Crime Of The Heart Page 8

  “Lee,” he added, “if anyone can keep Erin safe, it’s you.”

  This time, Lee forced himself to his feet. “Enough already. I’ll keep her safe. But I want to know about Burke.”

  “What about Burke?”

  “Whatever you’ve got on him. Whatever you can access from the FBI.”

  “I can’t do that—”

  “Yes, you can,” Lee insisted, trying his best to keep his voice calm.

  Tom looked hard into his eyes. “Your job is to keep her safe, Lee. That’s it. Your job is not, and I repeat, not to go after Burke. You got that?”

  “I still need to know exactly who and what I’m up against here. All Erin had on Burke was a bunch of public relations stuff that didn’t tell me anything more than the fact that the man likes expensive Southwestern clothes.”

  Tom raised an eyebrow. “Southwestern?”

  “Just like a rattlesnake,” Lee said absently.

  Tom punched some keys on his computer and checked the screen. “I’m afraid I can’t access more than that. His record is clean.”

  “That’s because he’s got men like Doreli doing all his dirty work.” Lee wasn’t able to hide his frustration.

  Tom turned on his printer. “Here’s the most recent picture I can get.” He passed it to Lee, who stared at it for a long moment so he’d be able to recognize Burke in a crowd if it came to that.

  “But that’s not all,” Tom added.

  “What else is there?” Lee asked, even though he already knew what was coming.

  “I have to officially reinstate you. I have to take you off the disability list. If I don’t and there’s trouble, if there’s any shooting, if Erin gets hurt, if any innocent bystanders get hurt...” Tom let the sentence slide away. But Lee already knew the rest. If anything happened before Lee was officially back on the force, it could blow his chance at any future career. He could be ruined. Lee took a deep breath, knowing that circumstances had made his decision for him.

  “Do it,” he said.

  “My pleasure.” Tom grinned.

  “You don’t have to be so happy about it.”

  “Are you kidding? As soon as you’re gone, I’m having your desk moved in here.”

  Lee let out a frustrated huff. “Go to hell,” he muttered.

  Tom only laughed.

  Chapter 4

  Erin returned just in time to hear Tom say, “And work with my men and the FBI if you see them, all right? Instead of against them.”

  She looked at Lee, only to find him grinning. His grin didn’t quite reach his eyes, however. What startled her most was the tension she felt in the air. It was as thick and dense as a storm cloud.

  “I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises,” Lee said.

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” Tom muttered. “Look, I’ve assigned Johnson and Maggs to your case. They’re probably downstairs already and should follow you home.” Tom spoke to both of them. Looking at Lee, he added, “So don’t decide to have a little fun and lose them. They’re there to help protect you.”

  “I’ll try,” Lee said again.

  “They’re good cops.”

  “I know,” Lee agreed.

  Erin only nodded, feeling herself relax, feeling safer than she had in the past few days. “Thank you, Tom. You’ve helped us out more than you can possibly know.”

  “You’re welcome, Erin.” He looked back to Lee. “I suppose I don’t have to tell you the rules, right? You still remember them?”

  “Rules?” For a moment, Lee pretended he didn’t have the foggiest idea what Tom was talking about.

  “Oh, that’s right,” Tom retorted, his tone caustic. “You don’t live by any rules. Well, let me tell you anyway. There’s really just one main rule you have to remember, old man. Keep in touch. That means if something goes wrong and you get separated from my men, call me. If you have any questions or learn anything new, call me. If you have to leave or you think Doreli is close or knows where you are, call me.

  “Don’t—I mean do not—try to go up against these guys alone, Lee. I mean it. Call for help.”

  “I got it, boss,” Lee replied, giving him a mocking salute.

  Tom only smiled. “I think I like the sound of that—you calling me boss.”

  “Forget it, partner.” Lee tried to hide the amusement in his voice and failed. Not that it mattered.

  All three headed for the elevator. Tom gave Erin a hug goodbye and shook Lee’s hand, giving him a hard look as they waited for it to come.

  “Be careful out there, Lee,” Tom said, with no hint of amusement in his voice or his expression. “Take care of the both of you. Sure you have the address of the safe house?”

  “It’s engraved in my brain,” Lee muttered.

  “If you have any problems, you can even come back here,” Tom added.

  “What?” joked Lee. “And sleep on that lumpy-looking sofa you have in your office? Forget it.”

  Tom just grinned.

  “You can sleep on the floor, then, and I’ll be glad to take the sofa,” Erin offered with a smile.

  Lee let her remark pass.

  “And you take care of Torry,” Erin added as she and Lee stepped into the elevator.

  The doors closed. And neither Lee nor Erin saw Tom give one of his men a small slip of paper. Neither did they hear him assign another team to watch over the two who had just left and make sure nothing happened to them. No matter what the cost.

  “So what was that between the two of you?” Erin asked as they descended. “Did Tom ask you to come back permanently and you turned it down, or what?”

  “No comment,” Lee said.

  “Oh, come on, Lee. Tell me what went on while I was gone.”

  “I’ve been reinstated. Erin, my job being to keep you safe. I’m once again officially back at work, only it’s not quite what I expected. It’s not a desk job,” he said without looking at her. He expected more questions from Ace Reporter Erin Flemming. Questions about how he felt, questions about whether his leg was still hurting, questions about just what he planned to do next.

  “All right,” she agreed easily, surprising him with the way she dropped that topic. Then she moved on to a worse one. “Why didn’t you want to go out with Tom and Torry after this is over?”

  Lee clenched his hands at his sides to keep from punching the elevator door. Why couldn’t the elevator stop? he wondered. Or why couldn’t someone get on with them so they weren’t alone and she wouldn’t be free to ask stupid questions he didn’t feel he needed to answer?

  “My life is my own now,” he finally replied, realizing he’d been holding his breath.

  “Oh?”

  God, was she actually at a loss for words? Again? Lee nearly laughed at the very idea. He should probably mark this day on his calendar.

  “That means we’re not a couple anymore,” he said instead of laughing. He went on talking as though she were a small child. “I’m working to keep you safe, because it’s my job and I’m going to do my job just as I would to keep anyone else safe. You left me. Remember?” he prodded.

  “As though I could ever forget,” she muttered.

  The elevator reached the lobby at that moment. The doors opened, and Erin didn’t waste any time getting off and moving away from him.

  Again, Lee knew he should be glad that she wanted to distance herself from him.

  So why wasn’t he?

  Catching up with her, he grabbed her by the arm and stopped her from moving any farther away. “Don’t do that again,” he ordered, trying to convince himself he was just trying to protect her. This had nothing to do with wanting to keep her near him. “Don’t leave my side. Don’t go off ahead of me by yourself. Doreli could have been waiting right near the elevator and there wouldn’t have been any way I could have reached you in time to stop him from doing something to you.” He paused, still grasping her arm. The dark of his eyes met hers in a flash of green fire. “I’ll do my job and protect you whether either of
us wants it or not. But starting now, you’ve got to do as I say. You’ve got to be my shadow. No more running off on your own. Understand?”

  “Fine,” she snapped, refusing to say anything more or do anything other than stand before him and meet his gaze.

  A long moment passed and he was certain she would argue or even defy him and walk ahead of him. Most peopie would let go of things that threatened their lives. But not her. When they’d been together, he had seen the way she worked. She seemed to grab onto a story as if she was grabbing a tiger by the tail. She had such determination, such strength when it came to getting her stories. It was what he loved about her.

  What he still loved about her....

  No! He closed his eyes. He refused to still love her. Not after all this time, all these months. He just wouldn’t. He didn’t want to feel that uncontrollable emotion ever again in his life. He’d have better luck bailing out a sinking ocean liner with nothing more than a measuring cup than he would surviving her love a second time.

  Hell, he was over her. He was back to work, making that giant step to get on with his life.

  Yes, dammit, he was. And he felt good about it, too. He should probably thank her for getting him to this point.

  So why did he want to do more than just his job when it came to Erin Flemming? Why did he want to catch the guy who was doing this to her and string him up before sticking him with hot knives?

  She’s been gone for nine months! the voice screamed in his head. Yes, but she’d lived with him for eleven months before that, the other side of him argued. And they’d dated for almost a year before that. But now those eleven months together seemed more important than the months apart. Those long, lonely months without her were wiped out in an instant when she stood outside his front door that morning. Now all he could dwell on was the time he’d spent with her before.

  On the drive home, Lee recognized not one car, but two following them. He thought he even recognized Henshaw in the second car, but he couldn’t be sure. He had to fight the urge to try to lose the two tails just to see how good they were.

  Erin didn’t say anything to him, didn’t even look over at him. Again, he told himself he should be glad. Just drive. Just protect her. Just do his job. That was all he had to do. Think of it as nothing more than a job, no different from hundreds of others he’d done. But he couldn’t This was Erin.

  “Hungry?” he asked once they arrived home. He didn’t bother to check on the whereabouts of the two cars following them. He knew the procedure. He knew they were close.

  “No,” she said shortly. “But if you are, go ahead and eat. You don’t have to play host to me. Where’s my bag?”

  “In the kitchen.” He led her in and reached for it, but Erin managed to get her hands on it first.

  “Does it matter where I lie down, Liam?” she asked, holding her bag tightly. Refusing to let him carry it for her. There was something in the way she continued to say his full name. It sounded a lot like the way his mother used to say it when she was mad at something he did.

  Lee led Erin upstairs to the first bedroom. “You can have this room,” he said. “It’s closest to the bathroom.” It was also farthest from his room—the room that used to be theirs.

  Erin was staring at the quilt on the bed. It was a handstitched quilt. They had won it playing bingo at a church picnic shortly after Erin had moved in with him. They’d slept under it together, and after she left him. Lee had moved it onto this bed because he hadn’t been able to get her scent out of it.

  “Are you sure you don’t want something to eat?” he asked, feeling hungry himself.

  “I’ve had a rough day. I think I’d just like to lie down for a while,” she replied, dropping her bag beside the bed.

  “Well, I think I’ll put a frozen pizza into the oven. You can crash while it’s cooking.” He turned to leave, but not before glimpsing her tenderly reach out and brush her fingertips along the smooth softness of the quilt.

  Moving down the hall, Lee took a deep breath. All right, she was here. It was time to go into his protector mode and do his job.

  Erin listened to him leave, one footstep heavier than the other. Her hand was still on the quilt. She wanted to ask him why it was here, but she had a pretty good idea. It reminded him of her, and he didn’t want to be reminded.

  She was suddenly so tired—tired of being afraid, tired of trying to stay clear of Lee. The quilt on the bed only confirmed how much he didn’t want her around. Most of all, she was tired of fighting her desire to be with him once more. Everything about him drew her to him. Yes, she’d missed him. She just hadn’t realized how much until she was close to him again.

  Opening her bag, she let out a frustrated sigh. There on top was the Cupid, where she’d put it when she’d taken it out of her pocket to pack. It stared up with the lifeless eyes of a figurine. It was the expression that spoke for it, an expression that seemed to speak of love. Without further thought, Erin pulled it out of the bag and put it on the nightstand. Because the chubby legs were broken, it could no longer stand. So Erin laid it down so that if the arrow hadn’t been broken, it would be pointing at her when she was in bed.

  Supper turned out to be a quiet affair. After a short nap, Erin went downstairs and ate a piece of pizza to keep Lee happy. But she didn’t feel like talking to him, and she let him know it by the short way she answered his questions.

  Since they’d come home there had been a stronger wall than ever between them. It had started in the lobby, she realized, when he’d bluntly told her this was nothing but a job to him.

  Erin was beginning to think she’d made a mistake coming to Lee. She should have gone right to Tom. But she hadn’t, she thought as she slowly chewed her pizza. And even knowing what she knew now, knowing how Lee would think of her—as nothing more than a job—she knew she’d come to him again. He might not want her, but Erin trusted him more than anyone else.

  Some time later, with the tension still thick between them, Erin thought of that trust. As she lay on the quilt she had shared with Lee so many months ago, she was comforted by her feeling of trust. Finally feeling safe, she managed to sleep comfortably for the first time in nights.

  Lee, however, wasn’t asleep. He sat at the kitchen table, looking out the sliding-glass back door at the darkness. Rain was slamming up against the glass in huge drops. His leg ached. He had cleared the table of the remains of the horribly quiet supper he’d shared with Erin, but the aroma of pizza remained. She’d insisted on helping him, and Lee had finally let her. But they continued to dodge one another between the sink and the table in the process. Now he sat at the table with only an untouched cup of coffee and a folded newspaper. It hadn’t told him much more than he already knew. There was the usual assortment of murders and robberies, car thefts and political scandals, all wrapped up nicely with a section of recipes on how to fix potatoes a hundred different ways.

  This was the hardest part of the job. The waiting for something to happen. The something could be anything from Doreli finding out where they were and coming after Erin to Burke making a mistake that could get him arrested.

  Or the something could be between Lee and Erin.

  “No,” he muttered out loud, taking a drink of coffee as though he was trying to wash down the thought. Nothing was going to happen between him and Erin. He wouldn’t let it.

  Lee set down his cup with a heavy clunk and got up roughly, thanks to his frustration and the stiffness that had settled in his leg. He noticed the time; it was just after ten. Hours had passed with Erin upstairs, while he was doing nothing more than sitting down here reading the day’s news and staring at the darkness, waiting for something to happen. No wonder his leg felt like hell. He hadn’t exercised it at all today. Well, he could take care of that with no problem. He could even go in and watch the television while he was doing it.

  First, he wanted to check on Erin. He hadn’t heard a sound out of her since she’d gone up after helping him clean the kitchen. />
  Silently, slowly, he climbed the stairs. He needed to see her. He tried to tell himself he was only checking on her because it was his job. He also told himself there was absolutely nothing wrong with doing that. Yet the truth was he wasn’t even sure what he expected or hoped to do once he reached her. Perhaps that was why seeing her in the bedroom caught him off guard.

  Erin was asleep on top of the quilt. Her shoes were off and beside the bed. In the dim light, Lee could see she’d unbuttoned the jacket to her suit, revealing a soft, lacy camisole underneath.

  Just seeing it sent fire through his veins. Lee recognized the sensation. It was a familiar fire he hadn’t felt in almost a year, a fire he had never expected to feel again, at least with Erin. He could imagine himself peeling away her jacket before sliding the straps of the camisole down her shoulders. He didn’t have to imagine how soft she would be. He could well remember.

  Carefully, he slipped into the room and covered her with the end of the quilt. He suddenly realized he was holding his breath. Erin’s chest moved slightly as she breathed. She lay on her side with her hand under her face, looking small and innocent, just as she always had when she slept beside him. Lee remembered all the times he’d wake up earlier than her, only to watch her sleep, then slowly waken her with kisses and make love to her against the soft music of the early-morning birds.

  Unable to look at her anymore, he glanced away, only to stop short at the sight of the broken little Cupid resting on the bedside table. True, the arrow was gone, but if it had been there, it would be pointed at the bed. Pointed at Erin. Pointed at him, too.

  Lee suddenly felt as though someone had started a fire under his feet. How in the hell was he supposed to do his job and protect her when he couldn’t even control himself when he got close to her?