Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Erin shook her head. “I want to hear what they say.”
“I’m not hiding anything. Hell, I don’t know anything.” Frustration laced Cole’s tone. He met and held her gaze, his expression angry but open.
She believed him.
“Go downstairs with Cara. Sit down. You’re pale and look like you’re about to collapse.”
Erin didn’t want to admit it, but Cole was right. She was shaky, and it wouldn’t hurt to get off her feet for a little while.
“Go,” he said firmly. “I’ll talk to your brother and make some phone calls, see if something is going on with any old cases that I don’t know about.”
“Fine.” She spun around and walked out.
* * *
Cole’s head pounded as he turned to Sam. Usually considered the mild-mannered Marsden brother but no less intimidating than Mike, Sam glared at Cole with full-on fury.
“If there’s another woman, if you’re fucking with my sister, I will kill you.”
If Cole had been hiding anything from this cop, he might be worried. “I’m as in the dark as you are.” Ignoring Sam’s snort of disbelief, Cole grabbed his phone and called his boss on his home number. No more screwing around.
The man answered on the first ring. “Rockford? It’s me.”
Cole listened as the older man reamed him for not returning his calls, for falling off the grid, and immediately jumped to wanting to know when he’d be ready to return.
“No time soon. I’ve got a situation.” He spelled out the entire deal with Erin, from her being pregnant with his kid to the shredding of clothes in her room.
No time to hide the truth from his boss, not if Cole wanted to call in favors and help. Besides, much as he tried to ignore the truth, Erin and this baby would change his life. How remained to be seen. But Cole owed the other man the truth if it affected his job, and it did. Already Cole was operating differently, ignoring calls and remaining on leave longer than ever before.
“Pull recent cases, names of people who had a hard-on for me, and women who’ve indicated interest.” As Cole spoke, a vision of the one female he’d done his best to forget about came back to him in vivid detail.
Victoria Maroni wanted Cole for herself. And that was her scent he’d smelled downstairs. She’d always had a heavy hand with the perfume.
Son of a bitch.
“Call Witsec. Check on Victoria Maroni,” Cole added.
Sam’s eyebrows rose at the mention of a specific name.
Cole held up a hand. “Right. They were holding her to testify in another case involving her husband’s associates.” The last time Cole saw Victoria was right after he’d shot her husband during the raid that took down his operation.
His boss said he’d get back to him when he had something. Cole ended the call and turned to Sam. “Before you say a word, she’s the wife of the last guy whose organization I infiltrated. He treated her like dirt, and as I moved up in his inner circle, I befriended her. When things went down, I made sure she was protected. She misread the situation.”
She’d looked at Cole as her savior, her white knight, a man who’d rescued her from a life of hell for no other reason than his love for her. He’d just been doing his job. He remembered how he’d thought of her as a poor deluded woman, one deprived of love and affection.
“She mistook my friendship and protection as something more than it was. I felt sorry for her, but I never perceived her as a threat.”
“Maybe you were wrong,” Sam said in disgust.
The way Cole’s stomach was churning, he agreed. “And that mistake put Erin in harm’s way.” Nothing he could do about the past, but he could do something now. “I need to get her out of here while you do your jobs.”
Sam nodded. “Where?”
Cole remembered the look on her face when she’d walked through Nick’s spec home. “I’ll talk to Nick.” He explained his idea, and Sam agreed.
“How are you going to get Erin to go along quietly? And miss work until this is over?”
“She’ll go if I have to tie her up for a goddamn month,” Cole muttered.
Sam barked out a laugh. “I don’t like one thing about this mess, but I have to admit I’d pay to see that.”
Cole didn’t reply because if he had Erin tied up anywhere, her brother was the last person he’d want around to see what he did with her.
“I need you to help me get her out of here unnoticed,” Cole told Sam. “And I need you to talk to your mother. Whatever clothes Erin bought when they were together? Tell her to replace them and have them sent to you. On me. I’ll make arrangements to get them from you.”
Sam’s expression turned from wary to something more akin to respect. Cole didn’t deserve it. As far as he was concerned, Jed finally had a point. All Cole had done was mess up Erin’s life from the second he’d come into it. The best he could do now was to make sure she remained safe.