Waking Up Cuffed

by Melissa Stevens

  “You’re sweet, aren’t you?”

  Jake wagged his tail as if he understood her and agreed.

  “Dinner is still in the oven. We’ve got about half an hour or a little more until it’s ready to eat. Do you want to see if he needs outside? Then we can see what we can find to watch.”

  “Sure.”

  She showed him through the house to the kitchen and the back door that led out into the backyard. She opened the door and Warren stepped out and unclipped the leash from Jake’s collar.

  “You can just leave the door open, if you’d like.” She turned on the oven light, bent and looked in the low window to check on the food.

  “I’m not sure what it is, something tomato based, but it smells amazing.”

  “I hope you like lasagna.”

  “Never fear. I love lasagna.” He chuckled. “I’m pretty easy to feed. I’ll eat pretty much anything.”

  She shot him a playful frown. “That’s both good and bad.”

  Warren frowned and looked at her as if trying to figure out what she meant.

  “How so?”

  “Well, it’s good because you’re open to anything I decide to cook. On the other hand, you like everything so you can’t be trusted to tell me what’s good and what’s not.”

  “Hmm. I have no doubt that anything you cook is wonderful.”

  She shot him a suspicious look. “Flattery from someone who’s never even tasted my cooking isn’t worth a grain of salt.”

  “So feed me and I’ll have a little more credence.”

  Hayley couldn’t resist a laugh as he played along. “It’s not quite ready yet, but can I get you something to drink?”

  “Sure, what do you have?”

  They stood in the kitchen and exchanged pleasantries as they waited for Jake to come back in. The timer went off on the stove at the same time that Jake trotted back inside, his tongue lolling out of his mouth and what looked like a happy grin on his face. Hayley took the casserole dish out of the oven and set it on the rear burners of the stove.

  “This needs to sit for a bit before we eat. Is it okay here or will he climb up and get into it?”

  “It’s safe. He won’t get into anything on the counter or stove.”

  “Want to go find something to watch? When this is ready we can eat it in the other room.”

  “Sure.”

  Chapter 31

  The credits rolled up the screen as the movie they’d watched ended. Warren watched Hayley as much as the TV, enjoying her reactions more than the movie. It hadn’t been a bad film, in fact it was pretty interesting, but her reactions had been better.

  “What did you think?” she asked, turning to him while the credits still played.

  “It was good.”

  “What about that bit at the end? Did you know that?”

  “That there are missing persons numbers tracked for every demographic except Native American women? No, I didn’t.”

  She fell silent for a moment and he wondered what she was thinking. Hayley turned to watch him for a moment, her head tilted to one side.

  “Have you ever worked a case about a missing Native American woman?”

  He thought about it, he’d never considered it in those terms.

  “I guess I have.” He was quiet a moment as he remembered some of the cases he’d worked and how they’d ended but the ones with good and bad results. “You know what I did before I came here, right?”

  She nodded. “I know the basics of it.”

  “We did take down a sex-trafficking ring that seemed to specialize in Native girls, and I do mean girls. They all seemed to be between twelve and sixteen.” He shook his head as he remembered the faces. “It seems like the older the girl the younger she looked. It’s part of why I was ready to for something different.”

  “I can’t imagine.” She scooted closer and curled against his side where they both sat on the sofa, a small distance between them. They’d been touching, but not leaning against each other, now though she seemed to want the contact, maybe the warmth and reassurance of his presence. He couldn’t resist the urge to wrap his arms around her and drop a gentle kiss on the top of her head.

  They sat that way for several minutes, until the credits had finished and Netflix had gone back to the main menu, waiting for them to select something else to watch. He wondered what she would want to do next. Would she watch something else or was she ready to get some sleep?

  A yawn snuck up on him and he found himself arching his back and struggling to cover his gaping mouth. Being unable stop it embarrassed him. Hayley sat up, yawned herself, then stood.

  “You’re right, it’s getting late. We should get some sleep. Go on ahead into the bedroom. I need to put the lasagna away and I’ll let Jake out. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, go ahead. I’ll wait until Jake’s ready to come back in, then I’ll be there.”

  “You trust me alone in your bedroom?”

  “If I didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be here.”

  He tilted his head to one side and watched her for a moment then turned and walked away without another word. Her words struck something inside him. It was something he’d never considered. Was trust something all women considered when they invited someone home? He wondered how it would feel to wonder if the person you’d invited home was someone who might steal from them, someone who might hurt them.

  The thought stayed with him as he visited the bathroom and got ready to curl up in the bed beside Hayley. It wasn’t something men thought about much. They took women home, they took different women back to their own homes and never gave any thought that any of them could hurt them. Some might think about being robbed, but he never had. Then again, even when he’d been younger and willing to sleep around a little more, he’d never been into one night stands.

  Jake came in and rubbed his head against Warren’s leg, he reached down and rubbed the dog between the ears.

  “Where does he normally sleep?”

  Warren looked up to find Hayley standing in the bedroom door, leaning against the jam.

  “Beside my bed. Why?”

  She shrugged. “It just occurred to me as he came in that some people crate train their dogs. I don’t have a crate, but we could put him in a bathroom. But if he’s used to sleeping beside your bed, I’m okay with that.” She glanced down at Jake. “As long as he’s not on the bed, I’m good with it.”

  “No, he doesn’t sleep on the bed. We tried it once, but it didn’t last. He’s a bed hog.”

  Hayley laughed as she made her way past him into the bathroom.

  “Do you have a preference which side?”

  “Not really.” She closed the door. Warren looked down at the bed a moment, then decided it didn’t really matter. Went to the far side so she would be able to go from the bathroom to the bed and just slide in, then slid between the sheets.

  Chapter 32

  She considered finding something to sleep in, but after a moment’s thought, decided why bother? She didn’t normally wear anything to bed, why would she start simply because he was in bed with her. Even if she did find pajamas, they likely wouldn’t last long. She was tired and planned to get some sleep, but somehow she suspected once she was in bed with him, sleep wouldn’t be the first things on their minds. There was no doubt they’d get there, eventually.

  Hayley finished washing her face, hung up her clothes then opened the bathroom door.

  “I got in on this side so you can just cross the walkway and be in bed.” Warren lay in the bed the sheet pulled up a little higher than his waist, giving her an amazing view of his upper body. She stood there a moment, enjoying the way the light played over the light scattering of dark hair across his chest. The edge of a tattoo she hadn’t noticed until now was visible on one bicep. How had she not noticed it before?

  She flipped off the bathroom light and closed the distance between them as she frowned. Climbing up on the bed sh
e reached for him, not caring that she wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing.

  “What’s this?” She tugged his arm so she could get a better look at the tattoo.

  “What?”

  Hayley sat back on her heels and stared a moment at the pair of wolf heads inked into his upper arm. “What’s it mean?”

  “Oh, that.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “There’s an old tale, I’m not sure where it came from originally, but my grandfather used to tell it to me when I was a kid.”

  She looked up at his face and watched him as he continued.

  “It’s basically how we all have two wolves inside us, a light wolf filled with good, one who fights for right and helps others. Then there is the dark wolf, he’s the evil, the one who is only out for himself and doesn’t care who he hurts as long as he gets what he wants. And that the two wolves battle inside us to see which will win.”

  Hayley frowned, having never heard the tale before, she didn’t understand why it would be so significant, why it would mean enough to him that he would wear it always.

  “I remember asking my grandfather once how we could be sure the right wolf, the light one, would win. His answer was simple and has always stuck with me.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said ‘Darling boy, that is the key. The one that will win is the one you feed, the one you nourish and strengthen. It’s up to you to choose which you want to be.”

  “So why the tattoo?”

  “To always remind me, no matter how bad my day or my week, that I have a choice. I can wallow in the bad, I can feed the dark wolf, or I can feed the light one. I can fight for justice, I can stand on the side of justice.”

  She traced one finger along the edges of the twin wolves and thought about his words. Thought about the intensity in his voice as he talked about feeding the light wolf and fighting for justice.

  It would be so easy to lose her heart to this man, but would he give his in return or was this just a passing thing to him? She had no way of knowing, not yet. But from everything she’d seen of him so far, he didn’t seem to be the type to play with her emotions. At least once he knew emotions were involved.

  Unable to resist, she leaned down and pressed her lips against his. He returned her kiss but pulled away after a moment.

  “I’m trying to be good here.”

  “I know.”

  “You’re tired.”

  “So are you. But we’ll sleep better after.”

  “Really?” He lifted one brow as he gazed down at her face. “You think so?”

  “No.” She gazed up at him wondering what it would take to get him to give in. “I know so.”

  “Hm…” He rolled taking her to her back and stopping only when the length of his body covered hers, the hot, hard length of his erection pressed into her belly. “Somehow I think we can arrange that.”

  Slowly, she saw it coming and could have moved but she didn’t want to. Warren lowered his head until his mouth covered hers in a searing kiss that tried to steal her senses.

  Her hands slid up the smooth skin of his back, marveling for a moment at the firm muscles as he seemed to hold himself over her without effort. Desperate for more, she curled her fingers into his skin and tried to pull him closer. She didn’t know why but she needed this, she needed him. Closer, she wanted him against her, inside her. With an intensity she didn’t understand.

  Need burned through her, need that only Warren could satisfy. She didn’t know how to stop it, only how to bank the fires for a while, and this would do it. Him. Here, with her, in this bed. All night long.

  Chapter 33

  The next afternoon, Warren was sitting at his temporary desk, it was the one Cooley normally sat at, that he was using while the other man was recovering. He knew it was temporary and was careful not to get too comfortable because he respected the other detective and didn’t want him to feel like Warren had moved in and taken over his position.

  Warren was going over the details of the Snyder case again, knowing there was something there he was missing. Something that would be that last little hint that would tell them who had killed her.

  The app companies had finally turned over the information that had been subpoenaed, but there were hundreds of pages of information that needed to be sorted through, searched and considered before any of it could be of any use. That would take a little time, but there was something there, something he was missing, Warren knew it.

  “You’re going to drive yourself insane going over the same information over and over.” Zeke Howard sat in the chair at the desk that sat nose to nose with his. “There’s nothing new there, no matter how many times you look.” He leaned back in the chair and propped one foot on the desk while crossing the other ankle over his knee. It was a careless pose, but Warren knew there was nothing careless about the way Zeke pursued a case.

  “There’s something here. I can feel it.”

  “I’m not so sure.”

  Warren looked up and met Zeke’s gaze.

  “That’s you. I trust you, but I trust me too. I might be new to the position here, but I’m not entirely a rookie. I’ve learned to trust my gut when it’s telling me I’m missing something. So I’m going to go over it a million times if I have to. Because something is here.”

  “You’re that sure?” Zeke dropped his foot from the desktop to the floor and leaned forward.

  “I am.”

  “Well, shit. Hand me what you’re done with this time. Two pairs of eyes has to be better than one.”

  Warren passed a stack of papers across the desks and went back to the file in front of him.

  He went home that evening, still thinking about the case. He was only vaguely aware of traffic as he drove. Hayley had plans with her sister tonight, so he was on his own. Pulling into the yard, he was still on auto pilot. He let Jake into the backyard and left the door open as he went to the fridge and looked inside.

  It wasn’t until Jake nudged him that Warren realized he hadn’t paid any attention to what was in the fridge, nor did he have any idea how long he’d been standing there.

  “All right, boy.” He reached down and patted the dog on the head as he closed the refrigerator and went to serve Jake’s evening meal. “Sorry about that.” He patted Jake’s head again as he stood and went back to the living room and his recliner. He knew he needed to eat, but nothing appealed to him and he wasn’t really thinking about it anyway. Tanalynn was still foremost in his mind. Something about Dillon wasn’t right, but he couldn’t see it. He knew it was there, he just needed to peel back the layers and figure out what was bothering him.

  Reaching down, he popped the footrest up, leaned back and closed his eyes. It wasn’t that he needed a nap, but he knew that if he let his mind drift, or even if he started to doze, then his unconscious would process the things he’d studied and gone over today. He’d been known to take a nap, and wake up knowing what he was missing in whatever he’d been working on.

  His last thought was, I wonder what Hayley is up to this evening.

  Warren woke to Jake licking his face. He scrunched his face up and turned away, realizing then that he wasn’t in bed. He blinked his eyes open and realized he’d fallen asleep in the recliner. That wasn’t the only thing that clicked in his mind as he opened his eyes. He checked the clock. It was only half past eight. Reaching for his phone he dialed his partner.

  “This better be good,” Zeke said as he answered the phone on the third ring.

  “I think I got it.”

  “Think?”

  “Give me a minute here. We’re sure Becker knows something, if he didn’t do it then he knows who did, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Becker’s alibi was his wife, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She said they went to bed together at nine thirty and he was in bed all night long.”

  “We haven’t found a way to disprove that,” Zeke reminded him.

  “I think I
did.”

  “How?” There was interest in Zeke’s voice now.

  “Her own words. She said she took her medications at nine, as whatever show they were watching, I don’t recall what off the top of my head started, then they went to bed as soon as it was over at nine-thirty. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but obviously it struck something with Cooley because in the file is a list of medications she’s prescribed.”

  “I’d noticed that, thought it was odd, but didn’t see anything of interest on it.”

  “It’s not the individual drugs, which is why it took me so long to figure it out. It’s a combination of them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She’s got meds that when taken together work like a sleeping pill, a pretty hard core one.”

  “If she’s taking those meds before bed then she wouldn’t know if he’d been there all night.”

  “She wouldn’t know if he’d put on a clown suit and danced the tango on their bed.”

  “Hot damn.” There was no doubting the excitement in Zeke’s voice.

  “Exactly.”

  “Who else have you told?”

  “No one. I just figured it out and called you.”

  “Good. Keep it to yourself. We’ll see if we can get the Becker’s to come in tomorrow. We want to get it on camera when we confront them and see how they react, maybe we’ll even get Dillon to confess.”

  “That would make it easy.”

  “Wouldn’t it?”

  “I won’t tell anyone. I’ll see you in the morning?”

  “I wouldn’t miss it. I’ll catch you in the morning.”

  Zeke was already sitting at his side of the shared desk when Warren arrived the next morning.

  “Someone got an early start.” Warren kicked the wheeled chair away from the desk and sat down.

  “We got out a little early this morning. I’ve only been in about ten minutes. You come up with anything new since last night?” Zeke leaned back in his chair and watched Warren.