I agreed.
But I had a feeling I wouldn’t find out what.
If she didn’t want to talk about it, there was no way that I could make her.
I sighed deeply into Derek’s neck. “This is a mess,” I told him. “Are you sure that you want to enter into this with me?”
I’d been teasing, of course. I knew that Derek wouldn’t let me go on my own now. He cared about me.
“Yes,” he answered simply.
His voice sounded lazy and drowsy, as if he was fighting sleep just because I was awake.
“Go to bed, Derek,” I ordered.
He chuckled, his chest rumbling with his amusement.
“I’ll go to bed just as soon as you do,” he teased.
I turned around in his arms, moving until my face was pressed into the divot of his chest where his pectoral muscles separated.
His chest hair tickled my nose as I pressed a kiss to the skin there.
He gathered me in closer, his hand on my neck.
“I’ve loved you for a really long time, you know,” I said softly. “Even though I’m good with details, I can’t pinpoint an exact time that it happened. One day, I just woke up, and I knew.”
His heart started to pound.
I could feel the hard, fast beats against my lips.
“I…”
His phone went off, signaling a SWAT call.
My heart started to race for an altogether different reason then.
He groaned and rolled over onto his back, taking me with him.
I laughed and pushed myself up, using his chest as I did.
“You better go,” I said, voice not quivering a bit even though I was now scared as hell.
No SWAT call was good in the middle of the night.
He cursed and then rolled until he was on top of me, his body in between my legs.
“I’ll be back,” he said.
Then he was up and moving, getting dressed in his black cargo pants, black SWAT t-shirt and grabbing the SWAT sweatshirt that I’d been wearing non-stop for days.
“That’s probably gonna smell like me,” I felt it prudent to point out.
He grinned in the glow that the bathroom light was casting over the room.
“I don’t care.”
I knew he didn’t.
But I still had to tell him anyway.
“Be safe, Derek,” I said softly.
Derek winked at me, shut the bathroom light off, then left quietly out of the room.
I listened hard for the front door to sound, but it didn’t.
I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Eventually, I got up and walked out to the living room to see his large, dark figure standing at the front door with his hand on the doorknob, door wide open as he let all of the air conditioning out.
“Derek?”
Derek didn’t answer, causing me to frown.
“Derek, what’s going on?” I asked again.
Still he didn’t answer.
I flipped on the light that was just on the inside of the door frame that I was standing in and froze at what I saw.
Chapter 17
Meh. No thanks. Ugh.
-If Valentine Hearts said what we really think
Derek
I cursed myself as I walked out of the bedroom, thinking that I should’ve said ‘I love you, too’ back to her.
I should have, but I hadn’t.
Why?
I was so buried in my thoughts that I didn’t pay attention to what I was doing as I walked to the front door.
In fact, I was in the process of turning around when a shotgun was racked in front of me, causing me to freeze.
“Move back,” she hissed.
Rachel.
I could see her silhouette and the sheen of the streetlight illuminating her face and one arm.
I could also see the black outline of a shotgun in her hands as she aimed it straight at my chest.
I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe.
I couldn’t.
Not with Avery defenseless in the bedroom beyond where I was standing.
“Are you deaf?” Rachel hissed. “Move! It’s time to finish off the family.”
“No,” I denied, speaking calmly and quietly. “I’m not moving.”
“Derek?”
I closed my eyes at Avery’s soft call.
Still, I didn’t move.
Couldn’t.
“Derek?” Avery repeated for a second time.
I wanted so badly to turn to her. To tell her to run.
Yet, I stayed completely still, blocking Rachel from entering and using that shotgun on Avery.
“Derek?” Avery said a third time.
This time it was followed shortly by her flicking on the lights.
I blinked, my eyes adjusting fast.
Rachel, on the other hand, blinked rapidly for a few long seconds.
I chose to use that as my chance and moved, taking one giant step into Rachel’s direction.
Rachel backpedaled, hoping to stay out of my reach, but didn’t accomplish it.
Well, she accomplished staying out of my reach. She didn’t accomplish not falling on her ass.
Out of desperation, she aimed the gun and fired at me, missing by a mile.
At least, she missed me by a mile.
She didn’t miss Avery, who had followed me out.
“Avery!” I bellowed.
Avery went down hard, her entire body hitting the side of the duplex. With brutal force.
She bounced off and slid to the side of the porch steps, into the roses.
More lights turned on, dogs started barking, and I kicked Rachel in the head.
Rachel’s went lights out, I took the gun from Rachel’s hands, and I ran to Avery who was face down in a pile of dormant rose bushes.
“Derek!”
Rowen.
“Rowen, call 9-1-1!” I screamed.
Avery lay still, unmoving, and I was terrified of what I would find when I moved her onto her back.
When I finally did, I was dismayed to see blood.
Everywhere.
***
Dax
“Where’s Derek?” Foster asked, eyes taking in the entire room that was filled with eleven members of the SWAT team.
Ford, who was the man that shared the other half of the duplex with Derek, frowned.
“I saw his cruiser’s light on as I was leaving,” he said, frowning. “Pretty sure that I saw him inside of it, actually.”
“He didn’t follow you?” Foster asked.
I thought back to it, frowning.
“I…” I started but was interrupted by one of the dispatchers running into the room.
Royal, Justice’s wife.
“Umm, y’all,” Royal said, panting. “Something’s going on at Cop Row.”
‘Cop Row’ was what everyone was calling the duplexes. Apparently, there were only cops living there with their spouses, or family members of cops. It was owned by cops. So, of course, the women of the office named it accordingly.