by J. H. Croix
“It’s no big deal.” He stood. “It’s very nice of you to offer though. Again, I appreciate it, but it’s really too much to ask.”
“Okay.” I pushed the chair back and waited as he finished getting his things.
I walked him to the door, muttering an excuse when we got there. “I have to lock up. It was nice to have met you, Sonny.”
He smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he flashed his perfectly straight white teeth. “You too, Niki. I hope I’ll see you around.”
Before I could answer, he turned and flipped his hood back up as he headed out into the rain. It was coming down harder now, and the gray quickly swallowed him so completely it was like he was never there.
“Yeah, I hope so too,” I murmured to nothing but the empty library and the driving rain.
Deciding to stay true to my word, I locked one of the doors and went to get my things. It was a slow day, and it was almost closing time anyway.
All the way home, I couldn’t stop thinking about Sonny. I might’ve just met him, but I could already tell he was nothing like what the public portrayed his family to be. He was sweet and kind, thoughtful and considerate.
Whatever he was looking up, he was trying to protect me from even though I’d offered to help him. More than once. It was probably better to stay out of it, but there was just something about him that made me want to help him.
Chapter Nine
Sonny
“Alright, boys. You all know what to do, and hopefully by now, you all know how to do it.” Chief Harris chuckled at the little joke he made at every weekly morning meeting. “Those are your assignments for the next couple of days. If you have any questions, you know where to turn in your resignation.”
Some of the others rolled their eyes. I grinned. It was little things that endeared me to Chief Harris. His attempts at humor were an example of that. He was a good boss, a good man. Winking when he caught my grin, he said, “Just kidding. You know where to find me if you have questions. Have a good week out there, gents. Stay safe, stay sane.”
The meeting ended. My co-workers all shuffled out of the conference room to the break room to get their morning coffee. Crappy as the stuff at the station was, it was caffeine nonetheless. I was waiting for the pipeline at the door to clear when the Chief spoke behind me. “Lovett, you mind staying behind with me for a sec?”
“Of course, Chief.” I always made time for him. “What’s up?”
He waited for most of the others to filter out before motioning me to the now empty conference table. I took a seat.
Officer Johnston, a red-haired rookie, was the last man out the door. He closed it behind him. Harris looked tired as he sat down at the table, pale smudges under his eyes. “Sorry for keeping you. It’ll only take a minute.”
“I don’t mind staying. What’s on your mind, Chief?”
He ran a hand through his thinning hair. “Did you find what you were looking for with your father’s case?”
I had been expecting him to follow-up on our earlier conversation. “Most of the files available are blacked-out. I haven’t found much, but I’m not giving up.”
“Of course, you’re not.” Harris nodded, his eyes drifting to the window between the conference room we were in and the break room where everyone else was getting coffee. “That’s not the only reason I asked you to stay behind.”
“Okay.”
“You might have noticed Wayne Maclin is back in town,” he said.
I snorted, crossing my arms. “I noticed.”
“Internal Affairs is still looking into Mr. Taylor.”
“Maclin’s got some issue with Zach. He didn’t do anything.” And he wasn’t “unstable” either. That was another lie cooked up and orchestrated by Maclin, no doubt. I kept that comment to myself.
“I didn’t accuse him of doing anything,” Chief Harris stated, lowering his voice. “But Maclin is persistent.”
“I noticed that, too.” I didn’t mention he’d been following me around. Chief Harris didn’t need to worry about that. That was my problem, and I would deal with it.
“He’s quite insistent that Mr. Taylor isn’t fit for duty. I’ve been trying to hold him off, hoping it would blow over, but he’s not going anywhere.”
“Can’t we lodge a complaint about him?” I’d been considering it for a few days. The man popped up everywhere. Surely that had to constitute harassment of some kind. Doing your job was one thing, following me around on my day off and to my brother’s garage was another.
Harris sighed, giving his head one firm shake. “I’m afraid not. He’s not overstepping any boundaries. He’s completely within his rights with this investigation, whether we like it or not.”
“Great, just great,” I mumbled. So there was no getting rid of him yet. Fun.
“He’s been pressing everyone about Zach. More than just the sit-downs he had with some of you the last time he was in town.”
“He’s a regular ray of sunshine, that man.”
Harris chuckled. “I don’t like him sniffing around any more than you do, but we have to cooperate. You know how this goes.”
“I do.” Unfortunately, I’d had my fair share of attention from Internal Affairs because of my father. “Why did you want to talk to me about him?”
“I know the two of you are close.” His expression turned somber, the corners of his mouth dropping down. “I think it’s best if you put some distance between yourself and Taylor for the moment. Stay away from him until this blows over.”
“Stay away from Zach?”
He nodded, sympathy flashing in his eyes. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’m trying to protect both of you here. I think it’s for the best if the two of you keep some distance between you for now.”
My eyes narrowed. Zach was my best friend outside of my brothers. He was my go-to for advice and to bitch about work. He kept me sane around here. “I appreciate your concern, Chief, but I really don’t like the thought of Maclin controlling who I can and can’t talk to.”
“It’s not Maclin asking, Sonny. It’s me.”
Fair point. I sighed, thinking about all the times the Chief had protected me over the years. I had to trust him. “Sure Chief. Okay. I’ll lay low with him for now, until this blows over, right?”
“Right.” Harris nodded. “You’re free to go. That was all I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Thanks, boss. Have a good one.” We pushed back our chairs at the same time, the metal legs scraping across the floor as we did.
“You too, Sonny. Stay safe.”
I wondered what he and everyone else who kept telling me to stay safe or to be careful would do if I started saying no. Harris was the Police Chief, though, and telling us all to stay safe was something he did on a daily basis. It wasn’t specific to me.
Since we patrolled alone and went out on calls alone, the risks were sometimes higher for us than for those who always had a partner around to back them up. For us, backup wouldn’t be far behind if you needed it, but it wasn’t right there. “Same to you, Chief.”
He gave a wave, preceding me out the door and crossing the station to his office. I went to my desk, fired up my computer and got started on my admin for the day. Chief Harris’s request was never far from my mind as I got caught up on my paperwork.
Harris asked me to stay away from Zach, and I’d agreed to lay low. I would keep my promise because I respected Harris and knew he wasn’t asking for some arbitrary reason. He was doing it for me, but I felt caught in the middle.
For starters, Zach was my friend. I didn’t like the situation, yet I also know us laying low would protect him as much as me. The other wrinkle was if I stayed away from him, I wouldn’t be able to get the unredacted files from him. I sure as hell couldn’t ask for his help deciphering what was in them. Getting the files from Zach had been my only hope to get to any kind of record of what those files really said.
Unless—I tried pushing the thought from my mind befor
e it had time to form fully, but it was useless. It was already there in neon. Unless I accept Niki’s offer to help.
She seemed like a smart girl, and she seemed to think it was possible to search out those files through the library records system. It was certainly a lot less risky doing it her way than having Zach sneak the files from the evidence room for me.
Less risky for me though. For her—I would be involving her in this, something I had no right to do. I was pretty much out of options though. I either took Niki up on her offer or gave up for the time being. I didn’t do giving up very well.
Resolving to go back to the library when my shift ended, I spent the next couple of hours trying not to think about Niki. Partially because I had to focus on getting my work done, but more so because thinking about her tied me up inside.
The mere thought of her was like a jolt to my system. She was even more beautiful up close. She had a demure, coy, sexy librarian thing going on, and damn, it was hot as hell.
It didn’t help that she was so responsive when she talked to me. With her cheeks flushed, her pupils dilated, and her lips parted ever so slightly, I could only imagine what she would be like if I ever got a taste of her. Every time my thoughts dwelled on her, my entire body went tight, blood shooting to my groin. Damn. I couldn’t recall the last time a woman had this effect on me.
In my mind, I could practically hear the husky sound of her voice and feel the flex of her body under mine.
Fuck. Stop thinking about this.
Doing my best to follow my own orders, I tamped down on the dirty thoughts about Niki and got through the day. When my shift ended, I changed into my street clothes, deciding to head straight to the library.
Niki was behind her desk when I got there, humming to herself and clicking away on the keyboard of the computer in front of her. She gasped when she looked up and found me standing right in front her, pressing a hand to her heart.
“You scared me.” She laughed as she relaxed, seeing it was only me. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Hazard of working in a place that’s always got its doors open.”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug, causing her braid to slip from it. “I guess so.”
My gaze snagged on her bare shoulder for a second. Her shirt was held together by a tie around her neck, exposing her shoulders. Her skin was creamy and smooth.
Focus, dude. You’re here to ask for her help, not fuck her with your eyes. Snapping my gaze away from her tempting skin to her eyes, I was about to ask if her offer of help still stood, but she beat me to it.
“I found some things online I think you might want to see.”
My head jerked back, my eyes narrowing. “I never told you what I was looking into.”
She lifted one blonde eyebrow, disbelief creeping onto her beautiful features. “Your dad’s case, right? No offense, but it wasn’t that hard to figure out. Was it supposed to be a secret?”
“Not a secret,” I told her, stunned she’d managed to hone in on what I was doing and look into it even when I’d asked her not to. “What gave it away?”
I saw her struggling not to roll her eyes. She settled for rolling her head back and studying the ceiling for the second. “You are the son of possibly the most notorious criminal ever to have been a citizen of Cypress Creek. We have a ton of stuff on his trial, and you’ve been in twice in the last week, specifically perusing the materials on him, and you’re reading documents that have information blacked-out.”
“You said all that like looking into my father was the only logical conclusion.”
Her brow scrunched, nose wiggling slightly. “Wasn’t it?”
“No.” I couldn’t keep from grinning. “What did you find?”
Her eyes darted from side to side as her tongue swiped across her bottom lips, threatening to draw my attention away from the issue at hand. “I don’t really want to talk about it here.”
“Understandable. Would you like to meet me at my house tonight and we can look at it together?”
Fuck. Had I really just invited her over?
She didn’t know me. That was stupid. I should’ve offered to buy her dinner somewhere public.
The wheels turning in her head were so obvious I could practically count the seconds to steam coming out of her ears. Finally, she started nodding slowly.
“Okay. I’ll meet you at your house tonight.”
Chapter Ten
Niki
“Hey.” Sonny opened the door seconds after I knocked, his full lips kicking up into a smile when he saw me. “Thanks for coming.”
“No problem.” Damn, what a lie. I’d nearly called to cancel four times. Once, I went so far as to pull up his number on my phone.
We’d exchanged numbers before he left the library this afternoon, and he texted me his address later. I was wearing one of the dresses Karen chose for me, a soft blue one with a high neck but it was shorter than what I usually wore, falling just above my knees.
Sonny was dressed casually in jeans and another blue t-shirt. It brought out the color of his eyes, a highlight to the blue and a contrast to the green. His grin sent my belly spinning in flips. I needed to get a grip. I was ridiculous around him.
So lame, I chided myself.
He stepped aside, opening the door wider. “Come on in.”
“Thanks.” I scanned his front room quickly, absorbing a low key, practical space. “Nice house.”
“I like it.” He shut the door behind me and gestured me inside. The house wasn’t large, but it was clean and well maintained.
From the street, it looked like a family home with its tidy, trimmed lawn out front and white shuttered windows. On the inside, it wasn’t hard to see he was a cop.
His furniture was kept to the bare minimum. A side table sat against one wall in his entryway with an empty coat rack beside it. To the left was a living room with a brown leather couch and loveseat, and a wide flat screen television mounted on the wall.
The kitchen was to the side off the living area and opened up to the dining room on my right. A small, square table with six chairs all pushed in neatly sat in the very center of the room. A short hallway ran down the side of the house with several doors. I presumed those doors led to bedrooms and a bathroom.
There was hardly anything on his walls, except for a clock above the door and a framed picture of a handsome couple with five young boys scattered around their feet—the Lovett family in happier times.
“Would you like a drink?” he offered, leading me to the kitchen.
“Water would be great.”
“I can do better than that.” Sonny opened a large, silver fridge and emerged with two bottles of water and two beers. “Want one?”
“Sure.” I took both the water and the beer, tugging my eyes away from him to look to the backyard visible through a window above his sink. “Have you lived here long?”
“A few years,” he answered, shifting on his feet. Neither of us seemed to be very comfortable. “I’m sorry I don’t have any dinner ready for us. I don’t do much cooking. Do you want to go get something before we get started?”
“I could eat,” I agreed.
Sonny nodded, a lock of midnight black hair falling across his forehead. He pushed it away, grabbing his keys from his kitchen counter. “Let’s go. We can enjoy these drinks when we get back.”
“Okay.” This was awkward, like really awkward. I wished I could channel just an ounce of Karen’s easygoing way with men. Blurting out the first thing that came to mind, I asked, “Do you like pizza?”
Sonny laughed, placing his palm on the small of my back as we walked through his house to the garage. “Doesn’t everyone?”
I giggled, nervous all over from his casual, probably completely innocent touch. I could feel the heat from his palm against my skin, even though a layer of fabric separated us. “I guess so. Have you been to Bravo’s pizzeria yet? It’s new.”
“My brother Jeremy and I tried it out a while ago. It
’s good.” He opened the door to his garage before helping me into his truck. I’d never thought much about men getting the door for me, but with Sonny, I savored his solicitous attention. Yet, I guessed it was habit for him. He came from an old Southern family. Manners were ingrained in families like his.
I was certain it didn’t even flash on his radar, but it was a first for me. Silence stretched between us in the truck as he drove us to Bravo’s. I wished like hell I’d somehow managed to date when I was younger. Though I’d readily acknowledge I preferred quiet to partying, that didn’t mean I hadn’t wanted chances to get past my social anxieties. My mother’s cancer had thrown a bit of a wrench in my social life, if only because it had set me back on my heels and I felt so alone in the world for a while. After she passed away and later my father, I’d gradually adjusted, but still. Here I was at twenty-five, a virgin who barely knew how to talk on what wasn’t even a date.
My ears were ringing by the time we got to the restaurant. He was a gentleman and opened my door for me, helping me from the truck and keeping his hand on the curve of my back as we walked inside.
He even pulled my chair out for me and waited for me to sit down before he took his own seat. Too bad neither of us said much throughout the whole process.
“Can I take your order?” a cheerful waitress in a sixties style red dress asked, her eyes lingering on Sonny as she smiled flirtatiously and waited for his answer.
Glaring at her, I ruined her fun by interrupting her eye-fuckery. “I’d like a Hawaiian please, and a glass of water.”
“Pineapple on a pizza?” Sonny asked, lifting his gaze from the menu to mine. He appeared oblivious to the waitress’s flirty glances.
“It’s the best,” I informed him. “Please don’t tell me you’re one of those who thinks fruit doesn’t belong on a pizza.”
