Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
“Baltimore. There’s more than murder here.”
Landon nodded as the reporter doing a ride-along with him explained the impetus behind the article he was writing. His superior, Aaron, had already given him the rundown earlier at the precinct. And he’d caught shit from his partner, Miguel, for getting stuck with “babysitting duty.”
The phrase that had prompted the New York journalist’s story idea was actually a hot-ticket item with tourists—the damn words emblazoned on T-shirts, hats and bumper stickers—sold at nearly every gift shop in the city.
As a cop, working hard to keep Baltimore safe, he took exception to the slogan. In truth, there’d been a decrease in violent crimes last year, but even Landon knew that was hardly something worth bragging about, considering the city still ranked in the top ten when it came to murder.
They continued to drive through the city, Landon making sure to show the man a fair mix of all Baltimore had to offer. There were dangerous areas—that was true of any large city—but there were safer zones as well, places where people could walk without fear.
It had been a long shift, but a glance at the clock in his dashboard proved it was finally over. The reporter hadn’t gotten much of a show. They’d answered two domestic violence calls—both involving alcohol—dealt with one mugging, one lost purse, three noise complaints—all in the same neighborhood, thanks to some teens throwing one hell of a wild party in their parents’ absence—and issued a handful of citations for driving violations.
“We should probably start heading back. I hope you’ve gotten enough information for your article,” Landon said, turning off Madison, onto a smaller side street. “I realize?—”
Landon stopped talking.
As he made the turn, the headlights revealed something for a split second. Dusk had fallen, the tall buildings casting too many dark shadows for him to see much at all. But he was certain he’d seen what looked like two people in a struggle.
Turning on the vehicle’s spotlight, he angled his cruiser in that direction.
“What is that?” The reporter pointed through the windshield, sitting up excitedly.
A man was attempting to steal a woman’s purse, but she was putting up one hell of a fight.
Landon threw on the flashing lights two seconds after the assailant reacted to the spotlight shining in his direction. The guy shoved the woman roughly to the ground and took off running.
“Stay here,” he ordered the reporter, getting out of the car. Landon unfastened his gun, a protective measure in case the man came back. Using the walkie-talkie on his shoulder, he requested backup and reported his location.
The woman was pushing herself up when he approached.
He was less than ten feet away when he recognized the dark blonde hair.
“ Sunnie? ” He raced to where she sat, kneeling next to her. The spotlight from the car was bright, both of them squinting. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the sudden light.
She looked up at him, and he saw the determination in her eyes. There was a red mark on her cheek that was probably going to turn into a nasty bruise.
Landon glanced around the surrounding area. The man was long gone. “Are you okay?”
She was still wearing her nurse’s scrubs, but he couldn’t understand how she’d gotten from Johns Hopkins to here. Surely she wasn’t walking home at this time of day? It was a three-mile trek and it was nearly dark.
Sunnie nodded. “Yeah. I think so. Son of a bitch was trying to steal my purse.”
“And you thought fighting back was a good idea?” He touched the red mark on her cheek. Landon’s temper sparked as he considered what could have happened to her.
She tilted her head, as if he’d missed the most important part. “He was taking my purse , Landon.”
“So?”
“So…it’s a Louis Vuitton. I love this purse.”
He shook his head. “Are you serious right now?”
She brushed off his concern. “The guy wasn’t even that big, and I’m pretty sure I was winning.”
Landon looked at the mark on her face and lost his shit. “Who gives a fuck how big he was? Do you understand how stupid and dangerous it is to fight back? He could have had a weapon or?—”
“Okay,” she said hastily, simply to stop his tirade. “Okay. I’m sorry. Really. But…”
Here we go.
Sunnie was the queen of “buts.”
She lifted the bag. “It’s a new purse, my gift to myself for graduating and getting the nursing job at the hospital. It was super expensive. And it’s mine ,” she stressed.
“I don’t care how much it cost! You could have been seriously hurt!”
“I know.” Then she gave him her standard Sunnie grin, the one that told him he wasn’t going to like what she said next. “I don’t suppose we could keep this to ourselves and not tell anyone about it?”
By anyone, she meant her dad.
“We need to file a report.”
She considered that. “Yeah, but he didn’t actually get my bag. And I’m not hurt. Honest.”
He tried to do a visual inspection of her. They were kneeling on the ground. He couldn’t see any cuts or blood, and her clothing was still intact, just the red mark on her cheek.
She was the picture of calm, cool and collected, even after the battle she’d just waged. Meanwhile, his heart was racing a million miles a minute as he imagined everything that could have happened.
He tried to lock it down, even as he pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. “Jesus, Sunshine,” he murmured.
Sunnie accepted the hug, though he could tell she was surprised at first. “I really am sorry, Landon. Swear to God, next time,” she murmured against his chest, “I’ll let go of the bag.”
He wasn’t sure who was comforting whom with the hug. He sort of thought she was trying to calm him down. The problem was, he knew all too well how badly things could have gone. Then he realized she was trembling slightly.
Ah, so she did get it. He tightened his hold.
“What were you doing out here alone?”
She pushed away to face him. “Derek picked me up after work. We got into a fight. I told him to go fuck himself, and the asshole stopped the car and told me to get out. I should have stayed on the main street, should have called for an Uber, but I was pissed off. I stormed away and then…that guy jumped me, and I kind of went all Tasmanian Devil on his ass. Guys suck.”
Sunnie was impulsive. She acted on emotion— reacted —then considered the consequences later.
“He made you get out? Here?” he asked, glancing around the dark street. Derek, the latest in a long line of occasional boyfriends, had dropped her off in the middle of a sketchy neighborhood. “I’m going to kill that motherfucker,” he muttered.
His words had come out more serious, more deadly than he’d intended. The tone obviously caught Sunnie by surprise yet again.
She looked up at his face and laughed. “Wow. Dial it back a notch, Landon. That Rambo thing is a serious turn-on.”
He closed his eyes, praying for patience…and to calm down. He hadn’t quite forgiven her for being so reckless.
They really were polar opposites, always had been. Sunnie had personality to spare, while Landon was the quiet one. Calm, stoic. If she was the queen of overreaction, he was lord and master of composed. This time, the roles felt reversed.
He stood up, helping her rise as well. She winced slightly, leaning heavily on him.
“What the hell?” he asked, looking down.
She grimaced. “Okay, well, now, don’t get pissed again…but I appear to have twisted my ankle.”
“I’m taking you to the hospital.”
She shot him an incredulous look. “I’ll get laughed out of the E.R. if I show up asking them to take care of something this silly! It’s fine.”
“Sunnie,” he started to insist.
“I’m a nurse, Landon. Trust me.”
She’d graduated from college a month earlier, jumping right into work from her residency after wowing the doctors and her professors. She was a born caregiver, her humor and bedside manner making her the perfect nurse.
A year ago, she’d expressed an interest in pursuing oncology nursing after serving as a bridesmaid in her cousin Padraig’s wedding. Padraig had married a beautiful woman named Mia, who’d died a few months after the ceremony.
Sunnie had always lived life with wild abandon. However, after Mia died, she took the pursuit of her career, the way she wanted to help others, more seriously.
What she hadn’t managed to tone down was her party-girl image, the way she spent her free time with losers like Derek.
“Okay. No hospital. But we really do need to go to the precinct, file a report.”
“Hell no.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Please don’t make me. Dad will kill me.”
He shrugged. “That doesn’t sound so bad to me. After the stunt you just pulled.” It was clear he hadn’t made much headway on showing her the error of her ways. Maybe Aaron could.
“Please, Landon! Can’t we just keep this between ourselves? There’s no reason to upset everyone.” He noticed her hands were shaking, and it suddenly occurred to him that as the adrenaline wore off, she was starting to get it.
“Sunnie, what you did was reckless.”
She leaned closer, batting her big blue eyes at him. If she were a stranger, he might have been charmed. But this was Sunnie, and he knew all her tricks when it came to getting her way. “Do you mind just taking me home?”
It was against procedure. A crime had been committed. A report needed to be filed, questions needed to be answered. They needed a description of the assailant. Landon was a rule follower. He always had been.
“Sunnie,” he started again.
“Landon,” she cooed.
“You realize that will never work with me, right?”
She straightened up, the fake sweetness evaporating, the real Sunnie emerging. Funny how he preferred the sass over the sugar. “Oh my God. I have had the shittiest night in history. Please, don’t play Boy Scout tonight.”
Her words tweaked his temper. Sunnie constantly cast him in the eternal do-gooder role, while throwing herself at bad boy after bad boy.
She’d avoided him since that kiss on April Fools. He hadn’t realized it until this minute, but when he considered the last two months, he saw the truth.
He’d let her get away with it because he had been fighting his feelings for her, trying to convince himself his memory of that kiss was too clouded by tequila to mean anything.
“I swear this is only going two ways, babe,” she insisted. “I can ride in the cruiser with you back to the pub. Or walk home on my shitty ankle. Either way, there is no way I’m going to the pre?—”
“Goddammit, Sunnie!” Landon cupped her cheeks, leaned forward and kissed her. Just to shut her up.
Sunnie jerked slightly, shocked by his impulsiveness. Then her lips softened against his, her head turning ever so slightly as she pressed closer. He opened his mouth and she opened hers, their tongues touching. Her hands rested against his chest, his bulletproof vest preventing him from feeling them there.
He wanted them against his bare chest, wanted her to feel how hard his heart was beating…for her.
Jesus.
For her.
Sunnie broke the union first. One look at her face proved she didn’t understand what had just happened any more than he did.
He was the thinker. She was the doer.
But tonight…he flipped the roles, acting on instinct.
“What the hell was that?”
“I was trying to shut you up,” he lied, struggling to pull himself together.
She laughed. “Well, I guess that’s one way to do it. You also could have told me to stop talking.”
He snorted. “Like that would work.”
The look she gave him proved she knew he was right and agreed.
Regret was setting in. Not over the kiss itself—that had done things to his libido he didn’t want to consider, just like it had at the party.
But once again, his timing sucked.
The first kiss happened when they were wasted. Now this one coming right on the heels of an attempted mugging.
He needed to figure out what the hell was going on with him in regards to Sunnie—and quick.
“I really am sorry,” she whispered.
It was a sincere apology, so he nodded and accepted it.
“Forget it. And the kiss.”
Unfortunately, that request reminded her of the first kiss. “Didn’t we already do that…a couple of months ago?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Maybe we can wash this one away with a few too many shots of tequila too. I could use a drink right about now.”
The April Fools party two months earlier was turning out to be one of those parties everyone would talk about for decades, remembering how, for just one evening, every single person in the room had been in the perfect mood to cut loose and go wild.
Finn was still having a great deal of fun at Landon’s expense, teasing him about how drunk he’d gotten. No doubt Finn had latched on to it because it was such a rarity. Nine times out of ten, Landon was the designated driver. That night, he’d just wanted to kick back and have fun.
The one thing Finn didn’t mention was the kiss.
When Yvonne mentioned it the next day, Sunnie had been shocked, thinking her cousin was joking. That was when Landon realized Sunnie didn’t remember kissing him, so he decided to make things a lot easier for both of them by pretending the same.
But things had changed between him and Sunnie after that party.
For him, anyway. Ever since that night, it was like he was seeing her through different eyes.
Sunnie took it in stride, like she did everything—including this kiss—and she’d started dating Derek the Douchebag the next week. Sunnie had jumped into her relationship with Derek like every other one in her life, all in…for one hot minute.
“At least there weren’t any witnesses this time,” she said, her smile growing brighter.
“We got lucky. None of your cousins or your brother around to give us shit.”
He clipped the latch on his gun holster, looking toward the end of the street at the sound of approaching sirens.
“You called for backup?”
“Of course I did.”
“Shit,” she murmured, aware it was going to be impossible to keep this from her dad once the other guys from the precinct arrived.
Landon looked at her…and couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. And the fact that he wanted to do it again. She looked back, her eyes curious.
Then her gaze dropped to his lips.
She wanted to kiss him again too.
For a moment, Landon considered giving in to that desire, but the sirens were too close.
“We need to talk, Sunshine,” he said, using the nickname he’d been using since they were kids. It had started as a way to tease her because she always got annoyed, claiming her name was Sunday, not Sunshine, but eventually the complaints fell away and the name stuck.
Sunnie nodded, her face growing more serious. “I know. I really am sorry, Landon. What I did was stupid and dangerous.”
She mistakenly thought he wanted to talk about her actions.
She was wrong.
The only thing he intended to discuss were his actions.
And his feelings regarding those kisses.