Laura and the Lawman

by Shelley Cooper

  “I will.” Biting her lip, she stilled his hand against her. “Trust me, Antonio, I will. But first I have something to say. It’s important.”

  He knew that with a few practiced movements of his fingers, he could make her forget what she wanted to say. With any other woman, that is exactly what he would have done. But this was Laura, and the expression on her face made him acquiesce. She wasn’t teasing. She wasn’t trying to draw the moment out as long as possible, thus tormenting him beyond all human endurance. In the midst of her highly aroused state, she was deadly serious.

  “I hope what you have to say won’t take too long,” he teased. “I’m feeling rather…impatient at the moment.”

  She didn’t smile as he’d hoped she would. Instead, body still tense, she regarded him with a soberness that held him captive.

  “It’s been a long time for me, Antonio. I want you to know that.”

  He felt the breath rush out of him. “How long?”

  “Four years.”

  “Four years?” His brow furrowed. “But how? Why?”

  She pressed a finger to his lips. “Not now. We’ll get to explanations later. I just want you to know that I’m not entering into this lightly. And I never do this for the job.”

  “I know,” he told her. His fingers worked on her again, and it wasn’t long before she went over the top, her cries of pleasure echoing in the tiny confines of the plane.

  With a groan he dropped his head into his hands. “Oh, no,” he moaned, his jaw clenched in frustration. “I don’t believe it.”

  “It’s okay.” Sympathy laced Laura’s voice, and she gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. “I can wait.”

  Realizing she thought he had reached his peak at the same time she did, he took her hand and folded it around his hardness. “It’s not that, Ruby.”

  “I can tell. What is it, then?”

  Her fingers stroked him softly, and his desire and frustration grew in equal measure. “I don’t have a condom.”

  “I do.”

  His body jerked in surprise. “You do?”

  She met his gaze without embarrassment. “I was hoping today would end this way.”

  “You are an amazing woman,” he told her.

  She smiled. “It’s about time you realized that.”

  Antonio took the condom Laura retrieved from her purse and sheathed himself. Placing both hands on either side of her, he poised himself over her body. Reaching out, she guided him home, and he slid into her molten heat with a groan of ecstasy.

  He moved slowly at first, not wishing to cause her any discomfort. But when she wrapped her legs around his waist and surged against him, he lost all control. The pressure built up incredibly fast. He wanted to prolong it, to make it last as long as possible. He knew he was fighting a losing battle when, beneath him, Laura cried out and her body convulsed.

  His release was tumultuous. “Laura!” he groaned as he rode the crest.

  Pulling her to him, he rolled over onto his side. It seemed to take forever for his heartbeat to return to normal and his breathing to slow. With his arms tightly around her and her head nestled beneath his chin, Antonio had a revelation.

  In the past when he’d been with a woman he had always held a part of himself back. With Laura, he had held nothing back. For the first time in his life he had made love with a woman.

  The rising sun sent exploratory fingers of light into the room. One of them chased across Antonio’s face, and he opened his eyes. Blinking, he stared in confusion at his surroundings. Nothing seemed familiar. Not the oak dresser, not the braided oval rug on the hardwood floor and definitely not the freshly painted white walls that were bare of any hangings that might personalize the room and give it character. Even the bed beneath his back felt strange. Where was he?

  His left arm tingled uncomfortably, but when he tried to move it, an unfamiliar weight held it in place. Looking down, he saw Laura’s head nestled against his bicep. Her upturned face was pressed to his chest. In a rush, his memory returned.

  For long minutes he lay there unmoving, gazing at her. She was still fast asleep, her naked body pressed trustingly to his, her hair a wild tangle around a face that looked incredibly young and beautiful. His arm tightened around her as the intensity of the emotion that swept through him shook him to the core. With the exception of his family, Antonio had never felt this close to another human being.

  He had never felt this vulnerable.

  He had never felt this terrified.

  After leaving the hangar they had come here, to the furnished apartment Laura was renting. They had spent the night in this bed, talking, laughing, eating take-out Chinese food and making love.

  The first thing they had done was sift fact from fiction in their cover stories. Laura had told him about losing her husband and son. In return, Antonio had spoken about his family, their unusual closeness and the hardships they had faced when his mother had died. He had told her things he had never confided to anyone else. There had been so much they’d needed to know about each other, and so little time in which to find it all out.

  Now it was morning, the dawning of a new day, and the time had run out. Their brief idyll was over. Everything was different. And this new…whatever it was…between them was a complication neither one of them needed right now.

  Too bad they hadn’t considered that before they let their hormones run amok.

  The job had to come first. Antonio knew that. He knew Laura knew it, too. Joseph was expecting them both at the auction gallery within the next couple of hours. In addition, he and Laura were going to have to inform their contact officers that they knew the truth about each other, so that the final showdown with Joseph could be coordinated as safely and efficiently as possible. This was one collar both New York and Pittsburgh would have to share.

  Things were winding up fast. Antonio could feel it in his gut. It would soon be all over but the shouting.

  Then what?

  In all likelihood Laura would return to New York, and he would remain here. Unless, that is, she was expecting him to ask her to stay.

  While Antonio couldn’t regret the hours they had spent together, or the confidences they had shared, a distinct uneasiness waged war inside him. One part of him wanted to run from Laura, as fast and as far as he could, while the other wanted to hold on tight and never let her go. She made him feel things he had never felt before, emotions he wasn’t sure he wanted to feel. In the past he had always retreated before a relationship could threaten to reach this point. But, like a good undercover cop, she had sneaked up on him, climbed under his defenses and taken him unaware. Things had moved far faster and much further than Antonio had ever expected they would.

  What now? he wondered again. What would she expect from him? What, if anything, would he be able to give?

  Yesterday, and last night, in the euphoria of actually having her in his arms, he hadn’t thought beyond the lovemaking. In the cold light of day, he heard again her saying that she wasn’t entering into their lovemaking lightly. What she’d really been telling him was that, unlike the character she was playing, she didn’t do casual affairs. Unfortunately, casual affairs were his speciality. Though, in a moment of challenge, he had told her he could sustain a relationship with her, he wasn’t all too certain he could.

  She’d been hurt enough in the past. Not only had she lost both parents but also her husband and son. Antonio didn’t want to be the cause of any more pain in her life.

  He needed time, he realized. Time to think. Time to analyze exactly what it was that had happened between them. Time to figure out what he wanted to do. Because this was no game. The rules that had applied to his previous relationships didn’t apply here. He couldn’t play with Laura’s emotions. It wouldn’t be fair. Nor could he make promises he wasn’t sure he would be able to keep.

  In a couple of hours they would have to put the previous night behind them and focus solely on the job they were sent in to do. They would have to ignore th
e intimacy they had shared. Until Joseph Merrill was in custody, they would have to relegate whatever was between them to the shadows, where no one could see. That should give him the time he needed.

  As gently as he could, Antonio slid his arm out from under her. Laura moved restlessly and mumbled something, and he held his breath while, eyes still closed, she nestled into the pillow he had abandoned. Pulling the sheet up around her shoulders, he slid his feet to the floor and sat up.

  The bed creaked when he stood, and he winced. Thankfully she didn’t stir. Gathering up his clothes, and feeling like a heel and the worst kind of coward for sneaking out this way, he cast one last, longing look at the woman in the bed.

  The ringing of the telephone woke her. Rolling onto her side, Laura reached out a hand and fumbled around on the bedside table until her fingers encountered the receiver.

  “H’lo?” she said in a voice still thick with sleep.

  “Ruby?” she heard Joseph ask. “Where are you?”

  Still half-asleep, she couldn’t understand why he was calling her. “At home. In bed. Why?”

  “It’s ten o’clock. The auction’s been going on for an hour. Why aren’t you here?”

  Sitting upright and clutching the sheet to her breasts, she looked at the clock. Merciful heavens, it was ten o’clock.

  “Oh, no,” she cried. “I overslept. I’m sorry, Joseph. I’ll be right in.”

  As she clicked the off button, memories of exactly why she had overslept replayed themselves in her mind. Warmth suffused her even as she groaned her dismay. If she was late, that meant Antonio was, too, and that one of the assistant auctioneers had had to start things off. How were they both to explain their tardiness without arousing Joseph’s suspicion? Still, if he guessed what had happened between them, it was what he had wanted. She would just have to hope that the change in her relationship with Antonio didn’t undermine Joseph’s trust in her.

  Or put Antonio at risk.

  After replacing the receiver in its holder, she turned and reached for Antonio’s shoulder. The only thing her hand met was the air. She was alone in the bed.

  “Antonio?”

  There was no answer.

  She looked down at the floor. Her clothes were where she had left them, scattered at the foot of her bed. Antonio’s clothes were gone.

  Climbing out of bed, she reached into her closet for her bathrobe and belted it around her waist.

  “Antonio?” she called again as she walked out into the hallway, peered into the empty bathroom and padded in her bare feet toward the living room.

  He wasn’t there, nor was he in the kitchen. There was no trace of him, not even a coffee cup in the sink. She felt the first stirring of unease. Why hadn’t he wakened her? Why hadn’t he said goodbye? Why had he—she didn’t want to think the thought—sneaked away like a thief in the night?

  Then she saw the folded piece of notebook paper on the kitchen table. Her name was scrawled across it in familiar handwriting. She stared at it for a long minute before crossing the room and picking it up. It took her another fifteen seconds to summon the nerve to unfold it and read the message Antonio had written inside.

  Laura,

  You were sleeping so soundly I didn’t want to wake you. As we both know, these next few weeks are going to be important ones as far as the job is concerned. I understand now why our contact officers wanted to keep our true identities secret from us. Any indication to Joseph, or any other employee at the gallery, could put our lives in danger. Because of that, we need to stay as far away from each other as possible and keep all contact to a minimum until the job is concluded. When it is all over, then we can talk.

  Antonio

  The letter fluttered from her suddenly nerveless fingers to the floor. Well, at least now she wouldn’t have to worry that Joseph would find out about the two of them. Because there was no two of them.

  Nowhere in that brief, impersonal note, had Antonio mentioned his feelings about last night, other than that he didn’t want anyone else to find out they’d spent it together. What had she expected? A declaration of undying love? A marriage proposal?

  We’re not Vincent and Serena, and we never will be. That’s what he’d said to her after their first kiss. Upon reflection, she had thought the words to be Michael’s alone. Obviously Antonio felt the same sentiment. If only she had listened.

  So he wanted to talk when the job was all over. She smiled grimly. About what? Why he had left without saying goodbye? That would do her ego and her pride no good whatsoever.

  The simple truth was that she was the one who had come on to him—thrown herself at him, if she was to be brutally honest. She was the one who had admitted that sleeping with him was not something she approached lightly. The only thing Antonio had admitted was that he wanted her. Hardly the foundation for a lasting, meaningful relationship.

  The real irony was how, back in West Virginia, he had insisted he could sustain a relationship with her. Yes, he’d been trying to get a rise out of her, and yes, he hadn’t been serious. The proof was the fact that their relationship had lasted all of, what, twelve hours?

  He’d also told her he could never say no to her. The letter lying on the floor made a mockery of those words. Because if he wasn’t about to say a resounding no to her hopes and dreams, he wouldn’t have written that they needed to talk.

  She had no one to blame but herself for the way she was feeling. In her delirious joy over discovering that he was a cop and that it was okay to want him, she had neglected to ask a few crucial questions. Number one: Was it just sex for him? Number two: Did he, unlike Michael, believe in commitment? And, most important, number three: Was there even a remote chance that, at some later date, he might be able to commit to her?

  Laura reached down and picked up the letter from the floor. To her right, in one of the counter drawers, she found a box of matches. Grabbing the box, she moved to the sink and set the letter aflame, crinkling her nose at the acrid smell of cordite and watching the paper shrivel and blacken, then turn to ash.

  When her task was completed, she braced her hands against the cool porcelain of the sink, lowered her head and fought back tears. Control returned slowly. She looked at the ashes in the sink and shook her head in wonder. For the second time in her life her entire world was falling apart, and what was the only thing she could think about? That she had to destroy that letter. If, for some reason, Joseph or one of his cohorts was ever to search this place, she couldn’t take the chance one of them would find it.

  A twist of the cold water tap sent the ashes circling down the drain. Laura drew a deep, shaky breath. Joseph was expecting her. She couldn’t fall apart now. She didn’t have the luxury. What she did have was a job to do, and she would do it to the best of her ability.

  She was glad Antonio had left without saying goodbye, she told herself. That way, temporarily anyway, they had both avoided any awkwardness. At least she hadn’t told him she loved him. She still had her pride.

  It was small consolation.

  Chapter 14

  T he wire itched. Specifically, the tape holding the wire in place across Antonio’s stomach itched. Like the devil.

  He hated wearing a wire, avoided it whenever possible, and was only wearing one now because his contact officer had insisted. The case had reached critical mass. Since he and Laura had no way of safely contacting anyone while inside the auction gallery’s walls, with Antonio wired he could raise the alarm if he saw or heard anything suspicious, or if he and Laura found themselves in danger.

  While he understood the necessity, he still hated wearing it. It made him jumpy. Whenever anyone came near, his paranoia kicked into high gear, and all he could think about was the wire and hope it wouldn’t be detected. Besides, it itched. He’d been wearing this wire for the past six workdays, and it was driving him crazy.

  Resisting the urge to scratch, and thus risk dislodging it, Antonio moved through the warehouse storage room. It was a massive cavern whose conc
rete floor was criss-crossed with floor-to-ceiling shelving. Beeps signaling the nearby presence of a forklift pierced the air. Every now and then one would pass him on its way to the loading dock.

  It really was too bad Joseph hadn’t confined his efforts to the auction business, he thought, as his gaze traveled over the shelves. By intent, or by sheer dumb luck, he really had built himself a highly profitable operation. An operation that would likely go on the auction block itself when Joseph was arrested.

  Moving through the aisles, Antonio studied the items that would be up for bid at this coming Saturday’s auction. For each item, after comparing its tag number to the number on his listing, he tried to jot down at least one notation that would aid him in presenting it to bidders in an appealing manner. Most of the time it wasn’t difficult. Occasionally, though, certain items, like the moth-eaten mounted moose head he was gazing at now, posed a real challenge.

  Though he had every reason to expect that the auction wouldn’t take place as scheduled, this exercise, as well as the physical movement, took his mind off his discomfort. It also put to use his nervous energy.

  If all went according to plan, today would be the culmination of his and Laura’s hard work. Today was D-Day. Everything was in place. The van had returned eleven days ago, filled with drugs that had an estimated street value of twenty million dollars. It had sat in the garage since then and was finally in line at the loading dock, waiting to be filled with items Antonio had auctioned off the previous Saturday. Surveillance of the van had revealed that its hidden contents hadn’t been disturbed.

  When the van left the gallery to make its deliveries, it would be followed. And when it made its most important delivery—if it made that delivery—the person who accepted the cargo would be arrested, along with the truck drivers, and the contents would be confiscated.

  Somewhere outside the mammoth building that was the Merrill Auction Gallery, Antonio’s backup team was staked out, listening to everything that went on around him. When the team received word that the drug delivery had been completed, and that the necessary arrests had been made, they would descend on the gallery. Joseph Merrill and his supplier would be only two of many to be taken into custody.