “What?”
Ann nodded toward the door with a distinct, “Ahem.”
Luther followed the direction of her gaze, and there stood Gaby with a very flustered sergeant beside her.
Oh shit.
A hundred emotions shot through him: worry, fear, and that confounding elation Gaby always elicited, no matter what tragedies happened in their small part of the world.
She had the hood of her dark sweatshirt pulled up over her head, and she’d shoved her hands into the pockets. Slouched against the doorframe, she ignored the poor cop who tried to give her rules about barging in without a proper escort. She looked antagonistic and ready to strike out.
Beneath that concealing hood, her pale blue eyes glowed with a strange intensity.
She looked only at Luther, and explained her presence with a simple, “I need you.”
Dumbfounded, Luther looked around, but so far, there was enough noise and confusion going on that only a few seemed to notice her.
Those who saw her were definitely intrigued. Their gazes bounced from Gaby to Luther and back again.
Trying to decide the best way to handle things, Luther met her gaze—and felt her urgency.
He pushed away from the desk.
Ann caught his arm before he got far. “She looks upset.”
Not to Luther. If anything, Gaby looked ready to take the world apart. She wasn’t upset; she was furious.
But Ann didn’t understand Gaby the way he did, so she didn’t recognize the nuances of Gaby’s various moods.
“It’ll be fine.” He hoped.
Ann puzzled at that, and then said, “The conference room on the third floor is empty. I’ll make sure no one interrupts you if you want to go there to talk privately with her.”
Third-floor conference room. God help him. He nodded at Ann. “Thanks.”
Avoiding the cop’s grousing, Luther strode up to Gaby, and when she started to say something, he took her arm to shush her.
“Thank you, Sergeant.” His smile felt cold and brittle. “I’ve got this.”
“This?” Gaby bristled.
Luther kept smiling.
“God help you,” the sergeant said, and he stalked away.
Feeling all eyes on his back, Luther hustled Gaby across the hall, through a heavy door, and into the stairwell.
Starting up the steps, he said, “You’ll get the tongues wagging coming here.”
With no idea where he led her, Gaby nonetheless took the steps with him, two at a time. “What do you mean?”
“You have a way of making an entrance, Gaby.” Luther hoped that Ann would squelch most speculation, but it’d be tricky, even for her. “Everyone’s going to be curious now.”
“Too bad.” She pushed him to go faster. “I wouldn’t have come into a police station otherwise.”
He’d already realized that. “You could have called, you know.”
“Not likely. Not for this.”
Luther’s apprehension grew. “You look like you’ve wrangled a tornado. Did you know your eyes are blood-shot? And your face is flushed?”
“So fucking what?” She jerked her arm free on the third-floor landing. “Where are we going?”
“Someplace private.”
“Good.” Silent now, she fumed beside him until he stopped before a door.
Luther got her into the room, shut the door, and asked without preamble, “Did you kill anyone?”
“No!”
Hands on his hips, he studied her. “Cripple? Maim?”
“No and no, damn it. That’s not why I’m here.”
She started to pace away from him, and he brought her right back. “I’m not following.”
Grabbing the front of his shirt, Gaby shoved him back into the door and went on tiptoes. “I wanted to do all of that—maim, cripple, even slay—but you asked me not to. You asked me to keep it together. And besides, it might have complicated Dacia’s life if I had started ripping people apart. So I didn’t.”
“Whoa.” She was so enraged that she wasn’t making sense. “Start over. Who’s Dacia?”
Gaby pressed into him. “Later. The point is, I brutally stomped down my natural inclination, and . . . I can’t stand it, Luther.”
Luther smoothed back her silky, tangled hair. “You’re holding it all in?”
“Yes, and I’m ready to implode. You have to do something.”
“Do . . . ” Starting to catch on, Luther looked at her bright blue eyes, her parted lips, with shock. “Something . . . as in . . . what?” But he had a feeling he already knew what she was going to say.
“I need you to make it go away. Right now.”
“Gaby . . . ” Damn, she could give him a boner so easily. “I’m at work, honey.”
“Tough.” She jerked him down to her. “If you don’t fix this, right now, then I swear to you, I’ll fucking well go back and I’ll find that son of a bitch and I’ll—”
As an expedient way to quiet her raised voice, Luther kissed her.
She took that as concession and attacked. Before he realized where her busy hands had gone, she had his belt unbuckled.
“Gaby . . . ” He tried to think, but God Almighty, she took his dick in her hands and put her tongue in his mouth.
He was such a weak ass.
He gave in with hardly any struggle at all.
Looking around the room, Luther saw a somewhat-sturdy, mostly empty table and figured it would have to do. While Gaby stroked him to madness, he reached behind himself and locked the door.
If he got busted, God only knew what the repercussions would be. But they couldn’t be any worse than if Gaby murdered whoever had brought on her wrath, especially now that she’d shown herself to the station full of cops.
He didn’t work with dummies. The hood of her sweatshirt would not be an adequate disguise against their scrutiny. She’d come in still fuming from an encounter, making herself more than noticeable.
Thinking that gave Luther a moment of sanity. “You’re not hurt?”
“Shut the fuck up.” She attacked his mouth again.
Okay, not hurt.
“This will have to be a quickie.”
“Fine.”
“Do you understand me, Gaby? I can’t . . . do everything I’d like to do, maybe not everything you need.”
Holding his face, she looked at him. Her eyes smoldered and her lips trembled. “I only need you inside me, Luther. Nothing more.”
Luther’s heart tried to escape his chest. Her heartfelt claim provided the impetus necessary for him to regain his control, and his gentleness. This would have to be brief, so he’d make every second count.
He made quick note of the time on the wall clock, then lifted Gaby. She wrapped her legs around him and went back to kissing him.
After carrying her across the floor, he propped her bottom against the edge of the table. With his hands freed, he touched her everywhere, testing her readiness, teasing her, before opening her jeans and working them down her hips. “Turn around.”
She never questioned the order. Breathing hard, she turned and braced her hands on the table.
What a mouthwatering sight. Gaby might be slim, but her body did it for him in a big way. He loved
seeing her like this, submissive to him, needing him. There was something very sexy about a woman with her jeans to her knees, her bare backside offered up to him.
Luther put a foot between hers and nudged her feet farther apart. “Open up for me, Gaby. As wide as you can.”
When she did that, he smoothed a hand down her spine to her hip. “Arch your back.” As he watched her do that, he fished a condom from his wallet and prepared himself.
Holding her hips, he said, “Brace yourself,” and as soon as he saw her shoulders flex, her hands curl into fists, he thrust into her.
Her moan was long and deep, her movements sinuous as she accepted him, squeezed him.
Luther bent over her, cupped her breasts in his palms, and thanked God that Gaby never wore a bra to hinder him. The table scooted with each hard thrust, and though he worried about bruising her hip bones, Gaby made it clear that she loved it.
Would she ever love him?
He quickly abolished that black thought in favor of seeing to her pleasure.
“Luther.”
“Come for me, Gaby.” He abandoned one breast to press a hand between her legs, seeking, enflaming her lust. He’d barely stroked her when he felt the tightening of her inner muscles in signal of her release. She bit her own forearm to muffle her cries, and Luther opened a mouth on her shoulder for the same reason.
Every time with her seemed more intense, more mind-blowing. Another year or two of this and they’d be combusting from the heat and friction.
As Gaby’s pleasure faded, Luther slipped his arm under her to support her, lifted her back against him, and sank to the floor with her in his arms.
She still breathed hard, but now all her rigidity had melted until she felt fluid against him.
Taking advantage, despite his own relaxed state, Luther kissed her forehead and said, “You know what this means?”
“Mmm.”
He smiled, and took a big chance. “Rather than me being a hindrance to you, to what you do, I’m an asset.”
She opened heavy eyes and studied him. “I’ll have to think about that.” She touched his mouth. “Sex with you is the antidote to my rage when it starts to boil. Is that a good thing? I don’t know yet.”
“Making love with me,” he corrected. “It’s more than sex.”
“Since I’ve never done it with anyone else, I’ll have to take your word for it.” She looked around him to the clock. “Under ten minutes. Great job, cop.”
Luther had to laugh. “Only you would think a ten-minute bang a good thing, Gaby.”
“Bang?” She tasted the word, considered it. “It was something of a bang, huh?” With a groan, she added, “I need to get out of here before other, less friendly cops intrude. Now that I’m not stewing, I’m not at all happy being in a police station.”
She was right; the longer they lingered, the greater the risk of exposure. But Luther held her in place anyway. He had a point to make, and he wouldn’t let her deflect him.
“Your life is changing, Gaby. You’re changing.”
She stretched. “Yeah, in leaps and bounds.”
Very little scorn sounded in her tone. Not that long ago, the idea of changing had alternately infuriated her and unnerved her. She’d wanted none of it.
Now, she seemed at least accepting, if not eager.
“With me, it isn’t such an odious prospect.” Luther tipped up her chin. “Is it?”
“Odious? No.” She lifted her hips and pulled her jeans and panties up. “And the side benefits are awesome.”
He laughed. “Hussy.”
“Getting there.” She stood, and held a hand down to him as if he needed the boost up.
Luther shook his head, took her hand, and allowed her to haul him off the floor.
The dress slacks were now dusty and wrinkled, his shirt creased, his tie crooked.
Gaby eyed him head to toe. “You’d better straighten up before you go back, or everyone will know just what you’ve been doing up here with me.”
“No joke.” He turned his back to remove the condom and drop it into a trash can. He moved some crumpled papers over it. “Will that bother you?”
She snorted. “No. I don’t care what cops think of me. If I did, I’d never have survived this long.”
Luther looked around, but he had nothing to tidy up with. Cringing, he tucked himself away and restored order the best he could.
When he faced Gaby again, she wore a droll look with her brows raised.
He tightened his tie and asked, “What?”
“Modesty, Luther?” She patted his chest. “I just didn’t expect it, I guess. But it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” She started for the door.
Flustered, because she was right—he had suffered a streak of modesty—Luther followed after her. “Where are you off to now?”
He almost plowed into her when she stopped dead in her tracks, her shoulders frozen . . . in dread?
Afternoon sunlight cut through the grime on the windows, sending dust motes to dance around her bowed head. “Gaby?”
She pulled her hood up again, hiding her silken, tousled hair. “I’ve got some stuff I have to do, that’s all.”
Here we go again. Sighing, Luther put his arms around her from behind and nuzzled past the hood to kiss her temple. “Can we move beyond that brick wall of yours? At least until we get that bloodsucking, cannibal creep off the streets?”
She deflated without a fight, surprising him. “Yeah, okay.” Looking at him over her shoulder, she added, “But you might not like it.”
Everything inside him clenched in preparation. From anyone else, a statement like that might not have meant much. With Gaby, God only knew what he had in store for him. “I’m properly braced. Let’s hear it.”
“No matter what you say, I’m not changing my mind,” she forewarned him. Before Luther could address that, she turned in his arms. “And I’m not going to let you interfere.”
Butting heads with Gaby gave him a constant headache. “Why would I want to interfere?” If he started with that, maybe he’d eventually know what she planned.
Fisting her hands in his shirt, she held onto him, her expression serious, maybe even grave. “Because you’re a cop down to the marrow of your bones, that’s why.”
Luther’s understanding of Gaby went beyond the comprehensive acceptance of her singular perspective on things. Nothing else explained why he got the gist of her complaint, if not the implied content. “I’m also a man who knows right from wrong, whether it’s within legal bounds or not. I’ve proven that to you, haven’t I?”
“Maybe. Sometimes.”
“Trust me, Gaby.” He waited, holding eye contact with her, and saw the moment she acquiesced.
“I took two girls off the street.”
Luther waited, but she said nothing more, leaving his imagination to take over. Gaby had spent quite a bit of time hanging out with hookers. Had she found new friends in that arena? Not that he’d be quick to judge. Bliss had once been a hooker, and she was a real sweet girl driven by circumstance, not a lack of morals.
“They were homeless, Luther.”
Were, meaning they no longer suffered that unfortunate state? “So . . . now you’re tussling with another pimp?” The last pimp who had tried to come between Gaby and the women she’d befriended had not fared well.
“For crying out loud, Luther!”
Her affront over the suggestion threw him off. “So, no pimp?”
“Of course not. In fact, there’s no one. The girls are all alone. That was the problem. They had no one.”
Suspicion sparked. “How old are these girls?”
“Kids.” She waved a hand. “Dacia is twelve, but she’s mature way beyond that. Her sister, Malinal, is only five. It’s hard to tell though, because she’s so small and . . . well, what do I know about kids?”
Luther’s head started to pound. Now he had to deal with Gaby taking in children? The repercussions of that boggled his mind.
&nb
sp; But most of all, he hated that she shortchanged herself. Gaby knew that kids needed to be protected and cherished. He figured that was more than enough. “What did you do with them?”
“I left them with Bliss.”
“Oh.” He considered that, and nodded. “Yeah, I can see Bliss looking after them.” Hopefully for the short-term.
“Yeah, she’s got that mothering instinct thing down pat. When I left she was feeding them dessert and promising all sorts of things.”
“So why do you look so put out?”
“Bliss gave me a list of stuff they’ll need, including clothes with sizes, toys, and books.” Gaby pulled the list out and looked at it with dismay. “Problem is, I don’t know shit about any of this. What toys? How many books?” The list crumpled in her fist. “I barely shop for me, and I’ve never shopped for a kid, so how does Bliss expect me to get any of this right?”
Luther took the list from her, smoothed it out so he could read it, and recoiled. That wasn’t a small compilation meant to tide things over for a night or two. It looked more like Gaby planned to settle the children in for a lifetime.
“Gaby . . . ”
“You’re not interfering with this, remember?”
A knocked sounded on the door, and Ann called in, “Wrap it up, Luther. The eyebrows are starting to waggle.”
Damn it, he’d already been upstairs too long, but he couldn’t leave something this monumental open-ended.
“Hold that thought, Gaby.” He strode to the door and opened it for Ann.
She started to speak, paused, and gave him the once-over. She shook her head. “Shame on you, Luther. A little decorum is in order. This is your workplace.”
Luther dropped back against the door frame with a sigh. “It’s that obvious?”
“You do have a glow about you.” She smirked, looked beyond him to Gaby, and smiled. “Nookie in the conference room. Scandalous. It’s amazing how you’ve gotten him to loosen up, Gaby. I’d say that’s not an altogether bad thing.”
Luther waited for Gaby to turn defensive the way she often did around Ann, and instead she looked at Ann like all her problems had just been solved.
“You should make a run for it now,” Luther told her.