Collision Force

by C. A. Szarek

  “Tell you what,” Cole said, winking. “No matter how many kids we have, let’s never stop doing what it takes to make them.”

  She laughed and shook her head, but he pulled her onto his lap and fused their mouths. Andi straddled him, his hard cock pleasantly trapped between them as their bodies touched in all the right places.

  “Again?” she breathed against his mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck and rocking in his lap.

  Cole moaned. “Yes.”

  “I love you, Cole Lucas,” Andi whispered as she lowered herself onto him.

  “Colliding with you in that hallway was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  She kissed him in answer. Forever was getting a damn good start.

  Epilogue

  Andi pulled into the driveway with a sigh. She eased her cumbersome body out of the car, smiling when the baby moved. She only had six weeks to go, and she couldn’t wait until the pregnancy was over. Being pregnant in a Texas summer sucked.

  She glanced to the right, spotting Bella and her boyfriend on the porch swing next door. “Bella, where’s Ethan?” she called.

  “Cole insisted he had things under control, so I left about two,” Bella said, coming to the porch steps.

  The teen was doing well, all things considered, after the ordeal with Carlo Maldonado. She’d agreed to testify against him without protest, and was seeing a counsellor. In the long run, she’d be fine and Andi was more than relieved, she was proud of her.

  Bella and Natalie were excited about the new baby. In just a few days they were hosting a baby shower. She’d told them not to make a big deal about it, but of course, she’d been disregarded. There’d be tons of people there.

  She waved to Matt. He called a hello, and she flashed a smile. He was a good kid. He’d rushed to Bella’s house the night she’d been taken by Carlo, just as frantic as Nat about her.

  Matt had definitely scored cool points when Bella had told Andi about the virgin conversation she’d had with Carlo. The boy respected her—hopefully he’d keep that up.

  She waved goodbye to the young couple and headed up her steps, biting back a yawn. Andi was still working, but on light duty, not leaving the station much. Her shifts were mostly normal business hours and she was out of the on-call rotation until after the baby was born, so that was a relief. But the guys at work were killing her with their overprotection, her husband and partner, of course, leading the charge. She couldn’t even get up to pee without interrogation and some male freaking out.

  Cole and Jared Manning were getting along now that their mutual posturing and ‘guy stuff’—according to Cole—had passed. He’d been over to their house a few times for dinner, and Andi was getting to know him better, too.

  They were too much alike, so she had to bite her tongue when her husband complained about him, but so far, so good. They’d be great friends…eventually. The few cases they’d worked had gone well, so at least they could be professional.

  Their current case had finally broken the night before, but Cole and Jared had literally been up all night. He’d just pulled in the driveway when Andi had been on her way out that morning. He’d have the chance to get some much needed sleep, since Bella had Ethan all day in the summer, as he and Jared had been working overnight for a few weeks, and both had been sleep deprived.

  Over the past two and a half months, Cole had been settling in well, both with her and Ethan, and at work. Chief Martin was already bragging about him, and she’d heard him say Antioch wasn’t so bad after all.

  Andi grinned. She loved him so much, and couldn’t imagine her life without him. When she thought about Iain, she could finally smile. The sadness and grief had faded. She missed him from time to time—she always would—but her first husband would have wanted her—them—to be happy. It wasn’t something she’d convinced herself of to feel better, it was just who Iain had been as a person.

  He would have wanted Ethan to grow up with a man to guide him. Cole was proving to be one hell of a dad to her son. She had no qualms that he would be just as fantastic with his own child, and any others that they might have.

  The baby moved and Andi rubbed the spot, smiling. Cole wouldn’t treat Ethan differently from his own blood, and it only made her love him more.

  Closing the door, she listened hard. Silence descended as she put her gun away and headed into the living room. The scene before her made her heart stutter.

  Ethan was asleep in Cole’s arms on the couch, nestled against his chest. Both husband and son were snoring softly. She couldn’t help the smile that curved her lips.

  Her son’s favourite book was upside down on the floor, as if it had fallen there. She laughed. Ethan never made it through the whole story when they read at night. Looked like Cole couldn’t last this afternoon, either.

  Andi brushed Ethan’s curls out of his face—too long again—and kissed the top of his head. She caressed Cole’s stubbled cheek and leant down as best she could to kiss his forehead. Both her boys were perfect.

  Cole’s eyes fluttered. “Hey.” His tone was heavy with sleep.

  “Hey.”

  Her husband shifted on the couch, sitting up and making room for her to sit with them as he cuddled Ethan closer. He threw his free arm around her then pressed a kiss to her lips.

  She leaned into him, giving a contented sigh.

  “What time is it?” Cole asked.

  “Almost four. I left early.”

  “Everything okay?” His steel eyes widened, more alert.

  “Absolutely. Just wanted to get home to you guys.” Andi patted his cheek. “You should have let Bella keep him and gotten more sleep.”

  Cole shook his head. “I wanted to hang with him. I feel like I haven’t seen you guys in forever. Besides, she’s leaving for camp tomorrow, she’ll be gone for the rest of the summer, remember? That counsellor gig. I told her to go pack.”

  Ethan roused, yawning as he rubbed his eye with a small fist. “Mama,” he said when he noticed her, flashing a sleepy smile. He threw himself at her and Andi caught him up, hugging him tight and laughing.

  “Ethan, careful,” Cole admonished.

  The little boy leaned against her and she ruffled his hair. “He’s fine. But thanks. I’m more worried you didn’t get enough sleep.”

  “I got enough, babe,” he told her, caressing her cheek. “Besides, me and Ethan had guy stuff to do.”

  “Yeah!” The four-year-old agreed.

  He put his hand up and Ethan slapped him with a loud high-five. Andi laughed.

  “But we missed you.”

  “Yeah, Mama.” Ethan pushed up to his knees and kissed her cheek.

  “I missed you guys, too.”

  Cole flashed his dimples. He still made her heart race, and that would never change.

  Her son splayed his small hands against her stomach and looked down. “Hello, little brother,” he announced.

  “Was this one of the guy things you had to do?” Andi asked, quirking an eyebrow.

  Cole grinned. “I’ll never tell.”

  She rolled her eyes and cupped her son’s face, meeting his big blue eyes. “Ethan, you might have a little sister instead, is that okay?”

  “Like my Bells?”

  “Yes, a girl, like Bella. You’d have to protect her. You’re her big brother.”

  “Boys are better,” Ethan said, nodding seriously.

  When Cole laughed, Andi glared at him.

  “I didn’t tell him that, I swear.” He put his palms up in surrender and shook his head, fighting another grin.

  “Daddy,” Ethan said, scrambling off the couch. “I wanna play blocks.”

  Andi’s heart skipped a beat, as it always did when her son said that word.

  “Go for it, buddy,” Cole said, his lips curving in a tender smile.

  They’d left the choice up to Ethan as to what he would call Cole. He’d asked if Cole was going to be his dad the very day he’d come back into town. She’d cried, of course
. Pete had beamed, and Cole’s eyes had been a bit misty.

  Ethan had called him Daddy from the moment he’d got a yes to his question.

  “I guess I’ll have to address that later with him,” she grumbled, and her husband chuckled, earning another glare.

  Cole yanked her closer and kissed her. “I love you.”

  She smiled. “I love you, too.”

  “You know I wouldn’t mind having a daughter, anyway.”

  “I know,” she said, putting her hand next to his on her tummy when he followed the movement of their very active baby.

  “I wish you’d call it quits already. Pete and I agree.”

  “Cole,” Andi warned. “I worked up until the week before Ethan was born.” Did they really have to go over this again? “Dr Hayes says we’re both healthy, and there’s no problem with me working. I’m stuck at a desk, for God’s sake. That’s bad enough.”

  He didn’t say anything, but he glowered.

  “I don’t want to argue with you,” she whispered.

  Cole’s expression softened. “I know, babe. I’m not trying to argue. Just expressing my opinion.”

  “For the thousandth time,” she muttered. “Besides, with the whole detective squad on your side, what do you have to worry about? I can’t even get my own damn decaf. I get escorted to the bathroom. They practically have the paramedics on standby. You’d think this was my first baby.”

  “I wouldn’t complain about being waited on hand and foot, if I were you. And this is my first baby. So I’m bound to be a little neurotic.”

  “That’s one word I’d have never described you with.” She bit back a laugh.

  “Hmmm… Well, some things can change a man,” Cole said, gazing into her eyes.

  “For the better?” she asked, her heart flipping.

  “For the better.” His lips hovered over hers, his warm breath tickling before his soft kiss. “I wasn’t alive until I met you and Ethan,” he whispered.

  “I was only half alive, I think. Until you came along and showed me it wasn’t wrong to love again.”

  Cole held her close, like he would for the rest of his life, and Andi snuggled into him. Ethan called them to look at what he’d built. Andi and Cole exchanged a smile as they watched their son play.

  Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:

  Love’s Command: Running Scared

  Billi Jean

  Excerpt

  Chapter One

  There has to be some kind of mistake.

  The MapQuest directions sat on the truck seat next to Lacey, outlining that this was the right exit. She hadn’t accidentally decided to take a wrong turn. Besides, there weren’t any decisions in her life right now, only directions. She smiled at the thought. Yeah, her attempts at making colossal, life-changing decisions had landed her here, in the middle of nowhere, with no one and nothing around her.

  Well, not exactly nothing. There were mountains everywhere. Huge, monstrous mountains, like the kind you could see on the travel channel seconds before some giant paw-waving, open-mouthed, roaring grizzly ate the cameraman.

  Oh, yeah, this had to be some kind of mistake. Lacey needed the beach. And people. At this point, she’d settle for a pizza from her favourite beach shack. To hell with anyone else. She needed out of this truck, she realised, surprising herself with a broken mini-sob.

  There wasn’t a car in sight when she pulled her truck off the turn lane and stopped a few hundred yards onto the cracked asphalt of the old highway.

  Two fumbles at jerking the door handle open, and she jumped down, the map in her hand. Blue sky, a cold November breeze, clean air and mountains filled her senses immediately. One deep breath, two, and half the tension simmering along her skin disappeared. Not the unease, though. The breeze felt different from home. Smelt different. Was different.

  This has to be a mistake.

  She rubbed her hand through her hair at the thought. Yeah, sure, this had to be a mistake, right? Wrong. Throughout this mess, she’d kept thinking that any time now she’d wake up, that this couldn’t be happening, that there had to be some kind of freaking mistake. Life couldn’t turn from normal to horrible in the blink of an eye. A decision to go outside a club trying to avoid a creepy guy couldn’t destroy everything she’d worked so hard to build.

  But, yeah, one look at the rugged, wilderness reminded her that, yeah, one thoughtless decision had ripped her life to shreds.

  If she could reverse time, she’d—what? If she’d known that by leaving the bar she’d witness a mob hit, would she have taken her chances with the creepy guy? Probably not.

  So here she was, standing on the side of a road on what looked like some crazy Wild West movie set.

  Reality sucked. Delusions worked so much better—at least for about ten seconds. Lacey hadn’t witnessed a murder. She hadn’t been beaten to within an inch of losing her life. She hadn’t spent months in a hospital trying to breathe on her own. She hadn’t been forced to testify against some of the nastiest criminals in the world. She hadn’t been left out to dry like this, forced to move, alone, to a place so remote and far from normal she might as well have been on another planet.

  She was used to people, sunshine that smelt like the ocean…heck, music and noise, for God’s sake. She was used to delis filled with adorable little old Italian men, smiling at her and asking about her day. She was used to Jewish bakeries with bagels that she’d get up at seven for on a Sunday morning. She was used to coffee shops brewing wicked espresso by the cup. She was used to nice people. Beaches. Safety.

  The landscape facing her she was not used to. Big open grasslands, lined with the brilliant colours of fall foliage. Yellow and burnt cinnamon, deep green pines next to the white bark of some other kind of tree—beech or aspen, she didn’t know—all created a wildly beautiful picture.

  The view gave her the creeps. Maybe she was afraid of wide-open spaces. Agoraphobia was a possibility.

  Humour bubbled up and she rubbed her face with both hands. The map crumpled a little, reminding her of the brutal reality of her new life. She was running scared. Nothing was going to change that. Not standing here, not staring off at the mountains, nothing.

  So many regrets washed over her. Tears stung her eyes—she felt like they were clogging her throat. Lacey fought them and ignored the deep hollow pit in her stomach.

  She needed a plan. Action washed all the turmoil aside—always had. She’d always filled her life with action. Being forced to sit in a truck for days on end had driven her slightly insane, no doubt.

  The real estate office in Troy couldn’t be too far. She’d find that, then her home, and see her new address for the next… Ah, God, who knew how long she’d be here?

  Forever?

  And didn’t that thought put a huge dollop of pity into her pity-party sundae? Two blinks and the tears held off, so she focused on the mountains. The peaks looked white, possibly ten feet deep in snow by now. She could hike up to that snow; feel the cold on her face, maybe trail run along the ridges and ravines? They would be a challenge. Something to do. Later, maybe, after she’d settled in.

  A truck slowed behind her, bringing the heartbeat she’d settled down to normal skyrocketing. What felt like ice water flooded her veins, while goosebumps beaded along her arms and a huge whoosh of adrenaline raced through her veins. The FBI agents had been clear: do not act anything but normal. What that meant, really, after all she’d endured, was a bit unclear. She didn’t feel normal in her own skin, let alone here in this wilderness. Besides, she doubted she would look normal to a small western town filled with redneck cowboys. She was a beach babe, had always been one, and didn’t think the changes of hair and scenery were going to make a difference.

  Truck doors closed and she turned to face two guys—two cowboys, she corrected herself, taking in their jeans, rough looking tan jackets, scuffed boots and dusty black cowboy hats. Both walked over, and she panicked. What was she supposed to say?

  They don’
t look Russian. The thought ran a frantic circle in her mind, followed by, what does a Russian hitman actually look like? God, did he have to be Russian? Or even a he? A humorous hysteria built up, but she took a deep breath and clenched her hand around the map. She steeled herself not to take a step backward as both men walked right up, almost breaking her bubble of personal space.

  “Miss, can we help ya out?” The blond guy stopped a few feet from her. At least six feet two, broad shouldered, his face worn with sun and weather, he towered over her five feet three inches. His blue eyes crinkled in a smile that looked genuine enough, but it slowly faded when she didn’t respond.

  She managed a shaky smile.

  He glanced at the other guy and so did she.

  The other guy wasn’t smiling. She caught a flash of his grey eyes in a lean, tough face set in a stern expression. Dark brows, dark shadow on a square jaw, he reminded her of the FBI agents. With broad shoulders packed with muscles, he was handsome in a rough and rugged sort of way. Her heart skipped around.

  Lacey was normally a picky kind of girl. Not picky as in the guy had to be this way or that—she never knew what would attract her—but picky as in not many men drew a second glance. She couldn’t pinpoint her attraction to a certain look or background or genetic makeup she could name, but this guy had it, whatever it was. And he had it in a bad way. Her heart fluttered in her chest. Her skin tingled, and not because of the cold air. Suddenly very conscious of the scar along her temple, she forced herself not to brush her hair over her forehead to hide the damage.

  She was on the run, starting a new life alone, and now her heart was tripping against her ribs for a guy she hadn’t even met. Life was strange.

  Suddenly Lacey realised she’d not spoken. With heat hitting her cheeks, she broke eye contact and turned to the first guy, but the other man took a step closer and instantly drew her complete attention.

  “Trouble?” the darker-haired guy asked.

  Oh, yeah, he was a heartbreaker. He had a deep, kinda rough voice, but crisp and used to authority, which reminded her in an odd way of her father. And made her groan inside her head because, yeah, deep voices like that made her weak in the knees. And from a guy that looked like this? Bad, very bad.