DADDY WITH A BADGE

by Paula Detmer Riggs

  "Drop the charges, Daniela. Otherwise, dear sweet Lyssa will end up an orphan."

  "You bastard," she cried, her voice shaking. "You can't scare me."

  "Can't I, Daniela? Perhaps I should kill Lyssa first, just to prove I mean business." He hung up before she could reply.

  * * *

  Rafe had just opened a mystery novel he'd found on the bookshelves in the den and was preparing to see how fast he could figure out the killer when he heard the phone. He made it to the extension in the den just as the caller hung up.

  Furious at her for ignoring his order to let her machine take the call, he took the stairs two at a time. Her door was ajar. He didn't bother to knock.

  She was sitting up, her face waxen, her eyes huge. "Oh, God, Rafe, this time he actually threatened to kill me." Her lips trembled. She pressed them together until she'd regained control. "When I told him he didn't scare me, he … he threatened to kill Lys." Her fingers turned white where they clutched the sheet.

  His heart bled. "Don't, sweetheart," he pleaded as he slipped in next to her and pulled her onto his lap. "He wants you to fall apart. You can beat him if you stay strong."

  "I'm so tired of feeling strong," she whispered, her voice shredding. "I feel like I'm crumbling inside."

  He smoothed her hair back, then kissed her forehead. "Then lean on me for now, honey," he ordered, his voice thick with words he couldn't say and promises he couldn't make. "Let me take care of you."

  "I wish I'd never taken that cruise," she cried, her eyes full of misery.

  "No, you don't, honey." He cupped both hands over her belly. "This little one wanted to be born and chose you as her mama. Once she's born, you'll forget all about the man who was little more than a sperm donor. When she looks up at you, you'll only see Lyssa and maybe if you look hard enough, Mark."

  She pressed her hands over his. "How did you get so wise?" she asked in a shaky voice as she turned to kiss his jaw.

  "Not wise. Just a guy who cares about you."

  He pulled her head against his shoulder and rocked her the way Rosaria had once rocked her babies. Twenty minutes later she was asleep.

  Still he held her, his hand gently combing through her hair. He would die for her, that was a given. It was his duty, his reason for getting up every morning. But this was personal, holding her. Comforting her the only way he knew how. Letting the warmth of his body drive the chill from hers.

  It would never go away, he knew now, the hunger he felt for her. She was imprinted on his soul.

  That day at the Greyhound station, he'd thought nothing could hurt more. He'd been wrong. The day that he left her again, that would be worse.

  That would be hell.

  * * *

  Chapter 14

  « ^ »

  Jake drove like an old woman all the way back to Portland from the Seattle-Tacoma airport. The last thing he needed now was some county mountie running a make on him after stopping him for some traffic violation. Although the car was registered in the name of Michael Carlyle, he had his real ID in his wallet.

  Four days with Arlene in a fleabag motel had shortened his temper and thinned his patience. A dozen times he'd been tempted to wring her scrawny neck and be done with it, but the sixth sense that had served him so well had him holding back. When he disappeared again, he figured they'd waste a lot of man hours sitting on her place again.

  Like he'd be that stupid, he thought, his lips curling in disgust. Cops were so predictable. It was a wonder they solved as many crimes as they did.

  Spying a rest stop ahead, he signaled a lane change and eased the Bronco onto the exit ramp. He needed to brush his teeth, get the taste of Arly's goodbye kiss out of his mouth. Another hour, he'd be back in Portland.

  The place he'd rented under the name of Michael Carlyle was in the exact opposite end of town from the room he and Arly had found together. He would get his mail there—while he would be safely hidden somewhere else.

  Sweet gullible Arly, she'd shelled out plenty for his cell phone and new clothes. Every time she'd balked, he'd simply tossed her on the bed and given her what she craved.

  Lord, he was glad to be rid of her, he thought as he locked the Bronco and walked toward the men's room. The exhaust from her Toyota had still been in the air when he'd caught a cab to the airport.

  When she'd called him on his new phone to tell him she'd made it home safely, he'd been driving past Olympia. Stupid bitch had believed him when he'd claimed to miss him. Like she hadn't even known that every time he'd been pounding her into the mattress it had been Daniela's body he'd imagined beneath his. And Daniela's throat he'd longed to snap when he'd climaxed.

  As he pushed open the restroom door, he felt a jolt of excitement. Maybe he'd kill Cardoza first, then rape her before he killed her, he thought as he unzipped his trousers.

  By the time he was back on the road he had already revised his plans and was mapping out the steps needed for success. The first, of course, was finding the bitch. Find her, he found Cardoza.

  He would start with the DMV.

  A smile curled his lips as he thought about the small satchel packed full with thirty thousand in small, unmarked bills. It had been intended for traveling money, but there was plenty left over for bribes. After that, as the man said, the rest would be all downhill. To Rafe Cardoza's own private hell.

  * * *

  Danni brought the guided visualization to an end, then waited a beat to let Cindy's system settle. "At the count of five you will be wide awake and feeling refreshed," she continued in the same soothing tone. "The count is one and you're coming up. Two, you're beginning to stir. Three, you're moving your arms and legs. Four, you're aware of your surroundings. Five, your eyes are opening and you're wide, wide awake and feeling great."

  Cindy Habiz opened her big Orphan Annie eyes and stretched her arms over her head. "Wow, that was intense," she said, her small features more relaxed than Danni had ever seen them. "I feel wonderful. I might just he able to take the kids and move to that shelter soon."

  "Why not today?"

  Cindy's expression clouded. "Abdul's talking about maybe going to one of those counseling groups for abusers, you know?"

  "Cindy, he's been talking about that for a year."

  "I know, but this time he's serious."

  Much as Danni wanted to continue, she knew Cindy wasn't ready to make the break with her abusive husband. Still, she was much closer than she'd been six months ago.

  "So who's the gorgeous hunk in the waiting room?" Cindy asked as she sat up and fluffed her cinnamon-colored hair.

  "A friend."

  "Must be a real good friend, seeing as how he's been sitting out there the last three times I've been here."

  "It's complicated to explain." Danni flipped open her appointment book and picked up her pen. "Same time next Friday?"

  "What else?" Cindy got to her feet and collected her purse and umbrella. It had been raining for three days solid, and Danni's temper was beginning to fray.

  "I'll walk you out." Danni stood, her expanding girth making movement awkward.

  "How's the little one?" Cindy asked, casting an envious look at Danni's swollen belly.

  "Growing. And it's definitely a little girl. The ultrasound was clear as a bell."

  Rafe looked up as the door to the inner office opened. He had taken to bringing his laptop with him, but when she asked him what he was working on that seemed to absorb him completely, he made some joke about a Solitaire tournament.

  Rafe walked Cindy to the door, then locked it behind her. "Tired?" he asked as he took Danni into his arms.

  "A case of cabin fever, I suspect." She lifted her face for a kiss. He obliged instantly, covering her mouth with his. Her heart did an eager flip-flop as he cupped her buttocks, angling her pelvis against his.

  "A case of some kind of fever, anyway."

  "Any idea what would cure it?" she challenged, rubbing against him like a cat. He groaned and his body hardened.
>
  "That's a good start."

  Because they couldn't make love at her place with Lyssa in the next room and Seth sleeping on the pull-out sofa in the den, they'd taken to lingering after her last patient.

  Danni came to think of it as their time. It had become the highlight of her increasingly tense days. "You feel so good," he whispered against that sensitive spot behind her ear.

  "So do you." She rubbed her breasts against his chest, feeling his breathing increase.

  He ran his palms up and down her arms, then drew back to unbutton her blouse. "It's driving me crazy, being near you twenty-four hours a day without being able to touch you."

  It was so wonderful to feel his hands roaming her body, his fingertips sliding so intimately over her breasts until they were engorged and aching. Deep in all the moist, intimate parts her body hummed and warmed and yearned.

  Little by little, between kisses and sweet words, he undressed her completely, taking his time, lingering over her breasts before feathering his strokes lower.

  "Baby's getting bigger, honey," he murmured, smoothing his big hand over the swell of her belly. The pleasure was so intense she trembled. He returned his attention to her mouth, and between kisses, undressed himself. When he drew her down onto the sofa, she sighed with pleasure and anticipation.

  Instead of covering her with his body, he knelt next to the sofa. She reached for him, only to have him grab her hand and kiss the tips of her fingers. "Patience, sweet."

  She closed her eyes and let him lead. Soon she was awash in pleasure, his callused fingers unbearably erotic sliding over her belly, pushing through the soft curls covering the mound between her legs.

  It thrilled her when his mouth turned possessive and then demanding. She met demand with demand, curling her hands over his shoulders, sliding lower, exulting in the strength of his corded biceps, the wide power of his forearms.

  His breathing rasped harsher as his own desire built. She felt his heat, his struggle for control. Her own breathing quickened, became labored as the pleasure built. Heat raced over her throat and into her breasts.

  "Do you want me inside you now?" he asked, his voice thick.

  She opened her eyes and saw the grimace of pleasure pain that tightened his arrogantly drawn features. "I want you," she pleaded, opening her legs.

  With a groan he rose and straddled her. Taking her hands, he drew them over her head, then eased down until the thick tip of his shaft was pressing intimately against her. He thrust slowly, then drew back, his rigid body sliding against velvet walls. He thrust deeper, shuddering as he drew back. Sobbing, she arched up, seating him completely, then began working her hips.

  She opened her eyes and saw him watching her. The look in his sage-green eyes was dark and edgy and full of turbulent emotion. So much emotion. Her breath stopped, then hissed out as she writhed, desperate for release. He followed her lead, thrusting harder until she cried out. He caught her cries with his mouth as she shattered. And then his mouth was next to her ear and his voice was thick and slurred as he whispered her name.

  "I want to love you, Danni mine. I want that so much." And then with a shudder that shook both of them he found his own release.

  * * *

  It had taken a while and a few greased palms, but Jake found out where she lived. He'd even driven by a few times to get the lay of the land. It was a nice little house, but worlds away from the upscale digs on the hillside in Lake Oswego. Rented now, like poor folks.

  It gave him a jolt of satisfaction that was almost sexual.

  Princess, her old man called her. Had her believing it, too. Looking down her nose at him when he suggested they do more than the usual missionary position between the sheets.

  A real cold fish she'd been. Too bad he had to marry her before he found it out. Had him panting after her like a pimply kid, she had, too. He should have known the way she was holding out for a wedding ring.

  It had been the flawless emerald glittering on her finger that had decided him. Now that emerald was locked in the Portland PD evidence room, waiting to send him away for a good portion of his remaining years.

  "Think again, Princess," he muttered, his fingers caressing the barrel of the sweet little Beretta resting on his thigh.

  Disappointment churned in his gut like bad meat as he realized it wouldn't be here where she died. Too few ways to escape and too many potential witnesses in those tidy white houses.

  No, he would have to find a way to lure her into the open. Turning on his blinker he turned on to the street dividing her house from the three in the next block, driving past slowly. No one was home yet. Daniela was at her downtown office, another place he'd rejected for the same reasons. And Lyssa was at school.

  Lyssa! An obscenity escaped his thin lips at his own stupidity.

  She was the key. Get to her, use her to lure her mom away from that bastard Cardoza for only a few seconds, and he'd blow them both away.

  Feeling elated, he shoved a Sinatra CD into the Bronco's cassette player and sang along with Old Blue Eyes. All he had to do now was pick his own private killing field, then figure out a way to get around the tap that had to be on her phone.

  "Soon, Princess," he promised, tossing back his head and laughing in sheer relief.

  * * *

  "Mom, if I promise to be real careful not to spill anything, can I wear your yellow silk blouse tomorrow night? Jody says it'll be rad with my white bell bottoms."

  Danni took a sip of milk before smiling across the table at her daughter. "Okay, but get one little speck on it and you're in big trouble, kiddo."

  "I'll be careful, I promise."

  Rafe glanced at Seth and lifted a brow. Seth gave his head a nearly imperceptible shake. Obviously he was in the dark, too. "What's happening tomorrow night?" Rafe asked, shifting his attention to Lyssa again.

  "Just the most awesome Acid Aliens concert on the planet," she said before popping a cherry tomato into her mouth. "Me and Jody have seats in the third row."

  Damn. "Where, exactly, is this concert?"

  "At the Rose Garden. Jody's mom is taking us, so Seth can have the night off." She turned to give him a smile. "You could ask Miss Fishbein out for tomorrow night like you keep saying you want to. She asked me all about you yesterday after class."

  "Shh," Seth teased. "Don't out me to the boss, okay?"

  She giggled happily. "Bummer, sorry about that."

  Rafe gazed across the table at her shining eyes and knew he was about to lose all the ground he'd been slowly gaining during the four weeks he'd been living in Danni's house.

  "I'm sorry, Lys," he said with real regret. "I can't let you go to a public concert right now. It's too dangerous."

  Her happiness turned to shock. "But that's not fair!" she protested, her face flushed. "Me and Jody have been planning this for ages."

  Danni turned anxious eyes Rafe's way. "Surely he wouldn't try something in the middle of a crowd?"

  "That's the problem, Danni. We can't control the situation, which makes it an unacceptable risk."

  "I don't think Jonathan is dangerous at all," Lyssa cried, her eyes flashing. "I think you just made it up so mom will let you hang around."

  "Not true, Lyssa," Seth jumped in before Rafe could find the patience he needed. "I would have made the same decision as Rafe. It's our job to protect you and your mom. Sometimes that means making the hard choices, but the alternative can be far worse."

  She blinked lashes almost as long and curly as her mom's. "Maybe it's just a mistake." As a compromise, it was paper thin, but it was a start. "Maybe you just think Jonathan wants to hurt Mom and me."

  "I hope it is, but we can't take that chance." Seth covered the hand she'd tightened into a little fist next to her plate with his. "Put yourself in our place, Lys. What if you were convinced that some miserable piece of … that someone was going to try to kill your mom. Wouldn't you do everything in your power to try to protect her?"

  Mouth drooping, she struggled to fi
nd a way around the ruthless logic. Rafe felt for the kid. It had to be rough, living with the memories of her father's death. "I guess," she conceded grudgingly. "Only it's like, Acid Aliens is my favorite group, you know? And I used all the money I made helping Liza to pay for my ticket."

  "How about this? When this is over, I'll find out where they're playing next, and we'll all go, you and me and Jody and your mom." He shot Rafe a look. "We'll even take the old guy."

  "Do we have to?" she grumbled, and Danni winced.

  Seth chuckled. "Ah, c'mon, Lys, cut him some slack. It's rough playing dad to this strange family we have here."

  "Especially since he's learning on the job," Danni added, her gaze filled with tenderness as she lifted her nearly empty glass of milk in a toast. "To you, Rafael. Our own gift from God."

  * * *

  Early morning fog curled upward from the gorge, mingling with the sweat pouring through his pores as Rafe ran along the cliff path, his feet pounding the hard-packed gravel, his muscles begging for relief. To his right the mighty Columbia tumbled and tore toward the Pacific. Rafe felt the same turbulence surging inside.

  It had been a mistake, moving into Danni's house. With every day that passed he found himself having to fight harder to remember why it would never work between them.

  Because it seemed to be working damn well. Even Lyssa had gotten over her anger and seemed more relaxed around him. She'd even begun to tease him about his lousy luck at Monopoly. So far he'd been skunked in twenty-three straight games.

  He'd told himself he wasn't going to get attached to the kid. For her sake as well as his. He might as well have been shouting into the wind for all the good it did. That afternoon in the river, when she'd looked at him with the joy of victory shimmering in eyes exactly like her mother's, she'd set her hook into him but good.

  At least she hadn't started treating him like a dad. That he knew would cause no end of complications. Because he wasn't her dad and never could be.