by Claire Raye
Erin stares at me, her eyes once again searching mine, looking for the truth in what I’m telling her. Eventually, she smiles, almost shyly as she leans in and kisses me softly.
“Okay,” she whispers against my mouth before deepening the kiss.
“I need to go,” I say.
“Are you talking to me or the baby?” Erin asks, her fingers sliding into my hair.
I’m lying with my head on her chest, my hand resting on her stomach as I try and work up the energy to get out of bed and head back to Boston. It’s still early, but I have so much shit to do today, I really need to get going.
“Both,” I say, pressing a kiss to her stomach before looking up at her. Erin smiles down at me, her fingers combing through my hair. “I really wish I didn’t have to go,” I add. “But I’ll be back tonight, I promise.”
“Ryan,” she says. “You don’t need to do that. You can’t commute every day, it’s too much.”
“Let me worry about that, babe,” I say, rolling out of bed. “And Chris will be here to watch over you today, so you don’t need to worry about that either.”
“Ryan,” she says again, her tone firm.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “No arguing with me on this one.”
“But Finn is here,” she says.
“Yeah, apparently,” I say sarcastically as I walk into the bathroom and take a shower.
Finn.
Like he was so fucking useful two days ago.
Forty minutes later, I’m finishing my coffee, when a knock sounds at the front door. Erin looks up from the kitchen table, a confused look on her face.
“I’ll get it,” I say, walking out. When I open the front door, Chris is standing on the other side, dressed casually in jeans and a sweater as though it’s his day off. In reality it’s to minimize how much he stands out.
“Hey,” he says, smiling as he sticks out a hand.
“Hey,” I reply, shaking it and gesturing for him to come inside. “Thanks for doing this,” I add as I walk toward the kitchen.
“Of course,” he says, following me in.
“Erin, babe, this is Chris,” I say introducing them. “Chris, this is my girlfriend, Erin.”
“Nice to meet you,” Erin says.
Chris nods in her direction before turning back to me. “So inside or out, you got a preference?”
“I’d prefer in, if she’s okay with that, but with regular perimeter walks to check the outside. There are cameras mounted at…”
“Ah, what is going on here?” Erin asks, interrupting me.
We both turn and see she’s standing now, hands on her hips as she looks from me to Chris and back to me again.
“Chris is going to keep an eye on things today,” I say, shrugging. “Until I can get back here.”
“Ryan,” Erin says, her jaw tight. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
I glance at Chris who gets the hint and silently walks out of the room to give us some privacy. Turning back to Erin, I step closer to her, placing my hands on her hips as I pull her toward me.
“Babe, I told you. I’m not taking any chances with this. I know you don’t like it,” I add, kissing her forehead. “And I know it’s going to piss you off, but like I said before, I am not going to let anything happen to you.”
Erin stares up at me, her mouth a tight line. “What about Finn?” she asks.
I take a deep breath, forcing my thoughts on Finn to stay buried, knowing they are the last thing she’s going to want to hear. “Finn has his own job to do,” I say. “He doesn’t have the time or the manpower for something like this.”
Erin doesn’t move, her hands still on her hips as she all but gives me the stink eye.
“Come on, Red,” I say, stepping nearer as I lean down and press a trail of kisses along her jaw. “Let me take care of you. Both of you.”
Erin lets out a loud huff, finally conceding as she wraps her arms around my waist and leans against me. “Fine,” she says, clearly still pissed about this arrangement. “But you better not stop me from doing anything,” she adds.
I pull back, brush a hand across her cheek. “As long as Chris is with you, you can do whatever you want, babe,” I say. “I’ll be back tonight, late cause I need to swing by my apartment.”
“Ry…”
“No arguments,” I say, cutting her off as I press a hard kiss to her mouth. “And it would be nice if I came home to find you naked,” I add, winking at her. Erin rolls her eyes at me, but she’s smiling now. I grin back, leaning in again so our foreheads are touching. “I love you, Erin,” I whisper.
She’s staring back at me, all sorts of emotions passing over her face. Just as I’m about to pull back and leave, I hear her. The words so faint they are barely a whisper.
“I love you too.”
I swallow hard, my heart pounding as I try to take a mental picture of this exact moment. Despite me having said the same words to her a hundred times already, I can tell she’s petrified by the fact she’s finally said them out loud to me. And despite always knowing she felt this way, I also know I need to reassure her, convince her that she doesn’t need to be scared to admit how she feels.
So I pull out my phone, make a point of checking the date and the time before I open up the voice memo app and hold it in front of her.
“I’m sorry, but could you repeat that?” I ask, grinning a little.
Erin glances at my phone before looking back at me, shaking her head a little. She swallows hard, taking a deep breath before she says, “I said, I love you too, you cheeky shit. Now hurry up and go to work so you can come home already.”
I laugh, closing the app as I lean in and kiss her, before turning and walking out of the kitchen, my heart floating inside my chest.
As I pull out of Erin’s drive, I’m practically on cloud nine. Despite all the shit that’s gone down over the past forty-eight hours and all the problems I still need to solve, nothing can wipe the smile off my face.
Not only am I going to be a dad, but Erin loves me. She’s finally fucking admitted she loves me, which feels like nothing short of a miracle at the moment.
Turning up the radio, I turn into Main Street and head toward the highway back to Boston. But as I pass the police station, I’m reminded of something else I wanted to do before leaving.
I see Finn arrive just as I’m getting out of the car. Slamming the door shut, I call out to him.
Finn turns, sees me standing by the hood, arms folded across my chest and jogs over to me. “Hey, Ryan, shit how’s Erin, everything okay?” he asks, a look of concern on his face.
I’d called him from the hospital after I’d finally seen Erin and found out what had happened to her. It hadn’t been a long conversation and I hadn’t exactly been in a good mood either, the discussion limited to me telling him Erin had been in a car accident but would recover, before I’d hung up, not giving him a chance to ask any questions.
“She is now,” I say. “No thanks to you though.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he asks, stopping.
“Why the fuck wasn’t an officer outside her house?” I ask, hands on hips now, my blood boiling as I stare at him. “Why wasn’t someone watching her, making sure she was safe. How the fuck could you let this happen, Finn? How. The. Fuck?”
“Enough,” he yells, slamming his hand down on the hood of the car. “You think I don’t feel shit enough about all of this. For fuck’s sake, Ryan.” He stops, draws in a deep breath. “I wanted to do all those things for her, you know, but I couldn’t. She asked me not too and we both know...”
“Erin is too stubborn for her own good,” I say, cutting him off. “You should know that and you should have ignored her and done it anyway.”
“I. Couldn’t,” he repeats.
“Why the fuck not?” I ask in frustration, adrenaline coursing through me.
“Think about it,” he says, not bothering to hide
his condescending tone. “If I’d had someone watching her. If I’d formally assigned an officer to her, then all of this would have had to be written up. And,” he says, stepping toward me, “if this was written up, then it becomes official. If it becomes official, then an investigation starts,” he adds. “And all of that means Erin gets exposed and questions start to get asked.”
I let out a deep breath, running a hand roughly through my hair. I know he’s right, but none of what he’s said makes any of this any better. “She nearly died, Finn,” I spit out. “She nearly died when she drove my car. The fucking brakes were cut and it was meant for me and our fuck up nearly cost Erin and our…” I stop, not ready to share the added detail about our baby just yet. “It nearly cost her her life,” I say, the adrenaline surge suddenly dissipating and leaving me exhausted.
“I know,” Finn says. “I feel like shit about all of this, Ryan, seriously. But I did everything I could, given the circumstances. Hell, on the nights you weren’t around, Erin spent most of them with me anyway, so I always figured she was…”
“What?” I shout, my head jacking up as a jolt runs down my spine. “What the fuck does that mean, spent her nights with you?”
I watch as Finn swallows hard, a nervous look flashing across his face now as he matches my stare. “She used to come over,” he says, his words measured, careful. “Or I’d come to her house. It made her feel safe knowing I was in the house while she slept.”
I let out a humorless laugh, my earlier elation now a distant memory. “I see,” I throw back at him. “And where exactly did you sleep on those nights, huh?”
Finn takes a step backward, scrubbing a hand down his face. “With her.”
“With her?” I ask, my anger surging again. “You mean, in the same bed?”
Finn nods, his stare never leaving mine.
“You motherfucker,” I shout, stepping toward him as my fist now connects with his jaw.
Finn stumbles backward but doesn’t fall, steadying himself with a hand on the car. “Jesus Christ, Ryan,” he says, his hand cradling his jaw. “What the fuck?”
“I could say the same thing,” I yell.
“Look,” Finn says, straightening, refusing to back down. “This is a total overreaction. Nothing happened,” he adds, hands up as though to placate me. “I promise you, Ryan. Erin is like a little sister to me. I’ve known her since she was a teenager for god’s sake.”
I take a deep breath, my mind immediately going to my own little sister and all the times I tried to look out for her in Boston. “And you swear, nothing happened?” I say.
Finn shakes his head. “Nothing has ever happened and never will, I swear to you.”
I stare back at him, searching for any sign that this is a lie. Finn matches my stare, his eyes defiant as though he’s practically daring me not to believe him. Eventually I exhale, letting out the breath I was holding. I step closer, Finn not even flinching as I hold out my hand to him.
“I’m sorry,” I breathe out. “I’m just…”
“It’s okay, Ryan,” he says, his palm meeting mine. “I get it.”
I nod, suddenly feeling like shit for the way I just acted. “You alright?” I ask, nodding toward him.
Finn chuckles. “Well I’m not going to arrest you, if that’s what you’re worried about. But yeah, takes more than a punch to put me down, I can assure you.”
I grin, appreciating the fact that he’s so willing to let my shithead behavior go. “Thanks,” I say. “And hey, have you got a sec?” I ask. “I’d like to fill you in about what’s happened and where we go from here.”
“Sure,” he says, turning in the direction of the station. “I’ll even let you buy me a coffee in apology.”
I chuckle as I follow him inside.
After I’ve filled Finn in on what happened two days ago with Anthony showing up, the security camera footage, the cut break line and the accident, I let him know about Chris and my plans for the next few days.
While I understand that the Rockport police was limited in their ability to keep an eye on Erin, the Boston PD isn’t as constrained. And given everything that’s happened over the past few days, to both her and me, the captain was more than happy to assign someone to watch over her after I’d filled him over the phone last night.
It didn’t get me out of heading back to work however, so as I pull into the station back in Boston, I’m already working on a plan for how this is all going to pan out. There’s a couple of things I’m going to need to sort out first, so I’m going to keep things quiet for a bit, but in the meantime, I’ll be spending as much time as possible up in Rockport with Erin.
“Hey,” Joe says, as I walk in. “You okay?”
I nod, shrugging out of my coat as I walk into my office. “Yeah, mostly,” I say, throwing it over a chair.
Joe follows me in. “How’s Erin?”
I walk around to my desk, switch on my computer as I scrub a hand down my face, realizing I’ve forgotten to shave. “Banged up and bruised,” I say, logging in. “But she’s okay considering.”
Joe nods. “I’m really glad,” he says. “That’s some scary shit that went down.”
“You’re telling me,” I say, picking up my mug and walking out of my office to the kitchen area. “I feel like I’ve aged ten years.”
“You kinda look it too,” Joe says, grinning as I glance at him.
I chuckle, shaking my head but appreciating his attempt to lighten the situation. “The question is though,” I continue, filling my cup with coffee. “What do we do now?”
“Well,” Joe says, shuffling through the papers in his hand. “Unsurprisingly, the plate was stolen,” he says, referring to the license plate we got from Erin’s security camera footage. New York plates, but reported missing about three months ago.”
I nod, because we’d expected this.
“But,” Joe continues, his tone stopping me as I turn to head back to my office. “We might have something else.”
My head snaps up. “What?” I ask.
“Well, after your visit to the prison yesterday.”
“Only Erin saw him,” I correct.
“Yeah, I know,” he says, nodding. “But whatever she said, it worked,” he continues.
“What do you mean?”
Joe grins now, holding up the papers in his hand as he looks at me. “Seems Fitzgerald made a phone call,” he says, waving them. “And not only do we have a message, we also have a lead.”
“Oh please, do tell,” I say.
“Well, he was pretty pissed,” Joe says.
“I can only imagine,” I say, grinning as I imagine the short temper runs in the family.
“So pissed that I think he might have forgotten his calls are actually recorded.”
I’m grinning now, my brain whirling with all the possible ways we’re going to get this bastard and his smart ass little protégé. “And?” I prompt.
“Well, the call was to someone new,” he says. “Whose phone we now also have a tap on.”
“Okay. And?”
Joe’s grinning too, rocking on his heels a little as he says, “Apparently he wants a job done,” he continues. “And let’s just say that when he starts talking about a carpet cleaning job, it’s blatantly fucking obvious he’s not calling to book a rug treatment.”
My grin widens now as I slap Joe on the back and we walk back to my office to listen to the full recording, knowing I’m going to nail this asshole if it’s the last thing I do.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Erin
Ryan left a couple of hours ago, and I’m still sitting at my kitchen table while Chris awkwardly sits on my living room couch. Maybe it’s just awkward for me because he seems as if it’s all totally normal; at times scrolling through his phone and whistling quietly like he’s not in some stranger’s home making things uncomfortable.
Normally by now I would’ve watched a little TV, taken a shower and
then headed over to the inn to visit Kelsey. But with this hired babysitter sitting in my living room, I’m not sure how to carry on normally.
Do I just say, ‘Hey buddy, get off my couch and stop making me uncomfortable?’ or do I just tell him to leave and call Finn? Ryan would lose his shit if he knew I called Finn and I’m certain this guy wouldn’t leave even if I demanded it.
I let out a long sigh, resigned to the fact that until Anthony is caught, this will be my life.
My phone vibrates on the table, almost a welcome distraction from the weirdness that plagues my house right now.
Rehearsing the answers to what I know will be Ryan’s questions when I answer, I glance at the screen and see it’s Sarah, Ryan’s sister.
“Hey, Sarah,” I say as I answer the call, not giving her a chance to address me first, and I’m sure she can hear the excitement in my voice at it not being Ryan on the other end.
“Hey. Ryan told me about the accident and that…” she says, but doesn’t elaborate and I wonder how much he actually told her. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. Ryan is making a big deal about nothing.”
“Not surprised,” she says and I can almost picture her face; totally annoyed by Ryan, and it makes me smile. She’s the one person who understands his overprotectiveness. “So, I was thinking…” she adds, pausing momentarily, “I’d come for a visit. Hang out with you…” and again she stalls for a second and I add, “Get out of that small ass town.”
“Of course I want to see you, too, but yes,” Sarah says, sounding sheepish.
“I’d love for you to come visit. The sooner the better, because right now Ryan has me on house arrest.”
“How about today then?” Sarah says, sounding thrilled yet uneasy, like arriving today might be a bit too aggressive.
“Please come today,” I practically demand of her. “I don’t think I can be stuck in this house all day…resting.”
Sarah laughs into the phone and says, “I can’t picture you resting, so I’m definitely coming today.”
