HotTango (9 page)

Teda leveled off on the deck and approached the back door.
It was fascinating to watch the arm extend and the “hand” reach for the knob.
The top of the hand hit the doorknob. Jameson cursed under her breath, drew the
arm back and adjusted the height. The depth perception on the camera was
difficult to manage. Add to that they were working in near blackout conditions,
and Cole was amazed with what they were able to do.

The back door swung inward on the second try and darkness
yawned before them.

O’Neil leaned over the controller’s shoulder. “You should be
in the kitchen now. If you go straight ahead you’ll end up in a hall. The
closest we can figure out is that there’s either a door that leads directly
into the front of the house, or you’ll have to go to the entry we can see at
the opposite end of the hall.”

“Yes sir,” was all she said. Jameson was nothing if not
dedicated to her job.

Teda advanced through the empty kitchen, Jameson sweeping it
twice with the camera to check for the suspect or hostage. By the looks of the
space, the house was completely vacant.

“Entering the doorway now,” Jameson announced.

There was movement in one of the lower corners of the
camera.

“Pan down,” O’Neil said.

Teda’s perspective changed and the camera was directed
toward to the ground.

A man lay on the floor, a handgun pointed straight up at
what would be the abdominals of an officer entering the house. Without a
breathing target, the shooter pushed up to his knees and peered at the robot.

“He doesn’t know what to do. He’s probably never seen one,”
O’Neil muttered. “Cole, get your guys in there now while he’s distracted.”

“Yes sir.” Cole bolted for the door and sprinted as fast as
he could with his gear on toward the B.E.A.R. “Load up.”

His team moved as one, filing into the armored truck. They
might not have practiced for this mission, but they were a well-oiled machine.
He quickly related what he’d seen in the trailer to his men, listening with one
ear to his radio for updates. O’Neil’s voice chirped over once to tell him the
suspect was still engaged with Teda.

All situations were different, the judgment calls they made
reflecting not only on them as officers, but on their department. It was an
honor and duty he took seriously. As they rounded the corner, he sucked in
several deep breaths. His body tingled with the urge to move, to act, to take
the sorry bastard down.

“Ready, team,” he spoke quietly into his headset as they
came abreast of the house.

“Ready, sir,” came the quiet replies.

He pressed his radio button. “We are entering the house.”

O’Neil’s voice came through loud and clear. “Copy that.”

The truck rolled to a stop and they sprang from the double
doors located in the back of the truck. There was a straight shot to the front
door ready for them through the barricade. The street was full of cop cars,
support vehicles and officers ready to back them up.

Cole sprinted for the front door, shield thrust out in front
of him, choosing a silent approach this time around. He grabbed the doorknob,
but it resisted.

“Locked,” he said over his shoulder.

Aaron shouldered past him and hit it with the twenty-pound
door ram, putting his full force behind it.

The door shook. Fucking reinforced doors.

“Suspect is headed toward your position,” O’Neil radioed.

The door gave and Aaron kicked it in, knocking it out of the
way. Cole stepped into the space, shield in front of him.

“Police, hands in the air,” Cole shouted.

The suspect bolted in from the hall, ducking and diving for
something that shone black. The way a barrel of a pistol would.

“Gun down, put your hands in the air,” Cole yelled.

Instead of giving up, the suspect took aim.

A gun discharged to his right and the suspect went down.
Cole rushed in and took possession of the firearm while Aaron and another
officer covered the hostage. The others descended on the suspect.

The immediate danger was over in seconds.

“Fuck.” Cole grabbed his radio and shined his flashlight on
a folding table set up at the back of the room. There were plastic bags of pipes,
wires and other raw materials. “O’Neil, send the bomb team in here.”

There were enough supplies on hand that Cole’s skin was
crawling.

A nightmare had come to Metro City, and it wasn’t over yet.

* * * * *

Tanya clutched a decorative pillow to her chest and watched
the unfolding news coverage. She’d seen all the footage at least three times so
far, and the current replay was not helping her fear.

This was the worst part about being married to SWAT. Seeing
it on TV before Cole had a chance to explain how it wasn’t that bad. And to him
it was always “not that bad” because there was a logical worst-case scenario.
Somehow that was supposed to make her feel better.

Everyone needs their delusions
, she guessed.

The fact that he was safely tucked away in bed, sawing logs,
didn’t comfort her. From what the news said, this was the tip of the iceberg on
a much bigger situation. She took a deep breath.

Don’t panic.

Nothing to worry about.

Everything is fine.

Cole is safe.

The bad guy is in prison.

The hostage is with her family.

She recited all the positive things, a trick she’d developed
in the beginning to help her keep calm. It worked better sometimes more than
others.

Today was not one of those better times.

The Olympics were forging ahead as planned, with some small
alterations to the more public events that restricted the attendees. A few
events, like the distance runners and cyclists who didn’t have a stadium per
se, were postponed until next week.

The sound of the refrigerator opening and closing startled
Tanya from the trance she’d fallen into with the TV. She sprang to her feet and
rushed to the bar separating the den from the kitchen. Cole stood with one hand
on the fridge door, drinking deeply from the milk carton.

“You’re awake,” she said.

Cole’s shoulders hunched and his eyes bulged. He coughed and
hurriedly put the carton down.

“Sorry.” She edged around the bar, ignoring his
transgression with the milk, itching to hug and comfort herself in the very
physical feel of her husband’s living person.

He sucked in a deep breath. “I didn’t think you would still
be here.”

“I saw the news and couldn’t leave.”

“Aw shit.” He pulled her against his chest. “It wasn’t that
bad. No one was hurt.”

She didn’t believe him, but hearing the words from Cole made
her feel better, which was ridiculous. He was lying through his teeth, but
she’d let him believe she couldn’t tell. There were some truths she didn’t want
to know. Some realities of his job she couldn’t handle, and she had to trust
him that he told her the essentials. Which was that no one she loved or cared
for was hurt, and the civilians had been rescued.

“What are they saying?” he asked, and she didn’t miss the
tense note in his voice.

“Let me get you something to eat.” She pushed him toward the
stool and reached into the refrigerator for the crepes she’d started making
earlier in an effort to give herself something to do. A little whipped cream on
the thin pastry, toss on some sliced fruit and she pushed the food across to
Cole. “Start with that. I’ll get some bacon and eggs going for you.”

“You don’t have to do this.” Cole dug into the crepes with
gusto.

“It makes me feel better. They’re reporting on the other
bust you were talking about.”

“Yeah, I was wondering why it wasn’t on the news. I guess
they were trying to play it close to the vest.”

Tanya shrugged and busied herself at the stove with the rest
of his meal. “They’re saying it’s connected. I guess one of the meth cooks
identified the suspect from last night and now they’re going public. There are
supposedly three other people they can’t identify. Cole, this is scary. It’s
one thing to see it happening on the TV somewhere else, but this is here. And
you’re involved. And it scares me.”

Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her against Cole’s
chest. She hadn’t even seen him move, but there he was.

“Shh, babe, don’t cry.”

Cole flipped the burners off and pulled them away from the
stove.

Tanya buried her face in his shoulder and squeezed. “Just
tell me you’ll be careful, please? I wouldn’t dream of asking you to not go,
but I can ask you to stay as safe as possible, can’t I?”

“Yes. I am careful.” He tipped her chin up so she had to
look at his face lined with worry. For her. For being worried about him. “Do
you want me to tell you how careful we are? Would that help?”

She nodded.

Cole lifted her onto the kitchen counter, which brought them
face to face. It also made it easier to wrap her arms and legs around him, as
if she could squish their bodies together to form one person. His hands coasted
up and down her back in soothing motions.

“You’ve seen the kind of gear I wear. It’s about as safe as
I can get without wearing a full bomb suit.”

“Would they let you?”

He snorted. “Wear one of those things? I’d rather not.
Anyways, we had at least thirty SWAT on-site last night with more serving as
backup and crowd control. There were lookouts in the armored trucks keeping an
eye out for us. And before we ever went into the house, they deployed gas and
sent in one of our robots so we knew exactly what we were getting into. The robot
actually distracted the bad guy so we could get in and rescue the hostage.
Without anyone getting hurt.”

It sounded dangerous and she hated thinking of Cole in those
situations. But she couldn’t deny she had put him through much of the same
reversed role with her previous work. There were moments in disaster areas
they’d been caught in rubble, there were always chances of being taken hostage
and a few times she hadn’t been able to communicate back home and Cole had been
one step away from flying to come get her himself.

For several long minutes they held each other. The TV was a
quiet drone in the background, and in the distance a lawn mower buzzed, signs
that life was pressing on.

Tanya sucked in a deep breath and released Cole, wiping her
face and mentally assembling her confidence.

Cole was okay.

They couldn’t control the future.

And neither could they allow fear to govern their lives.

“You okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I know better than to watch the news, but
it’s scary.”

“I know. Have you eaten?” Cole moved back to the stove and
turned the burners on.

“Earlier.”

“How about I make us some bacon-and-egg burritos?”

She nodded and watched Cole fry up the bacon. He glanced at
her every few moments, checking on her. The tenseness around his eyes, the
constant darting looks said she wasn’t the only one worried.

Cole cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I worried you.”

Tanya shrugged and picked at a dish towel. “It’s part of
your job, and I know better.”

“You’ve never asked me to leave SWAT.” It seemed like a
straightforward statement, but the tone of his voice said otherwise. He wasn’t
asking a question, but his body language was screaming,
Why?

“You never asked me to leave One World.”

“The other guys, well, Aaron just had this conversation with
his fiancée so it got us all to talking about it. Everyone’s wife or girlfriend
has asked them to quit at one point or another. You never have.” He finally
lifted his gaze to her face and studied her. “Why not?”

Tanya shrugged. “It’s who we are. We’re both people who want
to give back to others, and we do it in our own way. If you’d taken away my
work with One World I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself. If I asked
you to give up being a cop, you wouldn’t be happy. I want you happy, even if
that means putting you in danger, because that’s the kind of people we are.
Remember Deborah from high school?”

“Yeah, Deborah Smith.”

She smiled. “Yeah, Deborah Smith. You know I was talking to
Mom about her the other day and she actually had to pause before asking me,
‘Oh, that Down Syndrome girl?’ I think I fell in love with you the first time
when I started that petition for her to go on that big junior trip with us.
They weren’t going to let her and it wasn’t fair. The principal wouldn’t listen
to me because I was just the brainiac girl, but you were Mr. All-American
Football Star. You stood behind me and said she had the right to go.”

Cole’s face creased in memory, going from deep lines of
anger around his mouth to the almost dimples in his cheeks when he smiled.

“We’re people who stand for things, and if I asked you to
walk away from being a cop or SWAT, I’d be asking you to be less of a person,
and I can’t do that. I love this Cole too much for him to be anything else.”

Cole blinked at her several times. “That’s…sweet.”

“Well, I’m full of that today.”

Cole moved the skillet off the burner and stepped between
her knees. The need to touch her, to ground himself in the tangible evidence of
the here and now was immediate. He smoothed her hair back and cupped her
cheeks. Tanya wasn’t a wide-eyed innocent, but compared to the crooks and
criminals he was exposed to on a daily basis, she was a fucking angel.

He stared at her, committing this face to memory again. Her
chest stopped moving and this moment froze in time.

Tanya moved first. She wrapped her legs around his thighs
and kissed him, drawing him down into the warm embrace of her body. He pulled
back, grasped the neck of her t-shirt and ripped it straight down the front.
Tanya gaped at him, her gaze bouncing from her suddenly bare breasts to his
face.

As a rule, Cole never got physical with Tanya to the point
of violence, but he was raw. He needed her life, her vigor to rub off on him in
the most carnal way possible.

Tanya gasped and suddenly the heat on the stove had nothing
on the blaze growing between them. Instead of calling him an animal, she stared
up at him through her lashes, color high on her cheeks.

She clawed at his shirt until he leaned back long enough to
yank it off over his head. They clashed again in a frenzy of hands, questing
mouths and grappling flesh.

He yanked her off the counter and her yoga pants and panties
wound up on the floor. She pushed his sweats down, but he twisted her around
and bent her over the counter, her ass presented for his perusal.

Fantasies come to life.

Tanya grunted. Her hands slapped on the counter. She stared
over her shoulder at him and thrust her hips back. He didn’t give her nice
words, he didn’t even speak. There was no place for gentle touches, stroking or
petting right now.

Cole kicked her legs out wider and found her pussy with his
fingers. Her folds were slick with arousal. He grabbed his dick and positioned
himself at her entrance. The warning that this was going to be a frenzied,
rough coupling was on his lips but his mouth wouldn’t move.

How could he treat his wife this way?

Tanya thrust back, impaling herself on his cock and taking
the choice from him. He pushed deeper, feeling her slick channel constrict
around him, hugging him and pulling him deeper. She moaned and her knuckles
turned white where she gripped the kitchen counter. He withdrew, then slammed
into her with enough force that Tanya yelped, which turned into a giggle then
hitched into a moan.

“You like that?” he growled out as if he were some cheesy
porno star.

“Oh yeah,” she panted back without hesitation.

It hit him then. His prim and proper wife, the one with the
hidden tattoo her parents could never know about and the roller derby habit,
she had a bad streak a mile wide. It shouldn’t have been a revelation, but it
was.

He thrust deep again and her hands splayed over the counter.
She moaned and panted, driving him crazy because he’d imagined this. A million
fantasies fucking her over and over again in the middle of their kitchen,
across the table and on the sofa slapped him in the face.

They could have been doing this all along.

The skin at the base of his spine prickled and a wave rolled
up from his toes. He grunted and shoved deep, rocking up on his toes as orgasm
burned his balls.

The sound of their combined panting filled the house.

“Ohmygod.”

Cole pulled out, spun her around and dropped to his knees.

There was no fucking way he was going to come and she
wasn’t.

Tanya clung to the counter while he shoved her leg over his
shoulder. He rolled her clit between his fingers. She ground her pelvis against
his hand, setting a rhythm all her own. She came apart at the seams, a flush of
moisture coating his fingers and her cries echoing around them.

He surged up and squeezed her. Tanya laughed and laid her
head against his shoulder.

“How’s that for something different?” he asked.

Tanya sputtered and they broke out in uncontrollable
laughter.

* * * * *

Cole balanced a cardboard tray of drinks and snacks that had
cost a small fortune and scooted his way through the crowd. Tanya clutched his
arm, muttering sarcastic expletives.

That was his wife.

Ball of sunshine.

They made it through the press of people, down the stairs
and found their row. Jake, Nicole, Aaron, Angel, Becca and her date were either
on the same row or the one below theirs.

“Hey, guys.” Cole edged past Jake and Nicole, choosing at
the last second to sit next to the woman and let Tanya sit next to the half
wall that bordered one of the entries for the players.

“’Bout time you made it,” Aaron called over his shoulder.

Angel glanced up, a tight smile on her face. Half her
features were hidden by excessively large sunglasses. She was dressed to the
nines in a white sundress, more makeup than Tanya owned and hair unnaturally
high. She was such a contrast to Becca, whom she sat next to. Where Angel was a
fake blonde, Becca’s dark-brown locks were natural, straight and sleek, her
face fresh and clean, save for some shiny stuff on her mouth.

“How’s my boyfriend doing?” Tanya settled into her seat and
winked at Aaron.

“I’m doing just fine, baby. How you doing?” Aaron winked at
Tanya, despite the obviously cold shoulder Angel was giving the both of them.

Cole merely rolled his eyes. The two had been at this
playful banter since they first met. It wasn’t anything serious or concerning.

The day was beautiful, the sun shining, not a cloud in the
sky. It was almost a shame they’d scored tickets to the United States versus
South Africa soccer game, but there wasn’t any saying no to free tickets. The
crowd was electrifying, people shaking flags and blowing on horns, and the game
hadn’t started yet.

“Thank you.” Tanya accepted her drink. Behind the cover of
her oversized cup she whispered, “Oh my gosh, is that Aaron’s fiancée? I don’t
think I’ve ever met her. I thought he was still with that black-haired woman.”

Cole shook his head. “That was Lauran. She broke up with
him.”

Tanya leaned over him and tapped Angel on the shoulder. “Hi,
we haven’t met yet. I’m Tanya, Cole’s wife.”

Angel’s smile was fleeting. “Charmed.”

Becca watched the seconds-long interaction with eyebrows
raised. Tanya glanced at Becca when Angel turned around without another word.
Becca and Tanya seemed to have an entire conversation without moving their
lips.

“What was that about?” Cole whispered to his wife.

“Ohmygod, she’s a snob,” she whispered back.

Further conversation was rendered impossible by the opening
game festivities. The crowd seemed largely American, but as the host country
that was to be expected.

It was crazy, but Cole found himself sneaking sidelong looks
at his wife. She’d donned a festive blue and red sundress that left her
shoulders bare, plumped her breasts together and displayed enough leg to make
it more than a little interesting.

As the game got underway, Cole wondered just how far he
could push Tanya.

“Hold this for a second?” he asked.

“Sure.” She shifted the cardboard carrier into her lap and
tossed some of the popcorn into her mouth.

He shifted in his seat until he could turn, blocking the
others from view.

Tanya glanced away from the unfolding soccer game to peer at
him. “What are you doing?”

Cole slid his hand up her outer thigh under her skirt.

Her eyes fluttered open wide and she wiggled in her seat.
“Cole.”

“What if I finger-fucked you right here? Is there a card for
that?”

Tanya gasped, clapped a hand over her mouth and giggled.
“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Want to try me?”

She shoved his hand away. “Not with our friends so close,”
she whispered.

“Okay, what if it was just us?”

Tanya paused to consider it. “Maybe, but not right now.”

“Want to find a family bathroom somewhere?”

“Eww, really? No. That’s just not right, Cole.” Still, she
laughed and fended off his one-handed attack. She grinned at him, a mischievous
twinkle in her eye. “What about when we get home?”

“We have all those flowers to plant.” After their frenzied
coupling in the kitchen yesterday, they’d spent the rest of the day being lazy
and watching the Olympics, intentionally avoiding the news. On a late-night
whim, they’d decided to add flowers to the landscaping and raided a local
nursery of all their yellow, white and orange flowers, which now sat in their
garage.

Tanya leaned toward him until their noses touched. “Fine,
plant flowers, then sex.”

“I like this plan.”

“Mm, me too.”

Now if he could just wait that long.

* * * * *

Cole sipped his lemonade and sat back on his heels. The
backyard smelled of freshly cut grass, there were birds chirping from the
wooden bird condos and it was cool for this time of the year. He dusted some of
the sod off his hands and surveyed his work on the flowerbed. It was a far cry
from their first home, where they’d had two square boxes in the front yard.
This house had more than he could count on both hands.

He didn’t hate the house, but it stood as a symbol of change
in their lives he didn’t like. Tanya had built this as her dream home. And that
bothered him. More than he’d let on.

“Hey, do we want these back here or in the front?” Tanya
emerged from the garage, a small pallet of flowers in hand.

Cole glanced at her and swallowed his resentment. Nothing
good would come from talking about it. “I think they should go in the front.”

“Okay.”

She disappeared back into the garage and he gathered up the
last tools.

In a way, it felt as if they were in a different time all
together. One where Tanya and he gardened, cooked and even talked. Together.
All the walls he’d built between them over the last few years were coming down
and it both felt good and left him in something of a panic and pretty raw. If
she knew what was really in his mind, would she leave him?

He pushed those thoughts down and headed to the front yard
to join his wife, pausing in the garage to pick up more flowers.

Tanya was on her knees, dirt up to her elbows and digging holes
for the new flowers. She glanced up and grinned at him.

“I’m so glad they gave you today off.” She gently set a
bunch of flowers into a hole she’d dug.

“Yeah. Five days of twelve-plus hours suck.”

Cole eased a set of flowering plants out of the plastic pot
and rolled the tightly compressed sod and roots in his hands. It was a large
bundle of roots and what looked like two plants. The flowers were so tightly
packed, he wondered if he could separate them and plant them in two places. He
dug his fingers between the two large stems and began slowly easing the plants
apart. He could feel small tremors of the hairlike roots snapping, but it
wasn’t separating. Since the plants were almost apart, he yanked them the rest
of the way.

The plants snapped and ripped into two bundles.

Shit.

It was one plant, and he’d just ripped it in half.

“Cole, what are you doing?” Tanya leaned around him, her
mouth hanging open.

“I thought it was two plants.”

“They only put one plant in a pot. You know that. Now we
won’t have enough orange flowers to complete the pattern.”

Cole’s spine straightened and he gritted his teeth. “Never
good enough, I get it.”

“What? That’s not what I said.”

“You don’t have to say it for me to hear it.” He stood up
and shook the dirt from his pants.

Tanya pushed to her feet, gaping at him.

Everything that had been on repeat in his mind bubbled to
the surface and Cole couldn’t stop himself. It was an odd sensation, as if he
were watching someone else operate his body while he desperately struggled to
throw the brakes on.

“I never deserved you. Did you know that’s what your father
told me? I should have listened to him, because he was right. You’re too good
to be with a dead-end public servant like me. You know, I even thought about
doing you a favor and divorcing you a few years back for your own good. Hell, I
can’t plant a flower. I probably can’t be a good fucking husband.”

“Cole?” Tanya’s eyes were cloudy with unshed tears, her face
creased and growing pink.

“Yeah, I’m a fucking monster.” He turned toward the house.

“You don’t get to walk away from me.” Tanya bolted past him
and stood in his path, fury radiating from her. “What are you saying? Are you
telling me you want a divorce?”

“Did those words come out of my mouth? Open your fucking
ears. I said I should have for your own good. You don’t listen.”

“You don’t say anything for me to listen to.”

The sudden silence prickled the skin on the back of his
neck. Cole glanced around and found three of their neighbors openly staring at
their unfolding drama. He grabbed Tanya’s wrist and urged her toward the house,
but Tanya balked.

“We need to get inside,” he muttered.

Tanya twisted her arm in a maneuver he’d taught her and
stalked inside, her golden-brown hair flowing behind her.

Cole gave their audience one last glare before he followed
his wife inside.

The rational part of him knew he needed to stop talking.
Stress and too much change had him on edge and he’d snapped at Tanya. But the
other part of him, the one that was a bundle of rage and bitterness, didn’t
want to be silenced.

“What the hell was that?” Tanya roared as soon as the front
door was closed.

“I’m talking to you. I thought that was what you wanted,” he
shouted back.

“Why are we yelling?” She shoved her hands through her hair
and paced the foyer, stopped abruptly and stared up at him. “Why haven’t you
brought any of this up before? If you aren’t telling me you want a-a divorce,
what are you saying?”