“Are you hurt, sweetheart?”
“Not bad,” she mumbled into his shirt.
Sean shouted at his men that it was all clear for them to enter, then watched them make their way inside Erin’s apartment. Luke was first through the door, followed by Pete, and then his captain. Others followed, at least two uniforms and Tony, the fourth member of their team.
He tenderly brushed Erin’s tangled hair away from her face, noting the bruises and swelling in her cheek, the nasty abrasion on her chin. “How bad is not bad?” he asked her.
“My head hurts, and I broke my hand, but I’ll live.” She lifted her injured hand to inspect it before swiping the wetness from under her eyes with a knuckle. “What about you?”
He twisted his left arm so she could see the cut. It looked a lot worse than it felt. She still frowned, reaching out to examine it. Her touch was soft and tentative. “It’ll need a few stitches. Don’t even think about letting someone else sew you up.” Bright blue eyes met his, and all the lingering worry slipped away. She was alive, in his arms, whole and safe. Cuts and broken bones would heal. The rest of it would take care of itself.
“I gotta do my job, honey. You good?”
Erin scooted off his lap and gave him a watery smile. “I’m good.”
He nodded, fighting the thickness in his throat, and brushed a pale clump of loose hair behind her ear. “You’ll have to give a statement, and the paramedics are going to need to check you over whether you want them to or not.” Sean winked. “And you might want to call Tess, just in case she hears something on the news.”
When she stood, Erin kept her head turned away from the dead body on the floor. Instead, she focused on Sean. “Have them bandage your arm, temporarily. I’ll take care of the rest when we’re through with this circus.”
Sean kissed her forehead, then brushed a fingertip over her reddened jaw. He tipped her chin up to check the cut on her throat. It was just a small nick, which had already stopped bleeding. Seeing her injuries made fresh anger boil in his blood, but there was no one to take it out on now, so instead he focused on being grateful they’d both survived this nightmare relatively unscathed.
Chapter Seventeen
Tess handed Erin a fresh ice pack and climbed onto a bar stool beside her. “I can’t believe the asshole was right there with us at the bar that night. I might’ve bumped in to him during all the commotion.” She shivered, rubbing her arms. “It’s creepy.”
Creepy didn’t come close to describing him, Erin thought.
Pressing the cold pack to the side of her face made her wince. She was mildly concussed, slightly broken, literally bruised from head to shin, sore, scratched, carpet burned, but still breathing, thanks to Sean. “I’m just glad it’s over and he can’t hurt anyone else.”
Her attacker’s name was Daryl Turner. He was single, thirty-five years old, ex-navy (dishonorably discharged for fighting), and in addition to Blue, he’d worked at two other bars in the same area within the last six months. It was amazing how fast information could be gathered these days, but Erin wasn’t at all surprised how fast it traveled. There were four news trucks parked outside her apartment building, and a slew of reporters.
They’d found Officer Moody’s body stuffed in the trunk of Turner’s car in the hospital’s parking garage, the back of his head bashed in. Best guess was that Turner had busted out the cop’s taillight as a way to get him out of the car so he could attack him.
She touched the bandage on her neck.
So it had been Turner who approached her that rainy evening she left work early. All this time the fear—and maybe grim hope on Sean’s part—had been that he would try something at the condo, when in reality he’d been watching her at the hospital, biding his time, testing the boundaries, planning how best to get past Sean’s team. Killing another girl during the night had drawn most of the attention away from Erin, giving him the opportunity he’d been waiting for.
Two more innocent lives had been lost while Erin was spared hers, and the only solace to be gained from it was knowing the monster wouldn’t be hurting anyone else. She didn’t feel lucky, just relieved it was over.
As soon as she returned to work, Erin was going to speak to the hospital administrators about posting full-time armed security in all the parking areas of the hospital. It was just good safety measures. Not only would the visitors appreciate it, but the employees would also. No one should have to worry about someone attacking them when they walked to their car, zoned out from fatigue, or their mind a million miles away worrying about a loved one.
“You should move out of this condo tomorrow,” Tess said, then took a sip of her coffee.
Erin had told her not to come, that she was fine and Tess needed her rest, but she wouldn’t hear of it. And secretly? Erin was glad she’d ignored her. She wanted the company while Sean did his cop duties, and the support. Tess had helped her clean up and re-dress, vowing the ruined scrubs would be burned to ashes. Tess wrapped a cloth bandage around her broken hand as temporary support until she could have it x-rayed and cast, and even brushed the knots out of her hair and redid her ponytail. Erin’s next hot shower was going to be the best one ever.
No doubt Tess was exhausted, and now she was guzzling the frightfully strong coffee she’d made as if it were the nectar of the gods. She wouldn’t sleep for hours, whereas Erin would, thanks to the pain pills Dr. Arrington had prescribed twenty minutes ago. She’d even dispatched someone from the hospital to deliver the medicine, saint that she was. And of course, she’d ordered Erin not to come back to work for at least two weeks. This time, she wouldn’t grumble or balk.
“Why do you say that?” Erin asked.
“Notoriety. Face it, you’re going to be famous with the neighbors and the press for weeks. They’re going to pester the shit out of you, ask personal questions, which you hate, and give you those looks like they don’t know whether to hug you or hand you some sort of medal. Hell, you probably
will
get a medal from the city or JPD. One of those commendation thingies they grandly bestow for bravery in the face of danger.”
Erin snorted. “Sean and Luke and the rest of those guys deserve medals, not me. All I did was—”
“Fall in love with Sean?”
Erin frowned as she observed Sean working in total alpha cop-mode, methodically going over every inch of space Daryl Turner had come in contact with inside her condo. Once in a while he’d glance over and give her a sweet smile of reassurance mixed with something else, and everything would stop hurting.
“This isn’t a sappy Hollywood movie, Tess. You don’t fall in love with someone after knowing them for a week.”
Liar, her heart taunted.
You’ve been with him twenty-four-seven. That’s like months in doctor-cop-dating time. Not to mention the wars you’ve been through together.
“Then what is it?” Tess asked, observant little pest that she was. “What is the emotion that makes you look at him like he invented the hypodermic needle or…or the MRI machine? It’s damn sure not because he’s the best-looking man in the room. Luke’s got him beat there.”
Erin swung her head around to glare at her friend, then winced when pain shot through everything above her shoulders. “Ow! And he does not!”
Tess laughed, pointing a finger in Erin’s face. “Ha! I knew that’d get a rise out of you. I still disagree. Luke’s hotter, and I expect a formal introduction in exchange for the absolute joy of my company today, but we’re not talking about what
I
think. So tell me, what puts that peaceful, happy expression on your face when he walks over here and touches you?”
“Maybe it’s just lust, huh? Ever think about that?” Erin lowered her voice when a few heads turned in their direction. “He’s great in bed, and my vagina has been on sabbatical for the last eight months. Maybe I just needed to get laid.”
“Okay, let’s test
your
theory then. See the female CSI taking photographs of your wrecked entertainment center?” Erin nodded and shifted on the bar stool, fearing where Tess was headed. “She’s been checking Sean out since she got here. Covertly, of course, but I noticed because we don’t have anything better to do except watch them do their jobs. But how would you feel if she walked up to Sean, put her hand on his arm, whispered something in his ear, and then giggled? What if he laughed in return like they’d shared the best dirty joke ever?”
Erin felt it then—an acidic burn in her stomach, the way her eyes narrowed when she looked at the woman in question, how her hands had tightened around the ice pack. She sucked in a sharp breath of air and forced the unfamiliar feeling away.
“Maybe it’s…intense like, infatuation, something of that ilk.”
“Right. You’re
infatuated
with his penis. Got it.”
“Fine, you fucking win. I
might
be falling in love with him.”
Tess grinned smugly and quirked that damned cocky eyebrow. “You could have just admitted it and saved your poor bruised brain the trouble of thinking up excuses.”
Erin reached out and yanked on one of Tess’s midnight curls. “Arrogant, know-it-all bitch.”
“Do you think Luke likes his women with those particular traits?”
* * * *
Before Tess left, she helped Erin get all the medical supplies out of her kit that she would need to stitch the cut on Sean’s arm. The instruments were neatly organized and arranged just the way Erin preferred them. Tugging rubber gloves over the bulky bandage on her left hand hadn’t been a cakewalk, but she wasn’t going to deviate from proper medical procedures, despite them being performed at her dining room table. Truth be told, her untouched table was probably more sterile than an exam room in the ER.
She’d disinfected the wound on his biceps again, just to be safe, even though it was cleaned and bandaged when the paramedics checked him out. And perhaps because she was a wee bit anal about that sort of thing.
Curved suture needle loaded and at the ready, she arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure you don’t want me to numb it before I start? I can give you a shot of lidocaine.”
“Is your head numb?”
“Not yet, but it will be as soon as I’m able to take a pain pill.”
“Then no, I don’t want you to numb it.”
“It’s very sweet that you want to suffer with me, but you saved my life. Additional martyrdom is unnecessary.”
“Not to me it isn’t,” he grumbled.
Erin sighed. “Don’t piss me off when I’m about to stick you multiple times with a sharp object.”
The wisecrack made him smile. “Stick away.”
“Okay, here goes.”
He grunted when she made the first pass but didn’t flinch, tough guy that he was. She would’ve opted for the lidocaine, but that could just be her pain talking. Every inch of Erin hurt.
She completed the stitch, tied the knot, snipped off the excess polypropylene suture, and immediately started the next one. The quicker she worked, the less it would hurt both her and him. Because of the constant throb in her head, concentrating was difficult. Thank God the chaos was gone from her apartment and they were alone.
“How’s your hand?” he asked.
“Hurts like a mother.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“It’s the least I can do for you, all things considered.”
“Now who’s flirting with martyrdom?” When she ignored him, he asked, “Does it need a cast?”
“Yes. I’ll go to the hospital once we’re through here, although I’m dreading it with every fiber of my being.”
“Because of the attention you’ll draw over what happened.”
She nodded.
“I’ll take you.”
“Will you do the tough, pushy cop thing just like you did at Blue that night?”
“If that’s what it takes,” he said.
A bossy Sean was a huge turn-on. “What about your reports?”
“They’ll get done soon enough. Things aren’t near as pressing now that Turner’s dead.”
Erin’s gaze automatically shifted to the living room and the large bloodstain on her carpet before she refocused her attention on Sean’s injury.
“I’ve made the arrangements for someone to come take care of the mess tomorrow. The carpet will be replaced, and they’ll get rid of the broken furniture.”
She glanced up at him. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Just let me take care of this for you, okay?”
Erin nodded as she finished off the last stitch, not up for an argument. She tossed her instruments down and rebandaged the wound, then sat back in the chair and closed her burning eyes for a second.
Sean rolled the rubber glove off her right hand, then picked up her scissors and carefully snipped the other off her swollen left hand. “Luke ran all the reporters and news vans off when he left.”
“They’ll be back,” she said.
“They can’t bother you if you’re not here.”
Hope flickered to life inside her. “Where will I be?”
“At my place.” Through mangling the glove, he tossed it and the scissors aside and crouched down at her feet. “We’re going to pack you a bag so you can stay with me for a while.”
“How long is a while?”
“A week, a month, a year…forever.”
“Sean—” His mouth silenced her, and as bad as Erin hurt, the kiss made all the pain go away.
“I’m sorry for what I said the night my dad had his heart attack. I didn’t mean it. It was wrong of me to question your principles and expect you to set them aside because of what was happening between us.”
He held her face in his hands and dropped gentle kisses on each and every bruise and scrape.
“I think you’re amazing, Erin,” he said. “And I’ll always think you’re amazing, even when you’re quiet, cranky, or too exhausted for sex. I promise to give you space to decompress when you need it. I will make you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and rub your feet like a good boyfriend should while we watch endless hours of awful reality TV.”
She laughed, her heart soaring. “And what do you get in return?”
“The sexiest doctor I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“I’ve missed you so much,” she said, combing her fingers through his hair. He closed his eyes and leaned into her caress. “You know they say after intense emotional experiences some—”