Legally Hot

by Leigh, Lora

  She needed to run outside now.

  She glanced over her shoulder again.

  Someone rushed toward her.

  Fear closed off her throat before she could scream.

  “Down!” Adam said in a harsh whisper as he grabbed Keri’s arm and jerked her to the floor. “Don’t move.”

  Keri’s heart thundered as her knees hit the hardwood. “How did you—”

  He whispered, “I’ll explain everything later.”

  Fred’s barking became more frantic.

  Relief that it was Adam poured through her, but that relief was followed again by terror.

  “There’s someone upstairs,” she said. “I saw him go up.” The words came out in a rush.

  Adam didn’t answer. She realized he had drawn out a cell phone when he started talking to the police. He identified himself, asked for backup, gave the address of her home, then folded the phone and slipped it inside his jacket.

  “It might be Carter or one of his men. We need to get out of here now.”

  Fred hadn’t stopped barking. All of this time he had been trying to tell her something was desperately wrong and she hadn’t listened. All she had been worried about was the neighbors hearing him and complaining about it.

  The silence inside the house was almost painful. Only Fred’s barking made it truly clear that something was wrong.

  The stair squeaked again from above.

  Keri’s heart launched into her throat.

  “Someone’s at the top of the stairs,” she said in a strangled whisper.

  Adam stayed in a crouch. “What does the back door lead to?”

  She tried to control her breathing. “The courtyard. There’s a gate to the street from there.”

  Keri glanced over her shoulder. Through the darkness she saw a shadow across the room, behind them.

  Adam shoved her down flat.

  Whoever it was had probably heard him make the call.

  “Police!” Adam shouted as he turned and aimed in the direction of the intruder. “come downstairs with your hands up.”

  The sound of a shot, and a vase exploded near where her head had been.

  Keri nearly choked on a scream. Her shoulder hit the end table and she knocked the phone off. It clattered to the floor with a thump and rattle.

  Another shot.

  Adam lunged toward the door, her hand still in his, taking her with him.

  He let go of her hand and twisted. He fired several shots in the direction the gunfire had come from.

  The sound of Adam’s gunshots made her ears ring. She crawled through debris as bullets shattered more of her things and scattered pieces across the floor.

  She reached the back door, next to floor-to-ceiling windows.

  Adam had his back to it and was still firing off shots where the shooter had been.

  Keri stumbled and fell against the door. With shaking hands she found the knob and turned it.

  Pain pierced her arm and she cried out. The doorframe splintered beside her.

  Adam yanked the door open and shoved her through it.

  With a ferocious growl, Fred bounded past her and into the house.

  “No!” she screamed as she heard more shots. “Fred!”

  A loud snarl and more growls from Fred.

  Shots.

  Keri’s heart felt like it was going to explode like the vase had done so close to her head.

  Faintly she heard sirens. The police. They had to get here before Adam or Fred was killed.

  Something sticky trickled down her arm and pain burned it like fire.

  “Come on!” Adam jerked her away from the doorway. “Run!”

  Keri tried to get away from him. “But Fred—”

  “Dammit, Keri.” Adam caught her by her T-shirt and dragged her toward the back gate.

  Keri held back a cry as she barely avoided tripping over Adam. She had the bizarre thought that she had never been so clumsy in her life as she was tonight.

  “We’ve got to get you out of here,” he was saying. “There’s nothing you can do for your dog.”

  More barking, more snarls. A man’s cry.

  More shots.

  “Like hell—” she started, but Adam yanked her hard and forced her toward the gate. She felt and heard her T-shirt rip at the collar.

  “Fred is giving us the distraction we need,” Adam said. Instead of taking her to the gate he brought her up to the wall. “Climb over this wall. If it is Carter, he may have someone watching the back. Go to your neighbors and wait there for me.”

  “They’re not here,” she said. “They’re in Texas.”

  “Just get over,” Adam growled.

  “What about you?” she said.

  Adam pointed up, indicating she needed to get over the wall. “I’m going after the suspect.”

  Adrenaline pumped through her body as if she was getting ready for a performance. The wall was high, but she didn’t need Adam’s help to jump, grab the top block, and pull herself up with her upper body strength. Her injured arm screamed with pain. Her dance training and her continuous efforts to maintain perfect shape made it possible for her to get over the wall. She went down the other side with the intention of ending up in a crouch beside the wall.

  Branches jabbed into her body as she came down. Thorns scraped her arms and face, and snagged her clothing. Her skin stung.

  She had landed in a huge rosebush, but she didn’t care about that. All she cared about was Fred and Adam.

  Keri stumbled away from the rosebush and leaned up against the wall. She dragged in ragged breath after ragged breath. It wasn’t from exertion, but from fear.

  Burning pain increased in her arm and she glanced down to see that the short sleeve of the formerly white T-shirt was dark with blood.

  It took effort, but she managed to rip off the bottom of her T-shirt and wrap it around her upper arm. She put pressure on the wound and bit her lower lip to hold back a moan of pain.

  The gunshots had stopped. She couldn’t hear Fred.

  She hadn’t noticed the biting cold of the March night until now. Her damp jeans and half T-shirt didn’t help at all. Shivers wracked her body as the cold and shock set in.

  Sirens shrieked through the night. Tires screeched outside the carriage homes on her street. Lights flashed, highlighting the house in front of her in an eerie wash of blue.

  Keri tilted her head back and looked up at the sky.

  And she prayed.

  * * *

  Backup had arrived and now they just had to get the shooter.

  Sounds of shots and Fred’s barking had stopped abruptly after Keri had climbed the northern side of the block wall surrounding the small courtyard. Adam hoped like hell that Fred was okay. The dog might have saved their lives.

  The shooter’s no pro, Adam thought. Too sloppy. He wants to take out a single woman, alone, but he comes in, shuts the lights off, and has guns blazing. It didn’t seem to have the mark of Edward. But it was just too coincidental.

  The night was cold, but Adam didn’t feel it as he dug his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. He dialed in and had the dispatcher patch him through to the captain in charge of the force outside the home.

  “Holder here.”

  “Detective Adam Boyd, NYPD,” Adam said as he worked his way toward Keri’s back door, his Glock in both hands. The house was still dark. “I called it in and I’m onsite.”

  “What’s the situation, Boyd?” came the captain’s voice over the line.

  Light from outside Keri’s home would make him an easy target if he wasn’t careful. “I’m in the back courtyard,” Adam told the captain. “One shooter, last seen inside the house on the first floor.”

  The captain informed Adam he’d have officers joining him in the courtyard as well as surrounding the block.

  With the line still open to Captain Holder, Adam kept his body close to the house. He paused when he came to
the floor-to-ceiling windows that separated him and the back door. If he went forward he put himself at risk of being seen and shot.

  When he’d checked out the layout of the living room, one of the things he’d noticed was a couch along the wall of glass. Hopefully it would be enough cover.

  Adam got down on the ground and worked his way forward. The ground was soft and damp.

  He still didn’t hear anything from inside the house. Was the shooter holed up somewhere inside? Or had he—

  The sound of barking from above caused Adam to tilt his head up to look at the roof of the carriage house.

  Fred’s deep barks and growls echoed through the night. As Adam stared upward he saw a figure outlined by moonlight.

  Damn.

  “Suspect is on the roof,” Adam said into the phone as he eased to his knees. “I’m going in.”

  “Got it,” Holder said and Adam heard him shouting orders to officers.

  Adam stuffed the phone into his jacket pocket. Fred was still barking as Adam hurried into the house and rushed up the stairs. Adrenaline pumped through him as he bolted past the second level and up toward the door that led to the roof. The door was already wide open.

  Growls and snarls echoed through the night.

  A shot, then a dog’s yelp.

  Adam paused at the door, still holding his Glock in a two-fisted grip. He peeked around the doorframe, saw nothing but the rooftop garden. On the other side of what looked like a little greenhouse, he saw the shadowy figures of a man and a dog.

  Heart pounding, he swung around and out the door, sweeping the area with his gun.

  A man came from around the greenhouse, his gun pointed at Adam.

  “Drop your weapon!” Adam shouted.

  The suspect shot at Adam.

  Adam fired.

  The man dropped. His gun flew out from his hand and landed several feet away from him.

  Eyes focused on the suspect, Adam scooped up the other gun and stuffed it into the back of his jeans. He approached the man, keeping his gun steady and on him the entire time.

  The suspect didn’t move. Still wary, Adam crouched down and felt for the man’s pulse.

  Nothing.

  Adam pushed the body over and a man’s sightless eyes stared up at the heavens.

  He looked up and saw a dog limp from around the small greenhouse. Fred’s golden coat glistened black on his right haunch. That, and the way he favored it, told Adam that the retriever had been shot.

  Fred looked at Adam with thoughtful, intelligent eyes.

  Adam gestured in the direction of the neighbor’s home. “Keri climbed over that wall.”

  Despite his injury, Fred turned and shot toward the doorway into the house and disappeared through it.

  Adam quickly checked the suspect for ID but found none on the man. However, he did locate a cell phone. Rather than turning it in, he shoved it in his pocket.

  Responding officers came onto the rooftop and Adam set his gun down and raised his hands. “Detective Adam Boyd,” he said.

  After the routine of identifying himself and showing his credentials to responding officers, Adam rushed to find Keri.

  By the time Adam got to the courtyard, Fred was barking on the other side of the wall where Keri had climbed over.

  Adam jumped up, grabbed the top block of the fence, and pulled himself up.

  Before he jumped down he said, “Keri?” He saw her next to a rosebush, propped against the wall.

  Fred sat beside her with his head tilted up to look at Adam. He seemed to be saying with his eyes, “Please help her. And hurry.” How the hell did the dog get over the fence? Must have been another way there.

  Adam’s heart beat faster when he didn’t see Keri move and she didn’t respond. He jumped down and landed in a crouch beside her.

  To his relief she raised her eyes and looked at him. She tried to give a smile, but her entire body was shaking and her lips were blue. It was obvious she was going into shock. Fred whimpered and started licking her face.

  Fred backed away as Adam tore off his jacket. He prepared to put it around her shoulders, but he paused. He saw that Keri’s belly was now bare. She was holding one arm with a free hand. Cloth wrapped around her arm was soaked with blood and her hand was covered with it.

  “Whoever it was shot me in my arm,” she said, and he heard the clicking of her teeth chattering.

  “I’m calling in for an ambulance.” He dialed in to the captain again and told him what he needed.

  When he was done, Adam tried to keep his professional calm as he eased his jacket around her shoulders.

  She gritted her teeth, holding back a whimper, before she said, “I don’t think it’s serious. Just hurts like a beast.”

  “We’ll let a doctor determine whether or not it’s serious.” Adam cursed beneath his breath. “I’m going to carry you,” he said as he eased his arms around her. She nodded and he scooped her up. “You okay?” he asked.

  Keri nodded again, looking pale in what light was offered in the night. “Just a little cold and sleepy.”

  She felt too light, too limp in his arms. “Stay awake for me, okay, angel?”

  “Okay.” Her voice was just a whisper as he charged out of the backyard and toward a waiting ambulance, Fred limping alongside.

  * * *

  “It’s a flesh wound,” Adam said to Olivia DeSantos over his cell phone, a few steps away from Keri’s hospital bed. “The bullet went through clean. Just wanted to say thanks. If it wasn’t for you tracking her down for me, she would probably be dead.”

  “Glad I could help.” Olivia didn’t give a smartass remark like she would have normally. “Get some sleep, Boyd.”

  Adam snapped his cell phone shut. Anger burned in his belly as he looked at Keri and thought about the fact that she could have died tonight.

  It had been a busy night for the ER, which meant they’d been there for what felt like forever. Eight hours after being taken to the hospital, she sat up on the hospital bed as the nurse gave her release instructions, including how to care for the wound in her arm.

  Adam studied Keri as she responded to the nurse. In the bright fluorescent lights of the emergency room, she looked pale, her auburn hair falling out of the now loose ponytail. She held her arm close to her chest in a sling.

  Her rosebush landing had scratched and scraped her face and arms, leaving angry-looking marks across her fair skin. Other than that, according to the doctor, she was fine and could go home.

  Of course there was no way in hell Adam was going to let her near her house. He’d take her to his own place in Kensington, where he was certain she’d be safe from Carter and anyone he might send.

  “Sure you’re okay?” Adam said to Keri after the nurse left.

  Keri gave him a little smile. “My arm just throbs and burns a bit. Other than that I’m fine.” Her eyelids drooped and she appeared tired, but he had to admit she did look better than could be expected for what she’d been through.

  Adam took her hand and helped her off the bed. “You look like you just got in a fight with a rosebush and lost.”

  With a quick grin she said, “I guess I do.”

  After he draped his leather jacket over her shoulders and she grabbed her small purse, they walked through the hospital and out into the chilly early morning. It was still dead dark, but it wouldn’t be long until sunrise.

  Her smile faded as she said, “Did you find out any information about the shooter?”

  “Not yet.” Adam did his best to keep his concern as well as his anger out of his voice. “But we will.”

  “How did you know to come back?” she asked.

  “A car drove past me on my way out of your neighborhood; it was driving at a crawl. It stopped, then turned around,” Adam said. “I continued heading home, but something about the car kept bugging me. Something didn’t feel right.” He frowned as he remembered seeing the beat-up Corolla make
its way down Keri’s street.

  “I drove for another minute or so and then turned around to swing by and check on you,” he said. “I saw the Corolla parked up the street and I called in the license plate. A prior record on the owner—a small-time punk. Just after that I saw your house go completely dark. It didn’t make sense to have all the lights go out at once.”

  He’d known in his gut that it had something to do with Carter.

  “I checked around the house,” he said, “and the door off the garage was open, so I entered there.”

  Keri came to a stop before they headed into the parking lot. The night air chilled his bare arms and the breeze stirred her loose hair. “So you’re positive Fred is going to be all right?”

  Adam couldn’t resist touching the side of her face and brushing a few strands of hair from her eyes. “The vet said he should be able to go home within twenty-four hours.”

  He kissed her forehead like he’d known her forever, then wondered why he’d done it. Her surprised expression told him she was wondering the same thing. But then the look of surprise melted into a smile. She didn’t mind, it appeared, she didn’t mind it at all.

  “You and Fred have matching injuries.” Adam cupped the elbow of her good arm and guided her into the parking lot toward his new black Ford Explorer. “Now we just need to keep you both out of trouble.”

  Keri asked about her house and Adam assured her that everything was being taken care of.

  When they reached his SUV, Keri brought them to a stop again. “Thank you.” Her voice was soft as she touched his arm. “For everything.”

  It was his turn to be surprised when she reached up, touched the side of his jaw with her free hand, and kissed the corner of his mouth.

  Adam brought his hand to her face and brushed his fingers along her cheek. “You need to rest,” he said. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  FOUR

  “They failed?” Rage seared Edward’s gut like boiling oil, heat expanding through him in a growing fire. He slowly rose from his chair in the living room of his penthouse.

  He’d grown up with nothing, but here he was now, easily one of the richest men in the city and one of the most powerful in the drug trade.