by Karis Walsh
Rachel held out her hands to steady Cal. “I’m meeting him tonight. Wearing a wire. I’m going to pretend I want to screw the department and work for him, like Alex did.”
“Rachel, if he’s done these things he’s dangerous. Ruthless. If you can’t convince him you’re—”
“But I will, sweetheart,” Rachel said. “Because when I do, I’ll be able to keep my team safe. I’ll be able to stay here with them. With you.”
Rachel tangled her fingers through Cal’s hair, pulling her close again. She could feel Cal trembling against her. “Shh, I’ll be okay. It’s something I have to do. Like I said before, this is bigger than I am. But I’ll convince him, and I’ll come back to you. Because this isn’t bigger than us.”
Rachel held Cal against her side as she stared across the green fields. She hoped she was right. And she hoped the future she saw for them when she looked out at the horizon was a true prophecy and not a foolish mirage.
Chapter Twenty-four
Rachel sat on top of a concrete slab, her arms wrapped protectively across her chest. A half hour ago, Lieutenant Hargrove had lifted her T-shirt and strapped the wire under Rachel’s sports bra, tucking the receiver down the front of her jeans. And only a couple hours before, Cal had lifted her shirt and blazed an erotic trail of kisses over her breasts, down to her abdomen…
Cal. She had insisted on coming back with Rachel and was now stuffed into the tiny apartment with Hargrove, Rachel’s team, and Chief Darnell. Waiting for her to convince Varano she wanted to turn and join the side of the devil. And if she couldn’t convince him? She couldn’t outrun his bullets. She hadn’t wanted Cal to be here for this. Just in case.
A sleek black sedan, its windows tinted black, slid into the lot, and Varano got out of the backseat. Probably unarmed, but Rachel figured there were plenty of guns in the car. Without his fingerprints anywhere near them. Was this the car that had nearly run her down in the park? Were the people who’d chased her over the edge of the cliff sitting comfortably inside? The person who’d shot at Cal? Rachel had to fight for control. She wanted to run over to the car, drag the occupants out, and somehow avenge the attack on Cal. She knew she’d be dead before she got within fifty feet of the sedan, but she wanted to try.
She concentrated on Varano as he walked toward her, looking as ill suited for this back-alley, seedy-underbelly type of meeting as she looked made for it. She hopped off the pile of concrete and walked toward him, her hands tucked in the pockets of her black leather jacket. He was darkly handsome, with a little too much gel in his black hair. Finely featured and elegant, in a dangerous vampire kind of way. So different from Rachel’s golden and beautiful Cal.
“Sergeant Rachel Bryce,” he said formally, as if they were innocuously meeting at the mall or in a grocery store. “How pleasant to finally meet you.”
“Cut the crap, Varano,” she said, apologizing silently for making Cal listen to the harsh conversation she was about to have. Cal’s ears were meant for much more delicate situations. Like Rachel’s tongue, tracing the soft edges of her earlobe as it had just a few hours ago. “I want you to call off your goons.”
“I assure you, I have no idea what you’re talking—”
“I’m talking about the morons you hired to run me over and shoot me.” And Cal. Rachel let her surge of anger rise up and give her strength. “Pretty inept group of assassins you’ve got.”
“Is that a challenge, my dear?”
Rachel took her hands out of her pockets and spread them wide. “Go ahead and shoot me,” she said. “I hope you have another scumbag like Randy Brown ready to take the fall.”
One of his delicate eyebrows rose slightly. The message she had left this morning with his answering service had been vague. He wasn’t sure how much she knew. Keep him guessing. Keep herself alive until she got enough information to nail his ass, and then get the hell out. Back to Cal for a repeat of this afternoon’s activities. Although, if she was about to be killed, she couldn’t imagine a better last meal than the one she had today. Cal, sitting in the porch swing, pressed against the side of the house as Rachel knelt in front of her…
“I have no idea—”
“What I’m talking about. Yeah, I got that. No need to keep trying to convince me you aren’t all that bright. If you’d been smart, you’d have offered to pay me like you did Alex. Then I wouldn’t have been fighting against you so hard.”
“And you have been fighting hard, haven’t you, Sergeant?” He walked closer to her. “I had no idea you’d be such a good trainer. Perhaps I underestimated your abilities.”
Rachel shrugged. Nonchalant on the surface, but seething inside. She calmed herself by replaying the vision of Cal moving over her, the porch swing rocking lazily and then rapidly beneath them. The maples giving them privacy, and the fields offering an expanse of air and space and freedom. “I know how to make horses perform well. And how to keep them from performing well.”
Varano threw his head back and laughed. “Gutsy,” he said. “Foolish, but gutsy. You want what I offered Alex, but do you want to end up where he did?”
“I’m not foolish,” she said, her voice sounding harsh and dangerous even to her own ears. Would Cal even recognize her as she listened? “But I’m assuming Alex was. Did he threaten to rat you out? Or did he want more money?”
Varano tapped his finger against his nose. “Very good, Sergeant. You go to the head of the class. Alex learned the hard way, it doesn’t pay to be greedy. But his death was an honorable one, even though it could have looked otherwise. His widow gets his pension, roughly the original offer, and so justice is served.”
He was talking too much. Either he planned to kill her and was just playing a game of cat and mouse, or he really believed she’d sway over to his side. Rachel felt a moment of panic as a trail of sweat trickled between her breasts and down to her navel. Think of Cal’s tongue, dipping into her belly button and making her arch her back with pleasure. Think of the future, of her lover, of her partner. Anything but the fear this man generated with a simple smile.
“I’m not greedy,” she said. “If I make a deal, I stick with it.”
“Oh, really? My sources tell me you recently backed out of a deal you made. You’ve quit the mounted unit, so what use are you to me?”
Rachel desperately needed to be of some use to him if only for the next few moments. Otherwise, she was dead. She paused for a couple of breaths, hearing the sounds of the sleepy park around them. She pulled her strength from the quiet chitters and creaks of the forest at night, the slap of waves against the beach and pier, the distant drone of an occasional car on the late-night city streets.
“They’re trained and ready to go. You’d need to kill all of them to stop them now. But if I ask for my post back? I can guarantee the unit will fail, and you’ll be free to sell this land. You and J and L Enterprises can build your condos and make your millions.”
A slight hitch in breath, a momentary widening of the eyes, a tense pause before the masks fell back into place. Small signs, nearly invisible, but Rachel saw them and she knew he hadn’t expected her to have so much information.
“So now what?” he asked. “Do you tell me you have this information in a secret envelope in a secret bank vault, only to be mailed to the authorities on the occurrence of your death?”
“Something like that,” Rachel said. “But I don’t care about bringing you to justice, and I sure as hell don’t want to die before it happens. Do whatever the fuck you want with this scrap of land. You either pay me to help, or I’m out of town by morning. You can waste the next few days killing off the mounted unit one by one.”
Varano reached out and traced her jawline with his index finger, forcing her to raise her chin as he applied gentle pressure. Bastard. Cal’s lips had traced the same path. Her body was Cal’s property now, and he had no right to trespass on it. She didn’t try to hide her disgust or fury at his touch. He laughed.
“Ah, little one. You and I
are so much alike.” He smiled when she inhaled sharply. “Yes, I’ve read about your past, your youthful indiscretions. I, too, was abused, was shunted from home to home—none of them any better than the one I originally had. State sponsored abuse. And I, too, spent some time in the juvenile detention halls. But I rose above my upbringing, and I’ve made something of myself. You, it seems, are no better off than you were. Whether being arrested, or wearing the uniform and doing the arresting, there is no difference.”
“I tried to change,” Rachel said, her jaw clenched so tight she could barely grind out the words. “But the whole fucking department turned against me. My lieutenant seems to get off on public displays of embarrassment. I have no friends here, no ties to this city or this park or this shit piece of property. So you either pay me to make sure the mounted unit doesn’t survive past the Fourth, or let me disappear.”
“Yes, gutsy,” Varano said with another oily laugh. He let go of her chin and handed her a slip of paper. “Fine. I’ll make you the same deal I made Alex. To be paid either to you or to your next of kin, providing the unit fails miserably on the Fourth.”
She glanced at the paper, not needing to be an actress to look impressed by the number on it. She could buy a new car, one of those waterfront condos, a string of polo ponies. “They’ll fail. Don’t worry.”
He brushed her cheek with his palm, and she flinched. “I should have picked you over Alex from the start. He was useful but too concerned with trying to come out looking good. You seem to have no such desire. I assumed you’d screw up on your own, but you managed to clean up the mess Alex had created. I only wish I could see the faces of your team if they were to find out the one person they really trusted is the one who’s selling their fates like a lowlife in a vacant lot.”
Rachel stepped back, out of his reach. “Be my guest,” she said as the night erupted with sirens and flashing lights. In seconds, a ring of officers had Varano at gunpoint, and she walked away from them, heading back toward the burned-down police barn. Toward Cal, who was running down the hill to meet her.
Chapter Twenty-five
Rachel carefully maneuvered Bandit through the crowds and over to where Don and Fancy stood. The main street along Tacoma’s waterfront, Ruston Way, was closed to cars but jammed with people celebrating the Fourth of July. The Blue Angels roared past, but Bandit merely flicked his ears in their direction. Rachel gave a brief—and surprising—sigh of gratitude for the barn fire. Cal’s farm was in the flight path of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, so the horses had quickly become accustomed to low-flying aircraft. The city’s airshow was no big deal to them.
She halted a few yards from Don. He had ridden Fancy over to an ice cream truck for a snack and had immediately been surrounded by the children who had been in line. He was standing next to Fancy and feeding her a crunch bar while he answered questions and let the kids pet her. Rachel decided to save her lecture about inappropriate horse treats. The mare was as still as if she were carved out of stone, and Don had a relaxed and happy smile on his face as he showed her off. Rachel waved when he looked her way, and he extricated himself from the crowd and mounted his horse.
“She’s doing great,” Rachel said once he had reached her side.
“I knew it from the start,” he said, giving her shoulder a pat. “She’s made for this job.”
Rachel wouldn’t have agreed with him a few weeks ago, but she had to admit the mare was performing well, remaining steady and calm even as a group of skateboarders flew by. She’d rather be on Bandit, of course, especially if she had to move faster than a walk, but she was proud of the little pinto mare. She was proud of all the horses.
“Where’d Clark and Billie go?” she asked. “I thought we could stop by the staging area and get some lunch.”
“I think they’re competing to see who can get the most phone numbers,” Don said. “Last I heard, Billie was beating his ass. No surprise there. But I’m hungry.”
Rachel steered Bandit off the main road and away from the crowds. Billie and Clark could find them later on if they wanted to leave the city streets. From what Rachel had observed, the unsuspecting women of Tacoma were more than willing to welcome the mounted officers to town. Rachel wasn’t interested in that particular benefit of her job. She urged Bandit into a trot along the grassy shoulder, anxious to get to the fenced area where the department had set up some tables and a few barbecues so on-duty cops had a private place to take their breaks. She wasn’t hungry for food, but she knew Cal would be there, waiting for her.
Don and Fancy headed straight to the picnic tables, but Rachel scanned the area for Cal’s dark gold hair before she dismounted and led Bandit toward her. Cal had been talking to Lieutenant Hargrove, but she broke away and came toward Rachel as soon as she spotted her.
“Hey you,” Rachel said when they got close. She was in uniform and on-duty, so she wouldn’t give Cal the kiss she had in mind. She had to be satisfied with a quick bump of her shoulder.
“Hey you, back,” Cal said. She rubbed Bandit’s shoulder. “How’s he doing?”
“Awesome,” Rachel said with a smile, scratching Bandit’s neck in his favorite spot. “And so are the others, although I think Don has Fancy all hopped up on sugary treats.”
Cal looked over at the mare. She was standing with her head low and one hind hoof cocked while Don ploughed through a plate of brats. “Yeah, I can tell.”
“You did this,” Rachel said, giving in to her urge to touch Cal’s cheek. Hell, the whole department knew they were together. A little touch wouldn’t do any harm. “I never would have realized how much they’d be exposed to on a day like this, but you really prepared them well.”
“We did this,” Cal said. “Are you still planning to leave before the fireworks?”
“We’ll watch them from back here this year,” Rachel said. “By then the horses will be tired and we’ll have been riding all day, so I don’t want to overdo it. But they’ll get to see and hear them, so we’ll be more than ready for New Year’s. And we start regular patrols day after tomorrow.”
Rachel rubbed Bandit’s forehead. He sighed and leaned against her hand. “What were you and Hargrove talking about?” she asked. “I didn’t think you liked her.”
“I don’t,” Cal said. “I still haven’t forgiven her for yelling at you like she did, even though she apologized. And sending you out alone to meet with Varano? Not cool. But she’s agreed to help me with my new program, so I’m starting to come around.”
“What new program?” Rachel asked, her attention focused on Cal’s fingers as she adjusted one of the straps on Bandit’s bridle.
“I want to bring city kids out to the farm. Kids who wouldn’t normally have a chance to be around horses. They can learn to ride and take care of them. Learn responsibility and maybe find a support group.”
“Oh,” Rachel said. Her chest felt tight as she tried to control the love she felt for Cal, keep it from spilling out in public. “I think it’s a wonderful idea. You’ll really make a difference in their lives.”
“We’ll really make a difference,” Cal corrected her once again. “I expect your help with this.”
“Anything you need,” Rachel said, meaning it with all her heart.
Cal moved an inch closer. “What I need is a kiss,” she said, smiling at Rachel. “But I know you’re too disciplined to make out while on-duty. So I’ll just have to remember how you kissed me last night, when you came to my house after work and found me on the porch. When you pushed me up against the banister, and your hands reached under my shirt and—”
“I remember,” Rachel said. She felt Cal’s hard nipples against her palms, Cal’s tongue sliding over her own. She took a deep breath and felt the grassy, cooling air from the polo fields flow into her lungs. “I remember the kiss very well, and I also remember what happened next. A variation on what I plan to do to you tonight.”
Cal grinned. She shifted her hips, and Rachel knew Cal’s mind had followed her into the be
droom. “I love you, Mountie Bryce.”
Rachel laughed, pulling Cal close for a quick kiss, not caring who could see. “I love you, too.”
About the Author
Karis Walsh is a horseback riding instructor who lives on a small farm in the Pacific Northwest. When she isn’t teaching or writing, she enjoys spending time outside with her animals, reading, playing the viola, and riding with friends.
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