Officer Next Door (14 page)

“Do you have to leave already?” she asked when he stood, abandoning his empty coffee cup and half-full cereal bowl.

“Yeah.” He couldn’t resist reaching for her, placing his hands on her hips and pulling her close, savoring the pressure and warmth of her body against his as he breathed in the citrusy perfume she must’ve put on while getting dressed.

“Good luck,” she said. “And be careful.”

“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “Just be sure to keep the doors locked. Don’t go outside until the sun’s up.”

She nodded.

“Wish I could stay,” he said, “but with any luck, the search will end today.”

In the long run, pursuing the Levinson brothers
was
keeping her safe, even if it meant he had to leave her side. In that moment, keeping her safe and making her happy seemed like the most meaningful – and pleasurable – goals he’d had in a long time.

* * * * *

One night with Liam and Alicia had gotten soft. Alone in his house, she couldn’t quite sit still at the kitchen table, or even on the comfortable couch in the living room. A part of her was afraid of what she might hear if she was too
quiet, despite the years she’d spent living more or less happily on her own.

He’d cut a piece of tarp and taped it over the broken window in the kitchen to keep the insects and humidity out. It occurred to her that someone could tear down the tarp without making much noise. Not that it really mattered, since they’d have to break even more glass to climb inside, but the thought creeped her out nonetheless.

What would she do if someone threw another rock, or God forbid, actually broke in?

She’d packed a curling iron in her overnight bag. Maybe she could use that as a makeshift weapon … as long as she had time to let it heat up, and her assailant didn’t get out of reach of the cord’s range. The thought was enough to make her snort, and it felt good to laugh, even if it only lasted for a few seconds.

Holden looked at her like she was crazy.

“Come here, boy.” She patted the couch and pulled him into her lap when he hopped up. A moment later, she flipped the TV on.

If there were any developments in the Levinson brothers’ case, surely they’d report on it. Until then … she’d just have to hope that if one of the Levinson brothers had thrown that rock, he wasn’t still lurking near the house. After all, if someone was watching, they knew she was alone.

“You look like hell,” Grey said, standing in all his gear and already sweating as he, Liam, Henry and three other PERT officers prepared to move out, rejoining the search for the escapees. It was so early in the morning it was almost still nighttime, but wearing a bulletproof vest in the Carolina heat was brutal whether the sun was up or not.

“Didn’t get much sleep last night,” Liam admitted.

“No shit,” Henry said. “Heard about your window.”

Grey frowned. “What?”

“Somebody threw a rock through his window last night,” Henry said.

“What’ve you been doing, staying up late and listening to your police scanner again?” Grey asked.

Henry shrugged. “With two inmates on the loose, I like to know what’s going on, considering the fact that it’s my responsibility to catch them. Call me crazy.”

Grey did just that, muttering the words just barely under his breath, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“The rock didn’t hit you, did it?” Grey asked seconds later.

Liam shook his head. “Nah, it was thrown through the kitchen window. Luckily Alicia and I were nowhere near it.”

“Wait. What?” Grey stopped dead in his tracks. “Alicia? Isn’t that your new neighbor’s name?”

Liam sighed. “She stayed at my place last night for safety reasons.” He wasn’t about to go into further detail – something told him Alicia might not appreciate that. Besides, he was just fine keeping the details to himself. Grey didn’t deserve to know.

“Riiight. Safety reasons.” Grey made air quotes with his fingers.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Liam said, even as he got half-hard thinking about what he and Alicia had done the night before. “I didn’t think it’d be safe for her to stay alone, and she wasn’t feeling well anyway—”

“Hey, I’m not judging you. I wish her brunette friend was my neighbor. Then I could’ve talked her into staying the night at my place. For ‘safety reasons’. And Henry, you could’ve asked the blonde. I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

Henry said nothing, just gave Grey a hard look.

Grey grinned. “Just imagine – you two could make candlelit love in your bomb shelter to the sweet sound of your police scanner. And then—”

“Shut up,” Henry said, “or I’ll tell the brunette you like so much about your little scheme to sleep with her.”

Grey rolled his eyes. “If you blow my chances, I’m taking you down with me. So if you ever want to lay a finger on the chef, you won’t say anything.”

“All right ladies,” Liam said. “Stop fighting. We’ve got to get to work. Every second you spend bickering over who gets to sleep with who in your wishful thinking fantasies is a second that the Levinson brothers spend getting farther away from us.”

Grey grumbled while Henry was predictably silent.

The search started fresh, and although Liam had criticized Grey and Henry for dwelling on women, he couldn’t stop thinking about Alicia.

* * * * *

It was a relief to arrive at Wisteria a few minutes before nine am. The four and a half hours Alicia had spent alone at Liam’s place had been unnerving; every little sound had inspired thoughts of the escaped convicts, and it’d been all too easy to imagine one or both of them lurking in the silent swath of pines behind the house. Those nervous hours had seemed far removed from the breathless, sexy mood of her half a night with Liam.

There was no question: she had it bad. But then, how could any woman not, especially after what they’d done during her overnight stay at his place?

The night before had been a dream, sweet and hot, then drifting briefly into nightmare. Though she’d been frightened, the ordeal had also allowed her to experience something she never had before: the absolute sense of safety she’d felt in Liam’s arms, even with shattered glass glittering on the floor.

Though she’d always considered herself a happily independent woman, she had to admit that it’d felt good to let him hold her until the police had arrived, his gun within reach on the counter, his hands on her body.

“See you tonight,” she’d said when he’d left early that morning – or late the night before, depending on how she looked at it. She couldn’t wait to find herself back in his company.

For now, she walked Holden inside, where she found Sasha and Kerry seated with their heads together and a newspaper between them on a little bench in the foyer.

It wasn’t quite nine o’clock yet, but usually Sasha would be in the restaurant kitchen and Kerry upstairs or in the laundry room anyway.

“What’s so interesting?” Alicia asked, steeling herself against the possibility of a morbid answer. Was it possible that Liam had been wrong about his cousin calling if there were any further developments in the Levinson brothers’ escape?

“This couple of psychos,” Sasha said, not even looking up from the printed page. “Have you read this yet?”

“No.”

Sasha scooted over on the bench without a word, leaving just enough room for Alicia to squeeze onto the end.

Unable to resist, she fixed her gaze on the front page of the Riley Gazette, knowing without having to ask who the pair of ‘psychos’ was.

Sure enough, photos of Troy and Randy Levinson stared back at her. The mug shots were recent, showing messy facial hair and pale, cold-looking blue eyes, though the article focused more on their pasts than their present status as fugitives.

The past 48 hours’ events have catapulted the Levinson brothers into nationwide notoriety, but evidence suggests that the fugitives’ pattern of violent and anti-authoritarian behavior began during childhood, a time period that proved a fertile breeding ground for criminal sentiments and actions that would endure into adulthood.

Alicia read on, increasingly repulsed by a story of abuse, alcoholism and rumored revenge. According to the article, the Levinson brothers had grown up in a tiny hamlet in South Carolina, where their father had served as a county police officer, until his alcoholism had cost him his job. By all reports, the Levinson household had been a hellhole – though the newspaper used milder language – where each and every member was unhappy. Hateful. Maybe even murderous.

The house had gone up in flames when Randy Levinson had been 17 and Troy 15. Both parents had died in their bed, but the boys had escaped unharmed. Both had been questioned about the origins of the fire, but they’d insisted upon innocence and an arson investigation had been inconclusive.

“That’s awful,” Alicia said when she’d finished reading.

Sasha and Kerry were both already done.

“Isn’t it?” Sasha asked. “I don’t know how anyone could abuse their own children … or how anyone could murder their own parents.”

“According to the article, it’s just a theory,” Alicia said. “Nothing was ever proven.”

She said it, but she didn’t have an overabundance of faith in the Levinson brothers’ innocence. Even if they hadn’t set the fire, the article had made one thing clear: they hated law enforcement officers with a sick, deep-rooted passion.

Their criminal lives had been characterized by belligerent and often violent encounters with the law, culminating in the murder of two officers who’d been assigned to their theft cases about a year ago, and then the more recent killing of a Riley correctional officer. To say that they had a problem with authority didn’t even begin to cover it.

“Yeah well,” Sasha said, “one of them killed that innocent nurse. I don’t see why they’d hesitate to murder anyone who actually did something to piss them off.”

Alicia couldn’t help but acknowledge the likelihood of Sasha’s sentiments, and that fact made her blood run cold. After all, Liam was a correctional officer, and the previous night’s events were still fresh in her mind.

It hadn’t escaped her that Liam had been a part of the team that’d shot Troy Levinson, either. Hell, he’d given the order.

“What do you think, Kerry?” Alicia searched the other woman’s dark eyes and saw her fears – the ones she felt in her bones – confirmed there.

“I agree with Sasha, actually.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” Alicia said. “And so do I. Wait until you hear what happened last night.”

* * * * *

“I can’t believe I forgot that get-together Sasha steamrolled everyone into is tonight,” Alicia said, leaning against the railing of Liam’s kitchen counter.

It was evening already; he’d just gotten home after another crazily long shift at work. He felt his fatigue deep in his bones, but the sight of her revitalized him, at least enough to sustain a hard-on when he looked at her in the jean shorts she must’ve pulled out of her little overnight bag after getting home from work.

She’d gone straight to his place, letting herself in with a spare key he’d given her that morning. She’d been expecting him to get home around the same time, and he felt bad that she’d had to wait.

 “You’ve had a lot on your mind,” he pointed out as he stripped off his duty belt. So had he, and he’d completely forgotten. Henry had mentioned it early that day, reminding Liam that they were all supposed to have dinner at Alicia’s place that evening.

“Sasha reminded me about ten minutes after I got to work this morning. Thank God she’s set on doing all the cooking – I haven’t done anything to prepare, and everyone will be here in less than an hour. Unless, of course, you, Henry and Grey would prefer to postpone – I know you’ve had one hell of a long day. We could always do this another time.”

“No need to cancel – we’re all up for sitting around and eating a dinner we didn’t have to cook. It’s either that or pizza.” The thought of sinking into a chair with an ice cold beer and eating whatever Alicia’s chef friend whipped up sounded pretty good.

“Okay. If you’re sure, I’d better get ready.”

“Anything you need help with?” Visions of bending her over one of her kitchen counters flooded his mind, but if she needed assistance with something decidedly less satisfying, he’d help with that too.

She shook her head. “I was just going to clean up a little, maybe pick up ingredients for more of that sangria. Everyone seemed to like it.”

“Want me to go with you to the store?”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I’d like to.” He didn’t want to leave her alone at all if he didn’t have to – not given the fact that the search was still ongoing.

He changed out of his sweaty uniform and into regular clothes. Within moments, they were both in his car and on their way to pick up sangria ingredients.

He pulled into the parking lot of Cypress’ main grocery store – Piggly Wiggly. While Alicia went inside to pick up wine, juice and fresh fruit, he waited in the car with Holden, who’d leapt into the vehicle before they’d taken off.

He would’ve liked to go in with her – just in case – but dogs weren’t allowed, and it was too hot to leave a pet alone in the car. So he sat with the AC cranked up, fending off Holden’s hand-licking attacks while he watched the storefront intently. It was the farthest thing from likely that the Levinson brothers would stroll into a popular grocery store in the heart of Cypress, but after last night, his caution knew no bounds.

Neither did his affection for Alicia. Just the thought of so much as a tiny shard of glass scratching her skin made him want to rip someone’s head off. Namely, the person who’d thrown the rock through his kitchen window. He had his Glock in the console, just in case.