Chapter 10 #2
He tried to enlarge it, but it only blurred the pixels more. He didn’t have an editing program on his laptop, but he knew who did. He sent a clip of that video to Nora, explaining what it was, and asking if she could clean it up enough to identify the driver.
Within a couple of minutes, Nora replied, verifying she’d received it and that she’d begin working on it ASAP, and when she was finished, she’d send it back as clean as she could make it.
Satisfied that he was finally making headway, he sent his dad a message that all was well. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but close enough for Jacob to rest easy.
* * *
It was midafternoon when a floral delivery man with a bouquet of yellow roses entered the realty office where Holly worked.
“Delivery for Holly Dillon?”
“That’s me,” she said and quickly cleared off a place on her desk for him to set it down. “Thank you. They’re lovely!”
He nodded. “Have a good day,” he said and hustled out the door.
At that point, her boss, Gene, and her colleagues, Leigh, Josie, and Lisa, stopped what they were doing and turned to look.
“Wow, Holly! Have you been keeping secrets from us?” Leigh asked.
Even before Holly took the card from the bouquet, she knew in her heart who sent them, but seeing the brief affirmation for herself was everything.
Roadrunner.
She flushed a delightful shade of pink as she clutched it to her heart. Twelve perfect yellow roses from the perfect man for her. Her eyes welled. If only I could call Mama. She waited years for me to tell her I was in love.
“Who sent them? Do we know him? Was it a client?” Josie asked.
The questions were coming from right and left.
“None of your business. No, you don’t know him.
No, he’s not a client.” When her desk phone rang, she slipped the card in her pocket.
“That better be from the Tarrant County Court Clerk,” she muttered as she went back to her chair to answer, which ended her coworkers’ moment of curiosity, but it didn’t end Holly’s delight.
The roses on her desk were a beautiful reminder of the man who’d sent them.
* * *
Lieutenant Samuels hadn’t been able to get past the look on Kingston’s face after admitting he hadn’t talked to the higher-ups about the possibility of an informant in their midst.
But Samuels had an obligation to also protect his detectives against false accusations, and he could not, in good conscience, do it without proof and a name to go with it.
The thin blue line in law enforcement was real.
They had to have each other’s back at all times, and it was bothering him greatly that Gunner Kingston was so certain he’d been betrayed by one of their own.
He was standing at the window behind his desk when he felt a tightening across his chest. Within seconds, the tight feeling turned into a sharp, stabbing pain.
“Oh God,” he muttered and stumbled out of his office. “Call 911. I think I’m having a heart attack.” And then he dropped.
Six detectives came out from behind their desks so fast they knocked over their chairs getting up.
Cliff Beale grabbed his phone and made the call while Rowdy and Frankie Adams began doing CPR.
A silence came over the room, Frankie and Rowdy doing chest compressions and breathing for him—all praying for the arrival of the EMTs. Then finally came the thunder of running footsteps out in the hall, and they ran to open the door.
Another kind of orderly chaos began, getting Samuels stabilized to transport, and then silence again as they carried him out.
The detectives were motionless. The boss was gone.
Cliff walked back to his desk and picked up the phone again, but this time to call the captain to alert him of what had just happened. He spoke briefly, answered half a dozen questions, and then hung up.
“What did he say?” Frankie asked.
“Carry on and that he’s sending a stand-in,” Cliff said.
“Oh great,” Rowdy muttered. “Hope they don’t send some hard-ass.”
Frankie snorted. “Anyone with a pay grade higher than ours is already a hard-ass or a badass. How about we just focus on our boss surviving this, instead?”
“She’s right,” Cliff said. “We know what to do. Like the captain said. Carry on.”
* * *
It didn’t take long for the news to spread about Andy Samuels’s heart attack.
Samuels had been divorced for years, and his only son was in the military and stationed somewhere overseas.
His daughter lived in a nearby state. The detectives from his department who weren’t actively on cases were gathered in the hallway of the ER, waiting for an update.
The longer they waited, the quieter they became.
Finally, a doctor came out, asking for the family.
“We’re it,” Frankie said. “He’s our lieutenant. What’s the word?”
“He’s stable. We’re still running tests. He’s going to CCU for continued monitoring. I assume his family has been notified?”
“One son, in the military, stationed somewhere overseas. A daughter notified and flying in.” Frankie said. “Can he have visitors?”
“Maybe tomorrow, and follow the usual orders and visiting times,” he said and went back inside.
A visible sigh of relief spread through the gathering.
“He is one tough dude, and we have to believe he’s going to be okay,” Cliff said. “This has been one hell of a day, and I think I’m done. See you tomorrow. Come on, Rowdy. I’ll give you a ride back to the precinct to get your car.”
At that point they scattered. Some took the stairs down. Others chose the elevator, until the hall was empty of cops.
Cliff let Rowdy out in the parking lot of the precinct, then called Gunner as he was driving home.
* * *
Gunner had just put a couple of pork chops on the grill when his phone rang. When he saw who was calling, he answered.
“Cliff… What’s up?”
“Hey, Gunner… We had an incident in the department this afternoon. Samuels had a heart attack and collapsed. He’s in CCU at Baylor Scott and White Uptown. I knew you’d want to know.”
Gunner grimaced. “Damn it. Thanks for letting me know.”
Cliff sighed. “You don’t trust me anymore, do you?
I’m not sure what I did to make you feel that way, but I’m sure sorry.
I’m a fuck-up as a husband, and I’m going to Gambler’s Anonymous, but I would never betray you.
You’ve saved my life twice since we’ve been partners.
I would take a bullet for you without thinking.
I just wanted you to know,” he said, and then he disconnected without giving Gunner a chance to respond.
Gunner laid his phone aside and turned down the grill on the chops. He didn’t know what to believe and hoped to God Samuels didn’t die. He had one question to ask that only Samuels could answer. Who told you it was safe for me to come back?
Smoke was rising from the grill up into the hood vent.
Gunner shifted his focus back to the meat he was cooking, then dumped a handful of salad mix into a bowl and added some cherry tomatoes.
He was sorry as hell about Samuels, and sorry Cliff was upset, but this was his life on the line, and if feelings were getting hurt in the process, then so be it.
The longer this shit continued without a resolution, the easier it was going to be for him to walk away.
Later, as he ate, it dawned on him that with Samuels in the hospital and Cliff already acknowledging the distrust, it was likely safe for him to move around.
At least for the time being. The truck that had driven past his house might not have had anything to do with him.
It could have been someone just looking for an address, or a thief scoping out a place to hit.
And with his security cameras in plain sight on both the front and back of the house, as well as on the gates leading into his drive, his house would never be a thief’s first choice.
He wanted—needed—to see Holly. If ever there was a time to take that chance, it was tonight. As soon as he cleaned up the kitchen, he sent her a text.
I miss you. If I happened to show up in the same Jeep I was driving around Crossroads, would you mind letting me in?
Holly wasn’t expecting that text, but her hands were shaking when she answered.
I miss you, too, Roadrunner. If you come a’running, I will absolutely let you in.
It was all he needed to know. He grabbed the keys to the Rubicon, left his hat and gun behind, and left the TV playing. Then he went through the house, turning on lights in various rooms, and set the security alarm before leaving via his back gate.
Getting on the Loop felt like running away from chaos. He was on the way to the answer to his prayers—chasing taillights of the cars ahead of him, aiming for the exit ramp that would take him to Holly.
* * *
Holly was standing in the dark in her bedroom, looking out the upper window of her townhouse, watching for his arrival. She knew what was going to happen between them. It was a heart-stopping moment, waiting to make love for the first time with someone you’d known all your life.
When she saw the headlights of a vehicle turn down the block and come toward her house at the speed of “trying to outrun the cops,” she started laughing.
He was the cop, and he drove like he ran. She bolted from the bedroom, heading for the stairs as Gunner pulled up in the drive, exiting the Rubicon in long, hurried strides.
The door opened as he was coming up the steps, and there she was, silhouetted in the doorway from the backlit room behind her. Then she was in his arms.
The door swung shut behind them.
The first kiss lit the fuse.
The second kiss sparked the fire.
Gunner took a breath. “Where are my boundaries?”
“You have none. Like the land from which we come, the wide-open spaces of my heart are yours. All we have to do is climb some stairs.”
He glanced at the staircase and then reached for her hand. “Stairway to heaven? I can do that,” he said, and up they went.
She led the way to her bedroom, then turned to face him, but he was already out of his boots and shirt and reaching for the hem of her T-shirt.
Over her head it went, and then she stepped out of her shorts as he was reaching for his jeans.
He popped the buttons in one smooth move, and then the rest of their clothes went flying and they were standing face to face in total silence, as naked as the day they’d been born.
He shook his head, his voice gruff with emotion. “Beautiful from head to toe.”
She held out her hand. “Come lie with me now.”
So, he did.
Foreplay was not on their agenda.
Not now.
Not their first time.
This was for soothing the ache of desperation and answering all of the questions they’d been asking themselves.
In a tangle of bedclothes, with his hands fisted in her hair, he moved between her legs, into her body, and lost his mind.
Holly wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him deeper, meeting him thrust for thrust until every nerve ending in her body felt like it had coiled itself into a knot—growing bigger and tighter to the point of pain.
At the moment of climax, conscious thought disappeared.
Gunner was moving on instinct until she moaned, arching her body beneath him and ending the last of his control.
He buried his face against the curve of her neck and took her over the edge with him, then held her close, riding the aftershocks rippling through them.
Their hearts were pounding. Steady breath returned in the form of soft, shaky gasps.
Gunner had collapsed on top of her, but he couldn’t bring himself to withdraw.
Holly was still holding on to his neck and shoulders as if she’d never let him go.
Finally, he managed to raise up on one elbow and looked down at her face. “Where have you been all my life?”
Tears were on her cheeks, but she was smiling. “Growing up so that you would finally see me?”
He brushed a soft kiss across her mouth.
“I see you, Holly Dillion, but I don’t play,” Gunner said.
“I don’t second guess my feelings. I don’t want to pressure you into saying anything you don’t feel.
But I am offering everything I am to you.
You are in charge of how fast you want this relationship to go, and I will honor everything you need.
But you might as well know now how much I want you, how much I care for you.
I knew you first as a young girl on the verge.
Now here you are again in my life, a woman who’s torn down all the walls I’ve kept around me.
You have to know, I am so falling in love. ”
Holly cupped his face with both hands. “I adored you from afar when I was growing up. Even after you left Crossroads, I would see you around when you came home for visits. And then I grew up and moved away and I lost that opportunity to let you know the woman I’d come to be.
No more waiting for either of us, Gunner Kingston.
Tonight was my pledge to you. It’s you and me, from daybreak to sunset for the rest of our lives. We can fill in the blanks as we go.”
He kissed her again, this time slower, reluctant to initiate the parting that was inevitable.
“Fill in the blanks as we go is just about perfect. Right now, there are all kinds of blanks and holes in the job I used to love. My timing is all wrong, and yet this is the best night of my life. I don’t want to leave you, but I can’t stay. ”
“I didn’t expect you to stay. Tonight was the beginning of us; now go do what you must. Just don’t go and get yourself killed. I can’t lose anyone else and survive it,” she said.
He kissed her hard and fast, then before he could change his mind, got out of bed and began getting dressed. Holly got up and put on a robe, then walked him down the stairs. Just before he opened the door, he turned and held her.
“I love you, girl. Remember that,” he said and then slipped out the door, pulling it shut behind him.
She double-locked the door again, then moved a curtain panel aside to watch as he headed for his ride. Broad shoulders. Long stride. She knew him now, and he knew her. An unbreakable bond would grow between them, but for now, it was love. Sweet love.
* * *
Gunner left with regrets for not being able to stay, but more at ease within himself than he’d ever been.
Still, there were things yet to be done, and the lottery money was now a shadow in the background of his reality.
Was Burgess Dixon still determined to take him out?
Was there really a dirty cop in Homicide?
Or was all the danger to his life over? He needed answers before he could acknowledge her existence in his life.