Текст книги "Exposed"
Автор книги: Ivy Stone
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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 16 страниц)
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lindsey
Eight days later
How far would you go to protect the ones you love? I’d bleed lies to set her free. I’d bleed truth to watch her fly.
Adrenaline spikes from the tips of my toes all the way up until it’s crushing my heart. I can feel their eyes on me. I can sense it everywhere I turn.
I discreetly scan everything in my vision without making myself obvious. I eye the alley just a few steps away. It will be my best option. With a calmness to my stride and my head held high, I take each step with more confidence than the last. I turn down the abandoned alley beside the courthouse. Leaning back against the brick wall, I wait a moment before peeking around the corner to check for anything abnormal, anyone out of place. Nothing catches my eye. Damn it. I’m not paranoid. I know I’m being watched. I’ve done it enough times myself to know how to blend in undetected. And considering what day it is, I’m not ignorant enough to believe I’m not putting myself in a situation where harm may come to me. I pick off the lint on my high-waisted skirt and flip my hair back out of my face.
I breathe in bravery, and exhale fear. I’ll be damned if those assholes think I’ll scare so easily.
***
The flashing of cameras blind me and the questions being hurled at us ring in my ears. Police keep the reporters at a distance but their questions sit in the back of my mind behind a loaded gun.
How does it feel to be the reason Lucio and Giuseppe Marino are being sent to prison?
Bang.
You’ve done the city a favor today. Are you afraid of blowback?
Bang.
Are you receiving police protection?
Bang.
Shot after shot, a new wound appears and I wonder if we will survive.
“We did it.” I hear Ali whisper the words I’ve been thinking but haven’t said aloud.
Grabbing her hand, I squeeze it reassuringly. “Yeah, we did, babe. You okay?”
An hour ago, we testified against the largest crime family in New York City. If that wasn’t signing our own death certificates, the heart palpitations I’m having might just finish the job. Ali fixates on the stairs beneath us instead of answering my question. Avoiding reality, she ignores me completely and I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s how she handles every situation. But I am hurt. I risked my life for the safety of hers. I want to climb inside her head and shake some sense into her. She checked into rehab four days ago, willingly. Maybe she’ll open up to someone there.
“I’m not, but I will be.” She forces a smile.
“We did what we had to do,” I try convincing her. One of us has to be strong, so I keep my chin up and my emotions at bay, just the way it’s always been.
Ali’s shoulders slump forward. “I know. Except now we’ll be looking over our shoulders forever. And not only that, I betrayed the one friend who has always had my back.”
Her eyes fill with new-found sadness at the mention of Adriana. “I’ll never get her back, Lindsey, that’s what kills me the most inside. I just sent her brother and her dad to prison.”
“You will. Hey, come on now.” I grab her chin and lift her head to meet mine. “Everything will be okay, just not today. But that’s all right because we’ve got each other.”
“I hope you’re right. At least I won’t do any time now. And thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you, sis. You’ve been more of a mother to me than our real one ever was.”
Her words pull at my heartstrings, the sentiment bittersweet. Nothing hurts me more than seeing my sister in the same pain I’ve felt since losing our mother. We all need a mom, and she doesn’t hold memories of the few good years with ours. She was too young to remember. Her only memories are the haunting ones after our dad’s passing. Yet at the same time, I feel accomplished knowing I’ve shown her enough love and care she considers me as a replacement for the real thing.
It doesn’t matter that we’ll be looking over our shoulders until we’ve received punishment for our betrayal to the Marino family. It will come, and when it does, I’ll go down fighting because I refuse to sit back and watch my sister rot in a cell for assholes who think they own our silence. I’d shown my loyalty to them for taking Oliver, Ali and me in all those years ago. For giving me the resources to fight out my anger and lock away my stepfather. Giuseppe, his wife, and children, welcomed us into their family. He’d given our lives purpose. We could afford to go to college and get our degrees because of him. He gave us a way to make money to assure we never ended up hungry and homeless, the way he found us. But I’d long since paid my debts. I owed them nothing.
“You’re my sister. I’ll always be there for you.” I circle my arm around her shoulders and we walk down the steps. “Now let’s get you back to the clinic.”
Mason
A slap stings my back. “You gonna stand there and stare at her all day or what?” Roamyn’s voice tears me away from Lindsey.
I slide on my sunglasses and button up my suit jacket. “Come on. Let’s get back.”
I cringe when I pass the grieving faces of the Marino women as they say goodbye to their husbands, their sons, their brothers, and cousins. Today, the underbelly of these streets changed and justice was served. Today, shit got motherfucking real. Dread continues to swallow me whole. A positive end to today is exactly what we hoped for, so why does it still feel like we’ve lost?
The silence of my office brings peace for a few hours while Roamyn is out and Elias is at a meet with the Misery’s Angels MC. I’ve got Cassidy organizing protection for Alison at rehab where she’ll hold up until further notice, and Lindsey, I’m covering her ass tonight myself. She just doesn’t know it yet.
After the uproar in court earlier, there’s no way I’m letting anyone else watch her tonight. Giuseppe Marino was way too fucking calm. The guy got told he was being sentenced to years in a federal prison and he was fucking smiling like a goddamn Cheshire cat. The look he gave Lindsey and Alison sent chills down my spine as I stood squeezing the gun at my side just in case he could shoot bullets with his eyes because, fuck, the asshole wanted them dead, that much I was sure of.
Lindsey put up a solid front. Alison had turned to her with tears in her eyes, and she grabbed her hand and smiled. When she was spoken to, she was polite, honest. The woman could work a room like no one I’d ever seen, her ever-changing disguise fooling everyone, except me. Had I not sat in the courtroom watching her closely, I wouldn’t have noticed. But while she stayed strong for her sister, when she thought no one was looking at her, I was. I watched as uncertainty grew behind those murky eyes and I had to physically stop myself from striding over to her and pulling her into my arms.
Before I could go to Lindsey though, I had a call to make. Charlotte wasn’t going to be happy.
***
An ache forms in my neck as I hold my phone between my shoulder and my ear, resting it there to call Cora, Charlotte’s sitter.
The line picks up and a bright “Hello?” sounds through the phone.
“Cora, I have a huge favor to ask.”
“Sure, what’s up, Mason?”
I grab Charlotte’s school bag from her, putting it on the countertop and she bolts into her bedroom before I can remind her she has homework to do. “I was hoping you might be able to stay with Charlotte tonight. I have to work and I won’t be home till the morning.” I hesitate before continuing, “If you can’t, that’s okay.”
My guilty conscious trips me up already. I hate leaving Charlotte, even to send her to school in the mornings. With my line of work, worry weaves its way into my system every second she isn’t near.
“I can stay with her. I don’t have plans after work and I’m about fifteen minutes away. I just need to grab some things for overnight. Give me twenty minutes?”
“Yeah, sure. Thanks, Cora,” I reply, genuinely thankful for her help, because if it wasn’t for her knocking on my door five years ago at one thirty in the morning offering to help settle one distraught little girl who she could hear from inside her apartment next door, I would never have met her and found another person I trust my baby girl with. I’d been a father barely a week. My face made clear how sleep deprived I was, that and the apartment was littered with nearly every parenting book ever printed. Yet, no matter how many times I paced back and forward with her in my arms that night trying to soothe her, nothing worked. I sure as shit wasn’t going to turn down some much needed help, and it turned out, Cora had some magical woman touch which Charlotte seemed to take to. She also happened to be a nanny, one who passed a background check and I’ve now grown to care for.
Charlotte emerges from her room distracted by something on her iPad. “Dad, why are you going back to work so late? I heard you on the phone with Cora.”
I sigh, hating I’m leaving her again so soon. I need to be there tonight for Lindsey but my heart tears in two when Charlotte gives me big, pleading eyes.
“I’m sorry, baby girl, but someone else needs me for the night. She’s in trouble and someone’s got to watch over her to protect her from the bad guys. That’s got to be me, but I promise you I’ll be back in the morning to drop you off at school, okay?” I kiss her on the forehead and hold her to me. “It’s just for tonight. Plus you’ll have Cora here. You know she’s more fun to play with than me.”
I keep it light, hoping a little humor will distract her.
Charlotte laughs, despite the slight disappointment I can see she’s trying to hide. “Nah, Dad, you’re the best. But it’s okay.” She puffs her chest out and I proudly smile. She’s trying to be strong. She’s growing up so fast, each day quicker than the one before. Some days it feels like I’m missing it all happening before my eyes, even as she sits across from me at the breakfast table each morning. All because my mind is too occupied by work and the hell pouring down on me from above.
Cora sneaks up behind Charlotte for a hug fifteen minutes later, while I’m preparing dinner for the two of them. We talk briefly and after reminding Charlotte about her bedtime, which I know she’ll try to get out of, I say goodbye to the girls.
Crouching down in front of Charlotte, hands on her little waist, I look up at her sweet young face and ask her the same question I ask her every night. “How much do I love you?”
Charlotte smiles brightly and repeats the same words she always has, “There is no end to your love, Daddy.”
“That’s right, baby girl, my infinity,” I say, holding her close, finding it hard to let her go.
A weight lifts off my chest every time I hear those words from her. She’s been my only comfort, the reason I wake up pretending like I hadn’t been emotionally numb the day before.
No one understands it; they can’t. They weren’t there. The day sleepless nights became a common occurrence was the day I failed to protect the people I swore I’d serve. Five innocent children lost their lives, parents lost their babies. There aren’t words that can describe how I felt when I watched their faces contort with such loss. I began deteriorating on the inside from that day forward.
Lindsey
I slurp up the last of my noodles and place the take-out box on the coffee table. When a female detective from Mason’s squad rang earlier, I assumed when she said your protection detail will be over soon, she meant within an hour or so, sometime actually soon. But here I am sitting in my floral flannelette pajamas, sans makeup, hair tied in a knot on top of my head, scoffing down deliciously unhealthy Chinese food, because not that I care to admit it, but being alone right now is a little unnerving for even the most fearless of women.
Pounding on the door startles me and I jackknife up. “Shit!”
The television remote falls to the floor from the blanket splayed over me on the couch. My phone vibrates silently on the coffee table, lighting up with an incoming call.
I pick it up before answering the door. “Hello?”
“It’s Mason.” His gravelly voice pours through my cell, and instantly I’m alert.
“Hi.”
“Your protection detail is at your door. Might need to open up for them.”
“Okay. I’ll go let them in now. And Mason,” I hesitate, “Thank you. I’ll sleep easier knowing Alison is being looked out for at the clinic. I know you organized this.”
There’s a pause, silence the only reply to my thank you.
“Not a problem, sweetheart. Part of the job,” he delivers before clicking off and I roll my eyes, imagining his face as his charm trickles down the phone.
I walk over to the door and peer through the small peephole, checking for the NYPD police officers.
My jaw drops open and my pulse quickens the second I recognize the body on the other side. He’s so damn tall that as I peek through, I can barely see his face. I’m greeted with his broad hoodie-covered chest. Opening the door, my brows bunch together and I stand taller. Of all the police officers in New York City.
No. Just no.
His lips curve upward into a boyish grin and I hold in the urge to kiss it right off his face. The structure of his high jaw, the bobble of his Adam’s apple as he swallows, the slight tilt of his head, and that fucking hair…the guy radiates sex like nobody’s business. I’m surprised panties don’t drop with that look alone.
“Going to let me in, Linds?”
I cross my arms just under my chest. “You have got to be kidding me.”
His eyes flicker straight to my breasts because without meaning to, I’ve shoved them up on display. Just as I open my mouth to call him out on it, he shifts his gaze, bringing it back up to meet my own.
“Afraid not.”
“Why did they send you?”
With his head still tilted, face poised to make me melt into a pool of desire, he replies, “To protect and serve, sweetheart.”
Oh, Jesus.
I laugh and move out of the doorway, letting him through. Damn, it’s going to be a long night. “I bet that line works on all the ladies, doesn’t it?”
He drops his phone, badge and keys on the side table as he walks in, then turns to me shaking his head.
“Wouldn’t know, never used it on a woman until right now.” He shrugs and stares at me blankly. Does the man honestly not realize how good looking and adorable he is? I cover my eyes with my hands. “Oh, God, stop.” I swing my arms out in front of me as I make my way back to my comfy spot on the couch. “Nope. I will not swoon over you, Mason, so you may as well quit it now.”
I hear his chuckle from the kitchen. “Can I get you anything to drink?” he yells out and I peer over the couch to respond. There he is, fine ass in my face, bending over to check out my nearly empty fridge. In a city that never sleeps, why cook your own food when you can get it delivered anytime of any day? His jean-clad behind distracts me so I don’t realize I’m still ogling him until it’s too late. Damn it, he caught me staring.
He points behind him to the fridge while staring me down. “Something in the fridge caught your eye? ‘Cause just to let you know, I think everything in there expired two years ago.”
I grab the cushion beside me and throw it in his direction. He ducks to dodge it while laughing.
“Ha-ha, very funny, smartass.” I fall back into the cozy corner of the couch I’d become comfortable in and exhale a deep breath. Listening to Mason banging around in the kitchen stamps an unexpected sense of contentment on my soul. Why is he being so caring, so attentive? I didn’t ask for this. I don’t want it, do I?
I take a second to look around. I live in a beautiful city, a beautiful home. I have beautiful materialistic things, but what I don’t have is someone I want to share it with. I’ve never wanted to share my heart and soul with anyone before. With every job, it lessens my longing for companionship. Because people aren’t kind, there’s no such thing as loyalty and to put it simply, people generally fucking suck. They’ll always disappoint in the end.
I could never expect anyone to accept the choices I make in life and be prepared to journey along my path with me. And if they did, what kind of person would it make them? I’m not a good person, and I’m certainly not a woman worthy of an honest man. I have Olly. I have Ali. They accept me for who I am, they understand why I’ve done the things I have, why I do what I do. They are more than enough.
I turn my head back to Mason, who’s just finished making coffee. “Mason, what are you doing?”
He looks to me across the counter like I’ve asked a ridiculous question with the most obvious answer and it builds my frustration.
“Well, right now, I’m filling up on caffeine since I’m going to be pulling an all-nighter. And I was offering you a drink because it’s the polite thing to do.” He takes a sip of his drink before continuing, “That, and it’s your place.”
I roll my eyes. “Well, yeah, I know that much. I meant why is the chief detective of OCCB here and not your average police officers? Chief detectives do not get put on protection duty. Which means there’s another reason you’re here. So what is it?”
I narrow my eyes at him, searching for clues, answers…truth. A knot forms in my stomach. What does he know?
“If anyone’s going to protect you, Linds, it’ll be me.” In seconds, he’s in front of me, too close for comfort as he pulls me up to stand opposite him.
Clasping my chin between his thumb and finger, he tilts my head upwards so we’re looking at one another.
“Can’t be here every day or every night, but tonight, I could be, so here I am. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay on the couch. I won’t sleep anyway, but I’m not leaving you alone with two officers you don’t know after what went down today. You wanna admit that shit gets to you, good. You don’t, that’s fine too. Doesn’t matter because I’m here, sweetheart. For no other reason than to look out for you on a shitty fucking day.”
“Oh,” I breathe out barely above a whisper. My nipples tighten from the heat of his breath on my skin and his hands come from nowhere, sliding down my sides roughly until he reaches my hips and grips them in his palms. My panties become wetter with every second he makes contact, my breathing quickens. Shit, why does he have to feel so good?
The conviction in his tone has me questioning if I should bother trying to challenge him staying the night. Frustration mixed with desire reddens my cheeks.
“Last time I’m asking, sweetheart, want a drink?” Mason’s hands squeeze my hips, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Fine. I’ll have water. Thanks.”
“All right. Now get your ass back on the couch and relax.”
My mouth hangs open in shock. The hairs on my neck stand on end while my whole body tingles with need as a shiver of pleasure rolls through me.
“Good God, you’re bossy.”
He chuckles in response and leans in, his lips grazing my ear. “The way your body is trembling right now, sweetheart, I’d say you fucking love it.”
And I do. I can’t even deny to myself how everything about him seems to make me feel things I never knew I liked or even wanted. Maybe it’s just him, but we’ll never know because I’ll never show him. My body craves him while my heart defends itself by rejecting him. When my mind finally weighs in on the struggle, I want neither side to win. In this two-front war, is it possible to find equilibrium?
***
His voice soothes my soul. His laugh, such a welcome distraction. For a short time, my mind drifts away from reality. I don’t think about work, Alison, or the repercussions of testifying. I relax into an easy routine of back and forth banter with Mason, which surprisingly comforts my heart.
A ringing sounds from the end table and Mason jumps up to answer his phone. I shouldn’t eavesdrop, but when a man answers the phone with a ‘Hey, baby girl’ a woman’s interest piques. I lean back into the couch to appear comfortable when really I’ve already zoned everything else out while I wait to hear what Mason says next. As he walks past me over to the floor-to-ceiling window, which is still within hearing distance, I force the superficial smile I’ve perfected after years of practice, and I sit, pretending, the one part of my life I excel at. I pretend my mind and my heart aren’t niggling at the fact I may have misjudged Mason after all.
“Okay. Goodnight, love you.”
I grimace, hearing the loving endearment and my mind continues to race a million miles per hour. It can’t be a girlfriend, or a wife. I’m sure of it. He wears no wedding band and everything I’ve seen from him proves he’s not like the usual type of man I cross paths with. My stomach feels queasy and my insides twist with self-doubt. Had I mistaken the kind of man he is because I’ve been blinded by this unfamiliar attraction to him? Mason clicks off and places his phone back on the counter before returning to my side, draping an arm around me.
Curiosity gets the better of me. “Should you be somewhere else right now?”
He rests back, making himself comfortable. “No, I’m right where I need to be tonight.”
I glance at him suspiciously, eyebrows raised. He must notice my concern because he quickly adds, “That was my daughter on the phone. She’s at home with the sitter.”
My eyes widen, head tipping to the side, “You have a child?”
He’s as calm as can be, completely relaxed.
“Yep, sure do.”
“Oh,” is all I can manage.
Detective Mason Cole just got impossibly hotter.
Mason
Pain shoots up my neck as I straighten it from its kinked position. Pins and needles weigh down my arm; it’s as heavy as fucking lead from being raised for so long. Lindsey’s sleeping form is tucked into my side and her hair feels like silk splayed across my bicep. I take the opportunity while I’ve got it and shift her into a more comfortable position for us both. Closing my eyes, I lay my head back, soaking in the softness of her smooth skin pressed up against mine.
I regret moving as soon as she moans in her sleep, wriggling herself somehow fucking closer, stirring my cock to life. Fuck. My dick swells in my jeans, aching for attention.
Picking Lindsey up, one arm underneath her knees the other around her back, I carry her to bed, my patience wearing too thin to sit with her any longer, listening to her make those sexy little sounds. I’ll go crazy and do something like strip her naked and fuck her.
Sliding back the covers, I gently tuck her in and a lightness I don’t often feel resonates from my chest at seeing her this way. So open, so vulnerable, asleep she seems at peace, relaxed. Once Lindsey digested the idea of Charlotte earlier, something shifted between us. I don’t really think either of us knew what it was. All I know is I sure as fuck didn’t want it to stop.
Every now and again her smile wouldn’t be hollow, her laugh would be real, and those steel blue eyes would bore into mine full of so many questions that I instantly hated whoever was capable of sucking all the faith out of this beautiful woman. They were short-lived flashes, like lightning in a storm. That was until the rain fell, showering reality down on us. But those moments of clarity proved something. The wall guarding Lindsey’s heart has cracks, and I was ready to knock it wide open.
I check the other rooms and locks in the loft before lying down to rest for a few hours. My heavy lidded eyes slowly droop, longing for sleep. Grabbing my gun from the back of my waistband, I dump it on the coffee table right in front of the couch, keeping it within reach. No one had come near the place, and although I didn’t believe anything catastrophic would happen to Lindsey tonight, there’s still a possibility Marino’s goons would strike, albeit a dumb move.
I lace my hands behind my head and glance around Lindsey’s living room. I take everything in properly for the first time. My lips curl up into a smile. It’s all Lindsey. Femininity seeps through the curtains, but not in an overstated way. It’s classic, all timeless furniture, pristine and cared for. It’s beautiful, like her. My eyes drift closed again, this time imagining blue eyes made of stone.
