Black Heart (27 page)

A muscle in Tristan's jaw did a little bounce as he did his best to reign in his temper.

Well, Marty assumed that's what he was doing since he looked furious and hadn't yelled at

the woman, yet. A few seconds later, his scowl disappeared and was replaced by a

charming smile that actually frightened her a little. The man was up to something and she

was very much afraid that he was going to bring her down with him.

"Elizabeth, it's very nice to meet you," he said charmingly as he shook Elizabeth's hand.

"I'm very excited to have you join our group, Detective," Elizabeth said in that same tone

and Marty had to admit that it was really starting to become a tad annoying.

"Elizabeth, I was actually hoping that you could do me a favor and sign this release,"

Tristan said smoothly as he handed her a piece of paper.

"I'm sorry, Detective, but I'm under strict orders not to do that," she said with a shrug

and a smile as she handed the paper back to Tristan.

"I see," Tristan murmured, sounding thoughtful as he folded the paper and placed it in

his jacket pocket. "And you're positive that you can't sign this?"

"Yes," Elizabeth said, adding an upbeat tone to her answer.

"Very well," Tristan said, smiling as he gestured for her to lead the way into the room set

up for the meeting. Elizabeth looked pleased as she did just that.

"I'll be ten minutes," Tristan said, pausing at the door.

"The meeting lasts for an hour," Marty pointed out, frowning as she looked down at the

flier in her hand to make sure that she hadn't messed up the time. Nope, the meetings were

an hour long, which was probably a good thing since it would give her some time to figure

out what the hell happened between yesterday morning when she was ready to kill the jerk

and this morning when she screaming his name at the top of her lungs as he took her from

behind.

"Ten minutes," he said firmly before he closed the door behind him and left her sitting on

one of the hard plastic chairs lining the hallway wall of the community center and

wondering what she should do.

He said he loved her and heaven help her, but she believed him. That didn't explain why

he'd kept her out of his life for all those years or why he treated her the way he had over the

past couple of weeks. Until he was able to explain a few things to her, they were going to

take things slow. Well, slow but with sex since there was no way she was going to deny

herself that pleasure.

She still couldn't believe that he’d been a virgin. That was definitely another thing that he

was going to have to explain. She knew why she had held off for so long. She hadn't

wanted to make a mistake or end up with a kid before she was ready. Her friends couldn't

understand and honestly she didn't care. This was her choice, her life, and she hadn't

wanted to sleep with any of the guys she'd dated.

If she was going to be honest with herself, she'd admit that the real reason that she’d held

off for so long was Tristan. She'd been in love with him her whole life and when she dated

a man she had a rather nasty habit of comparing him to the Tristan that she used to know.

She’d also felt as though she were cheating on Tristan and no matter how many times she

told herself that she was being irrational, she couldn’t shake the feeling that being with

another man was wrong. It didn’t hurt that none of the men she’d gone out with made her

feel special or protected, not the way he used to make her feel.

That brought up another interesting question, just how long was Tristan going to be able

to keep this up with her? When was he going to suddenly get tired and irritated with her and

push her away again? She already knew that if he tried to push her away that he wouldn't

get another chance. This was it. She'd given herself to him and it would be hard enough to

deal with the aftermath if he decided that he just didn't want her. She wasn't about to put

herself through hell and turn into one of those women who constantly took some guy who

treated her badly back over and over again. This was a one shot deal and she was going to

make sure that he knew that.

"Ready?" Tristan suddenly asked, startling her.

"You've only been in there for five minutes," she said, glancing down at her watch.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked, frowning as she looked past him at the closed

door. Was that crying she heard?

"Elizabeth realized that I really don't need therapy and decided to sign off on my sheet,"

Tristan said as he took her hand into his and gave it a gentle tug, pulling her to her feet.

"She signed off? I thought she said that she couldn't do that," she murmured distractedly

as Tristan put his arm around her.

"Mmmhmm, I guess she realized that I really didn't need therapy," he said with a shrug

as he continued to guide her towards the front door.

She heard a door slam open behind her and realized that she did indeed hear crying. She

looked over her shoulder just as Elizabeth hurried their way, wiping frantically at the tears

that were streaming down her face.

"You're a bad man, Detective Black!" she cried out in that annoying voice of hers as she

hurried past them and practically ran out of the building.

"Why am I such a loser?" a man yelled as he raced past them, burying his face in his

hands as he sobbed hysterically. She looked up at Tristan who smiled down at her, acting as

if a man hadn't just run past him screaming and crying at the top of his lungs.

"What was that about?" she asked with forced casualness as yet another man ran past

them, this time sobbing into his phone. When he spotted Tristan, he stumbled to a halt and

just as suddenly turned around and ran the other way.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Tristan said with a straight face and heaven

help her, but it took everything she had not to smile.

"Why don't we stop by the coffee shop and grab breakfast?" he suggested as he held the

door open for her.

"You're not going to tell me what just happened, are you?" she asked with a sigh.

"I really think it would be for the best if we pretended that this never happened."

"It's probably for the best," she agreed on a sigh. There were some things that she really

didn't want to know and how Tristan scared the hell out of a room full of people with anger

problems was definitely one of them.

Chapter
21

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Shayne grumbled as Tristan pointedly ignored him and

focused on the woman sitting across from him.

Was he smiling like an idiot? Probably. But he just didn't care. For the first time in his

life, he was happy and it was all thanks to the woman trying to work as she tried even

harder not to smile. He watched as she chewed on her bottom lip, clearly trying to hold

back a beautiful smile. He wondered if she was as happy as he was.

Probably not.

For years he'd been living in his own personal hell as he struggled to stay away from her.

Every day was worse than the last and if he caught a glimpse of her, it was like having his

heart ripped to shreds. Now that was all over. She was his and he planned on doing

whatever it took to keep it that way. Now that he knew what it felt like to make love to the

woman he loved, hold her and simply be with her, he wasn't about to let her go.

The other aspect of his existence was going to be a slight problem, but he was done with

letting it rule his life. She was his life now. She was all he ever wanted, ever hoped for and

he wasn't willing to live without her. Now that she was his, he couldn't help but feel regret

for all those years he'd wasted. They could have been together. They could be married now,

have a family of their own, but he'd pushed her away. He would never do that again.

"Stop," Marty said, her lips tugging up into a pleased little smile even as she did her best

to focus on her work.

"Stop what?" he asked, smiling as he watched her.

"Making me gag, lad," Shayne offered helpfully, but Tristan ignored him as he continued

to gaze at Marty.

"Watching me work," she said, trying to sound firm, but he wasn't buying it.

"Sorry," he said, chuckling as he forced himself to focus back on his work, but not

before he glanced at his watch.

They'd been working all morning and he still had a ton of shit to do, but they needed to

take a lunch break soon so that he could look into a few things since he promised Hank that

his investigation into the disappearing women wouldn't interfere with his other cases. If he

was going to get anything done, he was going to have to do it during his lunch breaks and

after work. He'd bring Marty along with him if she wanted to tag along.

He'd make it quick so that he could focus on her, but in the back of his mind he had to

wonder if he was making a mistake. Instead of taking her along to investigate fancy

restaurants, perhaps he should focus on taking her to one, but this was important, he

reminded himself. When this was over, and he prayed that this would end soon, he'd more

than make it up to her.

"Do you feel like joining me on a working lunch?" he asked, chancing a look up to find

Marty watching him as she thought it over.

"Will there be an actual lunch during this working lunch?" she asked teasingly.

"I think I can manage that," he said with a wink.

"Okay," she said with a sweet smile as she returned her attention back to her work and

making him rethink his plan to work through lunch. Perhaps he should take her back to his

place for a quick—

A hard knock on their office door interrupted that rather intriguing thought, but that was

fine since he knew that they had tonight, and if he had a say about it, every night after that.

"Yes?" he said, not bothering to look up from his paperwork.

"Detective Black?"

He looked up to see Jonathan, a seasoned patrolman, standing in the doorway, holding a

folder in his hands.

"Detective Black, I have an arrest that you might want to look at," Jonathan said,

reminding Tristan that he needed to focus when he was at work and keep his mind off of all

the things that he wanted to, and would, do to Marty.

With a nod, Tristan stood and took the folder from Jonathan. "What do you have for

me?" he asked as he opened the folder and looked it over.

"Twenty year old kid got kicked out of college, came home, and decided that he was

going to raise a little hell," Jonathan explained as he folded his arms over his chest and

leaned back against the doorframe.

"Looks like he had a hell of a night," Tristan murmured as he looked over the list of

complaints against the kid, vandalism, assault, resisting arrest, trespassing, possession of a

narcotic, and sexual assault on a young woman.

Well, it looked like he was going to have to work through lunch to clear this up. It also

meant that he was going to have to put in a few more hours into the investigation of the

missing women than he’d planned. Hopefully, he’d be able to cover the five restaurants and

restaurant supply stores that he had on his list tonight and still have time to spend with

Marty.

Tomorrow he'd have to start the tedious chore of calling the rest of the restaurants and

supply stores since he wouldn't have the time or the resources to go visit every one of them.

He couldn't officially ask for help from any of the other jurisdictions, but if any of the

people he spoke with over the phone raised any red flags, he’d call in a few favors.

"His mother wants to talk to you," Jonathan said, drawing his attention back to the

bullshit that he had to take care of now.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, not really caring as he looked over the kid's past arrests, DUI,

assault, and theft.

"Yeah, she's claiming this was all a big misunderstanding. She's already managed to talk

Ralph out of pressing charges for the damage the kid did to the bar as long as the kid pays

for all the repairs and never sets foot in there again."

"Is she harassing this young woman as well?" Tristan asked, his mood turning sour at the

thought of the young woman that was sexually assaulted being harassed by the perp's

mother.

Jonathan let out a snort of disgust. "She tried, but I placed the young woman in McGill's

office along with her parents."

"Good," Tristan murmured as he continued to look over the kid's file. He wasn't

surprised to see that the kid managed to get out of most of his past charges, no doubt with

his mother's help. Justin Erickson had only been ordered to do a total of forty hours of

community service and to cover the damages. Whoever this kid's mother was, she was

definitely working her ass off to keep her kid out of prison.

She probably thought that she was doing Justin a favor. She wasn't. If anything she was