ARROGANT BRIT (A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE) (63 page)

“Or,” Nathan
said, coming out behind me with his drink still in his hand, “she’ll shoot that
gas can at your feet and ruin your whole day.”

That
seemed to give O’Rourke pause. I could practically hear the gears turning in
his head as he glanced down at the can.

“You’re bluffing,” he said.

Nathan
shrugged. “All it takes is a spark, and you’ve already soaked half the first
floor. I’m willing to bet that from this angle, the shot will knock the can
backward down the staircase, torching every single one of you before you can
even think to run.”

“Of
course, there’s always the possibility she doesn’t hit it on her first shot,”
he continued, and for a moment, my guts twisted. What the hell was he doing?
But he shot me a sideways glance and smiled, and I kept my mouth shut. “And
hey, maybe the can won’t explode, but that gun she’s holding is a standard
issue Sig P220 full of .45 ACP. Ten in the magazine, one in the chamber,
and
she’s got the high ground. Do you have any idea how big of a hole that will
leave at this range?”

He
swaggered to my side, taking a long draught from the tumbler and licking his
lips before again regarding the thug, almost like he’d forgotten about him.

“How
much ground do you think you can cover before she unloads her clip? Your
friends down there might get away, if they run, but I’ll take great pleasure in
knowing that
you
most certainly won’t.”

O’Rourke
didn’t answer. Behind him, his groupies shifted uneasily. No one took their
eyes off me, but I could tell that some silent exchange was going on between
them. I hoped that none of them could tell I had no idea whether or not
Nathan’s little plan was going to work.

I could
hit the gas can, sure. But could I make it blow? That seemed like something
straight out of an action movie. I preferred to keep the business end of my gun
pointed right where it belonged: center mass on the Irish asshole with the big
mouth.

Standing
next to me, Nathan seemed so calm. I could feel his stoicism, his
self-assuredness radiating from his body. I gripped my weapon tighter and
nodded in agreement.

“So,
what’ll it be?” I asked him with far more certainty than I actually felt. “You
boys wanna do this the easy way, or the hard way?”

I
didn’t have to wait long for an answer. O’Rourke’s face pulled taut in cold,
hard rage, and then he turned and descended the stairs, his men following soon
after. My eyes found themselves firmly planted on the oversized handgun tucked
into the back of his waistband.

“Leave
the gas cans,” I instructed, finally tearing my eyes away from them to look up
into Nathan’s face.

He
waited until they’d shut the door to look down at me. Then he produced the
faintest of smiles.

I
holstered my gun, leaving the thumb-strap open in case we were in for any more
visitors. “Thanks,” I said, though it pained me to do so. Maybe Nathan was a
bit braver than I’d given him credit for. “You really think a bullet would set
the gas off?”

“No,”
he answered, downing the rest of his whiskey in one harsh gulp. “I don’t. And
I’m pretty sure the boys downstairs would have riddled us with holes before you
took down more than two of them.”

“Thanks
for the vote of confidence,” I replied, a shiver passing through me. He was
right, of course. I only had a clean shot on two of them, at best. Even if we
ducked back into Nathan’s office, they could have lit the house and left us to
smolder…

“So if
I couldn’t stop them, why did they back down?” I asked.

“Because
they know where I live, and they were just here to scare me. I think it might
be time to talk about that safe house,
detective,
”
Nathan replied, his smile growing. “I suddenly have a
burning
desire to
put this place on the market.”

CHAPTER TWO

“So
, it’s
worse than we thought.”

I stood
in front of Captain Pierce, looking down at his wizened face as he leaned back
in his chair. His fingers touched his lips, drumming softly the way they did
when he was thinking hard about something. His bright eyes narrowed as he
stared off into nothingness like an oracle searching the aether for answers.
When his faraway look receded, he turned his attention back on me.

“I made
a mistake sending you without backup, Williams. If something had happened to
you today, it would’ve been my fault. I would’ve had to live with it. It was a
bad call. It won’t happen again.”

I
straightened. That was the closest thing I’d get to an apology, and I was happy
to take it. Captain Benjamin Pierce wasn’t exactly renowned for his
overabundance of sentiment, and given how he felt about me, a female cop doing
what he felt to be a
man’s
job, it was more than I had expected.

He
stood up from his chair and walked to his office window, lowering one of the
horizontal blinds that made mincemeat of the sunlight streaming in. The
department had a great view of the city from here and overlooked the distant
bay. I got the feeling that he was silently wishing this case away so he could
be out in his fishing boat hauling in a marlin or two.

“Look…
I want you to keep what happened out there quiet for now. No reports. It’s
possible those men stopping by our playboy’s mansion wasn’t a coincidence.
Someone might be feeding them information from the inside, letting them know
who we’re talking to as we build the case.”

“You think we have a rat?” I asked, my voice low.

“I
think we have reason to be careful,” Captain Pierce replied, shifting his gaze
back to me. “I spoke with Mr. Hale,” he began. “He said you handled the
incident well, despite your obvious disadvantage. I know there wasn’t much you
could do, given the circumstances.”

Obvious disadvantage?
The words burned in my mind.

“Yes,
sir,” I answered, though I didn’t particularly agree. I couldn’t help but feel
like I’d fallen short in my efforts to protect Nathan, especially since he’d
had to step in and convince those goons I was serious. In all my time on the
force, I’d never fired my gun on duty. This time, I was a breath away from
pulling the trigger. I felt like a rookie on her first day, and worst of all, I
had no doubt that was how the other officers and detectives would choose to see
me. I wanted to be angry at Nathan, but I could only be mad at myself. This was
my failure, and I needed to own it and not let it shake me up for round two.

Captain
Pierce must have read my expression, because he sighed, ran a hand through his
white hair, and turned to face me.

“Sandra,”
he said, “everybody has something go wrong at some point. Today, you had to let
Wallace’s boys walk free to save yourself and the witness. Nobody got hurt, his
property is still intact, and you not only convinced Mr. Hale to testify, but
to move to the safe house he was so adamantly against last time I sent a uni
out there to talk to his spoiled ass. I know it’s not a perfect score, but I
think you can count this one as a win.”

I nodded and forced a smile. “Yes, sir.”

He
mirrored my expression. “Good. Now, let’s talk about where we go from here.” He
put his hands on his hips on either side of his pot belly. “Mr. Hale will be
transferred to a secure location on the other side of town. It’s nothing fancy,
just some apartment complex near the tracks, but it’s the last place
anyone
will look for him.”

“The
Peachtree Overlook?” I asked, raising a brow. Captain Pierce nodded, and I
stifled a laugh. “Oh, yeah. He’ll just
love
that.”

I
couldn’t imagine Nathan Hale, a man accustomed to living in the lap of luxury,
reacting to the Peachtree Overlook with anything short of disgust and horror.
Those apartments weren’t exactly the worst the city had to offer, but they were
far from the best. Located just a stone’s throw from the railroad tracks, they
had a layer of grime and soot embedded into the exterior, and from what I’d
heard, the inside wasn’t much better.

“A rich
boy living in the Peachtree Overlook,” I mused, shaking my head. “I almost wish
I could see it.”

“I’m
glad you said that, because you
will
see it,” Captain Pierce answered. “You’re still on the case, detective. In
fact, you’ve been assigned to him full-time until the trial.”

I felt all
the blood rush from my face. My lip trembled for a moment, disbelief slackening
my jaw as I tried to process what he’d just said.

“Wait—full-time? Meaning…”

“Meaning
you’ll be sitting on Mr. Hale until the start of the trial,” Captain Pierce
finished, sitting down again behind his desk. “The paperwork’s already been
filed. You’ll be undercover, of course, posing as Mr. Hale’s girlfriend, Candy
Love.”

I shot
him an “are-you-serious?” look. I couldn’t help it—
Candy?
Really? Like
some kind of stripper?

The
captain waved his hand dismissively, as if that detail didn’t matter. “It’s
just for a week, detective. And you won’t be the only cop there. We’ve arranged
for undercover officers to be present on each floor. If you need something,
just holler,
Candy
.”

I
couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. The captain made it sound like I was
staying in a guest room at some quaint little bed and breakfast. “Just holler”
was more likely to mean “if we hear gunshots, we’ll come running.” I didn’t
need him to candy-coat this for me.

I also
couldn’t figure out if I was being punished or rewarded. An undercover
operation was a serious undertaking, but a week with Nathaniel Hale was an even
more arduous one. Why me? Why not someone with a little more experience who
hadn’t let five criminals walk free just a few hours ago?

“Sir,”
I began, measuring my words carefully. “I’m… not clear on why you need
me
for this. I’m a first-year detective. I’m sure there are more appropriate
choices…”

“Not on
this one,” he quickly answered, folding his hands on his desk. “This is a big
deal. Nathan Hale’s testimony is going to put away a sex trafficker, murderer,
and illegal arms dealer. We’re talking about unraveling the whole organization.
With Wallace gone, the rest of the Paddies will crumble. That’s a feat even the
FBI hasn’t been able to accomplish. It’ll look good for the department...”

There
was an implication there, a subtle reminder that cops who did things to bolster
the department’s reputation were always rewarded. Doing this might mean a
chance at respect, but could I respect myself for dancing to this man’s tune by
shacking up with some yuppie billionaire and calling myself
Candy?

But he
was right about the Paddies—the gang Wallace headed up with ties to the Irish
mob. They had to go, and if this would oust them from the city once and for
all, maybe it really was a small sacrifice.

“I get
the point, sir. But I don’t know if it’ll be that easy. One of those men who
came to Hale’s mansion—he called himself Francis O’Rourke—there was something
about him. An air of authority? I think he might have been higher up the food
chain than the others. Even with Wallace out of the picture, the Paddies might
be able to hold their ground if that man’s been groomed to take over.”

Captain
Pierce nodded grimly. “I’ll see if the FBI is willing to let us in on who some
of the other major players are. In the meantime, get your things in order and
meet me back here in an hour. I want you two moved into the Peachtree Overlook
by this evening. The sooner, the better,” he added.

I shook
my head. “I still don’t understand why you’ve chosen me, sir.”

The
captain sighed. He looked weary. “Do you really want to know?”

I nodded. “Yes, sir. Absolutely.”

I’d
been hoping for some speech where Captain Pierce admitted how much the
department needed me, how I was an invaluable member of the force, and how
handing me this responsibility was just the first step in showing the rest of
the boys how capable I really was.

Instead,
Captain Pierce spread his hands helplessly. “Mr. Hale wouldn’t agree to our
terms any other way. He requested you,
personally
.”

My
heart sunk. Once again, I was Nathan’s pawn and plaything, a bargaining chip to
ensure he would get what he wanted. I wasn’t a valued member of the team—I was
a sacrificial lamb.

I
wanted to rage at the captain, and at Nathan, too. I wanted to tell them both
in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t there for their entertainment, that I was a
cop who had earned her stripes and who deserved better than to play babysitter
to an entitled billionaire.

But I
didn’t say anything. Instead I let the heat rise in my cheeks, my pulse pound
in my ears, and my hands shake behind my back as I held in every ounce of anger
surging through me.

For the
greater good,
I told myself.
Once
you do this, everyone will look at you differently. You’ll be a hero, Sandra.
It all sounded like lies.

“Detective,”
the captain said, lowering his voice. “You can say ‘no.’_”

For a
moment, I let my rage get the better of me. “Can I, sir?”

Captain
Pierce nodded. “Yes. You can. Mr. Hale strikes me as the type of man who’s used
to getting what he wants. He’s playing a game here, and he’s not afraid to make
people uncomfortable or unhappy to get his way. We both know he’s not going
back to his house after what happened today, whether you agree to this or not.
If this is going to be a problem for you, detective, then I wouldn’t hold it
against you if you said ‘no.’_”

That
gave me pause. I lowered my eyes, considering the Captain’s offer. If he was
right, the absolutely best case scenario was that it wouldn’t reflect poorly on
me. I’d go back to my job exactly how I left it, Nathan would become someone
else’s problem, and I could refocus on other parts of my life that mattered
much more than some billionaire’s welfare.

But an
image flashed in my head, or rather a series of them: Nathan’s impossibly green
eyes; his lazy, lopsided grin; the way he’d stepped in at the last second and
potentially saved me from a thug with a gas can and biceps that could have snapped
my spine like a twig.

No,
that wasn’t right—there was no “potentially” about it. If Nathan hadn’t shown
up at that moment, that guy was going to put my training to the test. Even if I
took him down, one of his men was almost certainly going to kill me and set the
whole place on fire, maybe not even in that order.

The sad
fact of the matter was that I owed him one. I tried not to think about how,
strangely, I didn’t really mind. A small part of me was looking forward to a
few days shacked up with Nathaniel Hale. I had to take a moment to push that
thought straight out. This was all a game for Mr. Hale, and if I didn’t assert
myself all I’d ever be is the girl he bent over his desk whenever he wanted to.
That chapter of my life was over now. I wanted to stay safe inside my web of
lies where Nathan’s compelling stare couldn’t reach me.

Right, so I owed him one. We’d go with that.

“No,” I
told Captain Pierce. “I mean—yes. I’ll do it. I’ll be back in an hour.”

Captain
Pierce looked both surprised and almost impressed. “Fair enough, detective.
Pack only what you need.”

I
nodded, then stepped out of his office and into the hall. My stomach was
churning with the implications of what I’d just done—upended my entire life for
a man who probably wouldn’t even appreciate it—when I nearly ran face-first
into Nathan’s warm, hard body.

“Jesus!”
I yelped, clutching at the collar of my blouse as though it would help the
breath return to my lungs. “You scared the hell out of me.”

Nathan
looked down at me, grinning from ear to ear. “Sorry about that, detective. It’s
probably the shoes.” He lifted a foot, showing me the soles. “My company has
been importing them from Japan where this guy, this designer, Shinji Watanabe,
started a brand new line of samurai-inspired fashion. His footwear collection
is largely based off traditional Japanese designs, and this is his take on the
jika-tabi
,
soft-soled shoes that give you tactile connection with the ground…. and… uh…”