Burnout (NYPD Blue & Gold)

by Tee O'Fallon

  “Thank you.” She clasped the doctor’s hands in hers.

  “She’s not completely out of danger, but things look good, and she’s responding to treatment,” Dr. Tesch said. “I won’t know for sure what poison it was until I get that dart analyzed and Raven’s blood test comes back. From her symptoms, I’d guess it was some kind of paralytic toxin. It paralyzes the victim first, then kills.”

  “Sonofabitch,” Mike muttered.

  “My thoughts exactly.” The vet nodded. “Whoever did this is one sick bastard. Must have wanted Raven to suffer. She was in respiratory paralysis when you brought her in. Another minute and she wouldn’t have made it. I put a tube down her throat to help her breathe. There’s a lump on her shoulder where the dart went in, so it’s possible the dart glanced off her shoulder blade and she only got a fraction of the intended dose. She’s one lucky dog.”

  “Thanks, Doc.” Mike shook the vet’s hand.

  Dr. Tesch tipped his head toward the green door and said to Cassie, “Would you like to see her for a minute?”

  Cassie nodded.

  Mike put his hand on her shoulder, and she felt his touch clear down to her toes. “I’ll wait for you out here.”

  “Raven will have to stay a few days. Maybe longer.” The vet pushed the green door open wider. “Before I release her, I’d like to see her blood workup and confirm I’m giving her the right antidote and dosage.”

  “I understand.” Cassie followed him through the door.

  Raven was in good hands, but leaving town without her would be like leaving a family member behind. As much as it killed her, she’d do it to keep the townspeople safe.

  The vet led her through the examination room into another room with various small cages on shelves and larger cages lining the floor. The room smelled like alcohol, cleaning fluid, and that terrible scent all sick and frightened animals seemed to give off. Somewhere in the room, a kitten mewed and a dog whimpered.

  Cassie spotted Raven lying on her side in a cage on the far wall. She ran to it and fell to her knees. A plastic tube attached to a whirring machine next to the cage led directly into Raven’s mouth, secured by white medical tape. Another tube ran from a clear bag hooked to the cage into Raven’s shaved foreleg. More white tape held the IV needle in place, contrasting with the bright yellow antiseptic swabbed onto her shaved skin.

  Raven’s head lay against the side of the cage, her eyes closed. Through the metal bars, Cassie stroked the dog’s soft, silky hair. She swallowed the enormous lump in her throat, fighting back the tears. “I’m here, girl. I have to go, but I’ll come back for you. I promise.”

  Then she and Raven would leave Hopewell Springs for good.

  It was nearly two thirty in the morning when Mike parked the police cruiser in the driveway of a modest two-story house on the outskirts of town.

  Mike’s house.

  Cassie’s heart squeezed at the thought that she’d be spending an entire night in Mike’s home knowing he was only offering it for professional reasons. To protect her, not because he loved her.

  After they’d left the vet’s office, Mike had insisted on taking her back to the hospital for X-rays. The ER doctor determined there was no permanent damage, just bruising, and her throat would be sore and hoarse for a while.

  A quick glance in the hospital bathroom’s mirror had told Cassie her neck was already turning nasty shades of red and purple, while broken blood vessels gave her eyes a grisly, bloodshot hue. She’d been lucky, the doctor had said. Cassie knew luck had nothing to do with it. Mike saved her life. And thanks to his quick thinking, Raven’s, too.

  When they’d stopped by her house to pick up some of her things, the place had been eerily quiet. Other than Officer Mackey, who remained outside to guard the crime scene overnight, there was no indication anything horrible and deadly had happened there. Then Cassie spotted the telltale signs.

  Yellow police tape across the kitchen doorway. The sharp odor of cleaning solution. The handbag she’d thrown into the bushes now sat on the hallway table.

  And no Raven.

  While Cassie didn’t go into the kitchen, she knew the wall by the refrigerator would still bear the blood and cranial fluids from the man who’d tried to murder her. She also knew from her rookie days working in the worst areas of Manhattan, that kind of stain couldn’t be washed off a white wall. It would have to be painted over. Multiple coats.

  On their way out, Mackey had informed Mike that a Gazette reporter and his sidekick photographer showed up right when the coroner took Methopolis’ body out on a stretcher. The photographer apparently snapped a few shots for tomorrow’s edition. Mike had scowled, muttering something about media vultures. As directed, Mackey had refused to provide the reporter with any fodder for a story, including the dead man’s name. That, at least, might buy some time.

  As he escorted Cassie to the front door of his house, Mike’s jaw tightened. “Eventually, Manici will hear about this.”

  “I’ll be long gone before anyone finds out you blew away his hit man.” She swallowed, feeling the burn in her throat. “If I can use your landline, I’ll let my partner and brother know I’m staying at your place.”

  When the front door clicked shut behind them, Cassie turned to find Mike watching her. Even now, he was still the most handsome man she’d ever met. Power and strength personified, and not just by his physical presence. It went far deeper than that. It was an inherent part of who he was. Mike could easily have become a high-ranking official in the NYPD, but he’d chosen to make his home in Hopewell Springs. The people of this town would never know how lucky they were.

  He took a few steps toward her, his boots echoing on the wood hallway floor. In the shadow cast by the overhead light, his eyes were dark, the same stormy blue they transformed into when he made love. “Cassie, I—”

  “What?” She dared to hope.

  He took a deep breath before answering. “Phone’s over there.” He flicked on a switch illuminating the small foyer and nodded toward a telephone perched on the hall table.

  His police persona was solidly back in place, but for a brief moment she was sure he’d been about to say something else.

  “Thanks.” Not wanting to let her emotions show, Cassie nodded and dialed Dom’s cell number. As she waited for her partner to pick up, she glanced at the many framed photos on the table.

  One was of Mike as a teenager posing with a German shepherd. The joy on the faces of both dog and boy was clear to see. The other photos were of Mike with his family, some taken inside a restaurant she assumed was his parents’ pub, others with his siblings, including his gorgeous sister, Moira.

  When Dom’s voicemail kicked in, Cassie left a message updating him on the situation and providing Mike’s home address. Then she left the identical message on Gray’s cell phone. Odd that neither of them answered their phones. It wasn’t like them to be out of touch for so long.

  After hanging up, she turned back to Mike, yawning. “Mind if I use your shower?”

  He shook his head and picked up her overnight bag, handing it to her. “You can stay in my bedroom. Top of the stairs, first door on the left. We can talk about the case tomorrow and set up protection for you until you leave town.”

  Being careful not to touch Mike’s hand and risk losing what little self-control she had left, Cassie took her bag and headed up the stairs.

  Twenty minutes later, steam poured out of the bathroom from the hot shower she’d taken. Cassie pushed up the bedroom windows to let in the cool early morning breeze. The curtains billowed and whipped around her head. The digital clock on the bureau read three a.m. No wonder she was exhausted. On top of everything, she’d barely had two hours sleep in the last two days.

  After pulling a short-cropped purple tank over her head, she stepped into a pair of loose white cotton pajama bottoms. She ran a brush through her wet hair, not giving a crap how she looked.

  Her throat hurt whenever she swallowed, but it was her heart that pain
ed her the most, and not just for Raven. Every time she thought of the man downstairs guarding her life, the ache in her chest became unbearable.

  Soon it will all be over and you’ll never have to face Mike again.

  Dom and Gray would probably put her under lock and key until Manici’s trial, guarded twenty-four-seven by the NYPD’s finest—the very thing she dreaded. The same thing that had driven her to Hopewell Springs in the first place. To get away from cops. If her throat wasn’t so raw, she would have laughed at the irony of how badly she’d hoped to spend the rest of her life with one in particular.

  The bedside table lamp bathed the bedroom in ghostly shadows. She stared down at her gun, which she’d removed from her soggy handbag. She wished she could wield nothing more dangerous than a spatula for the rest of her life.

  No sound came from downstairs. She could imagine how beat Mike must be, especially with his injury. But she knew he wouldn’t sleep. He’d never close his eyes when he’d promised to protect her. It might be over between them, but as long as she remained in Hopewell Springs, he would watch her back. That was his way.

  With a painful sigh, she looked around the bedroom. The heavy oak bed reminded her that less than twenty-four hours ago, she and Mike had made exquisite, passionate love. She squeezed her eyes shut as the unforgettable memories they’d made together assailed her senses.

  Mike kissing her until she couldn’t breathe. Holding her in his strong arms, tantalizing her sensitized skin with rough fingers as he traced the curves of her face, neck, and breasts. And finally, filling her completely until her body hummed and cried out from the incredible pleasure.

  “Oh, God.” Her chest felt as if it would cave in on her heart, collapsing it forever. “I’m going to miss this town,” she whispered. Especially Chief Michael Flannery.

  Cassie sank to the bed and gripped the soft, navy blue sheets in her fists, angry at how her life had led to this moment. No other place could possibly feel like home. This was her home. This was the place she was meant to be. The NYPD couldn’t pay her enough to come back to work. That part of her life was history, and she could never be that person again.

  The woman who’d been through the New York City Police Academy and locked up countless bad guys was gone. Now she was just Cassie, a woman who’d fallen desperately in love with a man who didn’t love her back.

  Lying down, she buried her face into the fluffy pillow, inhaling the barest hint of Mike’s aftershave. Her body began to shake with gut-wrenching sobs.

  Poor Leo. He was an innocent kid, a bystander in all of this, who had his whole life ahead of him.

  Until I came into his life like a specter of death. The Grim Reaper with a badge.

  Serve and protect?

  Yeah, right.

  Using a corner of the sheet, she dabbed at the tears cascading down her face, but they wouldn’t stop no matter what she did. She turned on her side toward the open windows to let the breeze caress her damp face.

  The mattress shifted, and she stiffened as a pair of powerful arms slid around her shoulders from behind. Mike cradled her, drawing her back against his chest. He tightened his arms and spooned against her body. For a millisecond, Cassie allowed herself to believe this meant something had changed between them, but she knew better.

  “Don’t do this.” She clawed at his arms and struggled to free herself.

  “Stop fighting and let me hold you.” He tucked in tighter and wedged her head beneath his jaw. “At least for tonight.”

  There it was, confirmation that his comfort was only temporary.

  Cassie went limp in his arms, and because it was indeed the last time he would ever hold her, she clung to him and cried until she had nothing more to give.

  Chapter Twenty

  Cassie’s soft, curvy body pressed against Mike. She’d turned in his arms and now faced him with her head nestled beneath his chin, her silky hair tickling his day-old growth of beard. He breathed in her flowery scent, torturing himself by pretending yesterday had never happened, that his whole world hadn’t been jerked out from beneath him. But it had. He was a gullible sap who couldn’t differentiate between the real thing and total bullshit.

  Cassie moaned and tilted her face, her lips touching his chin. The movement tugged down her purple shirt, revealing the luscious mounds of her breasts. And the swollen red ring encircling her neck, reminding him of how the night could have ended.

  Despite the rage flaring inside him toward the dead assassin, he couldn’t stop his body from responding to Cassie’s enticing curves. Even after her lies, after yesterday’s bloodshed rekindled every painful memory from six years ago, she could still make him want her with unrestrained, intolerable need.

  Her fingers grazed over his wound, which had finally stopped jabbing at his insides. She wriggled against him, pressing her thigh intimately against his hardening erection. Again he cursed his body for being so weak, so unable to resist the magnetic pull she had on him.

  He could easily assign another officer to stay with Cassie until her brother and partner arrived.

  So why don’t I?

  Because I don’t trust her life to anyone else.

  A breathy sound came from Cassie’s parted lips.

  Ah, hell.

  A quick dip of his chin and his mouth skimmed hers. Her lips were warm and soft. Full, like the rest of her sexy body.

  He covered her body with his, running his hand up and down the side of her rib cage, feathering her breast. She moaned as he kissed her—tasting, savoring her like a starving man. She draped her legs over the backs of his thighs, nestling him tighter against her hips.

  “Yes.” The word was a whisper against his lips as she wrapped her arms around his back.

  Christ, what he wouldn’t give to forget for a few short hours everything that had come before and everything that awaited them when the sun rose. She was sweet, so, so sweet. And so his for the taking.

  Firm, soft hands clawed at his shirt, pulling it from his waistband until her fingers scorched his skin. Hot flashes shot to his groin. He was rock hard and getting more so by the second.

  The need to possess her was paramount, not just her body but her mind, her feelings. Her very soul. He wanted it all. Knowing he could never have it sent him over the edge.

  As he broke the kiss, green, red-tinged eyes locked with his. She wanted him, too, he was sure of it. What had passed between them may have been only physical, but right now he didn’t give a damn. The physical need was there. Strong. Vibrant. Lingering. But for him it was more, much more.

  Fuck.

  He stifled a groan, wishing to hell he didn’t still need her. Crave her.

  Love her?

  It didn’t matter. He might never be capable of forgetting the past, but he could have her this one last time. To remember her by.

  Mike covered her mouth with his, demanding and devouring everything she offered. Their lips melded, their tongues probing and seeking. Blood pounded in his temples. His fingers couldn’t get to her bare skin fast enough.

  He peeled off her pajama bottoms and shirt, trailing his fingers along her smooth, satiny flesh. She quivered beneath his touch as she watched him from glazed eyes, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

  Cassie shivered, her nipples hardening beneath his gaze. He drank in every lovely, naked inch of her, memorizing every curve, every bit of her pale, creamy skin. The bulge at his groin stretched the denim fabric painfully tight.

  “You are so beautiful.” He caught her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. “I wanted you the first time I saw you.” That was the goddamn truth.

  She glided her fingers up his forearms to grip his biceps. “I felt the same way about you.” Her lips curved upward into the most seductive smile, and his fingers stilled.

  Ignoring the conflicting emotions in his chest, he straddled her thighs, sliding his hands up and down her arms, over her breasts, teasing her nipples until they peaked and jutted out like dark red bullets. She arched
into his hands.

  “Does that feel good?” He caressed her more firmly.

  “God, yes.”

  Mike’s pulse beat faster in his chest, in his cock, throughout his entire body. He would give her the most incredible love-making she’d never forget. “What do you want?” He was stunned by the gruffness in his voice. “Tell me and I’ll do it.”

  “Touch me.” Her words sounded ragged.

  “Where?” His nostrils flared. “Tell me.”

  “Here.” She spread her thighs, and he eased his hands down her trembling belly. When he stroked his fingers to her hot mound, cupping her, she groaned. He flicked his finger along her slick, sensitive flesh, and she raised her hips to intensify the contact.

  “You’re so wet.” He could barely speak, awed by the sheer beauty and passion of the woman before him. “Where else do you want me to touch you?”

  Cassie’s chest rose and fell, jutting her perfect breasts in the air. “My breasts. My nipples.”

  Mike leaned down and pulled her nipple into his mouth, continuing to massage the other with his fingers. The nub was hard, tight, and the feel of it on his tongue nearly drove him insane. He lightly bit her nipple, and she inhaled sharply, sifting her fingers through his hair, pressing him tighter against her.

  “So good.” Her breasts were warm and firm as he murmured against them. “You smell so fucking good.” His last words came out a growl.

  When her hands froze in his hair, it occurred to him he’d never cursed while making love to a woman. He attributed this lapse to his emotional pain, the loss he anticipated when she left town.

  He worked his way lower, raining light kisses on her abdomen, above her tantalizing patch of dark red curly hair. He nipped at her flesh, and she bucked her hips. He eased his hands beneath her, cupping her buttocks, raising her to his mouth.

  “You smell so sexy, so hot.” He spread her slick flesh wide with his fingers and breathed against her until she was writhing in his hands. “I’m going to taste every inch of you.” He buried his face against her damp mound.