Jump The Line (Toein' The Line Book 1)

by McFarland, Mary

  “But you’re off duty,”I say, thrilling like a prep school virgin at his bad-boy naughty talk. If Berta only knew—LEOs do it fully cocked.

  Forget her. I shake her from my brain.

  Never mind my concern over rolling around on the floor with a piece of lethal hardware strapped to Aidan’s calf. I want him completely naked.

  “Take it off.”

  “The gun stays on,”he says,“even when I’m off duty.”

  “Got it,”I say, giving in. I’m not as experienced as Aidan, but I know which gun to handle, which to ignore. Nibbling his thighs as I crawl toward him, his hands tangled in my hair and Aidan moaning, I bypass the calf holster, and head like a sex-starved virgin straight for the big gun.

  “Later,”he says, cupping my chin and lifting my face for more greedy kisses. “Right now, I need to feel you—”

  He sucks kisses from my lips like a man dying of thirst, pulls me into his lap with such ease I feel light as a rag doll when I straddle him.

  There’s time for what’s got to happen, what musthappen, or I’m going to explode, but for an arrested heartbeat I feel cheated. Aidan and I are going to learn about each other in a way we’ve never before known, but all I want is for these next few moments to last.

  All I want is for time to stop.

  And it does.

  * * *

  Hours later, I’m wanting the same thing, wanting time to stop—

  —right—

  —about—

  “Now!”I scream.

  The explosion, one of many—I’ve lost track—burns like a blue quasar against my retinas, and those little blue lights I’ve been seeing plaster themselves against my skull like firecrackers on Fourth of July, their sparkles dropping like liquid fire into the pleasure center inside my brain.

  “Aidan, I need a drink of water.”

  “No,”he says,“you need this.”

  Riding the wave of pleasure, I whisper his name over and over, for several seconds letting my body and soul shudder into erotic freefall.

  “Indeed,”I agree. “I do.”

  I lean at last into his shoulder and taste our salty mingled sweat.

  “How was that?”

  The question makes me smile. Is there no guy alive who doesn’t ask this after sex?

  “That was”—I kiss him—“perfect.”

  I kiss his bare shoulder, then his tatt, the mysterious“King’s Road”coat-of-arms. The sweat and salty tang, the masculine feel of his skin, bumps me right back into action.

  “More”he asks, grinning. “Bad girl,”he says, when I nod,“Yes.”

  “It’s my turn,”he says, tenderly biting my lip.

  “No, I can’t,”I tease, but I’ve never meant yes more in my whole life.

  “C’mon, Baby. One more time—for me?”

  “No, not one. Ten more,”I say,“like the last.”

  “Don’t get greedy,”he says, his lips warming mine with kisses.

  “Don’t make me beg,”I murmur, kissing him with an old lover’s sweet familiarity.

  Chapter 36

  My body feels sweetly ravaged in places I had no idea it could, in places I’d no idea I had! I’ve never made love like that, never felt like this. I’m still aching in the tenderest spots. When Aidan and I finally stopped, I wanted to keep feeling the way he made me feel, but he fell asleep.

  “Exhausted, and happily so,”he said, giving me a final lick on both cheeks before conking out.

  I couldn’t sleep, so I came outside to think. Trying to absorb what last night means, I think about the way he touched my foot, my scars, pulled me to him—over and over. My feelings are running amuck, and I like it.

  But should I feel safe? Should I trust him? Is this how love-at-first-sight works? You meet a guy, have an instant, unexplainable physical attraction to him, let him fuck your brains out, and then you’re in love?

  I don’t know if I’m in love—for sure—but I’m in trouble and feeling more emotionally vulnerable than I’ve ever been in my life.

  Watching dawn slink into the sky like a scruffy coyote, I shake my confusing thoughts. It’s morning, time for a reality check. Robin’s been missing several days, so I need to try to make contact with my punkass brother today, no matter what. If I can’t locate him, I’m going to call the cops and report him missing.

  “Hey, hit me up,”his cell phone message says.

  Hit me up? Boy, would I love to hit him.

  My coffee’s stale, left over from last night when Aidan made it, but I could drink sludge from the river bottom at the moment and then swear it tastes great. Thinking of Aidan and the last few crazy hours, I watch the sun burst lazily through the fog and begin burning it off. Going over each detail of last night, I wait, but my calls go straight to Robin’s voice mail.

  I call again. Then I wait some more.

  Traffic’s moving on the street in front of my apartment building. In the distance, cars claw their way up and down Columbia Parkway. A barge’s bull horn blares far off on the Ohio River. I should be smoking a cigarette, but I don’t smoke, so I’m tempted instead to run back inside, awaken Aidan, demand a quickie.

  I sigh. If only I had time and no class. I can’t afford to blow off another crim quiz, plus Aidan told me before he fell asleep that he has an eight o’clock meeting this morning at NPD.

  When Robin finally answers, he’s not cooperating, same as always.

  “Tell me where you are right this minute, Robin Colby,”I hiss, glancing over my shoulder. I keep expecting to see Aidan come walking out of my apartment in his undies, minus the cop hardware, except that black ankle holster he never takes off.

  “Just tell me where you are, please, Rob.”

  “I can’t, Laney.”

  “Bull crap, since when have you not been able to tell me what’s going on?”

  “It’s not what you think,”Robin says,“and I can’t tell you. Like I said.”

  “It’s not what I think? You’re missing and won’t tell me where you are. You’re in violation of your parole and headed back to prison. Dammit, Robbie, what am I supposed to freakin’ think?”

  “Has Hellgirl called you?”he asks.

  “No, I’ve not spoken with your PO.”

  “Then there ya go. Don’t worry so damn much, Laney.”

  I gulp morning air, trying to call back my happy mood. “When I see you again, Robin Colby, I’m going to cut you from one end of your stinking little body and gut you like a fish. I’m going to—”

  “Listen to me,”he interrupts. “I don’t have long to talk, and this’s important. I need a favor.”

  “Yeah, like I’m doing youany favors.”

  Cell phone stuck to my ear, I storm around the side of my apartment building toward the front entry, too worried to acknowledge the chill creeping up my spine. If Aidan catches me, he’ll ask who I’m talking to. If I don’t tell him, he’ll get suspicious. Wrestling with guilt, I realize at some point I’m going to have to explain my fear to Aidan, tell him I think Robin’s involved in Angie’s murder.

  I can’t bring myself to lie to Aidan, not after last night.

  Damn, damn, damn. Why didn’t I listen to Berta? No LEOs, she’d said. I couldn’t wait to break that rule, either, like all the rest.

  When I turn the building’s corner, I brake.

  “Uh, what the f—?”

  There it sits. I must’ve missed seeing it when I came outside, lost in thoughts of Aidan. The Coca-Cola truck rests by the curb like a big red and white mammoth that just won’t quit lumbering up to my doorstep.

  “Dammit.” I stomp around the parking lot. “Stoke Farrel,”I hiss under my breath,“are you stalking me?”

  How can he be here? I sent him home last night before Aidan arrived. I scour the street, but see no sign of Stoke. Maybe he left the truck here last night, but if so then how’d he get home? And why leave it parked here, when I specifically told him to get it the hell out?

  “I forgot my overnight bag in
my bedroom,”Robin is saying, unaware I’m having a heart attack. That’s a brother for you.

  “What?”I say.

  “I said, could you get it to Squeal for me, Laney?”

  He sounds exasperated, but do I care? Robin’s apparently hanging out with Squeal, so does this mean he’s using again? Plus, I can’t help wondering if my brother’s involved in my best friend’s murder. How much uglier can this get?

  “Why would I do you any favors, when you won’t tell me where you are?”

  “Because I’m asking, Laney. Please get my overnight bag to Squeal so he can bring it to me.”

  “I hate him,”I hiss, my heart sinking as I imagine the trouble Robin’s in. “I’m not going near him.”

  I’m deep into my sisterly rant, telling Robin how much I can’t stand his friend, and holding back telling Robin how much I hate him, too, when a cruiser pulls up in front of my apartment building. It’s a Cinci PD black and white.

  “I’ve gotta go, Rob.”

  “Why?”he asks, sounding concerned for a change.

  Maybe it’s the choking noises I’m making, or maybe he just hears the tremor in my voice. “Trust me, little brother, I’ve gotta go.”

  Chapter 37

  I stuff my cell phone in my hoodie’s front pocket. Walking as close as I dare, I peek around my building’s corner. From here, I watch another cruiser pull in, two cops getting out of each one and meeting in the middle of the street and talking. I hold my breath, watching them circle the Coca-Cola truck. After a few seconds, they get back in their cruisers. One turns his sideways in the street, blocking rush-hour traffic that’s about to commence, and the other puts his cruiser in reverse and does the same thing a few yards down the street. The section of my street with the Coke truck is now blocked off from traffic entering—or leaving.

  “Sweet hells,”I whisper. Noting how my apartment building’s now isolated from all others on the block, I watch another Crown Vic roll up, this one dark blue and nondescript but easily recognizable. Unmarked.

  My gut sinks to my throbbing ankle. My street’s now officially surrounded by LEOs.

  What’s going on?

  A few seconds later, Aidan bounds out of my building’s front door, fully dressed and talking on his cell phone. I duck behind an evergreen hedge when I see him gaze around, searching for me.

  “Alaina? Alaina, where are you?”

  This feels like déjàvu, like when I was a little girl and the cops came to our house looking for one of my“uncles,”or worse, when they came to arrest my mom. It was terrifying. But now it’s ten times worse.

  I work the problem through. There wouldn’t be this many LEOs here to arrest me for jacking that Coca-Cola truck, so they’ve got to be here looking for Robin.

  How am I going to explain all this to Aidan? Headsmack. Why didn’t I just be honest with him and tell him last night?

  I step from my hiding spot and walk toward him, feeling lonely, crushed.

  “Hey,”I say, and then stop, shocked into my bizarre and cold new reality. What have I been thinking? Was last night so great I’m willing to roll over on Robin? Give up my brother? What’ve I been smoking? Last night was a fairytale. I can never take Aidan home to meet my family.

  Feeling sad, the seconds ticking by, I remember last night, so exciting, so—good. Now, because of my brother, or instead because I’m a Goshen Colby and can’t escape who I am and can’t run from my family, everything is ruined.

  What should I do?

  “I’m so sorry, Aidan,”I say, walking toward him. “I can explain.”

  Still on his cell phone, he shoots me a puzzled gaze. “Explain what?”

  Another cruiser rolls up to the curb, this one from Newport. It’s starting to look like a cop convention on my front doorstep. I gaze one last time into Aidan’s eyes. I so wanted last night to be real. But it wasn’t.

  We don’t say anything for a few seconds.

  Hold me. I beg with my eyes. Put your arms around me. Make all this go away.

  But he’s busy, doesn’t have time for me.

  “Alaina, listen to me carefully,”he says, like I’m a child.

  “Sure,”I say, swallowing so I won’t cry. Everything I’ve dreamed or hoped for is in jeopardy. Whatever’s wrong here this morning is going to strip away all the good I felt last night, all the good I’ll ever get to feel again in my life. I just know it.

  “I’m listening,”I say.

  “Do you know a good lawyer?”

  “What?”

  “Go inside your apartment and call. I don’t mean call one of your mom’s crappy assed ambulance chasers. I mean a Melvin-fucking-Belli mouthpiece.”

  “Don’t give me orders,”I say, wondering who Melvin Belli is, and how Aidan knows about Berta’s habit of hanging out with shyster lawyers. “You don’t own me, so don’t put down my mom. Who the hell are you?”

  “Keep your voice down,”he says, calm, but his wide shoulders tensing.

  More cops pull in nose first on my street and then more Crown Vics. Two LEOs exit one of the blue Crown Vics. They’re wearing FBI windbreakers. Feds.

  What are they doing here?

  “Go,”Aidan says. “Now!”

  “Not until you tell me what’s going on?”

  “Your brother’s going to need a criminal defense attorney.”

  “My brother?” So I was right. This is about Robin. I swallow, feeling a tightening deep in my tonsils, which Berta refused to have removed because it was“against her religion.”

  Aidan pulls my hood up over my head and tucks my hair behind my ear. It’s a moment of unrivaled tenderness, one I’ll keep remembering—and regretting—forever. “I’ll tell you later,”he says. “Now go back inside and call a lawyer.”

  “But—”

  “Shut up and do it, goddammit.”

  I stand frozen. Several cops are heading straight toward us, but I can’t move, can’t breathe. This is the moment I’ve feared since Robin first called me on Monday.

  Tears fill my eyes. He’s in trouble. My baby brother’s in trouble—again. When we were talking on our cell phones just now, hadn’t he begged me to find his overnight bag and give it to Squeal? Why?

  “Why does Robin need a criminal defense lawyer?”

  “He’s a murder suspect.”

  “A . . . murder suspect—?” My breath catches in my throat. Why do I feel so surprised?

  All the anger I’ve been saving since I was a little girl bubbles to the surface. I can hear Berta doling out advice. Sleep with anyone you want. Just don’t bring home no damn LEO.

  Now that it’s too late, I finally understand why she kept warning me. I finally get why she hates cops. My chest tightens. “Who has he murdered?”

  “Angie Miller,”Aidan says,“for starters.”

  I feel like someone’s pouring ice water down the back of my neck. Images of Angie’s—and Meera’s—savaged shoulders sear my brain. “Why do you suspect Robin?”

  “A snitch called info in to NPD,”Aidan says. “A witness saw your brother hanging around the alley behind Omar’s the night Angie Miller’s body was dumped.”

  “That can’t be . . . true. It just can’t be.”

  My instinct to defend Robin kicks in. As the implication of Robin’s—and of my predicament—settles, my slow burn heats up. What did Aidan tell me last night before we coupled like two wild pigs? I’m not here because of your brother. But this morning there’s cops thicker than molasses on my front doorstep, and Aidan’s ordering me to call a lawyer for Robin.

  “You knew and you lied to me,”I say, anger boiling and churning inside me. “You bastard, you used me to get information about my brother.”

  “No, Alaina, I came to warn you about Megalo Don,”Aidan says, stepping forward to greet the oncoming cops. “But you’re right. I am a bastard, or so I’m told. So get inside and call a lawyer, or I’m going to arrest you.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “Wouldn’t I?”he say
s, using the same harsh tone I’ve heard him use with Officer Barbie. “Do it now, or I’ll cuff you and haul your ass in. This is for your own good,”he adds.

  How can this stranger be the same guy I shared my body with for hours?

  “I hate you,”I say, jerking open my apartment building’s front door. Too dazed, I just stand here, daring Aidan to arrest me, so I can keep at least a little of what pride I have left. But I’m helpless. I know it. Detective Aidan Hawks is the law, a LEO. He holds the power over my brother’s future. And mine. “Why have you done this?”I say, finally trusting myself to speak.

  “Why, why, why,”I yell. “You didn’t have to bribe me by sleeping with me, Aidan. I was going to tell you about Robin and Angie.”

  He turns away to go join his fellow LEOs.

  “You cold bastard. I’ll never forgive you. Never.”

  He stops.

  For a second I feel good. I’ve hurt him.

  But then he keeps walking away from me. “You’ll find a way,”he says. “Trust me.”

  Chapter 38

  Why did I let Aidan do this to me?

  “Bastard,”I whisper, all my childhood insecurities rushing to the surface and taunting: you’re not good enough. “How could you do this to me?”

  For the few hours I spent in Aidan’s arms, I believed I was someone other than the Goshen Gimp, Berta Colby’s“Crip.” I thought I was right. She was wrong.

  “Last night meant nothing,”I say, sorry for myself. It didn’t. I was just bait he used to get Robin.

  I watch him walking away, the way his strong shoulders look like they’re challenging the world, the ones I kissed last night. He’s a stranger now.

  You’ll find a way. Trust me.

  He greets his buddies, lobbing a parting shot at me over his shoulder. “I’ll call you soon as I can, Alaina.”

  “Go to hell!” I dry spit, one of my mother’s favorite trash behaviors, and then kick the front door’s glass panel. “Ouch. Dammit!”

  Several LEOs shoot me suspicious glares.

  “Arrest me,”I scream, hoping my glare conveys my message to them—and to Aidan. “Big lying-ass cop,”I shout. “You used me to get at my brother. My mother was right. Never trust a freakin’ LEO.”