In Our Dream

by Jacqueline Paige

  * * * *

  Dom stood there and stared at the white ground. Damn t! Why hadn’t she listened to him for two more seconds? He ran a hand down over his face and glanced around the yard to make sure he was still in a safe position. He should have told her sooner, explained it to her that first night, or at least on the second one.

  He slid down the icy wall and, squatting with his back against the wall, looked down at his clasped hands. He’d felt the pain from her, the feeling of betrayal, and it had crushed him to be the one that had caused it. She had invited him to spend Christmas with her! He wasn’t a cheery Christmas kind of man, not since his parents were both gone, but he wanted to spend it with her more than he wanted anything right now.

  “Palmer, you okay?”

  Dom looked up quickly to see one of the guards standing on the other side of the fence a few feet away from him. “Yeah, just freezing my nuts off out here.”

  The guard, whose name he couldn’t remember, laughed. “It is cold out today, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” He didn’t move to stand. He didn’t want to be seen talking to a guard. He had enough problems.

  “Listen . . .” The guard peered around and scowled before he looked back at him. “Normally I keep my ass out of things around here, but I needed to warn you.”

  Dom glanced around the yard and noted no one was really paying attention to them. “About?”

  “They’re onto you. Watch your back.” The guard reached down to fix the pant cuff tucked into his boot.

  “They?”

  The guard straightened and shot him a glance. “The cons and the guards.”

  “Fuck!” He dropped his head back down.

  “Watch your ass and get your handler to get you the hell out of here.”

  “Thanks.” He lifted his head to ask him if he knew how, but the redheaded guard was walking the other way. Shit! Now he was in way over his stupid head, which brought him right back to Jennah. He should have told her. She could have helped.

  Checking to make sure he was still in the clear, he took a deep breath and reached for her. “Jennah?” He waited. Maybe if he just kept quiet for a few minutes and let her cool down she’d come back.

  Standing, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and sighed. Who was he kidding? She wasn’t coming back. She thought he was a criminal. Damn it! He sighed when the bell went off for them to all go back inside. He needed to come up with a plan, and he needed to do it soon.

  * * * *

  Jennah pushed the boxes back into the corner as she swatted at the tears running down her cheeks. She was acting like a twit and she knew it. So some lonely con had taken her for a ride. It’s not like she’d fought it in any way. Part of her needed it as much as he probably did. If he’d been inside for a long time, then he was most likely lonelier than she was.

  It was her repeated poor judgement that was bothering her the most. The first man, whether he was flesh or dream, who she had opened herself to since Dalton and look what had happened. She should have pushed for answers with his vague and evasive responses. She knew better.

  It was just as well they’d never met. Even in her mind, everything about him called to her, and she responded to everything to do with him.

  She walked into the kitchen, stopped and looked around, then sighed and walked back out again. She headed toward the bathroom and decided nothing fixed heartache like a bubble bath. A bubble bath, and then she’d either have a good cry or clean something. Either would help fix this in a hurry.

  Chapter Six

  After the way her day off had dragged and tormented her, and yesterday with the storm and no one out doing anything, Jennah was actually happy with the busy chaos of the crazy season. She hadn’t had any time today to stop and think about things, particularly Dominic. If she had too much free time, she knew she would have checked him out in the database, just to see, and that would have been the worst thing she could have done. To know that he was an inmate was bad enough, and from what she knew about Wyestate, petty criminals didn’t get sent there.

  How could she have been so stupid? To not pick up on the clues? He was evasive, asked her what she did at the station, asked her about Wyestate, and even confessed it had been a long time since he’d been with a woman. Some cop you are, she thought. A man who looked like that could have any woman he wanted, so why would he voluntarily abstain? He wouldn’t. So the only possible answer was that he didn’t have the opportunity—like if he was in prison!

  She had managed to keep him out of her dreams, or their dream, the last two nights, and hoped that maybe he’d given up and realized it wasn’t happening again.

  Sighing, she shook her head as she pulled into the parking lot. She had just had ten free minutes while driving and what had she done? Think about him. Turning the car off, she quickly got out and went inside to find something to do.

  Rudy held up folders as she approached. She smiled, took them from him, and went right to her desk. Flipping the first one open, she sneered when she saw it was just a follow-up call. Maybe it would turn into something from there, she hoped. Shrugging out of her jacket, she sat down and opened the second folder. That one was a little dry too.

  The sound of knocking made her stop and look around. The sound wasn’t coming from the office. It was inside her head. She fought the urge to chuckle, but the urge passed when the knocking came again.

  Getting up, she headed into the lunc room to get a coffee. There was knocking a third time. She stopped in front of the coffeepot and closed her eyes. She pictured herself with her ear against the door. “Go away.”

  A frustrated growl came through from the other side of the door. “Damn it, I didn’t tell you how to do this so you could use it against me! I need to tell you . . .”

  “Good bye, Dominic.” She opened her eyes and looked at the coffeepot. Sighing, she pulled a mug from the cupboard and poured the coffee. That hadn’t been too difficult. At least she knew the imaginary door inside her head was sturdy. She smirked at her own weird thought. He needed to tell her something? No. She was not going to fall for that. Not this time.

  She was walking back out to her desk when her superior, Bradley, stuck his head out of his office. “Jenn, can you come in here?”

  She nodded, but frowned the whole time she walked to his office. When she went in, she stopped as she saw another man in there. He seemed vaguely familiar. She walked over and put out her hand. “Jennah Best.” He shook it and nodded to her.

  “Captain Wilds. I am well aware of who you are. You probably don’t remember me, but I was in charge of the department you worked with several times when you were still in Lawson.”

  She hadn’t thought about Lawson in a long time. Not for most of the five years she had come back to Ridge. “Oh sorry, no, I don’t.”

  He shrugged. “That’s okay, you were a little too busy doing your job to stop and shake hands then.” He motioned to a chair and waited for her to sit. “The department suffered a great loss when you moved away.”

  She knew for a fact that, if he had read up on her, he would know she’d left because of the incident between her male partner and her jealous husband.

  She clasped her hands in her lap and offered him a polite smile. “I would have burned out if I’d stayed.”

  He chuckled. “I understand.” He turned for a minute to look at her acting Captain—she supposed he would be ranked—as he read through a folder.

  When she’d been in Lawson, she’d been hell-bent on proving that, even though she was a smaller woman, she could still run a shake down like the big boys. And she’d succeeded for the most part, until Dalton had freaked right out. Stupidly, she’d chosen him.

  Her captain handed the folder back to Captain Wilds, and he turned to look at her. “I have a bit of a situation, Ms. Best, or do you prefer Officer Best?”

  “Jennah, or Jenn, is fine, sir.”

  “Jenn, I have an undercover in a facility near here and we’ve lost his contact . . .”
r />   She leaned forward. “Lost his contact?”

  He sighed. “Okay, he’s disappeared. We haven’t been able to touch base with our undercover in two months and we’re starting to get a little worried.”

  “What’s the operation?”

  “Someone is organizing some very coordinated deals. Drugs, guns, and a lot of people vanishing.” He waved the folder around. “We have no way of checking on our man, and that’s how he wanted it. The fewer who knew, the safer he’d be.”

  “But you think someone is on to him now?”

  “The fact that his contact has disappeared confirms that.”

  She got up and paced over to the window. She was supposed to be done with assignments like this, and she should just say no. Placing her hands on her hips, she turned around and studied the man. “He disappeared two months ago and you’re just now thinking of checking on your guy?”

  He appeared to look remorseful over that fact. “We’ve tried a few things, but someone is blocking our way at every step.”

  “I see.” She glanced at the folder he held, but didn’t ask yet to see it. “So, why are you coming to me?”

  He grinned. “I remembered you had transferred here and thought we could implore you to help us.”

  She bit her lip and watched her own silent leader. He didn’t say anything, just sat there waiting for her to reply. She wondered how the man got to be in this position when he never really said anything. She could at least get all the information and make an informed decision, she decided. “I’m not the same person I was, Captain Wilds. I don’t know if I can be of any help.”

  He nodded. “I understand.”

  She sighed. “What facility is your guy in?”

  “Wyestate prison.”

  She lowered her head and studied the floor. Fate was a funny thing sometimes. She looked back up at him. “How long has he been in?”

  “Roughly six months.”

  She shook her head. He’d been in there six months and no one had heard from him for the last two. Those odds were not good. “How are you planning to get me in there?”

  He motioned to the folder. “When we set this up, we loaded his file with a few fail-safes.” He shrugged. “In his file, he’s listed as married to Elizabeth Palmer.” He grinned. “He is not married to anyone.”

  She frowned. “And you couldn’t find a female cop to go in as his wife sooner than this?”

  He spread his hands and shook his head. “Not one that wasn’t known. We don’t know who is on the inside, but if they found his contact, chances are they have pictures of every member in our department and any associations.”

  She exhaled slowly. It did make sense to come to her. “So, I just go in as his wife and see if he’s in one piece, get any info and get out?”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  She bit her lip again and turned to look out the window. “I can do that.”

  “Jenn?”

  Now the silent captain spoke up. She turned to look at him.

  “You go there for transports. Won’t you be recognized?”

  She grinned and reached around to unclip her hair. “You tell me.” Dropping the clip on his desk, she ran her hands through her long, wavy locks and gave her head a little shake. When she lifted her gaze, he had a shocked look on his face.

  “Oh. Oh, I think you’ll be fine.”

  Captain Wilds chuckled. “I told you this was our girl, Bradley. She was hell on wheels when she ran point for the department.”

  She brushed the hair back from her face and held out her hand for the folder. He gave it to her and sat back. She flipped it open.

  “We’ll set up a conjugal visit, so you can actually speak freely with . . .”

  She shook her head. “I’ll set it up. It would set off all sorts of alarms to have someone else arrange it.” He nodded. She looked back down at the folder in her hand and flipped it open again. She skimmed briefly over the sentencing forms and then turned the page. She almost dropped the folder on the floor when Dominic’s face stared back at her from the photo. She read the name. Dominic Palmer. Her heart jumped into her throat. She cleared it and slapped the folder closed. “I’ll read over this and let you know when I get things set up.”

  He sat forward and nodded. “I don’t have to stress . . .”

  She shook her head. “I know nothing, Captain.” Tucking the folder nonchalantly under her arm, she quickly walked out.

  Rudy came over toward her. “Not now, Rudy.” She went back to the locker room and closed the door behind her.

  Sitting down, she set the folder on her legs and took a few deep breaths. She pictured unlocking the door and opening it. “Dom?” She sat there, gripping the bench, and waited. “Dominic?” Nothing but silence answered her.

  Opening her eyes, and she flipped open the folder again to look at his picture. His hair was longer than she had seen it, but it was definitely him. His eyes were dark and cold, but they’d have to be if he was playing the part. She read his stats a few times, trying to commit them to memory.

  Turning the pages, she read the reports. She frowned. If she was reading it right, this went back many years. What was someone as young as Dominic doing in on it? She kept reading, and then stopped suddenly and reread the one paragraph. Suspected in the killing of Officer Palmer . . . Dom’s father? That would explain why he was neck deep in it.

  Closing the folder, she got up and went over to the phone. Punching in the number, she hung up and started over again. She blocked the caller ID and then punched in the number.

  * * * *

  Dom opened his eyes and tried to focus and look around. Where the hell was he? He turned his head and the whole room moved in unison.

  “Welcome back.”

  He turned toward the feminine voice. A nurse, it was a nurse. “Where . . .” He licked dry lips. “Where am I?”

  She leaned over him. “Medical center. You were stabbed twice. You’re lucky to alive.”

  He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. “I need one of the guards, tall, red

  hair . . .”

  “Barry? He’s the one that brought you in and he’s outside your door for the night.”

  Dom swallowed again and fought the heavy weight of his eyes. “Good. That’s good then.” He closed his eyes, just to rest for a minute.

  * * * *

  “Palmer?”

  He opened his eyes and tried to focus on the blurred image hovering over him. “What?” He blinked a few times until the image cleared. It was the guard.

  “I’m off in an hour. You need to wake up and look alert.”

  Dom took a deep breath and then exhaled. “Get me something to drink?” The guard nodded. He turned to look at the window and could tell the sun was coming up. “How long have I been out?”

  “Almost twenty-four hours, give or take. I went home when the doctor and nurse were on duty, but I told the warden I needed some easy overtime and he let me come back.”

  Dom took the glass of water from him, and with a shaky hand, managed to get some of it in his mouth. “Thanks for that. What happened?”

  Barry shook his head. “I don’t know for sure. I came along and everyone scattered. I told you to watch your back.”

  Dom handed him back the water and tried to slide up a bit in the bed. His side burned. Stopping, he lifted the sheet and looked at the bandage. “Did I lose anything important?”

  “Just blood.”

  “Good.” He took a deep breath and moved up a few more inches. “So, what happens when you leave?”

  Barry glanced at the clock. “The nurse should be back by then.”

  Dom nodded. “Does she want me dead too, or am I safe with her?”

  Barry grinned. “You’re safe with her. She keeps her nose out of it too.”

  Dom nodded again and closed his eyes, for a few seconds only this time. “How long will they keep me in here?”

  Barry shrugged. “Not too long.” He smirked. “Word came down
from the top, though, that you have a conjugal coming up.”

  Dom gave him a surprised look. “I do?”

  “That your contact?”

  Dom shrugged. “I guess it is.”

  “Good, tell them to get your ass out of here.”

  “I plan on it.” He turned carefully so he was on his side. His entire back was numb. “Thanks for everything.”

  “Some of us are just doing our jobs, and by the way, I’d like to keep mine when you do clean up in here.”

  Dom grinned. “I’ll make sure you do. Maybe you can be warden.”