Adam knew what he’d done wasn’t the right approach. In fact, his boss would be pissed at what had just happened, but Adam didn’t care at the moment. He wanted this lowlife bastard to know the police were on him.
Time to check in on the ballerina.
SIX
Edward watched Detective Boyd leave the bar. The bastard didn’t seem to be worried that someone might gun him down from behind. Because that was exactly what he wanted to do. He felt it in every fiber of his being. With everything he had.
There was no doubt in his mind that the detective was fucking Keri. That thought alone sent heavy, hot, hard rage through every bone in his body.
Keri had been his.
“Not worth it,” Johnny repeated as the detective walked out of the bar. “Later.”
A growl climbed up Edward’s throat. Fury at the detective rose inside him like a storm. A storm that was about to turn into a hurricane that would destroy the detective.
He liked that analogy. Yes, he was a storm that would tear the detective apart. A little planning and the prick would be his.
“Shut up.” Edward glared at Johnny.
Everyone at his table shut their traps. Edward leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes as he started to plan. Heard it before. Don’t kill a cop ’cause they won’t stop until they get you. Well, he had gotten away with it before. It really didn’t concern him. He’d screw with their minds first … then figure a way to kill them both.
SEVEN
Keri woke, groggy, having a hard time raising her eyelids and focusing. Her head ached and her arm throbbed. Her face and arms stung as if a cat had scratched her in multiple places.
She opened her eyes. It was dim, but she knew at once that she wasn’t in her own room. Nothing around her was familiar. Not the rustic-looking dresser or framed print on the wall at the foot of the bed. If she squinted, she could see a red fox in the middle of a snow-covered forest in the picture. She thought she caught a glimpse of a pair of Native Americans on horseback slipping through the forest.
Confusion made her head spin. Where was she? She tried to push herself up in bed, then cried out from pain that exploded in her arm and she flopped back down onto the pillow. Why did her arm hurt so badly?
She forced herself to calm down and she closed her eyes.
Like a slap, memories rushed at her.
A man. Chasing her. Shooting at her.
Pain erupting in her arm when one of his bullets hit home.
Fred going after the man.
Fred, shot.
She opened her eyes again and realized her heart rate had kicked up. Her skin prickled and she slowly drew in a breath and let it out.
Everything came back to her. Starting with Detective Adam Boyd giving her the news that Edward was out of jail. Her memories ended with the detective driving her to his home, taking her straight to his spare bedroom, and tucking her into the twin bed before turning off the light. She had been asleep before the door had fully closed.
She stared up at the plain white ceiling. Her arm hurt, but it was nothing like what she had been through with her knee all those years ago. The constant pain, the hours and hours of physical therapy.
A knock at the door jerked her attention toward it. The door was slightly ajar and Adam pushed it open.
“You look beautiful for someone who was just shot and in a fight with a rosebush,” he said as he smiled and crouched beside the bed.
When he smiled, his dimple made him even more sexy, more desirable.
“Thank you.” She struggled to sit up in bed as she spoke.
Adam’s hands felt warm on her good arm and her shoulder as he helped her. She winced from the pain due to the wound, but she managed not to cry out.
“The doc prescribed some pain meds,” he said when she was sitting up. “Want me to get you a couple?”
She shook her head. “No thanks.”
“You’re tough,” he said. “I know some pretty tough cops who’ve had lesser wounds but happily popped the drugs while they needed them.”
“I have a fairly high pain tolerance,” Keri said as she rubbed sleep from her eyes. “And I want nothing to do with any kind of drug that can be addictive.”
“Smart girl.” Adam got up from where he knelt beside the bed and grabbed a straight-back chair that was up against one wall. He brought it around and sat facing her.
He braced his forearms on his thighs as he leaned forward, his warm brown eyes focused on her. His position was so familiar it was as if she had seen him do it a thousand times, even though she had only met him last night.
The same feelings that had come over her when she had first met him returned as she studied him. On some deep, primitive level she not only wanted him, she needed him.
A crazy thought.
But as she looked at him, he had an intensity to his brown eyes that was mesmerizing. His short brown hair looked permanently tousled as if he had just woken and he had a day’s growth of stubble on his jaw.
Today Adam wore a white T-shirt that was taut across his chest and his biceps stretched the sleeves. He wasn’t a large man, but he was tall and extremely fit, with an athletic build.
And he had that adorable dimple when he smiled.
“Fred is fine,” he said before she could ask. “The vet is keeping him for another night. He was afraid that Fred wouldn’t take it easy.”
“The
