Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
CROIS
When they returned back to their apartment building, Harmony asked if they could go to his apartment. He warned her that he might have left some clothes out, but she didn’t care, so he didn’t either.
They walked up the steps hand in hand but the moment they stepped out of the stairwell, Crois stopped up short.
There, standing in front of his door was Veronica Catalano.
She had her back to them, but that didn’t matter.
He knew the woman’s form.
He’d seen it in nightmares enough to have it memorized.
He held onto Harmony’s hand and stopped her from walking forward.
She came up short as well and turned to look at him.
He might have been able to manage things if the door to the stairwell had been oiled or treated with WD-40. But the maintenance staff had forgotten it again and right before Crois started to turn around and take Harmony to her apartment, the heavy metal door clanged shut.
Veronica turned around and her eyes found him in a heartbeat.
The smile on her face brightened and then darkened again when she saw Harmony standing beside him.
He knew what they looked like.
A couple.
He was wearing a tux and Harmony looked like garden goddess in her loose fitting dress with layers of lace and flowery flowing fabrics.
If someone put them on a cake they’d look like a wedding topper which was where he hoped they were going.
The woman at his door looked like she might actually be able to breathe fire, even without a match.
“What the hell is she doing here?” Veronica pointed a dagger sharp nail at Harmony and Crois immediately stepped forward putting himself in front of her.
“We were at my partner’s wedding.”
Veronica’s frown turned her whole expression stormy. “If you needed a date, baby,” she was practically purring at him, “I would have gone.”
Her emotional ups and downs were like whiplash.
“I didn’t want to take you.”
Veronica reeled back like she’d be slapped, hard, across her face.
Before she said a word, she even lifted a hand to lay it against her face. “You need to be with someone like me.” She shook her head, looking at him as if she felt bad for him. “What can a girl like her do for you? What pull does she have?”
“I don’t have to explain my personal life to you, Miss Catalano.”
She almost snarled at the name he used to talk to her, but she was already pushing the lines of propriety. Knowing that she’d already shown up to his precinct and gotten in Kate’s face, he’d been hoping she would have learned her lesson.
But he wondered if Veronica had just been allowed to push the lines in other aspects of her life.
Crois wanted to take out his phone and call 911. He doubted that Veronica lived in his building. She’d managed to get in without a key.
“Who are you?” Veronica took a few steps closer, lifting her chin. In the light of the hallway it make her chin look more pointy than anything else. “Who do you think you are, you little bitch?”
“Hey!”
Crois took a step forward, but Harmony grabbed his arm and pulled him to her side while she stepped up to stand with him.
“I’m Harmony Morgan. You might not remember me, but the night you drove drunk, I was part of the EMT crew that came to treat you.”
Veronica narrowed her eyes as if she was desperate need of glasses.
Then she leaned back and shook her head as if she was cleaning out the cobwebs. “What night?” She put her hands on her hips and squared her shoulders. “I didn’t drive drunk.”
The end of her denial was pitched a little too high to sound credible.
“You never went before a judge, but I was there. I know what I saw.”
Crois wanted to hug Harmony and clap a hand over her mouth to keep her from putting a target on her back.
EMTs might not fall under the Center City Police Department, but there was a lot of politics that happened between the administration form one service to the other.
Deals made and grudges held by people who hadn’t seen the day to day operations on the street in years, maybe even decades.
He didn’t want Harmony to be targeted because of him.
She didn’t deserve that.
He grasped her hand tighter hoping that she understood his touch and his support.
Veronica took another step forward and while he tried to pull Harmony behind him, she kept pace, stepping up with him. “You better think again, blonde.”
Harmony laughed.
Not just a chuckle.
Or a giggle.
A full-throated laugh.
It made Crois beam with pride, but it was like waving a red flag in front of Veronica’s bullshit.
She sprang forward.
Her nails extended like claws.
A strangled shout echoing off of the hallway walls.
Crois couldn’t let Harmony take a hit.
Veronica’s issues with her were because of him.
So he took long strides forward and bent over, putting a shoulder into her middle.
Veronica was a woman but she was also solidly built. He knew at the moment of impact that he’d have a bruise to his shoulder, but that she would also be hurt.
He was sorry for it in a way.
He hadn’t joined the police department to hurt people. He’d done it to protect them.
And he was going to protect Harmony, no matter what.
He picked Veronica up an carried her down to the end of the hall, calling over his shoulder for Harmony to call 911.
By the time he set Veronica back down onto her feet at the end of the hallway, he could hear Harmony relaying the situation over the phone.
He could tell that Harmony was part of the first responder community. While he knew that she was upset, she managed to keep a calm voice and give out the necessary information to dispatch.
When she was done, Crois reached into his pocket and called out.
“Honey? Take my keys.”
He half turned and tossed his keys in her direction.
It shouldn’t have made him as excited as it did to see Harmony snatch his keys out of the air, but damn, she was impressive.
He only had one residential key on his keyring and she knew exactly what their apartment keys looked like, so she had his door open in moments.
“I have a pair of handcuffs on the kitchen counter.”
Harmony called out to him from inside the apartment.
He didn’t hear the words, but he didn’t need to.
She was back out moments later and he held up his hand.
“Throwing.”
He turned his head and wrapped his hand around the handcuffs and he had Veronica in cuffs in seconds, likely because she was just that stunned.
It wasn’t until she heard the second set of clicks and maybe when she felt the metal against her wrists.
That’s when she started to struggle.
Even though he’d physically lifted her up and carried her to the far side of the hall, Crois wasn’t interested in actually hurting her. So when she struggled, he held back his full strength. He put the emphasis in holding her there and keeping her from hurting herself or Harmony.
Veronica’s stiletto heels must have been made of titanium or enhanced steel. He swore she gouged out a piece of his shin when she mule kicked him.
Back up, in the way of an on-duty duo of CCPD officers arrived minutes later and when they saw Veronica they both hesitated, looking at each other.
Crois tried to ignore her smirk.
“I’m Crois St. Cyr, Precinct Four. Car Twelve.” He turned and moved Veronica around so the officers could see her handcuffs. “She assaulted this woman,” he gestured at Harmony. “Harmony Morgan, and EMT at Firehouse Twenty-Nine.”
The closest officer, Koval started forward, reaching for his cuffs. The other officer hung back about a step.
“Koval, you sure?”
Koval turned back and nailed the other man with a look. “It’s our job, Prentiss.”
Prentiss didn’t look convinced, but he helped Koval change out handcuffs and return the handcuffs that Crois had used.
When they started walking Veronica toward the central elevators, Koval asked Crois, “Are you willing to come down to the squad car and give your statement?”
Crois’ nod was resolute. “Absolutely.”
Prentiss looked at Harmony and back at Koval. “Do we need her, too.”
Koval’s jaw tightened. “She’s the victim, Prentiss. What do you think?”
Koval didn’t wait for an answer, he continued to walk Veronica toward the elevators.
Crois moved to his apartment door and closed it, turning the key to look it behind him. He dropped the keys into his right pocket and his handcuffs in the other one.
Before he’d offered her a hand, Harmony reached out for him. “Well,” she grinned, “this was exciting.”
Crois sighed. “Sorry about that. I don’t know how she got my address.”
Harmony opened the stairwell door and he followed her in.
She looked over at him with a wry smile. “Her uncle is a CCPD Captain. It would be as simple as asking. Or just looking through his files. I doubt that the Captain guards his files around his niece.”
Crois sighed. “He should.”
Harmony walked along beside him in an easy rhythm.
“Family can be someone’s greatest strength, but it can also be someone’s Achilles heel.”
Her voice was soft but in the quiet of the stairwell, Crois could hear her easily.
“My family decided early on that I wasn’t worth much. Being quiet. Not hugging on everyone like my sibs did. They filed me away in the ‘waste’ and never gave me a chance to climb out.
“I’d like to say that deciding those kinds of things early on can make a family blind in the worst possible way.
Veronica’s uncle might have decided early on that she was the best of the family, the shining star of the Catalanos.
” They reached the bottom step together and she stopped for a moment before reaching for the door to leave the stairwell.
“If he saw signs that she wasn’t that, some people acknowledge it.
Some people dig their heels in and refuse to change or give up.
It’s a crazy slide from one belief to another.
“Some people aren’t willing to course correct.”
Crois nodded. “It’s kind of a like a co-dependent thing, not that I studied the concept, but if he’s willing to spoil her and turn a blind eye to her faults-”
“Exactly,” she agreed. “She just gets worse and he just digs in.”
Crois turned his back to the wall and leaned against the concrete. “And you and I are in the middle of this.” He tugged on Harmony’s hand and brought her closer. “I would have just been me if I hadn’t brought you back to my apartment tonight.”
Harmony’s concern turned to sour and she poked him in the chest.
“Hey, I was the one who wanted to go back to your apartment.”
He nodded at her words. “True. But I could have over ruled you and asked to go to your apartment.”
“Then again,” she reminded him, “you were the one who said I could be bossy.”
He frowned at that. “I could always take it back.”
“Right,” she sighed. “You opened the can of worms, Crois St. Cyr. Good look putting them back in.”
He chuckled then. “I was never really okay with worms.”
“Too bad then,” she sighed and gestured at the door. “Let’s go give our statements and we’ll fight over whose apartment to go back to after that.”
Crois rolled his back against the wall and hissed.
Harmony froze and looked at him, her brow furrowed between her brows. “That sounded like pain.”
Crois blew out a breath through his clenched teeth. “Yeah. I think she got me with those nails of hers.”
He pushed away from the wall and she moved around behind him, lifting up the back of his tux jacket. She made it about half way up when he heard her hiss.
“Yeah, she got you with her nails.”
“This just gets better and better,” he shook his head. “I know they’re going to charge me extra money for the tux rental.”
Harmony looked deep in thought. “Well, then you might get a discount on buying it. We’ll just have to find another time for you to wear it.”
With that decided, she lowered his jacket. “After our statements, I’ll take you back to my apartment and I’ll clean and dress your wounds.”
“Great.” Crois couldn’t find a problem with that idea. “And I might have a wound on my leg from her stiletto heels.”
Harmony reached for the door and pulled it open.
She stopped a moment later. “Does that mean that they could charge her with felony for attacking a police officer with a deadly weapon?”
Crois smiled. “Your’e a shrewd woman, honey. I like the way you think.”
Harmony agreed and added a comment before stepping out of the stairwell. “I like the way you kiss.”