Hitch

by Anne Conley

  “Better at your job than they thought, huh?” The twinkle in his eyes made Amber’s heart melt a little.

  She nodded, ignoring the flutter in her belly. “The chief just didn’t think I’d be as good at it as I was, and it bit him in the ass.” Ruefully, she added, “Or me … Depends on how you look at it.”

  “He was beloved?”

  “God, yes. Arresting him split the town straight down the middle. Half thought I’d framed him, half thought I’d done a good job.”

  “So Haley falls in the first half?”

  “I don’t think she thinks I framed him, but she thought I needed to give him another chance.” She shrugged. “Or something.”

  “If half the town hates you, how do you know it’s Haley?”

  “Because one of the hang-up calls I got was from a noisy room, with a group of people singing the UT fight song in the background. When Haley graduated high school, she made the papers with her National Merit Scholarship status and the fact she got a full ride to UT.”

  “So she called from a dorm lobby?”

  “Yes, she did. And I happen to know where she’s staying. Her mom doesn’t hate me nearly as much as Haley does.”

  The University of Texas campus was a massive complex of buildings that sprawled over more than four hundred acres less than a mile from the capitol building in downtown Austin. Luckily, Amber knew which dorm Haley stayed in, so that’s where they started.

  The dorm was pretty typical. Worn-out sectionals filled with co-eds lounging in various states of dress—from pajamas to jeans and hoodies, to even more dressy clothing—all eyes glued to the Price is Right playing on the TV. Every head in the room swiveled toward them when Dex and Amber entered the room, though.

  “Who can tell us where Haley Wilks is?” Dex took the lead, his voice booming over the noise of music and applause as a woman in a tacky, decorated t-shirt came running down the aisle like a madman on TV.

  A timid voice spoke from the corner. “Sociology. It’s in Mezes Hall. I think she’s in room 215-B? Something like that?”

  “Thank you. If we miss her, will you let her know we were by here looking for her?” Amber wanted everyone to know Austin PD was breathing down Haley’s neck. The more explaining the girl had to do, the better. She wasn’t out to humiliate the girl with an arrest on her record, she just wanted to teach her a little lesson.

  Inside the Mezes building, they quickly found the classroom and entered it without knocking. They interrupted a young teacher—probably a PhD candidate or TA or something—mid-lecture and announced their presence with a shift of their gun belts. Again, all eyes were on them.

  “Haley Wilks? May we speak to her for a few moments, please?” Dex’s voice carried across the room, and a collective inhale and exhale met their ears. Everyone was relieved the po-po hadn’t come for them. Amber would have smiled at the notion everyone thought they were guilty of something, whether it was leaving their car unlocked in the parking lot or distributing cocaine in the bathrooms. But she had her game face on and wasn’t letting it slide.

  A petite girl rose from a row in the back, dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants, her hair in a ponytail. Silently, she strode down the walkway, her head high as she met the two of them at the front of the room.

  “We’ll just be a minute,” Amber told the lecturer as they led Haley outside.

  “What do you want?” Jaw still jutted up, she added to it a cocked-out hip. Nice. Well, that attitude didn’t bode well for the rest of the conversation.

  “Well, I’ll tell you what I don’t want. I don’t want to have to take you to jail. But what you’re doing to my house and my car are leaving me little choice.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Leaning against the wall, Haley crossed her arms in front of her chest in the classic I-don’t-give-a-fuck pose adopted by teenagers and young adults everywhere.

  “My video camera says different.” Amber was baiting her, hoping for a reaction. And she got one.

  Haley straightened, her face going white. Bingo.

  Dex piped up. “The sort of vandalism you are perpetuating is a Class B level twelve felony. That’s federal and doesn’t go away. Ever.”

  Amber’s mouth twitched, but Haley was looking at Dex, thankfully. “Yeah, federal crimes get you kicked out of college, scholarship or not. And I’m not sure your mom has the funds for a legal defense of this magnitude.”

  “Not to mention the paperwork involved,” Dex muttered drily.

  Haley swallowed, the click in her throat audible in the quiet hallway. “Am I being arrested?”

  “Are you going to keep doing it? Or are you going to leave me alone?” Haley didn’t answer. “Look, I know you were hurt by what happened. And for that, I’m terribly sorry. I never intended for you to get hurt. But your father is the one you should be angry at. He’s the one who cheated on your mother with Debbie. He’s the one who betrayed his brotherhood by becoming the bad guy and cooking meth and distributing it. I’m not trying to shift the blame, but slashing my tires and painting my door aren’t going to get you what you want. He’s the one who made the poor choices.”

  Silent tears were tracking down the young woman’s face, and Amber felt bad for her. Sort of.

  She didn’t speak in her defense, so Dex spoke again. “We came down here to talk to you so you will stop. That’s all Officer Banks is asking. She’s a better person than I am. I’d already be starting the mountain of paperwork it would take to put you behind bars for a long time.”

  “The evidence is there, Haley. Fingerprints on the tires, your face on my camera, the paint still on your fingers …”

  Haley stuffed her hands under her armpits. “Okay. Fine. I’ll stop.”

  Dex took a step away and murmured to Amber, “A word, please?”

  “Stay there.” Amber took a few steps toward him and faced Dex, whose back was turned to Haley.

  “Make her sweat a minute. You believe her?”

  “More than you. B-12 federal offense?”

  He shrugged, the grin cracking his features. “It’s been a long time since I worked a vandalism case. Couldn’t remember. Do you really have fingerprints and a camera?”

  Her turn to shrug. “I have a game camera but haven’t hooked it up yet. And no to the fingerprints. You know as well as I do how hard they are to get off a tire.” They were both whispering out of the corner of their mouths so Haley couldn’t hear.

  Amber could see she was watching them carefully, though. Dex raised his voice. “I still think we should take her in and let the DA handle this.”

  Stifling her grin, Amber replied, “You don’t think she’s telling the truth?”

  “I think she’s saying what you want to hear so she doesn’t get in trouble.” Amber pressed her thighs together to stop the inappropriate heat pooling between her legs. Scary cop Dex was sexy.

  “I swear! I’ll stop. I’m sorry.” The tears in Haley’s voice matched the tears in her eyes. “I know it was Dad who did it. But it’s really hard seeing my parents split up over his fuck-up, you know?” She sniffed, and her hands went to her face to wipe tears. “It’s just easier to blame you because if you’d never caught him, they’d still be together.”

  Amber walked over to the girl. “But were they happy together? Really? Your dad was cooking meth, Haley. That’s such bad news. He needed to go to prison for that.”

  “I know.” The girl threw herself into Amber’s arms, and Amber wrapped her in a hug she didn’t entirely feel. Haley had a bright future, and she wanted her to proceed along her path of brightness, but at the same time, she’d shelled out $400 for new tires, and there was no telling how much it would cost to repaint her door.

  “Tell you what. You get my door repainted this week, and we’ll call this investigation off. Deal?”

  Sniffling, Haley nodded.

  Well, that was one problem hopefully taken care of.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Amber stared at the sti
ck, willing it to be negative. One line, that’s all it would take. Although, she knew herself and knew she’d take the second test, just to be sure.

  And then probably go to the store and get a third.

  She washed her hands, mindlessly counting in her head to pass the time and make sure her hands were completely germ free. She dried them on the towel in Dex’s guest bathroom, noting it was incredibly fluffy for a bachelor. In the last couple of weeks, they’d been spending a ton of time together, and Amber had come to realize her house was a home when he was in it, as was his. It seemed anywhere was home if Dex were there. And as weird as that was, she liked it.

  A knock on the door. “You okay in there?”

  “Sure. Where do you get your towels?”

  A thud sounded as he did something against the door. Probably dropped his head against it. Then there was some scratching at the doorknob. “Let me in, doll face.”

  His voice sounded so needy, so ready. Dex wanted a baby so badly. He deserved one. He’d done his job, lived his life, was ready to settle down. He didn’t have fifteen more years left of a career he’d dreamed about.

  And Dex was so wonderful she wanted to give this to him.

  Amber looked at herself in the mirror while he patiently stood outside the door. Was she glowing? She wasn’t sure, but she was certainly looking better than she had a couple of weeks ago. She was still on leave, but IA was almost finished with their investigation. Eileen wasn’t heading it, thankfully. She’d politely excused herself citing personal reasons, which was big of her. She and Dex had toasted that one. Tea, of course, just in case.

  Dex had found her a tea shop that sold the most amazing teas—imported, local, all sorts of flavors and types. It was silly, really, how much that had pleased her.

  She leaned her head on the door after the line showed up. “I’m going to take the other one, just to be sure.”

  “Whatever you need.” Strained. He choked out the words. Dex wanted to be in here with her. But she knew he would only hold her and tell her happy things, and she didn’t want that right now.

  She sat on the toilet.

  “When I was twenty-seven, my parents’ house was broken into by kids who shot them and stole everything they could. You know, all the sellable stuff. Dad’s guns, Mom’s jewelry, the TV, my old PlayStation.” I want a baby with you, Dex. Here it all is. All my ghosts. She washed her hands again, counting to twenty, and laid the stick on the counter next to the other one. “I had just been there for supper before going home. We’d talked about how I wasn’t doing anything with my life. It wasn’t necessarily a fight per se, but it was one of those chats where they sat me down, cooked my favorite food, and made me listen. Mama made the best smothered steak in East Texas.”

  You would make a wonderful dad, Dex. You would take the baby to your office and dote on it, and have best dad competitions with Ryan, and tell Miriam how much your baby can kick her baby’s ass.

  Dex had told her everything about his life in the evenings, when they’d stayed up too late talking in bed after the most amazing sex she’d ever had. And the thing was, the sex wasn’t amazing due to the orgasms, because there sure as shit were a ton of those. But it was amazing because of the intimacy, the way he talked to her, the way he looked at her, touched her.

  Dex made her forget her dreams and plans. She could hear him breathing on the other side of the door, where she leaned her head again while she continued talking. “They never caught the guys who did it, but I went into the police force anyway. I was determined that it wouldn’t happen in my town again. Serendipity has its issues, small-town drama and stuff. There’s the town slut who works at Dogwood Diner, there’s the mayoral candidate who got caught going to Dallas to find prostitutes. But nothing had touched me like my parents’ death.” I love you, Dex, and I want to be everything for you. If that makes me a bad person, giving up my wants and needs for a man, then so be it. “I knew meth was a huge problem going in. Anyone who took a newspaper knew it. And the kids who’d killed my parents had stolen their stuff for drugs. Knowing my dad, he wouldn’t have given it to them. He worked hard for his stuff, and even as cheap and old as it was, he wasn’t going to just hand it over to some punk kids.”

  “Let me in, please.” More scratching at the door knob and an exasperated huff. But his voice had softened.

  “No. Just listen.” Tears tracked down her cheeks. “I’m telling you all this because you’ve told me so much, and I haven’t given you my past. None of it’s my fault or anything, I just don’t like talking about it.”

  With a louder than necessary thud, the knob turned and the door opened. Since Amber was leaning on it, she lost her balance and fell into Dex’s arms, which went around her as he kissed the top of her head and held her. She was beyond safe here. She was home, and Dex’s house wasn’t home—Dex’s arms were. Wherever he was, she was home. That thought had given her pause three weeks ago, after they’d talked to Haley, but now it was just damn comforting.

  She clutched his shirt as he whispered soothing noises into her hair. “So my job became my dream after my parents died. I never really had one before then. The academy was hard at first because I was older, and a woman, and most of my fellow cadets treated me like I needed help all the time, even when I didn’t. I never felt so old as I did going in there with a bunch of twenty-year-olds. They acted like I was forty or something, instead of thirty-one.” She sniffled back a laugh. “I’ll tell you some stories about that some time.” Be my everything the way I want to be yours. “The reason I’m telling you this is because I wanted to tell you why the force is so important to me. Why I want to be a cop so badly. Why it would suck so much to give it up to have a baby.”

  They were silent for a minute or two when finally, Dex broke the silence. “So what does one stripe mean?” He was looking at the tests lined up in a row on the countertop.

  “I’m not pregnant.” Amber burst into tears, and he held her as the hot tracks made their way down her face and onto his shirt.

  “I so don’t understand what is happening right now. Why aren’t you happy about it?”

  She looked back at his face and saw the concern there. Concern for her, but she searched his eyes, the bright-blue peering at her through lashes that didn’t belong on a man. What she didn’t see was regret, disappointment, or sorrow.

  “Because you wanted a baby, and I was ready to give everything up for you.” Amber sobbed as she spoke the words, and she knew she sounded like a toddler, so she buried her face in Dex’s thick neck so she didn’t have to look at him.

  “Doll face,” he took a step back, so he was against the bathroom wall, and held her face in his hands, “it doesn’t matter to me if we never have babies. Sure, I want one. But I love you more. I always will.” His thumbs wiped the tears off her face, swiping across her lips. “If we never have kids, I’m still happy with you.”

  “You’ll resent me someday for never giving them to you,” she pouted.

  “No. But were you really going to live your life and never have any? You’ve never wanted kids, ever?”

  “Well, no, I do want kids. Just sometime when they’re more convenient.” Her words must have been funny to him because he laughed as he pulled her against his chest.

  “Jesus, woman. Kids are never convenient. We’ll go to the clinic tomorrow and get you on the pill, if that will make you feel better. And we’ll table this discussion for a while. How about that?”

  “You’re not disappointed?” The tears were still falling, but the sobbing had stopped. Thank God.

  “No, I’m not. I want some time with you first. Just us, getting to know one another, learning the routines, the likes and dislikes, while we figure stuff out with each other first.” He seemed so damned earnest, she couldn’t help but believe him. And the relief that flowed through her was palpable. And weird.

  “I don’t know why I feel relieved. I had talked myself into wanting it.”

  He stroked her back. “We’ll ge
t it.”

  Amber sniffed one more time into his shirt, absorbing the comforting smell only Dex had. “I love you.”

  He put his finger under her chin and lifted her face to his. “That’s the first time you’ve said that without having an orgasm during the words.” His grin was way too delighted as he said the word orgasm. It made Amber giggle.

  “Yeah, well …” She remembered the time she’d first spoken the words, in the hotel in Dallas, where she’d just blurted them out while they’d been having sex and then purposely pretended they’d never been uttered. “It’s true. I love you. And not just because you say all the right things.”

  Dex watched Amber as she processed all the emotions going through her, each one showing up on her face as she acknowledged it and dismissed it. Relief, confusion, longing, disappointment, regret.

  “You wanted a baby? Because of me?” He did want kids someday. Dex Hollerman had never been the type of cop who never wanted a family to care for eventually. He’d just never found his everything woman. And he’d gotten to the point in his life where he didn’t think he ever would.

  “I wanted you to have one. And I didn’t want you to find someone else to give it to you.” Her tears had finally dried up. “But that’s not just it. I had gotten to where the idea of babies wasn’t that repulsive. And where my job wasn’t as important as a baby anymore. That’s what I was taking the long road around telling you when you broke into the bathroom.” Her eyebrows scrunched up. “How did you do that, anyway?”

  He kissed her nose. “Trade secret.” They still had so much to talk about, but right now, they needed to love each other and build on this foundation of love they’d found together. “When do you go back to work?” He knew the answer, he was just trying to change the subject to something else besides babies, or else he’d want to just go back to bed and make some.