When Love Intrudes (When the Mission Ends) (2 page)

Afraid to move him too much, because everything looked like it hurt, she lightly caressed his shoulder. “Hang on, Nathan. I’m gonna get help.”

As she dialed 911, she looked him over, trying to categorize his injuries. There was some bleeding, but nothing that looked life threatening. But who knew what was happening internally from the amount of bruising she could already see on his arms and ribs where his shirt had ridden up. His clothes were ripped, his jeans pulled down. Oh God, they hadn’t raped him had they?

His hands covered his face where he’d obviously tried to protect his head from the assault. Gently she pulled one of his hands aside and couldn’t stop her gasp. If she didn’t already know this was Nathan, she never would have recognized him with the swelling and bruising.

Tears filled her eyes as he started to shiver, although she didn’t know if the shivering was a result of the pain or the cool fall evening air. She grabbed a towel out of her basket to cover and protect him.

Finally after what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few seconds, a 911 dispatcher came on the line. Toni requested an ambulance and then quickly hung up as Nathan moaned again.

She ran her hand through hair that normally hung in his eyes. “It’s okay, Nathan. You’re safe now and an ambulance is coming. You’re gonna be okay.”

Suddenly he jerked up and away from her. The one eye he could get open darted around the room in terror as he scrambled away from her on the floor. The movement had to hurt as he immediately crumpled back to the floor moaning and curling into a ball.

She followed him across the floor and gingerly touched his back in soothing motions. The single eye he could open was unfocused in his terror and pain. “Nathan, honey, it’s okay. It’s Toni, your neighbor. Hold still, hon, so you don’t hurt yourself anymore. I promise I’m not going to let anyone hurt you again.” She re-covered him as his entire body shuddered under the weight of his tears and pain.

“Toni?” he questioned through raspy sobs which broke her heart.

“Yeah, it’s me. It’s gonna be okay. Just hang with me okay until the ambulance gets here.”

He gave a single nod, but then haltingly asked, “Don’t leave, okay?”

She swallowed again against the unfairness of it all. “Of course, honey. I don’t know if they’ll let me ride in the ambulance, but I’ll follow in my car. Don’t worry. I’ll be there with you.” No one deserved this kind of treatment, but especially not Nathan. He was only seventeen years old and already his life had been filled with too many challenges and hardships. And the thing was, he was one of the greatest kids she’d ever met, always polite and friendly.

They’d formed an unlikely alliance in the last few months as she nursed her broken heart and he’d learned to live on his own after his father beat him up, kicked him out, and abandoned him. They’d learned to lean on each other.

He watched her warily for a moment as if he expected her to abandon him, too. But then his eye shut and he sank back into unconsciousness. She felt for a pulse, just in case, beginning to panic about how long it was taking the ambulance to arrive.

Finally, she heard the siren pulsing through the neighborhood. Leaning down, she whispered, “I’ll be right back. Let me go get the paramedics so they can get you taken care of. I’m not leaving you though.”

She wouldn’t do that to him. She knew what it meant to be alone and scared, and she would make sure that this kid never had to suffer through that again.

* * *

Detective Brian Barnes strode down the hospital corridor, ignoring the tingle of dread spinning down his spine. After his gunshot wound five months ago, which left him short a kidney, he had a hard time entering the hospital. Too much time spent here and way too many horrible memories to keep him up at night. Unfortunately, too much of his time was spent here as part of his job with the police department investigating crimes. A job which he used to love and live for, but in the last five months had him questioning his entire life plan.

All because of her.

But he gave up his right to even think about her when he kicked her out of his life and made her face her own life. She’d never forgive him for that. Hell, he couldn’t forgive himself for that, but now wasn’t the time to worry about it. He had a case of assault to work on tonight. He’d been delayed by a rash of Friday night crimes, most of which were a waste of taxpayers’ money and his time, because the criminals would manage to get off. Some days it definitely felt like he was on the hamster wheel of life, with no hope of getting anywhere.

It was close to one o’clock in the morning when he stepped into the kid’s room after talking to his doctors. According to them, Nathan Morrow was one very lucky kid. He’d sustained a broken arm, multiple cuts, bruises to both kidneys and several ribs, and a concussion. But besides mental damage, none of his injuries would have a permanent physical impact. There
hadn’t been a sexual assault although it sounded as though they’d used a broom handle to threaten him with one, bruising him heavily with it.

The hospital staff told him the kid only had his sister to help him and she was also a witness. While she hadn’t seen the assault, she could identify who’d perpetrated it. He hoped she had some good information for him so he could send the punks who’d done this to jail.

The lights in the room were dimmed when he came in. The kid looked even worse than he’d expected, his face a mélange of red, purple, blue, and green bruising and swelling. Outrage on his behalf roiled through Brian’s gut. This is why he did this job, to get criminals off the street that preyed on others.

At that moment the kid moaned in his sleep and a woman bolted out of the chair in the corner. He hadn’t even seen her sleeping there. As she quietly soothed the boy, she sensed his presence and looked up at him. He found himself once again drowning in the depths of those turquoise eyes which haunted his dreams, both day and night.

Toni.             

Seeing her was like a blow to the gut. Thoughts about her still hurt, but seeing her completely out of the blue like this, after a long damn night, was almost too much.

But wait a minute. She didn’t have a brother. What was she doing here with the assault victim?

She scowled at him obviously not any happier to see him than she was the last time he’d seen her. But then her eyes had been filled with angry, heartbroken tears. If he lived to be one hundred years old, he hoped to never see that look in her eyes again.

She glanced back at the bruised, wounded boy with a finger to her luscious lips. Lips he spent hours obsessing over in the dark of the night when sleep eluded him. She gently shoved him out the door, pulling it partway closed behind her so not to disturb the kid’s sleep.

In the light of the hall, he got a better look at her. She must have come here from the gym, her long hair, silky smooth now, was pulled up into a high ponytail, lighter in color than it had been the last time he’d seen her. Lycra and spandex encased her amazing body from head to toe, the skin tight fabric emphasizing her luscious curves and made his cock stand up and take notice. Everything about her had always appealed to his cock, that traitorous bastard. That had been true even when he’d been critically ill and shouldn’t have even been able to get it up because of the enormous quantities of painkillers in his system.

Her face was scrubbed clean of any sign of makeup, and he could see the lines of exhaustion and worry that marred it. Her normally glittering turquoise eyes appeared tortured with an unspoken pain and hurt. Right now, he wasn’t sure how much of that was because of their situation. But really, how egotistical was that? He hadn’t seen her in five months. The odds were good that she never even considered him anymore.

So that left the question about how much of it was because of the boy who lay in that hospital bed? A boy who she claimed to be related to, although he knew for a fact he was no relation to her whatsoever.

He didn’t realize he’d just been staring at her until she asked, “Are you in charge of Nathan’s case?”

“Nathan Morrow, yes,” he said, referring to his notes. “I was also told that his sister was here with him.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m assuming that’s you, although I know you don’t have a brother.”

She bit her lip and glanced away. “I didn’t know he was my brother. I just found out about him.”

Lie
. He spent his days cross-examining criminals. Toni was no criminal and sure as hell didn’t have the skills needed to lie to him. He knew her too well for that to work. The question was why was she lying? Who was this kid to her? She didn’t need to take on the difficulties that would come with an underage kid in the mess this one currently found himself in.

“Okay, you and I both know that’s not true. Tell me what’s going on here, Toni.”

She sighed deeply. “He’s my neighbor and he doesn’t have anyone else to be with him. If I hadn’t told them I was his sister, they wouldn’t have let me stay with him. He’s only seventeen years old. His dad kicked him out of the house last year when he told him he was gay. Legally, he’s emancipated, but he’s still just a kid. I will not leave him to face this all alone. He’s scared and hurt and you cannot make me leave. I won’t do it, besides not even you can be that cruel.” Those gorgeous, imploring eyes looked up at him pleadingly and his heart twisted just a little bit more. “Don’t make me leave, Detective, please.”

Detective. Once upon a time, he’d been Brian to her. She’d known him at his lowest of lows and he’d betrayed that. Now he was
Detective
and hated it even if it was his own fault.

He rubbed a frustrated hand over his face, exhaustion pulling at him. “Toni, I won’t make you leave. I’m not heartless. I was told his
sister
,” he emphasized the word sister, “could identify the guys who did this. Is that you?”

She nodded and then glanced back around the door to make sure the kid was still sleeping. “Do you want to do this here?” she asked. “He’s not sleeping very sound. They’ve sedated him, but he’s scared. I don’t want to leave him, but I don’t want to wake him up either.” She bit her lip, obviously worried and frazzled.

He needed to finish up with her so she could get what little rest she could during the quieter night hours. “Yeah, give me the basic overview of what happened tonight. Then you can come in and give your official statement tomorrow morning.”

He took notes in a small notebook in the hallway while she relayed the facts of the evening to him. When he realized how close she’d come to the same fate as that kid in the hospital room, he had to tamp down the urge to howl in rage. They already had suspects in custody. It would feel so good to go and interrogate them personally. With his fist. And his boot. And whatever foreign object was handy—if it was a broom handle, well then, all the better.

Taking a deep breath, he struggled for control to hide his rage. Toni didn’t need to know how protective she made him feel. Hell, she didn’t know how deeply she made him feel about absolutely everything. He needed to keep up his professional façade, solve this case, and get out while he still could.

He closed his notepad as she finished talking. “Okay, Toni, we have the suspects in custody. Do you think you can come in this morning,” he glanced down at his watch, “say at around ten, and make your official statement as well as identify them in a line up?”

Her eyes flew to his. “You already caught them?”

Nodding, he gave her a slight smile. “You did well with the description of the car. They were arrested for drunk driving and resisting arrest. With your identification of them, we can add felony assault and possibly even attempted murder to those charges.”

She glanced again at the door. “I don’t want to leave him alone. Let me call Julie in the morning and see if she can sit with him while I come in. Can I give you a call when I know for sure?”

Julie had been the other innocent victim who’d been caught up in that mess with Pete. Brian was happy to hear their friendship had survived all the stress from that incident five months before. “Yeah, that’s fine. My number hasn’t changed. Do you still have it?”

She hesitantly nodded, flushing red. He tried not to read too much into that blush, but he liked the thought that she’d purposefully kept his number even after the awful way they ended things.

“Okay, just call me tomorrow, then. I’ll also need to interview Nathan, but I won’t wake him up tonight.”

She nodded, worrying at her lip with her teeth and the urge to pull her into his arm to reassure her overwhelmed him. But he resisted. Instead he asked, “Are you going to be okay here tonight by yourself?”

Immediately her shoulders squared and her chin tilted up. Yeah, that was the Toni he knew, tough to the very end, even when she was trembling inside. “Yeah, I’m fine. Goodnight, Detective.”

And there it was again. Detective. He’d been dismissed. 

The next morning, Toni held Nathan’s hand, trying to provide a lifeline to keep the terror at bay. He’d been awake off and on all night, but his eyes were never clear. Between the sedatives and the painkillers, she wasn’t sure how aware he was of what had happened. He just knew he was hurt and scared.

With his eyes closed and his poor face battered, he looked so young, but damn, he was really young. Her heart ached for him.

She’d met Nathan a few months before. It had been a truly awful day for her about a month after her world came crashing down around her. Overwhelmed with an onslaught of emotions she couldn’t control anymore, she’d been sitting in her car sobbing in front of her apartment. Nathan had just moved in a couple of weeks before, but other than just casual exchanges of ‘hi’ she hadn’t truly talked to him. That day, he knocked on her car window to make sure she was okay. When she simply blubbered she was fine, he nodded and walked away, only to come back a minute later with a chocolate candy bar in hand. An instant friendship was born.

A kid way too scarred by his life, he’d been extremely reticent to talk about his situation. But over the months, she’d managed to get most of his story and it broke her heart. Nathan was one of the sweetest kids she’d ever met and it seemed that he had way more than his share of bad luck up to this point in his very young life. His mom had abandoned him and his father when he was very young. As an only child, his father had always been rough on him, but it imploded when Nathan came out of the closet when he was sixteen years old. His father turned violent and kicked him out, but it sounded like their relationship had always been bad even before that point. His father had been barely more than a drifter who moved them every six months so Nathan was never able to make connections. His entire life, he’d never had anyone who he could count on.

Things were going to change for him. She had no idea how, but she was determined about that.

First up, she had to make sure the guys who did this to him went straight to jail. She turned on her cell phone to call Julie to see if she could come and sit with Nathan.

“You shouldn’t be here,” his raspy voice said.

Toni’s eyes flew up to meet his, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze as a tear dripped down his cheek. Her heart broke. He had no idea who he was dealing with if he thought he could get rid of her that easily. She reached back up to grab his hand. “Nathan—”.

“Just go home, okay? Just because you found me doesn’t mean you have to take care of me.” His normally low voice was even lower as he tried to control the tears which kept flowing.

“You’re right. It doesn’t mean I have to be here. But you’re my friend and that means I
want
to be here.”

“I don’t deserve it.”

“What? My help or my friendship?”

“Either one. Please just go home, Toni, and forget you ever met me. You’d be much better off.”

He still hadn’t met her eyes, but tremors of fear, pain, and emotion racked his body. It made sense that he didn’t trust anyone to actually be there for him. From what she’d been able to ascertain, no one ever had. Until now. “No can do, kid. You’re stuck with me. We’re going to get you through this together. Now, do you need me to call a nurse? How’s your pain level?”

Finally he looked up and the hope shining in his eyes shattered her heart. How did a kid get to be seventeen years old without anyone there to stand by him? It wasn’t right.

“It really is going to be okay, Nathan. Trust me on this. I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but trust me. I’m not going to abandon you.”

His eyes shut and another tear rolled down his swollen cheek. “Thank you,” he quietly murmured.

“No thanks necessary. Let’s try this again. I have three things I can offer you—pain killers, water, or food. You’re a seventeen year old boy so I’m guessing food will be at the top of that list.”

He looked at her again with a ghost of a smile. It wasn’t much, but at this point she would take it as a positive sign.

“Can I have all three?”

“Absolutely. Let me just call your nurse.” She depressed the call button on his bed. “She’s gonna be happy that those beautiful green eyes of yours are open.” She glanced down at the time on her phone. It was almost seven o’clock. She’d call Julie after Nathan ate his breakfast and after she made sure that he’d be okay for a while.

* * *

After eating, his color had gotten a bit better, but he’d grown quiet so she asked, “Do you remember what exactly happened yesterday?”

He met her eyes briefly as he gave a short nod, then looked away and said, “Some.” He swallowed hard. “I don’t remember too much after you got there.”

She watched him for a moment, not sure how much she should talk about this right now when it was all so fresh. She didn’t want to do him more mental harm or tell him anything that would interfere with the case Brian was building, but he probably could use some basic details about what was happening. “I found you about seven o’clock last night. That was twelve hours ago. I told the hospital you’re my brother, but that we have different fathers and that’s why we have different names.”

His eyes flew to hers in shock. “You…you told them you’re my family?”

Toni’s chest tightened as the tears again filled his eyes. “That was the only way they’d let me stay or tell me anything.” She watched the emotions flit over his face—disbelief, shame, hope. Every motherly instinct inside her reared up with the need to protect him. “Listen to me, Nathan. You’re not alone. Not anymore. As far as I’m concerned, you are my little brother from here on out. So just get used to the idea. You’re stuck with me, ’
kay?”

She grabbed hold of his hand and he clung to it, like a lifeline, as he nodded again.

“I need to go down and make a statement at the police station, but I’m going to call my friend, Julie, to come sit with you.”

He began to shake his head. “Why would you need to make a statement?”

“Because the guys who attacked you also harassed me as they left, so I can identify them.”

His eyes widened and he grasped at her hand as he looked her over. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, there was a siren in the area and that scared them off before they could do anything more.”

He visibly relaxed into the pillow.

“I know Detective Barnes said he’d want to talk to you today, too. I’m supposed to meet him at ten so I’m guessing it will be after that.”

“It won’t do any good, Toni. They shoved something over my head so I didn’t see anything.” His voice broke and he looked away.

“Relax, kid. I saw them and know exactly what they look like and the detective on your case is good. He’ll nail their balls to the wall. I guarantee it.” She just hoped Brian could deliver on that promise. Those assholes could not go free.

* * *

As Detective Brian Barnes watched the interrogation of Mark Hunter through the mirrored glass, disgust and anger battered at him. The four men who allegedly attacked Nathan Morrow the night before had all spent the night in jail. So far, none of the four had broken the vow of trust between them, but he had a feeling Mark may be the weak link.

The Lubbock Police Department had gotten a lucky break. The call had gone out to watch for the classic black Camaro just as two uniformed cops arrived at a convenience store to investigate some suspicious activity. That activity turned out to be the four drunken, blood-spattered men.

They were facing a slew of charges from public drunkenness to resisting arrest for two who ran from the uniformed police officers. The blood-spattered clothes had been taken for DNA testing against Nathan Morrow’s DNA. Once those results came back positive, they could add all the charges from his case.

Brian watched Mark Hunter sweat. His twin brother, Matt, was also in custody and from the torn skin on his knuckles, Matt was responsible for a lot of the bruises on Nathan. But Mark Hunter appeared to be the least guilty of the four. He’d meekly accepted the arresting officers’ instructions and there weren’t any physical signs, like bloody, bruised knuckles, that he’d been active in the attack. So far, his worst offense was drinking too much and making really bad choices about who he went out partying with.

Mark was obviously feeling the effects of those choices now as Brian’s partner, Eddie, questioned him. He turned decidedly green as Eddie talked. “So, were you the one who held the kid while someone else beat him or did you play with him, too? It looks like someone thought it was a good idea to sodomize the kid.”

The hospital had told them there was bruising all around the boy’s anus, although there hadn’t been any internal bruising present which would have been the case if he’d actually been penetrated. They wouldn’t know exactly what happened until they got Nathan’s statement.

“Was that you or did you stop one of the other guys from doing it?”

Silence.

“You know that kid is only seventeen years old?”

At this, Mark’s alarmed gaze met the detective’s, but he still didn’t say anything.

“Yep, only seventeen years old. How does that make you feel, tough guy? The four of you were able to take down a kid.”

Mark’s jaw clenched and unclenched. Yep, he was definitely the weak link, but how could he exploit that? Maybe he could use the two brothers against one another to get a confession.

As he glanced down at his watch, he realized it would have to wait for now. It was about time for Toni to arrive. Anticipation thrummed through him. He told himself that was just because they needed the information from her as a witness. Her identification of the suspects would provide just one more nail in the coffin to make this case iron-clad, but he knew that was a lie. He simply wanted to see her again.

Brian nodded toward the policeman in the viewing room with him. “Get the suspects ready for the line-up and I’ll go see if our witness is here yet.”

As he entered the reception area of the police station, Toni was just coming through the doorway. Once again, the blow to his solar plexus at the sight of her floored him.

She hadn’t spotted him yet, so he was able to watch her for a moment unnoticed. At some point since he’d seen her early this morning, she’d gone home and changed out of her workout clothes. Now she wore jeans, a fitted tee the same color as her gorgeous turquoise eyes, a denim jacket, and high-heeled brown boots that made him wonder what she’d look like in just those and some flimsy bits of lingerie.

Down, boy.
He didn’t have the right to fantasize about her.

Her hair was longer now than it had been in the spring. Her long braid was pulled over her shoulder so that the bottom of it curled around her full breast. He’d never thought he could be jealous of hair. It was more of a golden honey red color now than it had been then, too.

Those were the surface changes he could see. He wondered how many more there were that he couldn’t see. Had she fully recovered from the horrific events in the spring? Was she dating anyone now?

Any guy would be lucky to have her and as the green flare of jealousy shot through him, he had to remind himself that he’d purposefully given up any claim to her. He had no rights there. Shaking himself from this fateful reverie, he approached her.

“Hi, Toni. Thanks for coming in,” he said, noting the exhaustion on her face that he hadn’t been able to see from a distance. “How’s Nathan feeling this morning?”

“Awake and aware and trying really hard to put on a brave front, but he’s hurt and scared. You’re going to be able to nail these guys, right, Brian?”

“I certainly plan to. You identifying them should help with that.”

She nodded, and squared her shoulders. “Okay, so how does this work?”

“First I need to get your sworn statement.” Opening a door, he led her to an interview room and introduced her to his new partner, Eddie Walters, who’d finished chatting with Mark.

Only because he knew her so well did he realize how nervous she was about all this. She held it together as he and his partner talked her through her account of what happened.

Normally, Brian worked alone, but after the trauma that occurred five months before and his subsequent recovery, Eddie had been assigned to partner with him. He would resent being stuck with a pseudo-babysitter if Eddie wasn’t such a nice guy and a good detective with lots of experience.

Eddie’s natural flirty nature put Toni at ease. She needed that. Lord knew there wasn’t anything between the two of them that could help her relax like that. It also helped that Eddie was married with three kids, so Brian knew the flirtation was innocent. Why was that such a relief to him?

After they finished taking her statement, he led her down the hall to the room where she could view the line-ups behind the one-way glass. They were into the third line-up, this one featuring a sneering James Marshall, when a uniform came into the room to tell Eddie their captain needed to speak to him immediately. They exchanged confused gazes, but Eddie just shrugged as he left the room.

Like every other line-up before this one, Toni showed no doubt or hesitation when she identified James Marshall. So far, she was three for three. Since the final assailant was one of the
twins, Brian had no doubt that she’d sweep with the ID’s. These boys were toast when it came to the pile of evidence against them.