by Sara Davison
He almost choked on the swallow of water. “Of course she ...” Their eyes met, and he let out a breath and set down his drink. “All right, no, she doesn’t.”
“Does anyone?”
“No.”
“Is that normal?”
“It’s not protocol. But this investigation is ... unusual.”
“Why?” Nicole rubbed her damp palms on her jeans.
“Because I’m starting to wonder if the whole thing is as black and white as I first thought.”
“I would guess that it rarely is,” Nicole said.
“A month ago I wouldn’t have agreed with you, but now I’m not so sure.”
She rested her chin on one hand, suddenly curious about the man who had wreaked such havoc in her life. “What made you decide to become a cop?”
He didn’t hesitate. “The uniform.”
“The uniform?” Nicole couldn’t help smiling.
“Yeah, I fell in love with it when I was three. My dad was a cop. Sometimes when he’d been working late, he’d come into my room to say good-night and he’d still have his uniform on. He looked so big and strong to me, like a super-hero, you know? As if nothing in the world could hurt him, or us when he was there. Those were the nights I slept the best. I felt so safe with him in the house protecting us.”
Nicole blinked at his use of the word super-hero. The same thought had crossed her mind the day he’d stopped the thief on the street and retrieved her bag.
“That’s when I decided to become a cop too, so I could wear the uniform and destroy all the evil in the world and help everyone like he did. I was pretty naïve, I guess. But then, I was three. All the evil in the world lived under my bed and in my closet and fled when my dad walked into the room.” Sadness crept into his eyes.
What has he seen in his line of work to destroy that little boy’s dreams? Everything in Nicole wanted to reach out and cup his cheek or pull his head down to her shoulder and stroke his hair until the sadness was banished like the monsters under his bed. The rush of tenderness that filled her at the thought of the little, pajama-clad boy, dark hair slicked down from his bath, sitting up in bed and reaching for his father when he walked into the room, almost brought tears to her eyes. She wrapped her fingers around her glass and forced herself to look away.
The only reason she was talking to him was to try to help Gage. While Detective Grey’s father was holding him, tucking him into bed and making him feel safe and loved, Gage’s dad was yanking him out of his closet and beating him nearly to death. His father had brought evil into the bedroom like a dark cloud swirling around him, instead of driving it away. Gage was the one who needed her, who deserved to have one person in his life stand up and fight for him, not betray him like everyone else had. God, give me the words. I don’t want to get Gage in trouble. I only want to help him. She swung her gaze back to the detective’s.
He was watching her. “What are you thinking about?”
“Gage.”
“Ah.”
For a second, she glimpsed that little three-year-old boy in the disappointment that flashed across his face. Nicole braced herself against softening. “Would you do something for me?”
“If I can.”
“Would you call me Nicole?” She took a deep breath when he didn’t answer. “The thing is, I need to trust you.”
“You can.” Resting an elbow on the counter, he tapped his fist against his mouth for a few seconds, as though contemplating his next words. She waited in silence until he dropped his hand. “You and I go back a ways, you know. We actually met a few months ago.”
Her eyes widened. “We did?”
“Yes. My old partner asked me to go with him to give a talk on bike safety at his nephew’s school on this side of the city. He bribed me by promising me breakfast at his favorite diner afterwards.”
“Joe’s.”
He nodded. “Gage was in the booth beside us. I had run into him at the police station a few days before that and recognized him when I saw him here. Now that I think about it, if he is the one taking the kids, that would have been an interesting situation for him.”
“He’s not. But it does happen to him a lot. The diner is a popular place for cops, so he’s surrounded by them all the time.”
Detective Grey shook his head. “Anyway, I was facing him when you stopped at his table to talk to him. The two of you seemed so close, so happy. I remember thinking how rare that was.”
“I thought you looked vaguely familiar when I first saw you on the street that day, but I knew if I had seen you, it was a while ago. You haven’t been back since?”
His gaze dropped to his glass. “No. In fact, I didn’t even stay long enough to eat that time.”
Nicole tilted her head to one side. “Why not?”
When he looked up at her, his cheeks held a tinge of scarlet. “It was the end of a really long shift and I decided I was more tired than hungry.”
She studied him for a few seconds before drawing in a quick breath. “You’re bed guy.”
“Bed guy?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah.” Her laughter eased some of the tension that had tightened the muscles in her body. “You’re the one who made the comment about your bed being more appealing than anything on the menu, right?”
The detective looked a little nauseated. “You can’t seriously remember that.”
“I do. I thought you were giving me a lame pick-up line for a second, but then I realized you were way too embarrassed about what you had said for it to have been planned.”
“You’re right, I was. Still am. I’m not sure I’ve ever come closer to choking on my own foot than I did that day.”
“Is that why you didn’t come back?”
He hesitated. “It was more that Joe’s is nowhere near where I live. Until recently, I didn’t come over to this side of town very often.”
“Too bad. We have the best breakfast in the city.”
“So I’ve heard. Maybe I’ll actually get a chance to try it some time.”
A stab of pain tightened her muscles again. “I don’t know if you will. I haven’t decided if I’m going to open again.”
“You?”
“Yes. Joe left me the place. He said it was up to me whether to sell it or keep it going. I know Connie would love to see me re-open it, but I don’t know. There are so many people that only she knew how to …” Nicole lifted a hand, palm up. “I don’t know if I can do it, if I even want to do it, without her and Joe.” She lowered her hand and swiveled the stool to face him. “But if we’ve known each other that long, you should definitely call me Nicole. I’d be a lot more comfortable if you did.” She tapped her fingers on the counter top. “You told me you were trying to help Gage and Holden, trying to clear their names.”
“Actually, I suggested that you helping me could possibly clear their names. My goal is to find out who took those kids so we can stop them from taking any more.” His eyes probed hers. “And for the record, I’m not at all convinced it’s Gage doing this. In fact, it makes more sense that it’s Holden, since he has access to the Children’s Aid files. With Gage’s work though, he could also get that kind of information, so we can’t rule either of them out yet. I’ve been reading their files and …”
Nicole started, and his eyes narrowed. “What is it?”
“Gage would hate that. He doesn’t like anyone knowing what happened to them.”
“It was pretty bad, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was.”
“I’m not saying it’s right, but if either Gage or Holden is doing this ...” the detective cleared his throat, “I can understand what’s motivating them. And I’ll promise you one thing. If you help me figure this out, I will do what I can to help them.”
“I love Gage, Detective. And Holden. They’re both good men. I would never want to do anything to hurt either of them.”
“Neither would I.” He stared into his glass for a moment before looking up at her. “All righ
t then, Nicole. But you’ll have to call me Daniel.” He winced slightly, as though he’d crossed a line he knew he had no business crossing.
Nicole wasn’t sorry. She needed him over on this side of the line with her.
“You found out something, didn’t you?” he said.
How could she do this to Gage? She bit her lip. How could she not? If Gage was involved in this, his life could be in danger. Even if her co-operating with the police resulted in him going to jail for a few years, at least he would still be alive, they could still be together, eventually. She would wait for him. She couldn’t sit around doing nothing, not if there was any way she could save him. Nicole still struggled to believe the suspicions the police had about Gage were true, but she was beginning to have suspicions of her own that she didn’t know what to do with.
“Nicole?”
She blew out a long breath. “It’s nothing really. Except, I did look up all the dates that kids have been taken ...”
“And?”
Her hand shook as she raised her glass to her lips. Some of the water splashed on to the counter. She set the glass down and started to stand. “I’ll get a cloth.”
He stopped her with a hand on her arm. Tingles of electricity shot across her skin. “Tell me.”
Nicole sank down. Will this help Gage, or hurt him? She took a deep breath. She had to trust Daniel. And maybe, on some level, she wanted him keeping a close eye on Gage. If he did, he would either quickly find out that he wasn’t involved in the abductions, or if Gage was, the detective would be able to stop him before he attempted to kidnap someone else and maybe get hurt or killed in the process. At least Daniel seemed to feel some compassion for Holden and Gage, and he might help them. “I looked up the dates that kids have been abducted since Gage and I started seeing each other and checked them against my day timer. One of those nights he didn’t come over, but if I really think about it, the evenings we did spend together, he may have seemed a little preoccupied, as though he had something else on his mind.”
Daniel pursed his lips. “Interesting.”
“It probably doesn’t mean anything. I mean, he’s often busy with cases and might have been thinking about what he had to do the next day. That’s a much more likely reason for him to be distracted.”
“Maybe.” Daniel lifted his shoulders. “Better not to discount anything at this point, though.”
Nicole contemplated him. “You seem familiar with the Bible. Does that mean you believe in God, Detective?”
He blinked. It wasn’t considered a politically correct question, but she didn’t really care at this point.
When he spoke, his voice was firm. “Yes. Absolutely. I couldn’t do what I do if I didn’t know whose hands I was in, and where I would go if I went down on the job. Why, do you?”
“Yes. So does Gage. His faith was his lifeline when he was a kid, helped him survive what he went through, and find peace after he killed his father.”
A strange look crossed Daniel’s face. It disappeared so quickly she wondered if she had seen it at all.
I have to give him a glimpse of who Gage really is. “It’s not only a Sunday thing with him, either. He really lives what he believes and reads the Bible every day.”
Daniel leaned closer, his voice gentle in her ear. “So he’d be familiar with verses like, true religion is to take care of widows and orphans and to help them in their time of need. And whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me, wouldn’t he, Nicole?”
He’d showered before he came over. His short hair was still slightly damp, curling around his ears, and he smelled of a faint, masculine musk. Nicole wasn’t sure if it was his nearness or the words that sent shivers through her body. Either way, she couldn’t bring herself to answer.
A sick feeling struck her. She’d made a terrible mistake, asking him to call her by her name. Names narrowed the distance they should have kept between them. The line they had both crossed a few minutes ago had been a protective barrier that had been torn down—that she had torn down—leaving them both vulnerable.
He drew back slightly. “Would you do something for me?”
“If I can.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled. “Would you call me the next time Gage seems distracted while the two of you are together?”
“I don’t know. I’m …” she rubbed her forehead hard with her fingers. “… I’m really confused. I love Gage. I don’t want to get him in trouble.”
“Nicole, you need to know that if you ever suspect he’s planning another abduction and you don’t tell me, you could be charged with aiding and abetting. And I would really hate to see that happen, because …”
She dropped her hand and looked up. “Because?”
“Because I care about what happens to you. I don’t believe you are involved with this in any way, but if people close to you are, you could get caught in the cross-fire. And I …” He reached out a hand toward her and then stopped and pulled back as though he’d suddenly realized what he was doing. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
His eyes met hers and held them. The tough cop façade was gone. The raw vulnerability that had taken its place tightened her chest until she could barely draw a breath.
Neither of them moved for a few seconds, until Daniel leaned in again, closing the space between them. His hand, strong and warm, covered the one she’d rested on the counter between them. All reason and rational thought fled as a thrill of pleasure rippled through her stomach. The desire she’d battled since the day they met overwhelmed her and she surrendered herself to it with a quick intake of breath. Slowly she turned her hand over until her palm pressed against his. His other hand slid behind her head and he pulled her gently toward him.
“Nicole.” He whispered her name like a prayer, his warm breath brushing across her lips.
Trembling, she closed her eyes, wanting this, wanting the feel of his mouth on hers, of his hand tangled in her hair.
A soft jingling sound startled her, and her eyes flew open. Heat flared in her cheeks and she jerked back and yanked her hand out from under Daniel’s. “I have to get that.”
He straightened as she reached over the counter and grabbed her phone. Her hands shook and she nearly dropped it, but managed to grab it and press it to her ear. “Hello?” Her voice was hoarse, and she turned her head to clear her throat.
“Hey princess, are you still at the diner?”
Nicole swallowed hard. “Yes, I’m almost …” She glanced over at Daniel. He had propped both elbows up on the counter and dropped his face into his hands. She looked away quickly. “… Finished here. I’m leaving in a minute.”
“Take a cab, okay? It’s late.”
“Okay.” Her throat felt as though she had swallowed a mouthful of sand.
“I brought dinner over. I’ll wait to eat until you get here.”
“You don’t have to. If you need to get home that’s fine.” If she didn’t see him tonight, there was a better chance her emotions would be under control when she did.
“I know I don’t. But I want to see you.” Gage sounded puzzled and she closed her eyes, hating what was happening to them, what she was doing to them. “Nic, are you okay? You sound upset.”
“I’m fine. Being here, remembering Joe. It’s been harder than I thought.” She’d never intentionally lied to him before, and it made her sick to her stomach. “I’m glad you’re going to wait. I … I need to see you. I’ll be there soon.” She dropped the phone back onto the counter and turned to face Daniel.
He rubbed his face with both hands before dropping them into his lap. The vulnerability in his eyes had faded to weariness. “I take it we’re done.”
“Yes. We’re done. Gage is waiting for me.” Nicole crossed her arms over her abdomen, trying to ease the ache that gripped her there.
He nodded. The pain etched around his eyes broke her heart.
“Daniel, I shouldn’t have—”
He let out a short, humorless laug
h as he got up off the stool. “No, this is all on me. I’ve always been a by-the-book kind of guy, always. The last few weeks though …” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve managed to break at least half a dozen rules and most of the code of conduct. If I had any professional integrity left at all, I would march into my boss’s office first thing in the morning and take myself off this case. I should have done it the minute I realized you were involved in the investigation.”
“You won’t though, will you?”
For a long moment he didn’t reply then he sighed heavily. “I don’t think so. I have to see this through. I want to stop whoever is doing this. And I …” His jaw worked and Nicole bit her lip, waiting for him to finish. “I need to make sure that you’re all right.” He took a step toward her and stopped. “So will you tell me the next time Gage seems distracted? If he is planning something and we can stop him, you might have saved his life.”
“I’ll think about it. I don’t know what the right thing to do is. I love Gage.”
“Yeah. You mentioned that. A few times. Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?”
She jerked, feeling the question like a stinging slap.
Daniel drew in a long breath. “I’m sorry. I seem to have completely lost the ability to do the right thing. Which means I’d better get out of here right now.” He looked out the glass door of the diner. “It’s dark. Do you need a ride home?”
“No, that’s okay. Gage told me to take a cab.”
“Well then, you’d best do that. You do love Gage, you know.” A small smile twitched the corners of his lips.
Nicole managed a faint smile in return, grateful that he was trying to get them onto more stable footing.
Bells jangled as he pulled open the door and stepped out into the warm, early-summer night. Nicole locked the door behind him and stood, one hand on the glass, watching until he had disappeared down the street. Then she sank onto a stool and groaned as she covered her face with both hands.
She’d made a lot of mistakes in the last half hour. Now all she could do was pray that one of them hadn’t just cost the man she loved everything.
