Task Force Bride (18 page)

She nodded and he faded away again as Pike turned her away from the black uniforms and plainclothes officers storming into the room. “Come on, honey. You’ve done your part.” He pushed her several steps out of the way while he holstered his weapon and ripped apart the Velcro fastenings on his flak vest. “You’ve done a hell of a lot more than we had the right to ask of you.”

“I can’t see anything, Pike. I feel so lost.”

“Here. Probably should have left them at the crime scene, but...” The first thing Hope saw when Pike slipped her glasses onto her nose was the clear blue gaze of his eyes. They were dark with concern, lined with fatigue—and the most beautiful sight she could hope to see.

Joy and relief rushed through her before caution and common sense could, and Hope stretched up onto her toes and looped her bound arms around Pike’s neck. “You found me. You saved me. Just like you promised.”

His arms cinched around her back and he lifted her clear off the floor, turning his face into her hair. “Hans found you. He followed your scent across two city streets and up three flights of stairs. He’s the one who saved you.”

Hope struggled to find the floor again, to stand on her own two feet and frame Pike’s anguished face between her hands. “Who trained Hans? Who busted up that door so he could get to me? Who never gave up on me?” She pulled his head down and kissed him, just the way he’d taught her how. “Thank you,” she whispered as she settled back on her feet. “Thank you.”

Without a
you’re welcome
or
no problem
or
my pleasure,
ma’am,
Pike pushed his vest over his head and dropped it to the floor. He picked up the very box cutter Brian had threatened her with and sliced through the tape on her wrists. Then he pulled off her ruined sweater and replaced it with the blue flannel shirt he wore.

And while Pike buttoned her up, the rest of the room came into focus. They were at a construction site. She recognized the two-by-fours framing open walls that had been covered in plastic.

“Secure this location,” Montgomery ordered. There were several voices talking now. Clipped commands and “yes, sirs.”

“This crazy guy has created his own sterile room.” That was Detective Fensom. “He could move this setup from building site to building site. No wonder we could never come up with a crime scene. Annie’s going to have a field day processing this one.”

“So let’s get everyone out of here before we contaminate any more of it.” Spencer Montgomery was clearly the man in charge. “Get Chief Taylor on the line and wake up the commissioner. I’m escorting this guy downtown myself.”

“I want a doctor and my lawyer,” Brian protested.

“Bring Miss Lockhart, too.”

“Yes, sir,” Pike answered, catching a T-shirt that one of the uniformed officers tossed to him, and slipping it on over his head. “Need anything before we go downtown?” he asked her.

Another kiss? A chance to erase the guilt that lingered in his eyes? But what if he didn’t want her to ask those things, anymore? They didn’t have to pretend to be a couple anymore.

They were a cop and a shopkeeper.

They were friends.

“Yes, wait.” She couldn’t leave yet, not without the rest of her protection team. “Hans!
Hier!
”

The German shepherd jumped to his feet and trotted over to her.
“Setzen!”
He sat down beside her and Hope knew an urge to drop to her knees and hug him around the neck, too. But training was a slow, repetitive process. And she still had a ways to go to completely move past those long-ingrained fears. But she did reached down and scratch around his soft, furry ears. “Good boy, Hansie. Good boy.”

If Pike hadn’t laced his fingers with hers just then, she might have burst into tears. Instead, she latched onto the strength of his hand, to the strength he’d revealed inside her.

She had a feeling she’d need every last bit of that strength to get through the rest of the day—maybe, to get through the rest of her life.

“Thank you, Hans.” She petted the dog one more time, then headed to the door with Pike on her left and Hans on her right. She was safe. Kansas City was safe. It was enough. “Thank you both.”

Chapter Twelve

How long were Spencer Montgomery and Nick Fensom going
to keep grilling Hope?

When Pike stepped off the elevator onto the third floor at
Fourth Precinct headquarters, her curly mane of toffee hair was the first thing
he spotted. Without the overbearing assistance of either her attorney or her
mentor, Hope was sitting across from Detective Montgomery at his desk, going
over some kind of paperwork. Maybe it was just the formal approval of her
statement. And maybe the detectives were demanding something more from a brave
woman who had already given far too much.

They had Brian Elliott dead to rights on kidnapping and assault
charges, thanks to Hope. And the task force was certain they could get him on
the multiple rape charges now that he could be compelled to give a DNA sample to
match the evidence they had on file at the crime lab. If they got a witness to
come forward who could put Elliott at any one of those previous crimes, they’d
have a slam-dunk case for the D.A.’s office, and the man would never get out of
prison.

Pike leaned against the sergeant’s counter, scrubbing the tight
muscles of his jaw as he watched over the conversation from a distance. Even
though the detectives had let her shower and put on a borrowed set of gray KCPD
sweats after Annie Hermann had taken her clothes and Pike’s shirt, and processed
Hope for evidence, the grueling marathon of wrapping up the details of the task
force investigation had to be wearing her out. Hell, Pike was exhausted. And he
hadn’t been struck in the head, kidnapped and nearly assaulted.

She’d sat through the task force briefing with his team, eaten
a lousy cafeteria lunch and identified Elliott in a lineup, first with, and then
without, that neurotic surgical mask he’d been wearing that first night he’d
nearly run her off the road with his van. Pike had even had time to run down to
the locker room to shower and shave and put on a clean uniform while Hope met
with Commissioner Cartwright-Masterson and Pike’s uncle, Precinct Chief Mitch
Taylor, to receive an official departmental thank-you for a citizen going above
and beyond to help serve and protect her community.

They’d have to feed her dinner soon if they kept Hope here much
longer. And Pike wanted that opportunity for himself. He wanted to take her
home, at least. Let her change into something demure and girly, and run around
barefoot. He wanted to tuck her into bed and watch over her and teach her a
thing or two more about making out and making love—or maybe he’d let her teach
him since she seemed to have such a flair for making him crazy in all the right
ways.

“Earth to Edison.” A bump on his shoulder roused him from his
thoughts. “Yo, Pike.”

Pike pushed away from the sergeant’s desk and looked down to
see his brother Alex grinning up at him. “Now what?”

He knew that look. Alex was cooking up something that was going
to either embarrass him or put him in his place.

“I was just wondering how long you were going to stand here
looking at that woman before you work up the nerve to go over there and do
something about it.”

“Do something about what?”

Alex punched him again. “How much you love her.”

Pike shrugged off Alex’s annoying attempt to get a reaction out
of him. “It was a fake relationship, Alex. An undercover op.”

“Uh-huh.” Alex crossed his arms in front of him, mimicking
Pike’s stance. “I saw the look on your face when you realized Elliott had her.
That wasn’t worry that you’d blown the assignment—that was a man who had his
heart ripped out of his chest because he thought he might lose the woman he
loves.”

Surprised by his brother’s serious tone, Pike released a heavy
breath and admitted his fear. “What if it was just a job to her? Hope doesn’t
have a lot of experience with men. Now that she knows she can do anything she
sets her mind to, be with anyone she wants—what if she decides I’m not what she
wants?”

“Seriously?” Alex shook his head. “You’re a Taylor. You’re
KCPD. You’re
my
brother. She’d be crazy not to want
you.”

Something warm and free from doubt blossomed inside Pike at his
brother’s vehement defense. He grinned his appreciation. “You’re getting soft on
me, Alex.”

Hope and the detectives all stood and shook hands, giving every
indication that at last they were done.

“Me? Soft?” Alex nudged Pike forward, quickly moving past the
mushy stuff. “I’m not the one who’s afraid to tell a woman that he loves her.
You go up to her, maybe take some flowers, think about your favorite greeting
card and what it says. Tell her she’s pretty or sexy or—”

Pike palmed Alex in the face and shoved him away. “I got
this.”

* * *

S
O
THIS
WAS
it.

Hope had stayed as long as she could at precinct headquarters,
waiting for the chance to share a private conversation with Pike before they had
to return to their normal,
real,
lives tomorrow.
Before they went back to being the neighborhood cop and the shy shopkeeper he
tipped his hat to.

Now he was closing the door to one of the meeting rooms behind
him, filling up the small space with his size and earthy scent and easy
confidence. She paced off the length of the conference table, wishing she had
time to change into something more feminine, wishing she wasn’t bruised and
scarred and so embarrassingly new at this personal relationship thing.

“Pike—”

“Hope—”

They had started together.

Her cheeks heated with embarrassment. “You go ahead.”

“No, you first.”

Fine. She could do this. She tugged the sleeves of the
sweatshirt she wore down over her fingers and curled the long cuffs inside her
fists. “I just wanted...” She tipped her face up to his and smiled. No need to
be nervous when what she had to say was true. “I wanted to thank you.”

He leaned his hip against the table and sat on the corner. “For
what?”

“Saving my life. Being patient. Teaching me not to be so afraid
of dogs.” She moved a couple of steps closer and gestured toward the detectives’
desks beyond the door. “Thank you for finally getting my father out of my life.
And for showing me how to love. You were my first, Pike. In more ways than
you’ll ever know.”

“Like I said, you have all the right instincts, honey. You just
needed the confidence to act on them.” He plucked at a nonexistent piece of lint
on his black slacks. “What do your instincts say about us?”

If she could survive this past week, then she could find the
courage to say three words. “I love you.” His fingers stopped playing and his
head jerked up. “But I want you to know that I would never hold you to any sham
of a relationship. If all we can be is friends, I’m okay with that.”

“I’m not.”

“Excuse me?”

Pike reached for her hand and pulled her closer, adjusting his
position so he could pull her between his knees and slip his fingers inside her
baggy shirt to rest his hands at either side of her waist. “Look, I’m going to
say this just as plain and direct as I know how. I love you, Hope Lockhart. You
deserve a happily-ever-after more than any woman I know.” He twirled a fingertip
into a long tendril of hair that had fallen across her cheek, and tucked it back
behind her ear. She leaned her cheek into his hand when it lingered there. “If
you’d be interested, I’d like to hire your services to create the wedding of
your dreams. I’d like you to be the bride and I want to be the groom. I’ll even
put on one of those damned tuxes. I want the real thing with you.”

“Yes.”

“Yes? This is what you really want, too? I’m a real catch. I
talk to dogs, I like to fish, I don’t always say what I mean.” Sarcasm bled into
his voice, but she refused to hear it.

Hope slipped her fingers around his crisp black collar and
drifted closer to the addictive warmth of his body. “But you
do
what you mean. Let me make this just as plain and
direct as I can, too. My answer is yes.” The doubts around her heart vanished
like magic and she leaned in to meet his kiss. “
You’re
my happily-ever-after.”

* * * * *

Don’t miss the conclusion of
USA TODAY
bestselling author Julie Miller’s
THE PRECINCT: TASK
FORCE when
YULETIDE PROTECTOR BRIDE
goes on sale in December 2013.
Look for it wherever
Harlequin
Intrigue books are sold!

Keep reading for an excerpt of
Glitter and
Gunfire
by Cynthia Eden!

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