Heat of the Night Read online

  "You figured that, did you?" Erin paced the length of the room, then back again. "I suppose I should be surprised, or at least angry." She stopped and blew out a long breath. "But I'm not."

  He didn't need her plan, he had his own plan. A long-term plan. He felt ridiculously lighthearted, like singing, shouting even. "So, I'm officially staying?"

  "Officially, yes. Only I reserve the right to eject you from the game at any time I see fit." She shot him that dry smile. "Home field advantage."

  Brady sat on the couch, deciding right then and there this evening wasn't going to end with him being ejected. No matter what he had to do to convince her. He leaned back and tried to relax. "I'll try and behave."

  She perched at the other end of the couch and tucked her feet beneath her. "You do that."

  They stared at each other for a long moment while Brady tried to decide the best way to do this. His palms were sweating. Hell, even the soles of his feet were sweating. He'd never felt this way before, much less done anything about it. This was so important, it was so vital that he get it right. He didn't dare screw it up. After all, he was staring at his whole future.

  "Okay, okay, so I'm asking," she said in exasperation.

  That got his attention. She was going to propose? And like that? Wait, this was his plan! "What did you say?"

  Erin folded her arms. "What's going to happen to Todd? What exactly did he do? Did the Hans kill that zoning commissioner? And Sanderson and Bradford? Are they in custody? Was Todd charged with anything?"

  Brady was so taken off guard his mouth fell open. He was sitting there sweating bullets over planning their future together and she was thinking about Todd Fletcher? "You mean you don't know?"

  She narrowed her eyes. "Don't play coy. I tried, but everyone at the station told me it would have to come from you. Not that this is a shock to you, I'm sure."

  "And you think I put them up to it?" He shook his head. "Much as I'd like to take credit, I have to say they were simply following procedure. But I wish I had that kind of power sometimes." He couldn't help it, he grinned. "So your infamous wiles failed you, huh?"

  "Oh, ha ha ha." But she couldn't maintain a straight face either. "Yes, they did. Dammit." She had to look away for a moment to keep from laughing. "So, if you're done gloating now, tell me what happened. I know it's all over the news, but I wanted to hear it from you."

  Now he frowned, concerned. "Have the reporters been bothering you?"

  "I turned my phone off and left the machine to take messages. But don't worry, I'll deal with that."

  And he knew she would, handily. It was one of the many things he respected about her, her ability to stand on her own two feet.

  "Right now I just want to know exactly why I had a gun pointed at me today."

  Brady felt his heart drop straight to his toes. Just hearing her say that brought it all back for him. And from the fear that flashed through her eyes, it had for her, too.

  "I really want to explain all this calmly and in detail," he said, working to keep his voice even. "I want to tell you what I thought about it then, and what it made me realize in how I feel about you and all the plans I want to make now that I've figured it all out." He stood up and moved to her end of the couch. "Only right at this moment I can't think straight, much less explain anything to you, until I do this."

  He tugged her up and into his arms, then exhaled deeply when she moved willingly into them and held him as tightly as he held her. "I should have done this earlier today. I'm sorry. I've never been so—" His throat closed over and it took him a moment. "I didn't know how to react, and I—" His voice caught again and he buried his face in her hair. "Thank God, you're okay," he whispered.

  "I'm okay, Brady." She pushed her hands into his hair and pulled his head down to hers. "I'm okay." She kissed him lightly on the lips, men actually started to move back.

  As if he had any plans on letting her go. Ever. He tugged her right back against him and kissed her back, only there was nothing light about it. She resisted for a millisecond, then a moan of pleasure rose from deep in her throat—or maybe it was from his—and she leaned fully into him.

  When he could finally bring himself to let her mouth go, he still held her tightly against him. "I know you can take care of yourself, Erin," he said roughly. "I respect that about you and I don't want you to think I don't." He pulled back and looked into her eyes. "But please God don't ever do anything like that ever again."

  "Trust me, it wasn't anything I wanted to do." Then she blinked hard and he saw moisture gather in her eyes. "I didn't want you to do anything foolish to try and save us."

  "That's my job." His lips quirked. "Not the foolish part, but the lifesaving part." He kissed her gently, almost reverently, on the lips. "You have to trust that I know what I'm doing and I would never risk anything foolishly."

  "Including yourself?" she asked doubtfully.

  "Of course." He'd said it automatically, even knowing he'd give his life for hers in a heartbeat.

  She shook her head, a smile lifting the corners of her mouth. "You don't have any clue, do you?"

  Now he was confused. "About what?"

  "How did you feel today when you heard that gunshot?"

  His stomach pitched hard just hearing her ask. "It was the single worst moment of my life."

  She nodded. "Exactly."

  "You lost me."

  "You didn't want anything to happen to me."

  "Of course I didn't."

  "Or Gina."

  It took him a moment to shift gears. "Of course."

  "Right. Because you'd put your life on the line for any citizen in danger, that is part of your job."

  He nodded, having no idea where she was leading him.

  "But can you honestly say your fear for my life being in jeopardy was equal to that of your fear for Gina, or any citizen in jeopardy?"

  "That's not a fair question. You know I wouldn't compromise—"

  "I know you wouldn't. That's not what I asked."

  He looked into her eyes as realization dawned. "Yes, I was more worried than usual because you were involved. Terrified, in fact."

  "Than maybe you can understand that I was operating with that same level of fear. I no more wanted to put you in the path of a bullet than you did me."

  "I guess the fact that I'm trained for situations like that doesn't make a difference."

  She shook her head. "Not one tiny bit."

  He stroked her face. "I didn't say this because I was too terrified and angry at the time, but I was—am— very proud of how you handled yourself in there today." She shuddered and he pulled her close again. "I just don't ever want either of us to face that kind of situation again."

  She did pull out of his arms now. "And that is where I was going with this." She moved away when he reached for her, wrapping her arms around her waist instead. "You need to maintain that edge, that focus, in what you do, to keep you as alert as possible at all times." She paced away from him, then back again. "I…I don't want to be a liability to that. I don't mean I think I'm going to be taken hostage again. But I don't want you worrying about me, or something that is going on with us and have that shift your focus in the split second that might be a matter of life and death." She tried a cocky smile, but her lips trembled and ruined it. "I might not always be there to save your ass like I was today."

  He grinned, even as his eyes burned. "God, I love you."

  She'd already opened her mouth to continue her terribly misguided defense of why they shouldn't be together. His sudden confession stopped her cold. "What did you just say?"

  He closed the distance between them, unfolded her arms and put them around his waist. "I already think about you all the time. I worry about you—"

  "Worry? Why? I can take care of—"

  "I know. I meant in the general way a person does who loves another person. I wonder if the day is going well for you, how the meeting with the new client went. I find myself wanting to run this ide
a or that past you, get your take on things. I want to watch football with you, or even just watch you watch football. I want to stare into your eyes. For hours. Days." He lifted his hands to her face. "You've already moved into my head and into my heart. You're not a dangerous distraction to me as long as I can pick up the phone anytime I want and hear your voice, or know where you'll be come the end of the day." He kissed her slowly, fully, until they both ran short of breath. "The only way you'd be a danger to me is if you leave me. I don't think I could function with a broken heart."

  A single tear slid down her cheek. "I can't believe Crybaby O'Keefe is making me cry. That was the most beautiful thing you just said."

  He ran a finger across her lips, then dried the tear. "I love you, Terror Mahoney. I never had a clue what love was like until you barged back into my life."

  She sniffled even as she lifted one eyebrow. "Barged?"

  "Swaggered?"

  "Why don't we say strolled and leave it at that?"

  "I can live with strolled." He sobered and felt his heart climb into his throat. "Can you—" He had to stop and swallow it back down again. "Could you live with me, Erin? As my wife? Statistics be damned?"

  Tears sprang to life in her eyes once again. "You're totally ruining my superwoman image here, Super-cop."

  He grinned, knowing his eyes were suspiciously damp, too. "Well, if you're really nice to me, I'll let you wear my red cape. Occasionally."

  "I think I could be really nice to you."

  "You think so?"

  "It might take me a while to get really good at it though." That dry smile curved her lips. "Probably, oh, forty or fifty years. Maybe longer. I'm a perfectionist."

  Brady's heart exploded inside his chest. Had she really just said yes? He swung her into his arms. "Would you like to get a head start right now?" She nodded and he was halfway to the bedroom when he stopped dead. "Wait a minute."

  "What? What's wrong?"

  He set her on her feet. "You haven't closed the deal."

  "I haven't closed the— What?"

  "Closed the deal. I believe in order to be binding, both parties have to sign on the dotted—"

  She leaped at him, wrapping her legs around his waist. He caught her hard against his chest, barely keeping them both upright.

  "I love you, Brady." She kissed him all over his face. "Is that what you needed to hear?"

  It was better than anything he'd ever imagined. He'd absolutely found something worth bucking the statistics for. "Well, once is enough to close the deal, but—"

  "I love you," she said softly, then kissed him long and slow, leaving no doubts about her feelings. "Now take me to bed so I can show you."

  "Gladly."

  She brushed his hair off his forehead. "And as foreplay, you can tell me what happened to Todd." At his shocked look, she merely smiled and said, "Hey, if I'm going to be a cop's wife, I'm going to have to learn to mix business with pleasure, right?"

  "That's taking it a bit too far, but I do love you for trying. Have I told you how much I love you?"

  "Why don't you show me?" She kissed him again. "To hell with Todd, and business be damned. For a while anyway."

  "My thoughts exactly."

  Epilogue

  Erin listened as the newscaster finished reporting on Todd's trial. Her phone rang a second later. Brady's voice filled her ear. "Did you see?" She instantly felt better. "Yeah," she said quietly. "I saw. I'm just glad it's over." It had been six months since Todd had held her and Gina at gunpoint. Everyone in the city knew the details by now. The Hans had been responsible for Sanderson's death. They'd tried to coerce him into allowing them to continue to run their black market porn business through the Laundromat. When he hadn't given in, they'd taken matters into their own hands.

  Todd had tried to pump Bradford Pitts for information, hoping to conclusively tarnish Sanderson so they could condemn his underground actions while simultaneously expressing their shock and sorrow over his downfall. He'd planned to turn it around and actually use it as a campaign platform on organized crime. And if he'd cleared Sanderson, then that worked for the mayor, too, proving the police department was doing their job. Only the commissioner's job would have been at risk, which didn't bother Todd a bit. Todd, who had been promised a job as deputy mayor if the mayor won.

  Even after Pitts's death he'd continued to have the Hans' activities surreptitiously monitored. What he hadn't counted on was the Hans discovering his nosing around. They'd told Todd he was next unless he pushed the mayor to favorably push some zoning changes in an area they were looking to build in. Todd had been more than willing to sell out the mayor to save his skin, but had panicked when he realized his power didn't extend to that level of political influence. He'd stalled. Then a zoning commissioner had turned up dead with all the evidence pointing to Todd. And he'd finally cracked.

  He knew Brady would get the case, and because of Todd's past with Erin, he didn't think he'd get a fair shake. So, his logic dubious at best by then, he'd gone to Erin's office hoping to force Brady to listen to him. In the end he'd turned witness against the Hans and gotten immunity. Once a weasel, always a weasel.

  "I actually got a call from Henley this morning," she told Brady, flicking the television off. "He offered me a job."

  "You're kidding."

  "Press secretary. Can you believe that?"

  "Actually, I can. You can't help it if you're good at what you do, sweetheart. What did you say?"

  "I gave Gina a shot at it since I'm not going near the world of politics for the foreseeable future. She turned him down cold."

  "Smart girl. You two are going like gangbusters lately. Besides, you're a lot more fun to work with."

  Erin curled up on in the corner of the couch. "You think so, do you? You being an authority on job fun."

  "I know so. And my job is fun. For me anyway. Listen, speaking of my job, there's been a break in the Walters case that I need to follow up on."

  "So you won't be here for dinner. No problem. I can still fix something and save it for you if you want." Only six months, but Erin was already well used to the routine.

  "I was hoping I could persuade you to meet me at Jimmy's. I'll only have a few minutes, but we can grab a slice of pizza. Catch up."

  She loved the routine. Because no matter how tied up the two of them were, and they both had their share of demands, they always made time for one another. It was like an addiction they were both more than willing to feed. For life. "I'll see if I can squeeze you in," she said. "But only because the Sixers are playing and the guys at Jimmy's need someone to remind them that we're heading for the championships this year no matter what the Bulls think."

  "I'm sure they'll enjoy the lesson in humility."

  "Besides," she added, "your mom called and she has more helpful ideas for the wedding."

  Brady groaned. "No, please, not tonight."

  "She has this cousin who knows this guy who is a friend of a guy who can do our silk flowers for wholesale. She has the whole color scheme all picked out. Again. She even found matching cummerbunds for the guys. My brothers will be so thrilled. Mauve being their color and all."

  "Do they know this yet?"

  "I am all that is standing between you and certain death. Strangulation by mauve cummerbund will probably be the M.O."

  He sighed heavily and Erin tried hard not to be too amused at his expense. But he was pretty damn adorable when he tried not to let his mother wrap her big bad cop son around her little finger. Erin had already started taking notes.

  "I'll do anything if you can get me out of that conversation and make this go away," he begged.

  "Anything?"

  "Yeah," he said, not sounding nearly so tortured all of a sudden. Perhaps he'd been taking a few notes of his own. "Anything."

  "I think you might have a deal. Want to close it now or later?"

  "Now. I love you, Erin."

  "I love you, too, Supercop." She paused, then added, "But you'd better
bring your red cape. You're going to need it."