Beyond the Breakwater

by Radclyffe

  “We have a possible location for Stanley Morris,” Reese said as she sat and took Tory’s hand. “Ashley has been running deep background checks on everyone in Morris’s family, as well as his wife’s relatives. She turned up something on an Internet search tonight.”

  “Must be pretty important to get you all out in the middle of the night.”

  “Morris’s wife’s great-grandfather was a photographer. Apparently, a pretty famous one, at least locally.”

  “Locally?”

  “Yes. He was one of the early 20th-century Provincetown art colonists.”

  Tory stared at Reese. “He lived here?”

  “He did.” Reese’s eyes glinted in the moonlight. “In a dune shack.”

  “Oh my God,” Tory said. “Do you think that’s where Morris is?”

  The dune shacks were just that, ramshackle structures built in the shelter of the dunes on the opposite side of the narrow strip of land at the very end of Cape Cod from the village. Provincetown itself was nestled in the harbor, while two miles across the barren dunes was the Atlantic Ocean. Writers, painters, and photographers had built rustic shelters in this isolated location and often returned to them summer after summer for decades. Most were only accessible on foot. Many of the shacks had been lost to weather and neglect, but some still remained. They were only rarely occupied in recent years.

  “It would make sense,” Reese acknowledged. “According to Ashley’s paper trail, Morris disappeared somewhere on the Cape a few weeks ago.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Nelson is waking up the museum curator right now so we can study the dune shack maps. Once we’re certain we know which one we’re dealing with, we’re going to take a ride out to check.”

  “Tonight?” Tory’s heart pounded with sudden apprehension.

  People thought that small-town policing was a safe job, and most of the time it was. But there was never any guarantee that the drunk at the corner bar wouldn’t have a gun, or that the simple car stop for a broken headlight wouldn’t turn violent. And now Reese planned to apprehend a man who by all reports was unbalanced and had already killed someone, intentionally or not.

  “At dawn.” Reese shifted and slid her arm around Tory’s waist. “It shouldn’t be anything too much. We’ll take the four-wheel-drive up the access road most of the way and then go by foot. He won’t expect us. Besides, the guy is an arsonist. He’s not likely to put up a fight.”

  “Of course,” Tory said evenly, knowing Reese would go, regardless of her fears. This was what Reese did. “Who else is going?”

  “Bri, Ashley, and Nelson.”

  “Ashley?” That was a surprise.

  “She’s been chasing this guy a long time, and she’s an ex-cop. She’s probably better trained for this than Lyons or Smith. I cleared it with Nelson already, and she’s earned it.”

  “Is that enough manpower?”

  “Should be,” Reese replied. “Any more and we’ll run the risk of announcing ourselves.”

  “When are you going?”

  She checked her watch. “We’re supposed to meet at two a.m.”

  “Soon then.” Tory took a slow steadying breath. “Will you call me as soon as it’s over?”

  “I don’t suppose there’s any chance that you’ll be able to sleep, is there?” Reese lifted Tory’s chin with her fingertips and kissed her softly. “Maybe just a little?”

  “I’ll lie down when you go,” Tory murmured, her mouth against Reese’s. She wanted to fist her hands in Reese’s shirt and keep her safely at home forever. “But I might not sleep until you get back into bed.”

  “Then I’ll be home as soon as I can.” Reese sealed her vow with a kiss.

  *

  When Caroline stepped inside, she immediately saw Bri and Ashley leaning against the breakfast counter on the far side of the room, facing one another as they talked. She also noted in one quick glance that Ashley had placed her left hand on Bri’s forearm where it rested on the back of a chair. The gesture might have been innocent, but the sight of another woman touching Bri made Caroline’s stomach hurt and her head pound. She’d had quite enough of other women pawing at her lover. Without hesitation, she walked to them and put her arm around Bri’s waist.

  “Hi, baby.”

  “Hey, babe,” Bri said softly, resting her hand lightly on the back of Caroline’s neck.

  “Reese says you two are going into work.”

  “In a little bit,” Bri acknowledged with a nod. “That’s what we were just discussing.” Suddenly realizing her oversight, Bri added hastily, “Uh, Carre, this is Ashley Walker.”

  “Hi. I’m Carre, Bri’s girlfriend.” She extended her hand.

  Ashley nodded, her eyes searching the pretty young blond’s. If she hadn’t been too busy with her own love life to pursue the sexy sheriff’s officer, the look in Bri’s girlfriend’s eyes would have been enough to dissuade her. “Got it.”

  “Well,” Bri said, looking from one to the other a bit uncertainly. “I should get ready.”

  “I’ll come with you.” Caroline smiled at Ashley. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Same here,” Ashley said good-naturedly. She picked up the phone and dialed as Bri and Caroline walked away.

  Caroline heard Ashley say “Honey?” as she pulled Bri’s bedroom door closed. She sat on the side of Bri’s bed and watched her lover change. “Who’s she calling?”

  “Uh—her girlfriend, probably.” Bri slid her belt through the loops of her uniform pants and reached for her gun. Allie, I’ll bet.

  “Huh.” Everyone seemed tense, and it struck Caroline for the first time that Bri was really a police officer. She could leave for work and be hurt. Not come home. Even Reese had been shot once. “We should go apartment hunting.”

  Bri stopped abruptly and regarded Caroline in the dim light of the bedside lamp. “We should?”

  “Uh-huh. You can’t stay here forever, plus I don’t think we can make love in here without waking up Reese and Tory. It doesn’t make sense for both of us to move back to Nelson’s. We need our own place.”

  “We do?” Bri’s throat was dry, and her heart was beating two hundred times a minute. “Our place?”

  “Yes, absolutely.” Caroline rose and crossed to Bri. She brushed the jet-black strands of hair off Bri’s forehead, then threaded her arms around Bri’s waist. “So I can visit on weekends from school.”

  “Weekends.” Bri felt incapable of full sentences. What are you saying?

  “Uh-huh,” Caroline said quietly, her eyes on Bri’s. “Until I finish school and move back.”

  “Here?”

  “This is where you’ll be, right?”

  Bri nodded. She had to go to work. Reese had said ten minutes. But the world had stopped, and all she knew was the thudding of her pulse and the warmth deep in her belly. This was what mattered. This moment.

  “You’ll live here…with me?”

  “Of course.” Caroline’s lips were soft against Bri’s cheek. “I love you. I can’t live anywhere else.”

  “Carre—”

  “Shh,” Caroline murmured gently just before she kissed Bri thoroughly.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Reese, Nelson, Bri and Ashley drove toward Race Point just before dawn. When they reached the ranger’s kiosk, Nelson put the vehicle into four-wheel drive and turned onto a narrow trail in the sand that ran parallel to the ocean and beach. After a mile, he cut the lights and drove another quarter of a mile before stopping.

  He glanced at Reese in the front seat opposite him. “Think we should proceed from here on foot?”

  She nodded. “He’s probably asleep, but nevertheless, vehicles out here are unusual. He’s likely to be suspicious about anything he hears.”

  Reese turned in the seat to face Bri and Ashley, who sat in the rear. “I’ll take point, and when we get there, Nelson will circle around to cover the rear.”

  Both women nodded.

  “You two,”
Reese said, looking pointedly at Bri, “watch my back. I’ll be going through the door first. Questions?”

  No one had any.

  It took fifteen minutes of scrambling up and over sand dunes and skirting low cranberry bushes and scrub before they reached the vicinity of the shack that had been identified on the archival museum maps as once belonging to Albert Reims, Stanley Morris’s wife’s ancestor. There were no lights, no vehicle, nothing to indicate that the one-room structure was occupied.

  As they approached, Reese directed the small group with hand signals. She counted off five, holding up one finger at a time, indicating to Nelson that they would give him five minutes to get into position on the far side of the shack before moving in. Once he disappeared from sight, she hunkered down, checked her watch, and drew her weapon.

  Her mind was not blank, but she had no fixed thoughts. Every sense, however, was completely engaged, on full alert, as she listened for some sound to indicate that they were not alone, looked for some clue that something was not as it should be. All was quiet. Nothing was amiss.

  When Reese checked her watch again, exactly five minutes had passed. She held up her left hand, the fingers closed. Behind her, she heard the faintest shifting as Bri and Ashley drew their weapons. Slowly, she extended three fingers, one at a time.

  On three, she was up and running.

  Reese hit the door with her right foot, her weapon in two hands at shoulder height as she pushed through shouting, “Police!”

  There must have been a sensor on the door. The instant it flew open, a blinding light struck her full in the face. She didn’t even have time to search for a target through the glare. There was an explosion and an impact to her chest so powerful that her body was blown back through the doorway.

  The next thing Reese knew, she was lying on her back, staring into the sky, completely unable to breathe. Her chest was on fire; it felt as if her lungs were exploding. She couldn’t move her arms or legs, and when she tried to speak, she couldn’t make a sound. The sky tilted, and she finally realized someone was dragging her over the sand. Distantly, over the ringing in her ears, she heard thunder. Incongruously, she wondered if it was going to rain.

  Bri’s face came into view, white and terrified. Her lips were moving, but Reese couldn’t hear anything. Her vision was blurry, and every sensation was eclipsed by searing pain. She was aware of her stomach and chest muscles straining, contracting violently, as she desperately fought for one breath. Suddenly, air blasted into her chest as if a vacuum seal had been released, and she groaned with a combination of relief and agony.

  “Reese!” Bri shouted. “Jesus Christ, Reese!”

  Reese focused on one thought. Only one. Still struggling for air, she whispered, “Don’t…call…Tory.”

  *

  Tory was awakened by the sound of the front door closing. She blinked, trying to get oriented. Her neck was sore and her back ached. There was a weight against her left side that she realized, after a moment, was Caroline, asleep against her shoulder. A morning news show was playing on the television. God, we must have fallen asleep with the television on.

  “Reese?” She groggily sat up. Caroline stirred beside her and sat up as well. “Honey? I thought you were going to call?”

  “Thought…you might…be asleep,” Reese said deliberately as she walked carefully to the breakfast counter and deposited her keys. Bri was behind her, carrying a duffel bag.

  “What time is it?” Tory rose, running her hands through her hair. “God, my head is fuzzy.”

  “A little after eight,” Bri replied hoarsely.

  Tory stared at the two of them, abruptly wary. Bri was white as a sheet. For some reason, Reese wouldn’t look at her. “What’s going on?”

  Sensing something amiss as well, Caroline moved to Bri’s side and threaded her arm around her waist. “You okay, baby?”

  “Yeah. Fine.” But she trembled as she draped her arm around Caroline’s shoulders.

  “Where’s your shirt?” Tory was increasingly suspicious as she suddenly realized that Reese was wearing only the dark green T-shirt that she often wore beneath her uniform shirt.

  “Tory,” Reese said gently. “We’ve all…been up all night. What do you say…we go to bed, and I’ll…give you all the details later.”

  “Fine.” There was something wrong, and whatever it was, it needed to be discussed in private. Tory’s eyes were riveted on Reese. One thing she was certain of, however, was that something had happened to her lover.

  Bri cleared her throat. “I’m going to take Carre home.”

  “And she’s gonna stay with me for a while,” Caroline added quickly.

  Bri glanced at her in surprise, but said nothing.

  “Fine,” Tory said again, not looking at them as she walked to Reese and rested a hand lightly on her lover’s back. Reese was shaking.

  “I’ll call in later,” Bri said as she and Caroline headed for the door.

  Once they were alone, Tory regarded Reese quietly. “You’re hurt, aren’t you?”

  “Just bruises,” Reese said as firmly as she could. It hurt to talk, and she was sweating with the effort to keep her voice level.

  “How badly?”

  “I’ll be fine…after I lie down…for a few hours.”

  “C’mon then. Let’s get you upstairs.”

  In their bedroom, Reese began to slowly undress. Moving methodically, she unbuckled her belt, unzipped her trousers, and let them fall to the floor. She didn’t bother removing her briefs. The T-shirt was going to be a challenge. When she tried to raise her arms, she grunted involuntarily at another swift surge of pain.

  “Let me do that,” Tory said stiffly, her stomach in knots. “Just tell me what happened.”

  “He was…prepared for us. I took a round, but I…was wearing a vest. I’m okay.”

  Tory’s heart clenched. I took a round.

  “Just hold still until I get this off.” Tory’s voice rang hollowly as she focused on her task. When she finally managed to lift the shirt over Reese’s head, she drew a sharp breath, shocked at the sight of a fist-sized bruise in the center of her lover’s chest. The skin was already darkening to purple, and the area around it was swollen and edematous. “Oh my God.”

  “Tory—”

  “Oh my God, Reese!” Suddenly dizzy, Tory placed both hands on Reese’s shoulders. “Why didn’t someone call me?”

  “I’m okay,” Reese insisted, putting her arms around her lover. “C’mon, let’s…sit down on the bed.”

  “Don’t you dare patronize me, Reese Conlon.” Tory’s eyes were blazing. “Why didn’t someone call me?”

  “Because I didn’t want…you to be scared,” Reese said steadily. The last thing I wanted was you racing around in the middle of the night, worried about me. Wendy said you should take it easy. “The vest stopped it. It’s just a bruise.”

  “Have you seen Dan?”

  “No. I just wanted…to get home.”

  “We need to go to the clinic right now.” Tory stepped away. Her tone was frigid. “You need an EKG and a chest x-ray. For all we know, you could have a cracked sternum or cardiac contusion.”

  “Tory, please,” Reese pleaded. “I just need a little sleep…and so do you. I promise I’ll go later if you…still think I should.”

  “For God’s sake, Reese, what were you thinking? Look at you!” For a moment, Tory was too angry and too frightened to think. She knew very well that there was ammunition capable of piercing body armor, and that it was probably only good fortune that Reese hadn’t been shot with something that could have penetrated her vest. From the location of the bruise, it would’ve been fatal. “I can’t stand this.”

  Tory turned away, trembling.

  Tenderly, Reese placed her hands on Tory’s shoulders and rested her cheek against the top of Tory’s head. “It’s okay, love. I’m fine. Let’s just go to bed. I need to lie down…and I need you beside me.”

  “Yes, all right.” Tory reached
up and took one of Reese’s hands. She couldn’t keep arguing with her when she was hurt. They were both too exhausted.

  Together, they walked slowly to the bed and slipped beneath the sheets. Tory settled into a comfortable position and Reese fit her body to her lover’s.

  “I love you, Tory,” Reese murmured, her eyes already closing.

  Tory found Reese’s hand and enclosed it in her own, drawing it between her breasts. Closing her eyes, she held the heat of Reese’s skin against her heart. “I love you, too. You’re my life.”

  *

  Bri kicked the stand down on her bike and settled her right foot on the ground. She turned slightly and looked at Caroline. “My dad is going to be in the office all morning taking care of the paperwork from the…thing…with Morris.”

  Caroline regarded her steadily, hands still loosely clasping Bri’s waist. Bri’s blue eyes were almost black, wounded looking. “You don’t have to go right back to work, do you?”

  “Not till this afternoon.”

  “Come inside.”

  Mutely, Bri nodded and dismounted. She followed Caroline into the house and up the stairs to what had once been her own bedroom. She stopped inside the door, suddenly at a loss. “Uh, I should probably take a shower…or something.”

  “I’ll take one with you.”

  “Okay.” Voice eerily flat, Bri had a strange numb feeling, like her insides were frozen. “Sure.”

  Once in the bathroom, Caroline turned on the shower, and the room filled with the mist of hot steam. They hadn’t been naked together since the last time they’d made love, weeks before, and they were both quiet as they undressed.

  Bri bent to strip off her briefs, and when she straightened, Caroline stepped close and wrapped her arms around Bri’s neck. Caught off guard, Bri moaned faintly, closing her eyes as the heat of Caroline’s skin scorched along her body. Breathlessly, she murmured, “You feel so good.”

  “Mmm,” Caroline sighed, resting her cheek on Bri’s shoulder. “Are you okay, baby?”

  “Yeah, pretty much.”