Break Away

by Diane Benefiel

  ***

  Slowly, Levi lowered Zoey until her feet hit the floor.

  She grabbed his arms for balance. “Wow.”

  Rattled, like she was suffering from shell shock, she was unable to think beyond the intensity of the sensations that had flooded through her. Why couldn’t mind-blowing sex with Levi be only mind-blowing sex? Why did her emotions leave her feeling so raw and exposed? She had the unsettling feeling that her heart was balancing on the edge of an unstable precipice and all it would take was a tiny nudge and it would fall with a crashing thud, never to be wholly hers again.

  “Yeah, wow.” Levi’s voice was sounding a little breathless.

  She avoided his searching gaze. “Who’d have thought?”

  “You didn’t think it would be hot between us?”

  “I expected hot, but I never knew hot could be that…good.” Zoey realized what she’d revealed and took a quick peek at Levi’s face. Smug. Definitely smug. She looked around them. His pants were still hitched around his rear but the fly was unbuttoned and wide open in the most interesting way. Their shirts had been tossed aside and Lucy was lying on Levi’s. Zoey still wore her boxers. He’d pushed them aside to gain access.

  “Be right back.” Levi took a few steps and went to the small guest bathroom. She gathered up her t-shirt and tugged it on. It was kind of like shutting the barn door after the horses had run off, but she needed a layer of protection. He was back a minute later with the fly still unbuttoned, but not enough to display the goods.

  “I like that shirt.”

  She glanced down and bit her lip. No wonder he’d walked right through the door. “I hadn’t even thought about it. Um, I’ll get yours.” She pushed Lucy with her foot so she could retrieve Levi’s shirt. She spied her hair band that had somehow come loose and grabbed it, quickly pulling back her curls to some semblance of control.

  “Do you want something to eat? I’ve got cookies or these brownie things. I could make tea, or coffee. You like coffee, so that’s what I’ll make.” She should shut up and shut down the nerves that had her babbling like an idiot. Maybe she should gather an ounce of maturity and handle the post-coital moment with poise.

  Levi caught her hand before she could move to the kitchen. “Zoey, look at me.”

  She wanted to look anywhere but at him, because she had a sinking feeling that looking at him would lead to kissing him, and kissing him would lead to doing what they’d been doing against the door, and doing that again would lead to more emotional intimacy, which scared the crap out of her.

  She let herself be pulled to him. He framed her face with those wide palms and tipped her head up. “You’re avoiding me.”

  “Pfft. You were in me not five minutes ago, so you can hardly say I’m avoiding you.” But there was no avoiding him now. His bold blue gaze had fastened on her and wouldn’t let her go.

  “Maybe that was the easy part. Maybe acknowledging that we have something together that goes beyond hot sex is harder.”

  There was no hiding from the compassion practically radiating off him. She found herself confessing what she was most worried about. “You could hurt me, Levi. Really, really hurt me.”

  He lowered his forehead to hers and she found her hands linking with his. “We’re both taking that risk, sweetheart. But if we don’t take a chance, what we lose could be even bigger.”

  She drew in a shaky breath. “I like you, I really do. But I have issues. You might want to reconsider your interest in me. I’m a bad bet.”

  He put a finger to her lips. “Zoey Hardesty, will you go on a date with me?”

  Why did that have her going all mushy inside?

  “We’ve already had sex, don’t you think we’re a bit late for a first date?”

  “No, we’re not. Will you?”

  She let out a huff of breath. “Okay, but this doesn’t mean we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, or any such nonsense. We hooked up, and we’ll go on a date, but that’s it.”

  Why did it feel like as soon as she took a stand, the ground began to crumble beneath her feet?

  “One step at a time, sweetheart. One step at a time.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Levi entered the police station, taking his seat for morning roll call as Brad stepped behind the podium at the front of the room. Levi had woken up alone in his own bed. He was getting that Zoey had intimacy issues, but she hadn’t kicked him out of her cottage until after they’d gone to her bed. The encore to what they’d done against the door had been equally as hot.

  He could work with that.

  He wasn’t exactly sure where he wanted to end up with her. In the past few months he’d made major life changes, and he thought he was dealing with some issues that he hadn’t really understood were issues. But he felt like he was breaking away from the hold some things in his past had over him. He’d stopped running and was dealing with them. He felt lighter somehow.

  He made a mental note to call his partner from the Oakland PD. Maybe it was time and distance from the event, or maybe it was getting his head screwed on straight, but he was coming to terms with the decision he’d made.

  Regardless, leaving OPD and joining the police department in his hometown had been the right move. Hands down, the best thing about moving home was finding Zoey. For the first time, he was thinking about a future that included someone else. If she had commitment issues, he was willing to let her set the pace. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to push when things needed pushing.

  He’d left for work feeling pretty good about the situation. Lucy had still occupied her sunny spot, and even though he could easily maneuver around her with the motorcycle, he still tossed her the Eggo waffle he’d saved for her. He was partial to the buttermilk variety, and Lucy seemed to agree. On his ride in, he’d mulled over what had happened with the car coming up their driveway, then speeding away like a racecar driver. The driver hadn’t been turning around on the street by accident. Whatever had been their intent, it hadn’t been innocent, and that had him worried about Zoey’s safety.

  Waiting for Brad to start, he pulled out his phone and texted Zoey to find out if she’d made it safely to work.

  His phone vibrated a few seconds later, and he opened the screen to a pic of Lucy riding shotgun in a Forest Service truck plus a thumbs-up emoji. Worked for him.

  Levi had informed Brad first thing about the car and the driver’s reckless effort to get away. Brad included that in the briefing and gave orders to increase patrols in the area around where Levi and Zoey lived. Once the meeting was over, Brad called Levi into his office, shutting the door behind them. Brad picked up a file folder from his desk and dropped it onto Levi’s lap.

  He opened the folder, the name Paul Clauson jumping out at him. He read the report, a sick feeling growing in his gut along with the rising anger. He looked across the desk where Brad sat. “Same fucking MO.”

  “Yeah. After you told me Zoey’s story, I did some digging. The local sheriff’s department let Clauson resign, so he went to Colorado, where he was hired by a small-town PD. From which, surprise, surprise, he took early retirement. I called, got someone who would talk to me. I suggested that it seemed suspicious Clauson would retire at a relatively young age when staying only a couple of years longer would have allowed him to increase his retirement substantially. The cop I spoke to was plenty pissed. He told me, off the record of course, that Clauson was allowed to leave after another officer accused him of raping a fifteen-year-old girl.”

  Levi thought if he ground his molars any harder they’d turn to dust. Zoey’s claim that cops covered for other cops was ringing infuriatingly true. “Why didn’t they prosecute?”

  “The girl wouldn’t corroborate the story, so no charges were filed.” Brad shook his head. “Clearly, Clauson is a slick bastard. He picks his victims carefully, knows law enforcement, and uses all that to stay out of prison. His victims are almost always vulnerable women, and he knows the weaknesses of the system and plays it against
them.

  “That said, there was another teenage girl who accused him of assault, and this time he slipped up because it was a suburban teenager from a wealthy family on the way home from high school soccer practice. The girl got away from him much like Zoey had, and when there wasn’t enough evidence for the DA to bring criminal charges, her parents sued the police department. They settled, and while the details are confidential, it must have cost them plenty. That’s when the department pushed Clauson into retirement. They knew they had a predator cop in their department and didn’t want any more negative publicity.”

  “That’s chickenshit. They took the easy way out.”

  “Without a doubt. Do some digging, and find out where he is now.”

  Levi remained seated, and Brad raised a brow. “Something else?”

  “Zoey and I are in a relationship.”

  Brad gave what Levi thought of as his big brother look, the same look he’d been getting all of his life. “Since I’ve got eyes in my head and saw you two together at Mom’s barbecue and at the team pizza thing last night, I figured that out, bro.”

  “We’re still kind of circling around exactly what being in a relationship means, but I’m leaning toward serious.”

  Brad grinned. “Good to know. I like Zoey. Watch out, or Mom will be talking weddings and babies.” This time Brad laughed full out. “Gotcha. You’ve gone pale. You going to faint on me? Should I get smelling salts?”

  “Fuck off. Mom’s got her own wedding to plan so I think she’ll leave me alone.”

  “Don’t count on it. But seriously, Zoey will be good for you.”

  “She’s already good for me. I wanted to be up front about it since you gave me her case.”

  “Do you want me to give it to Jack or Monica?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Good. I trust you to do this right, Levi. Now go figure out where the fucker is hiding.”

  It didn’t take long. Within the hour Levi was back at Brad’s door.

  “Clauson’s back in Hangman’s Loss.” Levi all but spat out the words.

  Seated behind his desk, Brad threw down the pen he’d been holding. “You’re shitting me.”

  “He’s in that older development on the other side of the lake called Alpine Meadows. He’s unmarried, is late on his property taxes, and owns a Chevy Tahoe that’s about a decade old. There have been a couple of complaints from a neighbor about, and I quote, ‘very loud, very shitty country music.’ No citations.”

  “Pay Clauson a visit and rattle his cage. Find out what he’s been up to, what color his Chevy Tahoe is. You can use the noise complaints as a pretext.” Brad frowned. “Damn it, I’d like to go with you but I’ve got a meeting with the mayor in an hour. Take Monica in case he gets testy.”

  “Testy? That’s what they’re calling it these days?”

  “Yeah, that’s what they’re calling it. He may ratchet up to disagreeable or argumentative. Practice all the de-escalation techniques you have, because I don’t want this visit to go sideways and become something bigger than it has to be.”

  Levi nodded. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”

  ***

  Two hours later, Levi returned to the station, this time going in through the sally port. He kept a lid on his temper when he pulled the cuffed Clauson from the back of the cruiser, Officer Monica Valdez taking one arm, Levi the other.

  Clauson had been uncooperative from the moment he’d opened his door, and had remained a pain in the ass. Walking in, he was resisting enough to show everyone he was pissed without going far enough to incite a physical response. “You sons of bitches take these cuffs off.”

  “Yeah, that’s going to happen,” Monica muttered.

  They brought him through the door to the booking room. Since leaving law enforcement, Clauson appeared to have forsaken the trimming of body hair. What was left of the hair on his head grew long enough to be tied back with a rubber band into a scraggly ponytail, the beard creeping down his chest still held what looked like crumbs from his last meal, and his eyebrows and the hair sprouting out of his ears were bushy enough that Levi wondered if his hearing or vision was impeded. The tank top he wore revealed more hair on Clauson’s back than Levi had on his chest.

  The department wasn’t big enough for a designated booking officer, so Levi did the honors.

  “Full name?”

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  “Right. Fuck Yourself is going right in that space, Paul ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ Clauson. Birthdate?”

  “I’m not telling you my fucking birthdate. I’m not telling you anything. You got no reason to arrest me.”

  Levi pointed at his face. Adrenaline had initially masked the pain, but he was beginning to feel it. “See this?” He indicated the shiner high on his left cheek and edging toward the temple. “That’s what got you here. You decided to buy yourself a shitload of trouble and now you have to live with it.”

  “If you hadn’t gotten in my way, you wouldn’t have gotten yourself punched.”

  “You were a cop. You know how this works.”

  “Yeah, I was a cop. So how can you do this to a brother, man?” He held up his cuffed hands. “You’re a cop, I’m a cop. We got to stick together.”

  “Yeah, we have to stick together but you punched me in the face? Shut up and let me get this done.”

  Clauson didn’t shut up. He complained about the mug shots, he complained about the fingerprints, his belligerence increasing as the process continued. “You know what? The police chief and I go way back, and I’m gonna have your job, asshole.”

  “You know him? We’ll see how that plays.” Levi picked up the phone and called Brad, then continued with processing.

  A few minutes later, Brad strolled in.

  “Your pal here says you two are buds, and that you’re going to fire my ass.”

  “Hell, I just hired you. It’s too much paperwork to fire you. Plus, Mom would be pissed.”

  Clauson looked from Levi to Brad, then back again. “You two assholes brothers? You look like asshole brothers.”

  “Your vocabulary range is astounding. Is that any way to talk to your friend the police chief?” Levi asked.

  Clauson began coughing. “You got to uncuff me, I can’t breathe.”

  Brad shook his head. “Here we go. You know what’s next.”

  “I tell you. I can’t breathe. I’m having chest pains.”

  “Bingo.” Brad turned to Levi. “I’ll call for an ambulance. Put him in a cell until they get here.”

  “You got to take me to the hospital. I think I’m having a heart attack.” Clauson made his breathing more labored.

  Ignoring the prisoner, Brad leaned in to get a closer look at Levi’s face. “That’s you not letting this go sideways?”

  Since the part of his face that had connected with Clauson’s fist hurt like a bitch, Levi could guess that it looked as bad as it felt. He walked Clauson to a cell, uncuffed him, and locked him in.

  “You get me my warrant?”

  Brad slapped an envelope on Levi’s chest. “What set him off?”

  “Me knocking on his door.” Levi slid the warrant into a side pocket of his pants. “He was belligerent from the get-go, thought his ‘fucking bitch-ass neighbor’ had called the cops to complain about his crappy music, which we heard from the street. The neighbor appeared, yelling that finally someone was doing something about the douchebag. Clauson charged after the idiot neighbor and this happened.” Levi pointed at his face.

  “Neighbor hurt?”

  “No. Wasn’t touched. Monica and I will go back and search the place. I’ll bring in any electronics, see if we can find evidence that he put up that post targeting Zoey.”

  “Our IT guy is supposed to be tracking that down from our end, but he’s one guy and has a shitload of work.”

  “Now he’s going to have even more.”

  Brad gave a curt nod as he headed for the door. “Put some ice on your face.”

  ***<
br />
  By the time Levi made it home that evening, his face throbbed, he had a headache that matched the pain pulse for pulse, and what he wanted most in the world was to down some pain meds and crawl into bed. He hadn’t had time to get the icepack Brad had ordered, so maybe he’d get on that.

  He rolled the motorcycle up to the cabin and set the kickstand. There was no sign of Zoey at the cottage. No Prius parked in front, no light in the window, no Lucy hanging out. He wanted to see Zoey, figured that alone would make him feel better. But telling her that Clauson was back in the area and had been for nearly a year? That would ruin her night.

  Since no one was around to hear, he allowed himself a groan as he pulled off his helmet, which put pressure on his battered face. Clauson had let himself go and probably weighed in at three hundred pounds. It felt like every one of those pounds had been packed into that ham fist. If Levi hadn’t turned his head, diverted his attention for that short second to yell at the neighbor to get back in his house, Clauson would never have landed the sucker punch. He’d hit Levi, then moved like a bulldozer and tried to plow past them, but Levi and Monica had tackled him and now Clauson was sitting on his ass in a cell. Yeah, a cell. No heart attack. What a surprise.

  Levi had a suspicion about what they’d find on the computer they’d picked up with the warrant. All the complainants against Clauson had been young, as in teenager young. A bit more digging had turned up another against him by a teenaged prostitute from earlier than when he’d assaulted Zoey. Levi figured the odds were they’d find child porn in Clauson’s search history, if not stored on his hard drive.

  While sorting through his keys to find the one for the cabin, Zoey’s Prius turned into the driveway. He needed a few minutes to get himself together before facing her with the news about Clauson. It didn’t look like he was going to get them.

  She got out of her car, opening the back door to unbuckle the dog. Lucy let out a snuffling woof and loped toward him. Lucky for anyone Lucy considered a friend, Zoey had trained the bear dog not to jump. Levi reached down to scratch her big head when she stopped to sniff his pants. She did her leaning thing against him while Levi watched Zoey make her way up the driveway.