Officer in Pursuit (27 page)

He sat down across from her with his
own food and the cup of coffee she’d poured him.

“I had friends as a kid, but not after
I got married,” Kerry said. “Brad was so possessive and
controlling… He didn’t want me spending time with other people,
even women.”

“My dad was like that with my mom. I
remember him getting mad because she’d taken me to the park and one
of her friends had shown up with her kid. She stayed later than
she’d planned, talking, and when he found out he flipped his lid
and went into asshole mode.”

His expression had clouded; it was
obvious the memory upset him. And for good reason. It struck her
then just how much she’d shared with him – about her shitty
marriage to Brad, even about her pregnancy. It was hard to believe
she’d finally spoken those things out loud to another
person.

“I hope it’s okay that I’ve been
telling you all these things,” she said. “I’m sure you don’t enjoy
hearing about my time with Brad, but I just – I want you to know.
That way, I won’t have to worry about what you’ll think of me if
you find out.”

His fork clanked against his plate as
he lowered it. When his eyes met hers, they looked as black as the
coffee. “Tell me whatever you want. There’s nothing you can say
that’s going to stop me from being interested in you.”

To her ears, his words almost sounded
like a challenge, though she knew he hadn’t meant them that way. A
hundred sour memories whirled through her mind, and the idea of him
knowing the details of what Brad had done to her – what she’d put
up with – filled her with an uneasy sense of shame.

Still, she’d told him so much already
– so much more than she’d ever imagined being able to share with
anyone. And he hadn’t even flinched. Sitting across from him
enjoying breakfast, even with the truth about her past exposed,
felt unreal in the best way possible.

* * * * *

“I don’t know what I’m going to say to
Faye,” Kerry said, staring down at her phone. “I clean for a living
– I can’t work with just one hand, and it’ll be a couple of weeks
before my cuts heal.”

Grey’s gaze was drawn to the bandages
swathing her left hand. He’d helped her change them that morning,
after breakfast. The sight of her delicate palm and fingers
crisscrossed with red lacerations and black stitches had almost had
him puking his eggs and coffee back up. It could’ve been a lot
worse – the delicate tendons in her hand had been spared – but it
was pretty bad.

Normally, he wasn’t squeamish, but her
wounds had been hard to look at simply because they were
hers.

“Not your fault,” he said. “Besides,
she had to make do without Alicia and Sasha during the height of
tourist season. She’ll just have to be okay without you for a
little while.”

“She’s so overworked preparing for the
fall festival though, and I was supposed to help.” Kerry
frowned.

“You know,” she said as she scrolled
through her list of contacts, “there are some things I could still
do, like help her finish up the decorations. I could do that now;
I’d just be slow.”

“Don’t overtax yourself,” he said, but
didn’t really argue. She was right about her hand – it would take
weeks to heal. And if she didn’t go to work at all, she’d just be
sitting in her house all day. Alone.

Grey only had so much vacation time
and couldn’t be there to protect her for more than a few days.
Hopefully, her ex-husband would be apprehended by the police by
then, but if he wasn’t…

She’d be safer at Wisteria making
Halloween decorations than she would be on her own.

He had his third cup of coffee as she
called her boss and tried to talk her way into being put on partial
duty. When she got off the phone, she looked happier than when
she’d dialed.

“I’m still going to help Faye out with
the decorations,” she said, “starting Monday. And she’s going to
delegate some of her desk work to me – answering phones and stuff –
so she can focus on preparing for the festival. So I won’t be
totally useless after all.”

“Cool.”

“Yeah. Hey, Grey…” Her cheeks turned
pink as she met his eyes.

“What?”

“There’s something I’ve been meaning
to ask you. Could you do me a favor?”

“Sure. Anything.”

“I have this gun. A Glock 17. You’re
trained to use that exact gun, for work, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’ve only taken mine to the
range a couple times, and it’s been a while. I’m afraid to use it –
afraid I’d be too inaccurate. Would you go to the range with me and
teach me how to shoot it?”

“I’d be glad to. But shouldn’t we
wait? The recoil would hurt your hand.”

She chewed her lower lip. “Probably.
But I think I could handle it – it’s not my dominant hand that’s
hurt. I really want to learn.”

Now that she’d put the idea in his
head, he wanted her to learn too. But he didn’t want her to worsen
her injuries. It was too soon. “How about I take you in a few days,
before I have to go back to work?”

“You took more than just a day
off?”

“I took almost a week.”

Her face turned a little pinker.
“Okay. Thank you.”

“We can still do something today if
you want.”

“What did you have in
mind?”

He shrugged. “We could go to the
beach, if you feel up to it. I know you can’t swim with all those
bandages on, but we could hang out. Maybe get dinner
afterward.”

“Do you really think we should? Brad’s
still out there.”

“He’s out there somewhere, but I doubt
he’s here, or at the beach. You’ll have me and I’ll bring my Glock.
It’ll be good to get some fresh air. You can’t be a prisoner in
your own home.”

After she agreed, he went outside to
test drive his car. He’d decided to take it for a short, slow
drive, to make sure there was nothing wrong with the brakes. He’d
figured it’d put Kerry at ease, and that it was better to be safe
than sorry.

It took him less than five minutes,
and when he got back she was waiting with a bag full of towels,
sunblock and bottled water. He could see her dark blue swimsuit
strap sticking out above the collar of her t-shirt.

He didn’t have any swimwear with him,
but a pair of regular shorts would be fine. He didn’t plan to
really get in the water anyway.

He didn’t say anything to Kerry about
his lack of swimwear. If she wanted to wear her bathing suit, he
definitely wasn’t going to try to change her mind.

CHAPTER 21

Now that they were really into
October, it wasn’t as hot at the beach as it had been last time. It
was still sunny and warm, but the mild coolness of the water seemed
to have worked its way into the air. This was fall, here: summer,
with less of an edge. Storms were common, but right now, everything
was perfect.

Grey tipped his head toward the
buildings beyond the sand. “There’s an ice cream place back there.
It’ll be closed soon, now that tourist season is over. Wanna get
some?”

Kerry glanced in the direction he was
looking. The buildings beyond the fishing pier and the nearby
boardwalk were nearly abandoned; only a few people were visiting
them on an autumn weekday afternoon.

It wasn’t exactly blazing out, but the
thought of ice cream was still appealing. Perhaps more appealing
than usual, since it wouldn’t melt immediately. Besides, after the
way tourism had tanked that summer due to manhunts for the Levinson
brothers, local businesses could use all the traffic they could
get. That was what she told herself, anyway, as she pushed herself
up from her towel.

She pulled a pair of jean shorts on
over her swimsuit, and she and Grey left their towels on the
sand.

There was a beachwear place next to
the ice cream stand. A bright yellow sale sign in its window caught
Kerry’s eye – there was an end of summer clearance going on.
Typical, for this time of year. She looked down at her navy blue
tankini and frowned.

She only had one swimsuit, and she’d
been scraping by with it all summer. It wasn’t exactly new anymore.
Now would be a good time to buy a second one, while they were
cheap.

“I’m going to have a look in here,”
she told Grey. “I could use a new swimsuit.”

He followed her inside, where it was
just them and the cashier. There were racks of printed, oversized
beach towels marked down to ten dollars, and an entire wall of
women’s swimwear.

Most of it wasn’t anything she’d wear.
The triangle bikinis with little metallic-colored coins sewed
around the edges of the cups, for instance – what was the point of
those? It was no wonder they were left on clearance.

After browsing for a minute or two, it
seemed like all the good stuff might’ve been picked over
already.

“What about this?” Grey appeared at
her side, something small and pink dangling from a hanger in his
hand.

“That?”

Once she got past her initial shock at
the tininess and neon-ness of it all, she saw that it was a
halter-style bikini.

“It’s not exactly what I had in mind.
It’s so … bright.” And miniscule.

He turned toward a rack, browsed for a
second and then grabbed another one to hold up and compare. “They
have it in blue, too.”

It was a deep turquoise blue, like the
ocean on a day when the sun was shining and the waters were calm. A
beautiful color, but…

She balked at the idea of wearing
something like that. It was bright. It was small. It was pretty. It
was a bikini.

It was the sort of thing that was made
to be noticed, and that was exactly what she’d always purposely
avoided.

“This color would look great on you.
Never mind the pink one – I just picked it up because I saw it was
size small.”

Grey’s words gave her a
little thrill, and she couldn’t help giving the swimsuit a second
look. Maybe it wasn’t
that
tiny. It wasn’t like it was a string bikini. It
seemed sturdy enough, but she’d never actually worn a bikini.
Ever.

On the rare occasions she and Brad had
ever gone swimming, he’d enjoyed ogling other women wearing tiny
swimsuits, but her wearing one would’ve been guaranteed to lead to
a fight. It would’ve been just like him to accuse her of showing
off, or flirting with other men… A bikini would’ve been a match to
the ever-present tinder that was his pride.

The thought filled her with disgust.
God, he’d controlled her life for so long. Six years, while they’d
been married, and even now… She’d spent the past three years making
decisions – even choosing her clothing – based on her fear of
him.

She was tired of it – tired of always
trying so hard not to be noticed. And so, without giving herself a
chance to second guess the decision, she lifted the bikini from
Grey’s hand. “I’ll take it.”

She went to the register and paid. It
was only a quarter of its original price. At least, if it turned
out she didn’t like it, she hadn’t spent much.

When she walked out of the shop with
Grey, she felt oddly empowered.

“That suit’s gonna look great on you,”
Grey said as they approached the ice cream booth. “I can’t wait to
see you in it.”

Her face – her entire body – grew a
little hotter than the sun accounted for. She and Grey hadn’t had
sex since before the nightmare that’d begun with her car wreck. She
was as aware of that fact as she was of the sun overhead and the
waves crashing on the beach just behind them. Aware and eager for
it to change.

It’d only been 24 hours since they’d
arrived back in Riley County. A couple of days since they’d last
been together. Right now though, that felt like an
eternity.

The more time she spent with Grey, the
more of him she wanted – craved. That was the polar opposite of the
twisted relationship she’d had with Brad. She knew she shouldn’t
compare Grey to him – that they weren’t even in the same class of
human beings – but she couldn’t help it.

Grey was the only man she’d ever been
with, besides Brad. And the difference was astounding. It made her
wish she’d gotten things right the first time. Most of all, it made
her so, so glad that she’d removed herself from the hell that had
been her life back in Kentucky.

Her friends in Riley County – Grey
especially – had shown her that people weren’t what she’d thought
they were. Life wasn’t what she’d thought it was. The people she
was surrounded by shone the brightest – loved the hardest – when
times were tough. She never would’ve expected that, and it made her
feel that no matter how the nightmare with Brad ended, everything
had all been worth it to experience this.

* * * * *

Grey didn’t know what to do when Kerry
came onto him that evening, after they got back from the beach. At
first, he figured she wanted to try on her new swimsuit for
innocent purposes, since she hadn’t tried it on at the
store.