by Karin Tabke
“Good, now tell me who you’re playing with.”
“That’s information you don’t need.”
“Oh, there you are very wrong.” She sauntered toward him. “See I don’t have a job any more, and my reputation is ruined thanks to you. My income has been seriously compromised. I like nice things, really nice things that require a lot of cash. You fucked me once, Evan, you’re not going to fuck me again. I’m in one hundred percent on who, what, where and how, and for half the take.” She smiled. “I’m not going to be a selfish bitch about it, I’ll do my fair share of work, but I want complete disclosure from this moment on or you can take your little video and share it with the world because the cop and I are history, and I have nothing left to lose.”
She slipped her cell phone out of her purse and wagged it at him. “You think you’re so smart? I could have been recording you the entire time on my cell phone.” She tapped a few icons then extended it toward him like a microphone. “Names, companies, what you stole, who you sold that information to and for how much.” When he hesitated, she sternly said, “I’m not going to make my offer twice, Evan. Now or I walk straight to the nearest precinct with your poorly encrypted texts.”
She watched as her insults penetrated. His cheeks flushed angry red, and his eyes sparked hatred.
When he was done rattling off the details of more than a dozen thefts as well as his accomplices, she was shocked at the depths of his duplicity and greed.
“No one ever suspected you of any of this?” she asked dumbfounded.
He smiled blithely, and shook his head.
The restroom door jerked. Someone pushed from the outside, but the trash can held it. “Hello?” a woman’s voice called. It was Rigatti. “Can someone please open the door? I have to pee!”
Katy moved past Evan to let the cavalry in. He grabbed her arm, spun her around, and squeezed her hand holding the cellphone until she dropped it. Then he proceeded to step on it, crushing it to pieces. “What are you doing?” she gasped reaching down for the destroyed phone.
He yanked her hard against him and sneered, “I didn’t give you all those details because I need a partner, I told you all of that so you could see that even though you might have a bigger brain, I’m smarter.” He shoved her hard against the sink. “It doesn’t matter what your cop has on me, Katrina, and it doesn’t matter what you have on me.” He grasped her around the neck and squeezed. “Because I’m going to stuff you into that trash can and walk out of here.”
Panic exploded in her brain. Evan was going to kill her! She choked trying to say the kill word, but his grip was too tight.
As the panic tore through her, Katy fought to maintain her composure. Simon had prepared her for this. Taught her how to defend herself. But in the heat of the moment it all went out the window. She tried to drop like he taught her, but Evan’s hold was too tight. She tried breaking his hold and twisting, but he was too strong. She kicked and pushed at his legs and chest as his hands tightened around her neck, cutting off her breath. She was suffocating. Couldn’t breathe.
It infuriated her that it was Evan’s murderous eyes and vindictive smile that would be the last things she saw before she met her maker.
“Si-mon…” she rasped as the room dimmed.
Evan’s maniacal laugh as she continued to struggle against him infuriated her. But she had barely enough strength to—
“Kat!” Simon’s desperate voice yelled above the pounding on the door. “Dig his eyes out!”
Remembering how Simon showed her, with her last bit of strength, she closed her eyes, and dug her nails into Evan’s eyes. He screamed. She dug deeper. He screamed again, shoving away from her, finally giving her air.
The trash can was just about bent in half, hands grasped it from the other side trying to completely dislodge it.
“Hang on, baby!” Simon called.
Katy’s adrenaline spiked.
Evan looked at the door, then to her, from behind bloody eyes.
Katy moved toward the door. “The cavalry is coming, Evan,” she breathlessly said, “and you’re going down.”
He lunged at her just as the door burst open and Simon, followed by his entire team, poured into the restroom. Simon punched Evan so hard in the face, he flew back against the sink, hitting his head with a sickening thud before falling to the floor as Jack and the rest of the boys swooped down on him like locusts on free corn.
Simon dropped to his knees scooping her up into his arms.
“Kat,” he said, his voice shaking with emotion. “Baby,” he choked as his eyes ran up and down her body, checking for damage.
She choked back a sob as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled her to him holding her so tightly against him, she could scarcely breathe.
With her safely in his arms, he carried her out of the bathroom to the vestibule down the hall. “Are you ok?” Simon asked, his voice still quaking.
“I’m fine.” And she was. “We did it, Simon! We did it!” Euphoric relief flooded her system. They did it! Her name would be cleared and Evan was going to jail for a very long time!
But as happy and excited as she was, despite her near death experience, Simon was not nearly as celebratory.
“Son of a bitch,” he said shaking his head. “It was killing me not running in there until we had his confession. Christ, Kat, I saw it in his eyes, the split second he made the decision—I knew he wasn’t going to let you out of there alive.” His voice shook, full of rage, fear and relief. “Jesus Christ, I thought I was going to lose you.” He hugged her close. “I’ve never been so afraid in my life.” He sat down on a divan, holding her tightly, his body still shaking. “I’m too old for this shit.”
She tapped him on the shoulder and said against his chest, “Simon, I can’t breathe.”
He loosened his hold, and looked down at her, his eyes misty with emotion. “You were great in there, Cinderella. Amazing, but damn it, never again! Never fucking ever again!”
She hugged him tight and wondered how he did what he did every day. “Don’t worry, Simon, I don’t want to ever do that kind of thing again.”
Gently, he touched her tender neck. “I’m going to kill him for that.”
Katy reached up and touched his face as gently as he had hers. “No you’re not. You’ll go to jail and I don’t do convicts.”
Despite her try at lightening the seriousness of what just happened, Simon’s brows drew down into a frown. “Kat, this is my life. I live this on a regular basis.”
“I can handle it. I can even handle Amanda.” And she could she decided.
Simon’s frown deepened at the mention of her name. “I took care of that. She understands you’re off limits and she is to stay completely out of my business.”
Katy smiled. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that.”
He notched her chin up with his hand. His deep emerald eyes held hers, never more serious than they were at that moment. “The divorce rate is sky high in my line of work, Kat. Can you handle it?”
Her heart stuttered a beat. “To get a divorce one has to be married first.”
He grinned. “Yeah, about that…”
Her heart slammed against her chest. “What about that?”
“I know this chapel in North Shore…”
“Do they have beaches in Tahoe?”
He grinned. “No but they have fireplaces and bearskin rugs…”
Katy smiled and wrapped her arms around Simon’s neck, “Are you asking me to go to Nevada and marry you, Simon West?”
He shook his head, lowering his lips to hers. “No, I’m telling you.”
“You’re not the boss of me.”
“Yeah, I am.”
Their lips met and she sighed against his. “Yeah, I guess you are.” Because whatever Simon said, was always in her best interest to do.
THE END!
Let’s not say good-bye so quickly to Simon and Kat, let’s just wave and say, “See you later in the pages.” Because as Sim
on and Kat fulfill their happily ever after, they also say hello to more adventures with the Bad Boys of The Bay. Yep, you guessed it, my new hot cop series is coming soon and will kick off with one very bad boy of the bay, Special Agent Jack Thornton.
Jack teams up with high octane, ex-lover, Detective Stevie Cavanaugh. Theirs is an emotionally explosive (she’s pissed, he’s just hot) reunion story that will singe your eyebrows off!
Some of you may remember Jack and Stevie from the previously published, Stakeout, the lead novella in the THE HARD STUFF anthology that released many moons ago and is now out of print. I regained the rights to my very first published work and have not only reset and rewritten their love story but I’ve added layers of depth to these two crazy kids. Jack is a man on a mission, and Stevie is the one and only that he’s set his sights on.
Bad Boys of The Bay is coming soon (as in a couple of months soon!) Check me out on fb for release information and just to hang out!
www.facebook.com/karin.tabke.harlow
ational bestselling, award-winning author Karin Tabke isn’t just another author with steamy stories to tell, but a cop’s wife who has “seen it all and heard it all.” Some of the hottest stories come from behind the blue wall of law enforcement rather than from in front. Married to a street cop, now retired, Karin is intimate with both and proves it with her sizzling tales of hot cops. Not only are her cops hot, but so are her sexy knights and bad boy werewolves. Karin’s Blood Sword Legacy series is a must read for anyone who loves tales of yore when men were men and women were women, and love did conqueror all. Her dark, erotic Blood Moon Rising paranormal trilogy is best described as “Sons of Anarchy meets Rise of Lycans”. Her L.O.S.T. series (w/a Karin Harlow) is paranormal romantic suspense at its “chilling and sizzling”* best. You don’t want to miss any of Karin’s deliciously edgy tales of danger and passion!
ALSO BY KARIN TABKE:
BLOOD MOON TRILOGY
Blood Law
Bloodright
Blood Vow
BLOOD SWORD LEGACY TRILOGY
Master of Surrender
Master of Torment
Master of Craving
A Knight to Remember
*Master of Deception
HOT COPS SERIES
Bad to the Bone
Good Girl Gone Bad
Skin
Jaded
Have Yourself a Naughty Little Santa
Wanted
ANTHOLOGIES
You’ve Got Murder, co-written with Edie Ramer
Men Out Of Uniform
CONTEMPORARY
Rebel Rose, Book One in the Rebel Yell series
The Dare, Book One in The Chronicles of Katrina
Double Dare, Book Two in The Chronicles of Katrina
The Truth, Book Three in The Chronicles of Katrina
The Consequence, The Final Book in The Chronicles of Katrina
PARANORMAL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
w/a Karin Harlow
L.O.S.T. SERIES
Enemy Lover
Enemy Mine
*Enemy Sworn
*Coming Soon
THE CONSEQUENCE
Copyright © 2014 Karin Tabke LLC.
All rights reserved.
Editor: Christina Trevaskis
Copy Editor: Janell Parque
Cover Design & eBook Production: VMC Art & Design, LLC
This book is an original publication of Karin Tabke LLC
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission from the copyright owner.
ISBN 978-0-9881879-4-8
Table of Contents
Author's Note
For the Readers
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Coming Soon...
About the Author
Also by Karin Tabke
Copyright