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  Caroline looked over at Caleb, whose cheeks were two bright spots of red, and pushed Karen Thatcher against the wall again. “You will be silent!” When Karen's eyes widened, but she made no comment, she continued. “Laura, honey, I want you to go with Caleb and wait in my car, okay? This is gonna end right now. You will not harm another hair on that precious child's head. Caleb, hand me the phone.”

  “No!” Laura cried, rushing past him to the two women. “No, Mrs. McKinney. Please! It was nothing, honest. It was my fault. I was hanging out with Caleb when I should have been at home. My mom was just worried about me, I promise. Please don't call anyone,” the young girl pleaded pulling Caroline away from her mother. Blind fear made the tears roll down her face. They'd take her mother away, and then send Laura to a home somewhere, and she'd never get to see Caleb or his family again and she couldn’t imagine anything worse than that. If getting knocked around sometimes was the price she had to pay, then that wasn’t so bad.

  “There, see? She told you herself. I love my baby. She just has to learn not to worry me so—”

  “Shut up, you sick woman,” Caroline demanded. “Laura. Your mother hurting you like this is not right. I'm going to call some people who'll make sure she gets help and

  never hurts you again. You understand?” she asked, her voice softer now that she pleaded with Laura to help her stop this.

  Laura shook her head but said nothing, her tears dripping off her face and stinging the scratches that hadn't yet healed.

  “Caleb. The phone.” Caroline held out her hand.

  “Caleb, please. They'll take me away. Don't make them send me away.” Laura threw her arms around her best friend to stop him and trembled while he held her.

  “Laura. Do you want her to keep hurting you?” he asked, stroking her hair.

  It felt so good, and he smelled so good and right that she never wanted him to let go. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not so bad. Please,” she murmured into his chest, letting his scent wash over her like a cloak of protection.

  “Come on, Laura. Look at me. Look.” He pulled away and cupped her face with his hands. His eyes were taking in her bruises, and she could see the glistening of tears beginning to form in his eyes. “We'll figure something out, okay? We're friends, right? The best? You trust me?” he asked her, and Laura knew she'd follow this boy to the ends of the earth. “I won't let anybody split us up, okay?”

  “Ah, that's right, sweet talk her. Laura, honey, trust me. It's all sweet words and empty promises. Then when he gets out from between your legs, he'll leave skid marks on his way out the door. Course, it's nothing more than a slut like you deserves. Ain't nobody gonna stick around for you, baby. Not your daddy, not golden boy over there. Just me is all you got,” Karen Thatcher taunted, smiling at her daughter.

  “You shut up, you mean, evil woman. You don't deserve to be her mom. Laura is gonna grow up to be a hundred times better than you. You're nothing but a drunk. Too stupid to see this special girl,” Caleb hissed at her.

  Laura stared at him and saw her knight in shining armor. Her defender. And how she loved him! She pulled out of Caleb's arms and walked towards the phone. She picked up the receiver and handed it to Caroline McKinney.

  ****

  Laura looked back down at the toy in her hands. “Watching them back there with their little boy. It just reminded me of my mom,” she admitted in a small voice. She didn’t meet his gaze but saw him look at her briefly out of the corner of her eyes.

  “Not much of a comparison, I’d say,” he said, and she lifted her head and saw his fingers tight around the steering wheel.

  “No. Definitely not. Anyway, it had nothing to do with the job. Just so you know.”

  He gave a curt nod and cleared his throat. “So. Phillips. Do you think he knows more than he told us?”

  She took a deep, shaky breath and pulled herself away from the past, accepting what she hoped was a crack in the wall of his hostility toward her. “That depends on whether you believe his story about being fired for always being late.”

  “So that’s a no?” Caleb asked, cocking an eyebrow.

  She snorted. “That’s a no.” Then she felt a bit surprised that her lips were tempted to curve into a smile. She didn’t think they were ready to share smiles just yet. Laura bit her lower lip to stop the gesture.

  “You think it could be the adoption agency?”

  “But how would they pull it off, and how would they stay under the radar yet still manage a very public business?”

  The car slowed, and Laura realized with a jolt of disappointment that they were now in front of her apartment.

  “I guess I’ll give you a call tomorrow, and we can see if we can find out more about that agency.”

  “Yeah, sure,” she nodded, suddenly reluctant to leave. She forced herself to push the car door open and get out before she started to forget how she hated that she’d been assigned to this case, hated that she had to see Caleb again after all these years.

  She especially hated how being next to him made her feel, how it made her want to stay with him in the car.

  Chapter Five

  Something was wrong. Caleb sat in the car, watching Laura make her way up the stairs to the front door of her apartment building, and yet he didn’t pull away. A fist of unease twisted in his stomach while he watched her stick the key in the lock and give him a last glance before she pushed the door open and disappeared.

  He scanned the area, recognizing a few of the neighborhood’s less savory inhabitants, but could find no real reason for what was still holding him in his car. Then he noticed a flicker of light coming from the cement window ledge. He put the car in reverse and got a better look at the left window on the first floor, seeing the source of the flickering light. Broken glass. The window was shattered. Had it always been? He wished he could know for sure.

  An explosion of gunfire brought his attention back to the front of the building, and Caleb wasn’t even aware of pushing open his car door. He was just running, gun in hand, across the sidewalk and up the stairs.

  He needed to get to Laura. That was his one thought, pumping through his brain like a heartbeat, over and over. Shooting the lock, Caleb ran through the doorway when the door swung open and took in two images at the same time; legs sliding out the window and Laura in the corner against the wall next to the stairs, holding her arm.

  ****

  Caleb’s heart dropped into his stomach, and for a moment he stood paralyzed, watching the crimson stain her fingers. He took a step toward her, but she shook her head and with wide, angry green eyes shouted, “I’m fine. Get the son of a bitch!” He hesitated no more than a split second before jumping out the window, and could just see white sneakers make it over a tall fence.

  He aimed and fired and felt a satisfying burst of adrenaline when he saw the blond guy with close-cropped hair clutch his leg and go down on one knee. The shooter struggled to his feet and tried to hobble away, but Caleb was able to grab him before he could get much further. “Get up!” he barked, grabbing the young man up by his black t-shirt and pushing him against the chain-link fence. Fury made him want to ram the guy’s face through the metal.

  “Hey man, it’s not my fault! I was just doing what they told me! Watch my leg, ass wipe!” he howled when Caleb snapped one handcuff around his wrist and pushed him back towards the street. Laura was already standing next to the car, talking into the police radio with her free hand.

  Her injured arm was bare now, part of the sleeve having been torn off and wrapped around her wound.

  “You okay?” Caleb asked, his eyes roaming over her to make sure she wasn’t hurt anywhere else.

  “Yeah. Just a flesh wound. Come here.” She grabbed her assailant by the hair and pulled him towards her, then released him just long enough to punch him in the face.

  “Jesus Christ, you crazy bitch! Look! Hey. I’m totally innocent here, man. It wasn’t my fault. They didn’t tell me you was no cop. Jesus, I’m bleeding
all over the ground here.”

  “They who?” Caleb demanded.

  “You stupid or something? They don’t give me no names! I’m in goddamned pain here, man!”

  “Then talk fast before we let you bleed to death all over the street,” he warned. “Or do you want a matching set?” He pointed his gun at the other leg.

  “No! No. All I got was the order to wait until the blonde got home and take her out. They didn’t mention nothin’ ‘bout her being no cop. Jesus Christ!”

  “Who gave you the order?” Laura demanded.

  “Came down from the head of my crew. Can I at least sit down, goddamnit?” He groaned and sat in the backseat, facing them with his legs outside the car. His pale face was clammy with sweat, and he was in obvious pain. Through clenched teeth he managed to continue. “Got the feeling he was being ordered to get it done by someone else. Don’t know who. Some guy in a suit come walking in the club one day. All I know. Swear to God, ’kay? I swear.”

  “Would you recognize him if you saw his picture?”

  The young man’s brown eyes went wide, and he frantically shook his head. “You crazy? I ain’t snitchin’. They bust my ass if they find out I fingered one of ’em!”

  Laura lunged toward the open car, but Caleb snaked an arm around her and pulled her back, trying to ignore the tight, smooth expanse of skin his hand met when her green t-shirt lifted above her hip.

  “I’ll bust your ass, you son of—”

  “Okay, look. We’re taking both of you to the hospital first and then to the police station, and you’re going to take a look at some pictures,” Caleb informed him.

  “I’m fine. Jackass here just grazed me,” Laura insisted, but he heard her breath coming in fast gasps and knew she must be in pain.

  “Well, then it shouldn’t take too long, should it? Let’s go.” He opened the door on her side and waited.

  Laura scowled at him but didn’t argue further, which told him just how painful the wound really was.

  ****

  He was out of his goddamned mind. Really, Caleb thought, it was the dumbest thing he could possibly do. But watching Laura going over the pictures with their trigger-happy friend, seventeen-year-old Matt, the idea of her going back to that apartment alone sent an ice cold flash of panic through him.

  Damn her. Damn her to hell for making him care again. He clenched his fists tight under the table while he sat on the other side of her assailant. What was he even thinking? Inviting her to stay at his apartment was just asking for trouble, just asking for her to walk on in, grab his heart and squeeze the lifeblood out of it with her bare hands like she had the first time.

  He couldn’t go through that again, Caleb told himself. Only an idiot would open himself up to that kind of horrific pain a second time.

  ****

  Caleb took the stairs to Laura's small apartment two at a time. Nervous energy was pumping through him. A place of their own! They still had to iron out the details, but the guy he'd spoken with had said he could set them up with a small place just a few blocks from where Caleb and Laura would be training at the police academy this September. A trade off on the McKinney name, he knew; but hell, if there was ever a time to play the 'Do you know who my father is?' card, getting a deal on a house was sure as hell it. The place was tiny, but heck, he and Laura were pretty small people. They didn’t need much.

  Caleb had told his father that he wanted to introduce him to someone special. His father had seemed pleased and curious. The permanent grin on Caleb's mother's face

  Had certainly added to that. The woman's ear-splitting shriek at the news of her eldest son's engagement still rang in his ears weeks later. He knew his father was going to love Laura. She was beautiful, ballsy, and she was going to make a hell of a cop. Heck, he thought with a laugh, she was more like his dad than Caleb was himself.

  Though they'd probably have to duct tape Mike's mouth shut.

  Caleb wanted to wait until dinner tonight so that he and Laura, together, could tell his dad that they planned to marry.

  He banged vigorously on the door and almost fell into the room when it swung open on its own. It took him a disoriented second to understand what he was looking at. Or not looking at would be more appropriate. The closet across the living room was open and empty. The photo Laura kept of the two of them on her TV set was gone. The couch and bed were still there, kitchen was still stocked, but he felt a sickening clench in his stomach when he noticed little things that were gone. Clothes, shoes, makeup, toothbrush...though his extra one was still there. The jewelry box on the nightstand was gone too.

  That's when he saw it.

  A folded piece of paper with his name on it propped up by the digital alarm clock by the bed.

  I'm sorry.

  That was all.

  His vision blurred, and he shook his head to clear it. Sorry about what, Caleb wanted to ask, but he couldn’t make his voice work. Where was she? Where was Laura...and why was all her stuff gone? She didn't just...leave? “Laura.” Her name came out like a plea in the empty room.

  Caleb's eyes fell again on the bed, and he saw them just last night entwined, arching against and with each other, her soft voice whispering “I love you” in his ear as she slid, hot and wet, beneath him and her nails dig into his back. Then Caleb fell to his knees and lifted up the blankets to look under the bed where she kept all her drawings. She wouldn't leave without them.

  They were gone.

  Caleb didn’t make it to the bathroom. He threw up on the carpet, next to the bed.

  ****

  The man Chadwick identified was a Hugo Medeiros, a Portuguese crook who had ties to the Bambetti crime family. His rap sheet was long, but they couldn’t find anything to link him to the child trafficking.

  It took him a few minutes to realize Laura was talking to him. “What?” Caleb asked.

  “I said, so could it really be the mob then?” Laura repeated after the kid had been taken away.

  He scowled, his thoughts still wrapped up in the decision he knew he had to make. “How could you let Chadwick get the jump on you like that?”

  Laura stared at him. “Come again?”

  “You’re a cop. Alert at all times. We’re never off duty. What the hell were you thinking just walking into your building without checking it out first? You keep telling me what a good cop you are, and then you pull an amateur move like that.”

  He watched her cheeks flush and anger flare in her eyes and had to fight the most insane urge to grab her and kiss her senseless.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I figured my life had been going so well so far that getting shot would be just the perfect way to cap off my day!” Laura snapped at him. “God, you’re a real bastard, you know that?” she snapped, getting to her feet and storming towards the door to leave the interrogation room.

  “Hang on,” he called after her as she left and he had to follow her out of the room. He hadn’t meant to lose his temper like that. He still had to make her understand that she couldn’t stay at her place alone. Of course he had to screw that up by pissing her off first. Nice going, McKinney.

  The other officers turned to watch the unfolding scene.

  “Laura, damn it, wait!”

  “Trouble in paradise, McKinney?” a voice called out.

  Caleb turned to see Officer Hampstead grinning with amusement. “Up yours,” he tossed over his shoulder and followed Laura down the steps to the exit. “Laura, hang on!”

  She whirled on him. “Look, we’ll meet up tomorrow to check up the lead about the money being wired, but right now, if I don’t get away from you, there’s a very good chance that I’ll be kicked off the force for assaulting a fellow officer.”

  “Just wait a second, okay? You can’t go back to your apartment,” Caleb insisted.

  She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “Why the hell not?”

  “They sent someone to your building,” he reminded her, and he saw realization dawn in her eyes.

 
; “Well, okay, but that’s my home. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. I was just dist— Never mind. I’m infuriated enough right now that, trust me,… What? Why are you shaking your head at me?”

  “You’re not staying alone so they can try again.”

  “

  I’m a big girl, Caleb. I can take care of myself. Hell, I would think you’d be leading the parade to get me wiped off the map.”

  He grabbed her and pushed her against the wall. “That is not funny in the least.”

  She stared at him, and he watched her eyes move down to his mouth. The memory of their kiss back at Caroline’s house seemed to sizzle like an electric current between them.

  She licked her lips, and Caleb fought back a groan, his jeans suddenly too tight.