Deception (21 page)

The cruiser stopped in front of the neighbor’s house and Alex climbed out, his gaze trained on Roger, his hands out to his side, away from his weapon.

Roger dragged Tess to the middle of the yard. She sucked in cold air through the tight hold on her neck, trying not to let her panic overtake her good sense.

“You remembered,” Roger said.

“I remember.” Alex’s gaze flicked to Tess, then back to Roger.

“Let her go, man.” Tony stepped up next to Alex.

Roger shook his head. “I can’t.”

Roger looked like hell and that scared the shit out of Alex. Cornered men were unpredictable. It wasn’t uncommon for people in Roger’s predicament to force a cop to shoot him in the hopes he’d die. Suicide by cop it was called.

Roger whipped a gun out from his back waistband and shoved the barrel into Tess’s neck. She gasped and Alex tensed. Past and present became one. Jason’s face merged with Tess’s and Alex froze.

Tony stepped forward. Roger backed up, his gaze darting around the neighborhood. Mrs. Thomas from across the street stepped out of her house.

“Get back in the house,” Tony shouted. She practically dove back in and slammed the door closed.

Alex could hear Othello barking inside his house.

“You’re choking her,” Alex said.

Roger loosened his hold and Tess took a deep breath.

“Think of your girls, Sheffield. What’s going to happen to them?”

“It’s too late now, Juran. You’ve already got me for murder. What’s one more?” He ran the barrel of his Beretta down Tess’s neck and she shuddered.

“You want your girls to live the rest of their life with the knowledge their daddy killed their aunt? Is that what you want, Sheffield?”

Roger looked away, but just as quickly looked back. “You ruined everything, Juran. I had a good gig going. No one was getting hurt.”

“What about the drugs you put on the street? You don’t think anyone was hurt by that?”

“If I didn’t provide it, someone else would have.”

“Let her go, Roger.” Alex lowered his voice as if he and Roger were holding a quiet conversation, the only two on the street. Two more cruisers pulled up, the officers quietly exiting their cars, their guns drawn.

Roger’s gaze went to them and Alex saw the moment Roger understood he was outnumbered. He lifted his gun and pointed it at his own head.

Tess twisted into the grip just like Alex had taught her, flinging Roger’s arm away and at the same time pushing him. He stumbled, the gun went off and Tess fell.

“No!” With his heart in his throat, Alex ran. He grabbed Tess by the shoulders and rolled her over. The other officers fell on Roger, smashing his face into the pavement and jerking his hands behind his back.

Roger yelled.

Tess launched herself into Alex’s arms. No blood—the shot had gone wild. He hugged her and buried his face in her hair.

***

He stood in the shadows of Mrs. Thomas’s house, his anger reaching critical mass. If he didn’t get control of it soon, he’d do something stupid. He took deep breaths, but it didn’t work. The sight of super-fucking-prick-cop Juran with his arms around Tess enraged him.

He kicked at a clump of snow. One day it would be his hands all over that lovely body. Soon. Very soon.

Right now it was time to get out. No use getting caught now. Wait until Juran’s defenses were down. Now that Sheffield was in custody, Juran would assume all the bad people had gone away.

He smiled and edged toward the back of Mrs. Thomas’s house. On the next street over, he broke into a jog and whistled.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tess smiled and touched his cheek, his hair, the little wrinkles beside his eyes.

“I can’t let go.” He hugged her tighter, breathed deeply. “God, Tess. When I saw…”

She stroked his hair and he closed his eyes, feeling her pressed against him. Too damn terrified to think of what might have happened if that shot hadn’t gone wild.

“I’m okay,” she murmured. “I’m all right.”

“I’m glad I remembered when I did.” His voice sounded strangled but wasn’t half as strangled as he felt inside. He didn’t know if he could ever let her go.

“Me, too.” She pulled away and they looked at each other. Her smile slipped, then faded. “He told me everything.”

Alex rubbed her back, wishing like hell she hadn’t been involved in this. That it had been anyone other than Roger.

“I don’t know what Shannon will do now,” she whispered.

“We’ll figure it out. We’ll help.”

She nodded and took his wrists from behind her back, drawing them away, and stepped out of his embrace. He wanted to grab her hands, to hug her to him but already he was feeling the need to help the other officers. To finish what Roger had started that dark night.

“I have to go to Shannon,” she said. “You have to finish here.”

He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers, grateful that she understood.

“We’ll talk when you get back,” she said.

He touched her cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

As Alex pulled away in his cruiser, he glanced in his rearview mirror and saw Tess standing all alone. She turned and walked to the door. When she opened it, Othello bounded out and ran circles around her. Alex turned the corner and she was gone from his sight.

***

He stood at the threshold, his heart beating against his ribs, his breath suspended. He peered inside, afraid to actually step in. The house looked so normal. So Tess. The scent of roasting potatoes and meat filled the air, bringing with it the pain and nostalgia of his childhood. How’d she know he was a meat-and-potatoes kinda man?

He strolled through the living room, taking in the maroon afghan thrown carelessly over the forest green couch. So this was where she lived. Where she slept and showered and created Tess’s Temptations. He’d eaten her desserts, gone to every restaurant she supplied and sampled everything she baked. Pure heaven. Just like her. Maybe tonight she’d give him a sample of
her
temptations.

Framed photos sat on a small table by the big picture window. He lifted the one of Tess in a champagne-colored wedding gown. So beautiful. He ignored super-prick in a tux standing next to her, but it was hard. His gaze kept going to Juran, and his anger grew.

He clutched the frame so tightly it cut into his hand. Beads of blood sprouted around the edges. He stared at the crimson drops until his vision blurred and the glass in the frame cracked.

The laughter and mocking tones of the other officers filled his mind until he almost dropped the picture to clutch his head.
Stop! Stop laughing at me!

They were all super-pricks, every one of them. But Juran, he was the leader, the one who’d caused it all, who told them to laugh and mock, who told them Jeffrey would never make it as a cop.

Juran had ruined his lifelong dream, his one and only chance of working in law enforcement. He was born to wear a badge, born to arrest scumbags who broke the law, born to follow in the steps of his father. The city needed him but Juran ruined that by washing him out of the Field Training Program. Supercop thought he knew better than anyone how to be a cop.

He’d applied for the security guard position at the hospital and instead had been given a mop and a bucket. He’d had no choice, had to take the damn job or starve. But it’d turned out to be a boon because he’d been there the night they brought in I-know-everything-don’t-question-me Juran. He hadn’t known everything that night, had he?

The laughter of his fellow officers became one big roar that filled his ears and his mind. His head pounded with it. Then the sound changed, deepened and became the mocking chuckle of his father, Detective Frank Abbott.

Jeffrey, you pansy, you’ll never make it as a cop. You don’t have the balls, the guts or the ambition.

Oh, yeah? Well, his father might have died without Jeffrey proving him wrong, but he could prove to Tess that he most definitely
did
have balls.

***

Tess let O out the back door and turned the oven off. She had no idea when she’d be back from Shannon’s house. For a fleeting moment she regretted that she would have to put off telling Alex about the baby, but then pushed the thought away. There was plenty of time. Shannon needed her now and Alex was a little preoccupied. She walked into the living room and stopped. A man stood at the small table by the window holding her wedding picture. Her gaze flew to the closed door. How the hell had he gotten in here and who the hell was he?

The man looked up and smiled, his light brown hair and pretty blue eyes familiar.

“Can I help you?”

“Tess.” He walked toward her.

Tess stepped back, shocked he knew her name.

“I was there when your pickup went off the road.”

She smiled, still wondering how he had gotten in, but took his offered hand anyway. “I’m so glad to meet you. I wanted to thank you but you were gone and you didn’t leave your name.” She said the last like it was a question.

He shook her hand and smiled. He was cute in a boyish sort of way with dark blond hair that bordered on light brown. “Jeffrey Abbott.”

The name sounded familiar but she couldn’t figure out why or where she would have heard it before. “Thank you, Jeffrey. For calling the police.” She surreptitiously glanced at the door, wondering if she’d locked it.

“It was open,” he said. “I knocked but no one answered.”

“Oh.” Who would just walk into a stranger’s house?

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said.

“Thanks to you.” They stood there and Tess’s unease grew. Something wasn’t right about this—aside from the fact he’d just walked into her house uninvited. He seemed nice enough with his concern for her. Then she remembered what Alex had told her about the stolen cell phone and wallet and knew that’s where her unease came from. The guy may have been nice enough to call the cops when she was injured but he was still a criminal.

She gauged the distance between herself and the door, between him and the door, wondering who would get to it first.

He must have sensed her intention because he suddenly shifted, standing between her and escape, shaking his head and taking her hand. She tried to pull away but his grip tightened until her bones ground together. Her gaze flew to his and he smiled.

With his other hand he ran his finger down her cheek. “I’m so sorry about the truck, my Tess. It was meant for Juran.”

Her breath hitched and her knees wobbled. “Wh-what?”

“Juran, fucking Supercop, was supposed to have driven that damn truck. Not you. Never you. I wouldn’t hurt you.”

She swallowed and tried to pull her hand away, but his hold was bruising, cutting off her circulation. And his eyes… His eyes weren’t normal. Glazed. The pupils large.

“Don’t worry, my Tess, we’ll get rid of him.”

Oh, dear God
. She shook her head, her voice caught in the large lump of terror in her throat.

His finger slid down her cheek and brushed her bottom lip.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you that day in the apartment. It was all a big mistake. I just had to touch you.” His finger trailed down her neck, sending goose bumps up her arm. “You shouldn’t have struggled.”

She twisted her wrist and broke free. Turning on her heel, she ran for the kitchen, skidding around the butcher-block island. Othello barked and scratched to be let in. Little noises followed her, Abbott’s feet hitting the ceramic tile and whimpers she hadn’t even realized she’d been making.

She threw a kitchen chair in his path. He stumbled and cursed. She reached for the doorknob and closed her hand around it. Just as she twisted the knob, needles of pain shot through her head and she was jerked backward. She cried out and grabbed at her hair. He wrapped a hunk of it around his fist and dragged her away from the door. Her head exploded in pain and she tried to keep up with him to take the pressure off her scalp. She yelled, but doubted anyone would hear her.

Othello barked and Tess looked at the door. She had managed to open it about an inch.

“Why, Tess?” He sounded confused, as if he couldn’t believe she’d run from him.

He dragged her across the kitchen. She tried to keep up but she kept stumbling and he kept pulling her, muttering obscenities and curses. He reached the living room and threw her onto the couch. She bounced and gasped, massaging her aching scalp.

He pointed at her, strands of red hair dangling from his fingers. “Don’t do that again.” His chest heaved and she nodded, her gaze fixed on her hair in his hand.

He paced in front of the fireplace. Tess scooted into the corner of the couch, her gaze darting around the room, looking for a weapon. She spotted the fire poker, but it was too far away and the madman stood between her and the fireplace.

“Why him, Tessie? Why Juran?” He ran a hand down his face and stared at her. “Shut up, Daddy.”

She jumped and pushed herself farther into the couch.

He spun around and poked a finger into the air, as if speaking to someone else. “I do too have balls! I’ll show you.”

He lunged for her. Tess screamed and tried to scramble over the top of the couch. His hands wrapped around her throat, his eyes wild and demented. She struggled underneath him, pushing at his shoulders, kicking at his legs. He held her down, forcing the breath out of her lungs. With a shriek she scraped her nails down his face. He reared back, blood dripping from his cheek.

“You bitch!”

She managed to work her leg free and drew back her foot, sending it forward with all her strength, right into the balls he kept yelling he had. He rolled off the couch, clutching himself, his eyes wide, his mouth open, but no sound coming out.

Othello charged into the room, his body low to the ground, canines bared. He landed on Abbott. The man cried out. Tess scrambled over the back of the couch and ran for the kitchen. Othello yelped and Tess winced.
Oh, Jesus, not O. Don’t hurt O.

She grabbed the phone and dialed 911, careful to set the receiver down so the call wouldn’t disconnect, and ran straight for the back door. Curses intermingled with growls. She stopped, turned and grabbed a knife from the butcher-block island.