Chapter 30
The crowded New York street no longer felt suffocating and congested. It felt alive, like I could tap into the energy of the city and use it to fuel anything. Like it could seep into my cells and give me life. This had to be what people meant when they said New York City was the greatest city in the world.
It was incredible. I needed to find Eddie immediately. I owed her so much and wanted to take so much more. I was finally in a position to give her everything she deserved. I would be the man she didn’t know she had been missing her entire life, just as soon as she begged me to touch her. I wasn’t about to start this new chapter of our lives on another broken promise.
The cold air felt somehow crisper, lighter, and freer, and I needed to take Eddie Carmichael in my arms and kiss her until I made her see things my way.
I needed to apologize to her for the things I said and for accusing her of being incompetent when she was one of the most ambitious and hardworking people I had ever known. She couldn’t have been incompetent if she actually tried. She was too good, too smart, too thorough. That woman was born to be a lawyer. Until she made it into law school, she had taken the initiative to learn whatever she could by being the most dedicated paralegal.
Who did that?
She did.
I wanted her back on my desk desperately, but realistically, I knew that might not be possible. So, I wanted to give her an option, let her choose what she wanted. It was something I should have been doing from the beginning, but I hadn’t given her a single choice since I had met her. I’d told her she had choices. I’d deluded myself into thinking I had given her choices, but I hadn’t, not really. The options I’d presented to her were not good enough for consideration.
I just had to find her. I had to tell her everything and lay out my entire argument. I had an opening and closing statement prepared. There was no way, just no way, that she wouldn’t agree that she and I were meant to be together. I was operating in good faith, and it only made sense that she would be now, too. I was ready to give her everything to help her meet her goals while she worked to help me meet mine. I didn’t want her to be an accessory or a tool like Catherine. I wanted her to be my partner in everything.
The first thing I did was run back to the office. I didn’t know what case she was working on, but I did know she was a workaholic, so there was a really good chance I would find her there. It was, after all, where she was most comfortable. I knew that because it was where I was most comfortable.
It was only eight in the evening, but it was a Friday night, so I shouldn’t have been too surprised when I found her desk empty. The disappointment stung, but I was nothing if not resourceful.
She could be working for a lawyer who was going to court, and her work was already done, or maybe she was working with one of the men who kicked off early Friday nights but came in over the weekend.
It was fine, an unexpected hurdle, but I could use it to my advantage. It was probably better that my propositions didn’t happen in the office anyway. Maybe she had gone out with friends or something?
I ran back to my office and used my admin password to view her calendar. What did privacy matter when it came to want and need?
She had confided in me over one of our late work nights that she loved organization. She preferred physical, but digital made more sense, and she didn’t have to keep running out of supplies.
Using a calendar and being what she called “a little extra” with Outlook folders and things like that made her feel like she had some semblance of control. She had even taken the time to color code all of her appointments and included the due dates for bills and the deadlines to sign up for classes, even though she hadn’t planned on taking any this semester.
So I knew if she had plans, they would be on that calendar.
If not, then I’d go to the apartment that I had set up for her. If she wasn’t there, I would turn over every single rock in this entire city until I found her and made things right. This could not wait until Monday.
When I had her by my side where she belonged, I would woo her with all the highlighters and Post-it Notes she could ever want. I would buy her an entire office supply store if that was what she wanted. Hell, I would take her to Japan to buy fancy Japanese stationary. Anything to make her happy.
There was a single entry in the calendar for tonight, in a pale pink color, signifying that it was personal.
Date night: with Detective D at Gianna’s in East Village.
I stared at the entry for a good two to three minutes, not quite understanding what it meant.
She was on a date with another man. That man. Detective Patrick Doyle.
My woman was sitting in a romantic restaurant with that dirty jackass of a detective.
Fuck, that asshole moved fast.
That detective was a dirty cop. He may not have had the last name of the Irish mob, but his mother did. He was the nephew of one of the enforcers who had committed countless crimes and had even been one of the names that appeared repeatedly on tampered evidence logs. Of course, in the precinct he used his legal name, Patrick Doyle, but he introduced himself using his nickname, Patrick D.
There was no way she could have known that this man was a danger to her, and I didn’t know if he was flirting with her to see what she was working on and to try to get information or if he just realized exactly how beautiful she was, and it was a pure coincidence.
Either way, it wasn’t happening. He had pushed too far, gotten too close, and tried to take what was mine. With a deep breath, I decided this was enough. There would be no more asking. There would be no begging. I was done trying to be reasonable.
Eddie was going to come to the realization that she was mine, and there wasn’t a goddamned thing she could do about it.
I had enough to go after the detective. It wasn’t as much as I liked. He was a slippery son of a bitch, and I wanted bail denied and a slam dunk case, but it was enough. I made the necessary calls and had a warrant for his arrest issued within minutes.
Then, I called the police commissioner and called in a favor. The man owed me several, and when I told him that we were going to go pick up not just a dirty cop but the pocket cop of a mob family, he was ready to pull out all the stops.
It had been so long since I had been on a ride-along and been part of an arrest that didn’t happen in a courtroom, I’d forgotten how much fun they could be.
My body was humming with adrenaline. Part of me wanted to believe it was because the case I had worked on for so long was finally starting, but this wasn’t like every other big case. This excitement had to do with Eddie being a part of it. As much as this was a big case for my career, it was going to be huge for hers.
When we got to the restaurant, I immediately saw them in a booth in the back corner. She was stunning, wearing a simple, dark blue silk blouse that made her eyes seem to glow, and a sexy little black pencil skirt that hugged her ass in just the right way.
Her golden hair was down and in loose waves, and her makeup was light, but a darker red lipstick made her lips look fuller and more kissable. They looked like they would taste like cherries, and I wanted to sink my teeth into them. But I wouldn’t, not until she begged. She would be begging for more than just my kiss by the end of the night.
Jealousy burned in my gut, replacing the anticipation I had been feeling. I wanted her to dress like that for me. I wanted her to wear that silver necklace that hung in the deep “V” of her blouse right between her breasts for me. I wanted everything she was doing to be for me, not the dirty cop that she was sitting with.
They were laughing about something, and I hated not being in on the joke. The way she laughed with her whole body, her head tilting back, she looked happy and free in a way that I hadn’t really seen before. The time we’d spent together was all anger and chemistry or centered on work. We worked, we fought, we fucked. We hadn’t had the opportunity for much else.
I had only seen a glimpse of her being light and funny. I hadn’t really seen her when she wasn’t preparing for battle.
Just looking at her across the room, I wondered if I knew her at all. Could I make her feel like she felt right now? Or would being with me mean that she would feel like she was always under a microscope and always had to be on? For a moment, just a split second, I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Then I watched as his hand went around her shoulders, and he pulled her closer like he was going to kiss her, like he dared to put his dirty, lying, criminal lips on my woman.
Absolutely not.
I made my way through the restaurant, leading the team of police to the table and almost running over the mousy hostess in the process. I didn’t even spare her a look, like I wasn’t going to spare a thought for anyone else I destroyed on my way toward what I wanted.
“Harrison, what are you doing here?” Eddie asked when she saw me.
“Arresting your date,” I said, stepping aside so the uniform behind me could take out his cuffs and start reading Doyle his rights.
Shouting over Doyle’s blowhard objections and the police officer’s droning voice, Eddie squared off against me. “You can’t arrest him.”
“I can, and I am,” I said matter-of-factly.
“He hasn’t done anything to you.” She tried to get between her date and the officer.
“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to move.” The uniform looked very uncomfortable as he tried to get around her.
“Not to me, Eddie. He has done quite a bit to the city of New York.”
“Are you kidding?” She looked at me, putting her cute little hands on her cute little hips like she had authority. “You’re arresting my date tonight? What would your fiancée say about this? Have you run this by your mother yet?” I kind of liked that she tried to stand up to me. It would make bringing her back to earth so much more enjoyable.
“Your date is a criminal. He’s the reason other criminals are still on the street. This has absolutely nothing to do with you. Move, or I will have you arrested for trying to impede justice.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said through her clenched teeth.
I turned to look at one of the other uniforms and said, “Officer, detain her as well.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, looking back and forth between us.
“Yes. Just because she works in my office does not mean she is above the law. She interferes with an active investigation, she should be arrested and charged.”
“Harrison, you cannot be serious,” she said, her eyes wide and mouth opened.
“Absolutely.” I leaned in, to whisper in her ear, “You better start thinking of ways to get out of this. If you have a record, you will never get to join the bar.”
The blood drained from her face as I moved back and watched as both she and Doyle were put in cuffs, their rights read as they were escorted from the building with the entire world watching.
I grabbed another uniform and whispered in his ear, telling him I wanted them separated into different precincts. He was going to a rougher area where being a cop on the wrong side of the bars would make for an interesting night. She was going to a newer precinct, one that had a new wing that was just completed but wouldn’t officially be in use until next month.
She and I were going to need a little privacy as soon as I let her cool off for a while.