by Lexi Ostrow
“Screw Chase. He’s my closest friend, so he’s only thinking about the job and me. Not me and my heart. I’ve been engaged before. It ended because I was too wrapped up in an investigation. I made Chase promise to keep me on the straight and narrow after that. No women before work and no women who didn’t seem to understand my work either. He’s just holding up his end of the bargain.”
She nodded, but the purse of her lips told him she didn’t agree or care. If she was curious about his engagement, she didn’t ask. They drove the rest of the way to her town house just outside the main city border in silence. He liked it out here. It was close enough to have the action, but also far enough away when the day was done, she could come home and spend some time in her peaceful backyard.
Hell of a long drive to make in silence though.
He parked the vehicle and turned to look at her. “Are we ok? About my telling Chase? I needed someone to understand the situation to get me out of the training and he was my partner before and like a brother now.”
“We’re fine. I’m sorry. I have no right to be angry with him. I just, I don’t know where we stand, Jeremy and I don’t know up from down right now.”
She sighed and he felt awful.
Every fiber of him his being screamed to tell her he’d take the DEA’s offer, and maybe after tonight he would. He knew how he felt about her but he wouldn’t put a woman before his career, not even a wonderful one. Isn’t that already what you’re doing sneaking around? He thought as he got out and opened the door for her, extending his hand to help her out.
“I know you can’t understand everything, but thank you for willing to be in this…this half of a relationship with me.”
He kissed her lightly on the forehead and left his lips there. Jeremy could feel her smile by the way her muscles moved beneath his lips.
“How about you make it up to me tonight by cooking that famous leg of lamb you keep boasting about?”
He laughed as she unlocked the door to her house. “I take it you were planning this all along for the next time I was over and have all the needed ingredients?”
She grinned back at him and winked, all the tension gone between them. “My, my, you are a good detective, aren’t you?”
He playfully swatted her ass as she closed the door. Bridget turned and wrapped her arms around his neck, but she didn’t kiss him. His blood was pumping so fast through his body he swore he saw stars from being so turned on.
“This is going to kill me, Bridget. You’re going to kill me.”
She chuckled and unwound her hands. “Sorry, I know we can’t. Not again. Not yet…” Her voice trailed off, and for the third time that afternoon, he wanted to break down and give into what they both wanted.
“How about that lamb now? An early dinner? It takes a good four hours to cook anyway.”
He tried to ease out of the situation and the way she took a step back from him killed a little piece of him. It was needed, though. The way things were going, he knew more and more he was leaning towards the DEA position for the right reasons– not just for the money or woman in the room with him.
“Dear god. I have to wait to kiss you, and now I have to wait to be fed? Not fair, Trellins. Not even slightly fair.” she joked.
She tossed her hair behind her after ripping out the elastic tie that had been holding it in place. Jeremy he itched to run his fingers through it, but he ignored the notion. He ignored every part of him that wanted to kiss her while they cooked and while they ate dinner. Five hours together had left enough sexual energy in the room for him to come undone from it alone and no actual touching. He yearned to push things to another level between them, as he did every time they had a night like this.
They soon found themselves sitting on the couch with a glass of wine in hand. Bridget’s legs were draped casually over his.
“So, in light of all the decision making, I have to ask,” she took a small sip of the red wine and a line dribbled down her chin. Jeremy wanted to lick it off her, but forced himself to sit still, curious as to what her question was and knowing how dangerous that action would have been. “Why did you become a cop so far from home?”
He sighed and took a long swig from his own wine glass. Jeremy hated talking about back home and it was the only subject they’d shied away from in the past month and a half.
“I wanted to get out of my parent’s grasp.” Truth, but limited.
She pushed herself off the couch and sat upright as she faced him. “And just what might that mean, Mister Super Secretive Alabama Man?”
He chuckled at her and brushed a hand over her shoulder. “It means my parents are extremely wealthy and if I wanted to make something in my name, I needed to move.”
If she cared about his admission that he had money she didn’t show it.
“The secrets come out tonight, don’t they?” She winked. “Your brother and sister, they stayed because it was easy for them there, then?”
“Precisely. Stepping into Daddy’s law firm would have been a piece of cake for any of us. Thomas works as a lawyer, and Susan is in the accounting department. Neither of them had the guts to try on their own. Why would they with the paycheck my dad offered?”
“Because you did.”
If he wasn’t mistaken, he heard pride for him in her voice, and it made him smile.
“Being the oldest just meant that I was used as a cautionary tale. Including running off to the City of Angels and taking up something dangerous. I just wanted to be my own person, even if just for a little while. But I fell in love with the job.” He titled his head sideways and gave her a lopsided smile. “I don’t think I need to explain that part to you, though.”
She laughed. He loved the way her face lit up, how there was no trace of the fear she’d felt from earlier.
“But why LA? Why not some place smaller?”
He took another drink of his wine and set the empty glass on her coffee table. “I wanted crime. I wanted a place where I’d actually be doing more than writing parking tickets and the NYPD was too much of a stretch, so I chose here.”
She nodded and he could see the look in her eyes, the lust and need lurking in their depths. All he had to do was lean close to her, and push aside everything that stopped them from doing what they wanted to do. She was ready, and if opening up about his family to someone other than Chase meant anything, so was he. DEA job or not, he didn’t want to hide from the relationship behind the excuse of following the rules. Because that’s all the stalling was, hiding from the fear of her being just like the others he had dated and tearing him apart.
Bridget pulled herself back first and grabbed the remote. She turned the TV on and he heard the wine glass shatter as it hit the coffee table a moment later. Immediately, he pulled himself away from his thoughts and directed his eyes to the TV.
“That’s right, Mary. I’m standing in front of the fountain where the bodies of three police officers were removed earlier today. The area has been completely cleaned and a an inconclusive sweep for prints was done. The commissioner has yet to issue any statements but three lives were lost today in this tragedy. It begs the question, are these shootings connected?”
He leaned forward and yanked the remote a little abruptly from her hand, promptly hitting the power button. The clean image of the SDPD vanished from the screen as it went black; but not before he could feel Bridget shaking against him. He wrapped his arms around her, hoping to offer her a bit of comfort. Her head found its way to his chest, and he gently ran his hand over the back of her head.
“Just ignore it, Darlin’. Focus on the sound of my voice. It’s late anyway. Let me take you to bed. Just to bed. I meant what I said earlier. I want to hold you tonight, to know your safe.”
Her lower lip trembled. She bit down on it so hard, it turned white, and he cringed at how much it must have hurt. Bridget nodded and pulled back from him to stand up. When she stretched her hand behind her indicating for him to take it, he wasted no time in gri
pping it and standing up.
As they walked up the stairs he couldn’t ignore the way her shoulders were tight with tension. Without thinking, he placed a kiss between her shoulder blades. She tensed and then her shoulders relaxed.
“You’re safe, Bridget. I’m safe. Everyone down here is safe. Let’s just get some sleep.”
He’d meant the words to be a comfort to her as they rounded the doorway into her bedroom. Whether they were or weren’t, he didn’t know, but when she pulled the covers back and lay down, he climbed in next to her and pulled her body against his. If this was what happiness was like, there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt in his mind that he was going to take the DEA job first thing Monday morning.
He laid his head on the extra pillow, and she snuggled against him. His body didn’t react with the usual surge of lust. Instead, he smiled as the smell of her citrus shampoo reached his nose. He ran a hand over her side before wrapping his arm around her.
“Goodnight, Bridget.
Trevor couldn’t help the shiver of satisfaction he felt as he pulled the trigger. The booming sound of the gun was silenced by the pillows he shot into. It had seemed impossible to pull a man from the steps of the SDPD, but it hadn’t been. His old crew had stepped in to help out, and the five person shooting team had done a number on the police.
Prior to starting, he’d made sure Michael, the sixth guy, had a van hot wired and ready to go on the side of the street. The best part of almost any city, there was always sidewalk parking. This one happened to have it surrounding all four sides of the building, which the task at hand a breeze.
Trevor fired another shot into the pillow he had tied over the female cop’s other knee. Her scream was muffled by the pillow he’d duck tapped around her head as well. The sound was loud enough that he felt a pang of lust grip him from her pain.
“You see, I didn’t kill a cop on purpose. But I am now.”
He lunged forward and yanked the pillow from her face. The tape tore a portion of her hair from her head. Tears streamed down her face when she looked at him. It made him feel even more powerful.
Blood coursed down her knees and dripped onto the floor beneath the chair she was tied to. The socks stuffed and taped to her mouth prevented her from making too much noise. Trevor supposed that the pillow could have killed her, but it hadn’t and he was going to anyway so it didn’t exactly matter.
He walked over to the makeshift desk and picked up the knife. He sliced a section of his thumb, testing its sharpness, and grinned as he turned back to her.
“See, it’s like I kept telling them. I hadn’t done a damned thing wrong back then. I spent all that time in jail for no fucking reason.”
He moved forward and traced the blade down her neck. A thin, beaded, blood red line appeared across her flesh. She whimpered and he felt even more powerful.
He dragged the backside of the blade over her throat as he pulled the tape free of her lips. Trevor kissed her neck and whispered into her ear.
“Now, now, Cheryl, don’t worry. I did like you all those times you brought my dinner. I’ll make this quick for you and I’ll make certain your body isn’t just dumped in a trash pile back in San Diego. I’ll have them arrange your body all nice like.”
She whimpered and for a moment, the scared teenage boy grabbed hold of his mind and the hand holding the knife shook. But this was the way he wanted to do things. If they were going to hold him for killing cops, he was damned sure going to kill cops. When they were done, the seven of them could go someplace on the other side of the country, hook up once they got there, and focus on being good citizens.
If you can stop remembering how damned good it feels to spill blood. The thought pulled him away from the scared version of himself that had been incarcerated years ago.
“Sorry again.”
In a quick motion, he flipped the knife so that the sharpened edge was pressed against her throat at yanked it across her throat. She didn’t scream out as he sliced into her flesh. Trevor shivered with excitement as the warm blood slid over his hands. If this was how much better it felt to kill up close, versus a shot from a gun, they may have to steal someone from each of the remaining five counties.
Cheryl’s head dropped to her chest, lolling and lifeless. He wiped the knife off on her shirt, and grabbed his faithful Sharpie from his pants pocket, drawing a big “X” over San Diego’s dot on the wall map. Trevor then pulled the latex gloves he had on off and shoved them into his pocket along with the marker. The knife he dropped onto the ground. Even if someone found this place, all that they would find was the location. None of his prints would be found.
It would be dark now, well past nine at night. He kicked open the door of the small shack. The two men waiting outside were startled by the door swinging open and he scoffed.
“Man the fuck up. Let’s get the car over here. It’s done. I promised her we’d take her back to San Diego and drop her some place nice.”
He put his hands in his pocket and fingered the gloves stuffed inside each pocket.
His revenge was feeling awfully good.
Bridget stretched her arms above her head as she slowly opened her eyes. Light filtered in through the plantation shutters over her windows. A yawn escaped her. She could still feel Jeremy’s hand draped over her waist and it made her smile. They’ had been very careful not to sleep in the same bed over the past few months, the temptation too great.
However, she couldn’t think of anything that felt better than right now, than waking up still in his arms. Bridget should have felt emotionally drained from learning about yet another police attack. She should have even been riled up from the lack of sexual activities between them. Instead, she simply felt content and well rested.
“This is something I could certainly get used too.” she whispered to no one at all.
Jeremy’s body twitched a little and she froze, not wanting to wake him before he was ready. She knew he only had today off because he’d initially been slated for training schedule. Bridget wanted to let him enjoy his sleep.
A buzz sounded in the room. She flinched as her cell phone continued to ring on her nightstand.
“Well, there went letting him sleep.”
Bridget leaned over, slowly rolling out from under his arm, and grabbed the phone. Marcus’ name popped up on the device’s screen. She wrinkled her nose, debating if she should pick it up. What if something was wrong with Ashley?
Her finger jabbed the ignore button on the screen. She then pulled up a text message instead.
“What’s up? Can’t talk, atm.”
“You could have taken that call,” a groggy voice said from behind her, startling her, as she hadn’t expected him to be awake despite the buzz.
Bridget rolled around to face him and found herself staring into his light blue eyes. He looked sleepy, though his eyes held a hint of playfulness. Without thinking, she pressed her lips against his, and his arms wrapped around her body.
The kiss grew passionate between them. They were in no rush to go anywhere, content with the moment they shared together. Until Jeremy pulled back.
“You are a temptation I can’t avoid much longer, Bridget.”
She smiled at him, even as a small pang of guilt wrapped itself around her. She’d never intended for him to break his code of ethics, but she wouldn’t push him away, or be the bigger person and walk away from him either.
“Well, when you’re ready, I’ll be here.”
Her phone vibrated again, and she figured it was Marcus. She sat up and grabbed the device again, happy to see that the message on the screen wasn’t anything disastrous.
“Looks like the surf is good today over in Seal Beach. Marcus and Ashley are surfing and asked me to come along. If you want to join”
She responded that she would be there, wondering if they would mind if he came too.
Bridget wasn’t certain why she told him. She was unsure if she wanted his permission to go, or if she wanted him to tell her to stay i
n bed with him. Maybe she wanted him to want to come too. He smiled at her, but didn’t take the bait she’d dangled before him.
“Do you surf?”
She wrinkled her nose at him, not wanting to look too desperate, so she didn’t push the subject of him actually addressing the invitation. “Not very well, but I learned when I was in high school.”
He sat up too and tugged her so she was cuddled against him. “Do you like to surf?”
She smiled as she cozied up to him and inhaled his scent. “I love the ocean. I also love not having a huge hunk of wood, plastic, or fiberboard slam into my head or choke on salt water. But I wouldn’t say I hate surfing.”
He laid his chin on the top of her head. “Hmm, so you would be up for taking them up on this Saturday outing of theirs?”
She felt him smirk because of where his chin was and wanted to playfully elbow him for being such a man. Instead, she pulled away from him and stood up out of bed, stretching her arms above her head again. Her sleep sweater slipped upwards, exposing the bare flesh of her stomach.
His eyes followed the lift of her sweater, landing on her black boy shorts. She didn’t sleep with any pants on. He let out a low growl, and she couldn’t help but to laugh.
“You know what, I think I will go. I could use some sun on this pale skin of mine. No more spray tans and airbrushing the white away.” It didn’t matter that she’d already told Marcus she would.
She turned towards her dresser, biting her lower lip. Ask Jeremy, just fucking ask already! She thought as she rummaged through the middle drawer for her favorite green one piece.
He cleared his throat from behind her. “Would you be opposed if maybe I tagged along? I think I’d like to be in public with you. If the two of them already know our half secret, well Seal Beach certainly wouldn’t have anyone to recognize us.” His sexy southern accent had an almost awkward tone to it and she wondered if she turned, if he would be blushing. Which would be incredibly sexy but she doubted he would like her seeing him do that.
Bridget smirked and quickly wiped it off her face before turning around with her green bathing suit in hand. “I can’t think of anything I would like more. But are you certain?” She hadn’t meant to ask the last part, but it was too late.