by Julie Miller
“On a Saturday night?” Robbie protested. Josie’s hands slid down to hug her belly through her apron and jeans, trembling at the sounds and sights of the four men and one woman going to war—for her. Robbie put up his hands and surrendered. “I’ll announce last call. Make up some excuse. I don’t want any harm coming to me girl.”
“Go,” Rafe ordered.
Trip grabbed Robbie’s shoulder, silently promising to explain everything later. “I can clear a room.” He caught the door before following Robbie through. “You want me to recruit some help in the search out there?”
“No. Until we put a face on this guy, I don’t know who to trust.” The snap in Rafe’s voice made his meaning clear. He trusted his SWAT team—but everyone else was suspect.
Trip read the message loud and clear, too, giving Rafe a nod. “I’ll take care of it.”
Rafe finally turned to the tall, authoritative man with the shots of silver in his coal black hair. “Sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to overstep my authority by giving orders. I know we’re off the clock.” His hand slid over to pull Josie’s from her stomach and lace their fingers together between them. “I just reacted to the situation. I should have let you—”
“We’re here to keep an eye on her, Sarge, so no apology needed.” Captain Cutler’s blue eyes reflected the respect Rafe clearly felt. “This is your op. We’ve all stepped up when something dangerous hits close to home. As I recall, you totaled your last truck to save Alex Taylor’s life when we first got involved with this RGK mess.”
“Taylor and his fiancée’s lives are worth a lot more than a truck.”
“That’s my point. Don’t think that any one of us would do any less for you.” His dark eyes warmed as he nodded to Josie, and then he was all business again when he turned to Rafe. “Now what do you need from me?”
“This is Montgomery’s case.” Rafe’s hand tightened around hers. “The RGK makes a move the one night he isn’t around pressing Josie for answers. We need to fill him in on the latest threat and get him here.”
“Done. I’ll start a search upstairs while I’m at it.” Rafe’s commanding officer pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number as he strode down the hall. “Dispatch. This is Captain Cutler, SWAT Team One. Put me through to Detective Spencer Montgomery.”
Josie’s shell-shocked emotions shivered back to life as the captain left and the shadows of the bar’s back hallway closed in on her. She was fearful that one of Rafe’s friends would get hurt helping her—angry that there was some loathsome, resourceful, homicidal stalker out there who made these good people have to take up arms in the first place. The smells of spilled alcohol and polished wood, the echoes of protesting customers and curious questions drifted in from the bar, then faded out again when Rafe pressed a kiss to her temple and tugged on her hand to pull her into step beside him.
“Come on. You’re shaking like a leaf. Let’s go into Robbie’s office and get another locked door between you and that bastard.”
Rafe flipped on the light and scanned the room before closing the door behind them and throwing the dead bolt. Then he led her around the desk and pulled out Robbie’s office chair for her to sit while he checked the windows and closed the blinds.
Every movement was precise, every step had purpose. He was tall and masculine, armed, focused… Josie’s topsy-turvy hormones jumped in a decidedly female response to the man who’d leaped to her aid after a single look. Something equally potent stirred in her belly. They were tiny pulses of life moving inside her, the life she’d created with this man.
A life that another man had threatened to take.
Josie wound her arms around the precious heartbeat and sank back into the leather chair, her emotional fatigue making her lightheaded.
“Hey.” Rafe’s sharp eyes didn’t miss a trick. “You feeling okay?” He hurried over to the mini-fridge beside the door and pulled out a bottle of water. He knelt in front of her, unscrewing the top and putting the bottle into her hands. “You’re not going to pass out on me, are you?”
Shaking her head, she took a sip of water, feeling the cool liquid trickle all the way down her throat. Although the drink revived her a bit, it couldn’t penetrate the darkening twist of her thoughts.
Rafe’s eyes narrowed, the sun lines beside them evident with his concern. “Jose?”
Josie plucked the lid from his fingers and closed the bottle. She set it on the desk with an ominous thump. “He talked about our baby, Rafe. He said he would use Junior to shut me up.”
The timbre of his voice roughened with gravel when he spoke. “It’s an idle threat. He’s just trying to get under your skin.”
“It’s working.”
With that failed attempt at humor, Rafe pulled her to her feet and into his arms. He slid one hand down to that vulnerable spot at the small of her back and tunneled the other beneath her ponytail to rub the base of her neck. While Josie wound her arms around his waist, he dipped his head and whispered into her ear. “You’re tough, Josie Nichols. You work harder than anybody I know, smile more than the world deserves. Hell, you put up with me—you have to be tough.” That triggered a wry little laugh and she felt him smiling against her hair. She savored his firm, possessive touch as much as she savored his pep talk. “You can beat this guy. He had no idea what kind of woman he was going up against when he took you on. Aaron would be so proud of you. I’m a little in awe myself.”
The sandpapery stubble of beard growth on his neck tickled Josie’s lips as they curved with a real smile. “You have your finer moments when you’re actually quite…” She swallowed hard and burrowed into his strength. She had to say it. “I love you, Rafe. I know you don’t want to hear that, but I do. You’ve always been there for me—when Dad died, when Patrick needed help and went to prison, now, through all this. You’ve always been my hero.” She brought her hand to rest atop the steady beat of his strong heart. “Just let me say that. I know emotions are hard for you, but that’s what I’m feeling. I don’t want to drive you away, but I’m tired of lying and pretending they’re not there. It’s too much work for me to bottle them all up inside. I need you to know that.”
She held her breath and counted heartbeats, waiting for him to release her or argue the point. Instead, Rafe leaned back to frame her face between his hands and tilt her gaze up to his. “I’m good at one thing, honey. Being a cop. When I lost Aaron, I lost what little bit of sense the world made for me. I lost Calvin Chambers, and it about killed me inside.” His deep breath warmed her cheek. “I am not going to lose you. That’s a promise I can make. He’s not going to hurt you. Or the baby. I need you to know that.”
When he wrapped her back in his arms and held her until the members of his team called in with situation reports, Josie didn’t protest. He hadn’t offered a declaration of love or even an acknowledgment of the relationship that had always existed in the background between them. Maybe those were words she was never going to hear from Rafael Delgado.
But she could believe in his actions, right? She could trust that this good man, who’d been so damaged by life, meant everything he was willing to say. For now, if he held her close, if he stood by her and the baby when she was most afraid, it would have to be enough for her lonesome heart.
Chapter Nine
Rafe had never seen Spencer Montgomery in anything other than a suit and tie. Still, at 12:30 a.m., dressed in a dark green polo shirt and jeans, he managed to look clean-shaven, coldhearted, and too arrogant for Rafe’s liking as he closed his notebook and tucked it into his back pocket. “You’re certain it was Donny Kemp?”
“Who else would threaten me?” Josie threw up her hands, then quickly clutched them back in her lap. “I don’t have any enemies.”
“You’re telling me Josie’s involved with a serial killer?” Robbie Nichols circled his office, interrupting the conversation between his niece and the detective who were sitting at his desk.
“Uncle Robbie, please,” Josie chided, urging him to
stop his pacing. Rafe read the plea in her eyes before turning back to the red-haired detective. “I’m sorry. Is there anything else?”
Rafe stopped Robbie with a look and straightened from the counter where he’d been watching Montgomery’s every interaction with Josie. She looked exhausted. Despite her determination to answer every question, clarifying the few details KCPD had on Donny Kemp and his reincarnation as the Rich Girl Killer, the shadows darkening beneath her eyes worried him. The book he’d been reading said pregnant women needed extra sleep, and he knew from the tossing and sighing he’d heard from his side of the bedroom door that Josie had been getting even less than usual lately.
“There was no distortion to the voice you spoke with on the phone?” Montgomery asked.
Rafe moved at the weary sigh that collapsed Josie’s posture. “She’s already answered that.” He crossed Robbie’s office to stand beside her chair and rest a supportive hand on her shoulder. “She should be able to identify the RGK by his vocal patterns as well as his new face. What are you going to do to stop the harassing phone calls?”
Robbie came to the desk, completing a triangle surrounding Josie. “I’ll tell you what he should do.”
“Sir…” Montgomery stood.
“Robbie,” Rafe warned.
“No. Now I’ll not have any harm comin’ to her here.” The older man shook his meaty fist. “I’ll be handin’ out a little Irish justice if that bastard shows his face at my bar.”
Josie pushed to her feet. “Uncle Robbie, enough. I got involved with this to try to keep anyone else from getting hurt. It was just a phone call.”
“It was a phone call that turned you white as a ghost and got these fine fellas with their guns and badges all stirred up.” He turned his bruised blue eyes to Rafe. “My brother would be rollin’ over in his grave if he knew the mess his little girl had gotten herself into.”
The accusation was clear, although whether he was referring to the murder or the baby or both wasn’t. Rafe didn’t back down, however. He was guilty as charged—and determined to make good on the debt he owed this family. “I’ll die before he gets his hands on her, I promise.”
“Rafe, don’t say things like that.” Josie’s fingers brushed against his forearm.
His skin leaped in response to her touch and he pulled away, needing to retain control of the situation, the room—of every needy impulse—if he intended to do this job right. “You want me to say what I mean.”
He had to turn away from the pain in those beautiful blue eyes.
Robbie raked his fingers through his hair, leaving the unruly mop in a mess. “She shouldn’t have to deal with this—on top of my troubles, and the baby. And you should have told me straightway, girlie, instead of letting me find out like this. I could have done more to help.”
“You can’t tell anyone what we’ve discussed here tonight, Mr. Nichols.” Detective Montgomery carried his chair back around to the visitor’s side of the desk, probably just as worried about Robbie’s garrulous mouth and impulsive nature as Rafe was. “I’ll get a tap added to this line at the Shamrock in addition to the one in her apartment. But he hasn’t called there for a couple of weeks now. He must know she’s not living there.” He set the chair down and faced Rafe across the desk. “Any indication the RGK knows she’s staying at your place?”
“She’s staying with you?” Robbie sounded surprised.
“I’ve got friends watching her 24/7. There, at the hospital, here.”
“So you’ve got eyes on her. What about the surrounding area?” Rafe bristled at the implication he might not be doing his job right. “The RGK isn’t above creating collateral damage to serve as a diversion. Or to draw her out by going after the things and people she cares about.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“You’re the guy who knocked her up?” Robbie sounded incredulous. “You know better than to—”
“Robbie,” Josie warned.
“‘Knocked up?’” Rafe’s hands curled into fists at the slang term applied to the woman who seemed so proud about carrying a child. So protective of it. “You know better than to talk to her like that.”
Detective Montgomery was still making himself a part of the mix, too. “He could be gunning for you, Delgado.”
Rafe whirled around. “That’s why I’ve got backup.”
“Stop it!” Josie’s sharp cry silenced them all. “All of you.” She hugged her arms around her middle, turning from one man to the next. “My personal life isn’t up for discussion. I’ve told you everything I know. And you?” Those blue eyes cut right through Rafe. “I just want to leave. Now.”
“Jose, I—”
Alex Taylor’s compact, muscular figure appeared in the doorway before any of them could make an apology. “Sarge, we’ve got an unwelcome visitor outside.”
Every cell in Rafe’s body was being pulled like a magnet to go to Josie, wrap her up in his arms and get her out of here. He checked his watch instead. “I thought we had the place cleared and locked down an hour ago.”
“We ran the plates on all the cars left in the lot, and the owners are all accounted for. This guy’s not a customer or a cop. You’re not gonna like this.” Alex arched a dark eyebrow and tossed a plastic card attached to a lanyard to Rafe. “Here are his press credentials.”
Rafe caught the laminated identification card and swore when he read the name. “Steve Lassen. Bottom-feeder.”
“Unfortunately, he’s keeping a legal distance, or I’d have sent him packing already,” Alex reported.
Rafe would like nothing better than to turn Alex loose to go after the man who’d once targeted his fiancée. But then he’d have a whole different set of issues to deal with, and Rafe was barely managing the problems he’d already created for himself. “I don’t want Josie’s face in the papers.”
“Let me see that.” Detective Montgomery took the card and uttered an expletive to match Rafe’s. “Lassen’s been following me around since the press conference, sucking up every tidbit of information he can. He’s a blot on this city.” At least they agreed on one thing. Montgomery crumpled the ID in his fist and moved toward the door. He pointed to Rafe. “You get her out of here. I’ll get rid of this guy.”
A few minutes later, Rafe shrugged into his leather jacket while he and Robbie waited at the back door for Josie to finish in the bathroom.
“I always counted you among my friends, Rafael.” Robbie’s Irish temper was still brewing beneath the surface. “But to not do the right thing by our Josie…”
The bathroom door opened and Josie came out, buttoning a sweater over her blouse and shifting her backpack onto her shoulder. “Be nice. Rafe didn’t know about the baby. I didn’t tell him until this mess with the Rich Girl Killer started.”
Rafe didn’t expect Josie to defend him, but he was relieved to see the paternal condemnation easing up a bit in Robbie’s expression. “I don’t understand you young people sometimes.” He pulled Josie in for a hug and pressed a noisy kiss on her cheek. “But I love ya.” He thumped Rafe on the shoulder before pushing the door open for them. “You keep our girl safe, understand?”
“Yes, sir.” Rafe wrapped his fingers around Josie’s elbow, scanned the nearly empty parking lot, and waited to spot Michael Cutler leaning against his truck.
The high sign the captain gave him indicated the truck was secure. “I sent Murdock on to your apartment and Trip’s keeping an eye on the traffic out front.”
With a nod, Rafe stepped out with Josie.
“Hold up!” the captain cautioned, pushing away from the truck.
A light flashed off to the left. “That’s her, isn’t it?” a man’s voice called out. “She’s your witness.”
Rafe instinctively hunched his shoulders around Josie and pushed her back toward the building. “Captain?”
“Damn it, Lassen!” That was Spencer Montgomery. “I warned you.”
Multiple sets of footsteps crunched across the asphalt.
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Steve Lassen might have driven away, but he’d snuck back into the area on foot. Rafe spotted him moving behind a car at the edge of the parking lot, beyond where he’d parked. “She’s the one who can bring down the RGK.”
“He took my picture.” Josie latched on to his sleeve as Rafe braced her in the open doorway. “He can’t have my picture.”
“What’s going on?” Robbie asked, pulling her in beside him.
“Take her.” Rafe spun around to see Spencer Montgomery running down the reporter in the neighboring lot.
“I have First Amendment rights!” Lassen protested.
Montgomery caught him and put him down on the pavement. “You just lost them when you violated my order.”
“I’ve got him, Detective.” Alex Taylor had joined the chase as well, and in seconds had his knee in Lassen’s back. He cuffed Lassen’s wrists together while Montgomery pried a camera from his fingers. “Did he get a pic?”
Montgomery was up on his feet, breathing hard and pushing buttons as he looked at the back of the digital camera. “There. I deleted it.”
He tossed the camera to the ground.
“Hey, watch it!” Lassen protested. “That equipment costs money.”
“So does a lawsuit,” Montgomery warned. He pulled the reporter up to his feet and glanced over his shoulder at Rafe. “Get her out of here.” He scooped the camera up from beneath the Dumpster and dropped it into his pocket. “I’d like to have a long, private talk with Mr. Lassen.”
After Detective Montgomery loaded Lassen into the backseat of his car, and drove away lecturing him about impeding his investigation, Alex Taylor jogged back over to Rafe. “All right, Sarge, let’s do this. Captain? Are we clear?”
“Move out.”
This time, with guns drawn down at their sides, the three SWAT cops formed a triangle around Josie and walked her out to Rafe’s truck.
