Hearts of Blue

  Now I wasn’t sure I had it in me to resist him, but really, it was all my fault. I never should have started texting him so regularly. It had allowed me to get to know him, but, more importantly, it had allowed him to get under my skin.

  Seeing him in the club last night after interacting with him remotely for so long had felt drugging; I’d been completely under his spell.

  Anyhow, at least I had the day off and could take some time getting my head around everything. Alexis and I went grocery shopping, and then we caught a movie and got gelato on the way home. If my best friend hadn’t been so wrapped up in her own problems, I was sure she would have noticed there was something wrong with me. I’d deliberately left my phone off all day, telling myself it was because I wanted to go unplugged for a while. The truth was, I was afraid of Lee calling, and even more afraid of the fact that I wouldn’t be able to resist answering.

  Remembering the man standing beside his car the night before, I knew I had to stop this before I got in too deep. He had enemies, and if any of them discovered Lee was conducting a relationship with a cop, it wouldn’t end pretty for either one of us.

  Several days passed and I was back to work, finding a strange sort of relief in keeping busy. Tony and I were sent on call after call, from burglaries to street muggings to road accidents. We’d just pulled up outside a high-end clothing boutique, where a young woman was being held after a shop assistant caught her trying to steal some lingerie.

  “You want to take this one?” Tony asked, shifting uncomfortably in the passenger seat.

  “Hey, I took the lead on the last call, and I need a break. You should go in. Fair’s fair.

  He frowned. “Fine. I’ll be back in a few.”

  Getting out, he slammed the car door, disgruntled, and made his way inside the boutique. Picturing him having to question the woman on the nature of the items she’d stolen made me grin, and I realised it had been my first proper smile in days. My phone chimed in my pocket and I pulled it out, finding a message from Alexis asking if I could grab milk on my way home.

  I’d received a number of calls and messages from Lee, but nothing in the last two days. After I’d consistently ignored him, perhaps he’d given up. A guy like Lee didn’t need to pine after any woman; I was sure there were harems just waiting for a chance to keep his bed warm. All of a sudden, my grin faltered and I found myself frowning. I rubbed my thumb across the screen, scrolling through the texts he’d sent and feeling forlorn. I wanted him, but this was for the best. As I’d said, nothing good could come of us being together.

  It was just as I was sliding the phone back in my pocket that I heard the car door open and Tony climbed inside.

  “That was quick,” I said, lifting my head. When I saw who’d entered the car, all thought fled my mind. It wasn’t Tony. It was Lee. How the hell had he found me here?

  I swallowed thickly, a bunch of gobbledygook coming out of my mouth, “You…ah…what the…huh?”

  Lee didn’t smile at my fluster, but instead he stared forward, his lips set in a firm line as he slammed the door closed. He didn’t say a word as I gaped at him, and when the silence became too much, I finally managed to ask, “What are you doing here?”

  His eyes slid to the side. “You’ve been ignoring my calls, so I had to get creative.”

  “Uh-huh, and how did you know where I was? Just happened to be in the neighbourhood, did you?”

  One eyebrow rose sardonically. “Nah, I had to bust out the old police scanner.”

  I sputtered a laugh but went silent when he shot me a serious look. “You’re not joking.”

  “Nope.”

  I sat up straighter. “Well, be that as it may, you need to go. Tony will be back any minute, and if he sees you here, it won’t take him long to put two and two together.”

  Lee bristled, working his jaw. “Do I look like I give a fuck?”

  His question angered me as I twisted in my seat to glare at him. “Well you should give a fuck! If you have any feelings for me at all, you’d care whether or not I lost my job.”

  His expression softened, and he seemed remorseful for his flippancy. “It’s not like they can fire you for having a sex life, Karla.”

  “Maybe not. But my superior has it in for me, and if she ever caught wind that I was seeing someone with a record, she’d use it against me. Not to mention she’d probably start looking into you and your business,” I said, pausing to eye him meaningfully. “Is that what you want? Do you want police sniffing around your garage, Lee?”

  “They could sniff all they wanted. They wouldn’t find anything.”

  “Right, because it’s all above board.”

  His expression sharpened. “Not what I said, Snap.”

  A leaden silence fell between us. I wanted to tell him to leave, that he was committing an offence by the simple act of coming inside a police vehicle without permission. At the same time I didn’t want him to go. I’d missed him. And every night my dreams had been full of his voice and heated looks, how it felt to finally be with him.

  “Why does your boss have it in for you?” he asked, breaking the quiet.

  I turned my head to see he wore a fierce look, and for some reason it made me thaw slightly. Letting out a slow breath, I answered, “She and my dad have had some feud going on since like, forever. So, even though I was barely out of nappies when it happened, she hates me just as much as she hates him.”

  Lee’s brows drew together. “What did he do to her?”

  “Beats me. Everyone says they had an argument and he’d called her some pretty horrible names, but that’s hardly the sort of thing you carry around for decades.”

  “I dunno, your old man’s quite the fucker. He’s pretty much universally hated by everyone I know. And to be honest, with the amount of big players he’s put away, I’m surprised he’s still breathing after all these years.” He paused and slid his eyes to mine, picking up a pen that had been resting on the dash and flicking it between his fingers. “Though as they say, the devil can wait for his own.”

  I stared at him, conflicting emotions warring within me. At once I wanted to agree, because he was sort of right about Dad. But then again, this was my own father we were talking about, the only one I was ever going to have, and the insinuation that he was going to hell pissed me off. Any of the warmth I might have felt toward Lee vanished as I told him sternly, “You need to leave now. Otherwise, I’ll have no other choice but to arrest you.”

  “Any excuse to slap a pair of cuffs on me, eh? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were something of a fledgling dominatrix,” Lee joked before leaning in close to whisper, “But we both know that’s not true.” A pause. “Fucking beautiful sight to see you give yourself to me like that, Karla.”

  I swallowed thickly and closed my eyes, memories of the nightclub flooding my mind. They were so visceral I could almost feel his fingertips digging into my hips, taste his tongue as it invaded my mouth. Suddenly I was too hot, unable to find enough air. I desperately wanted to undo some buttons on my shirt, but I wouldn’t give Lee the satisfaction of knowing he was getting to me.

  “I can’t do this. It needs to end before it begins.”

  Moving closer, he closed his hand over my knee, his voice deadly serious. “This started a long time ago.”

  Before I could react, he reached out and grabbed my chin, turning my face to his and laying a quick, butterfly-inducing kiss on my lips. After only a second of hesitation, I pushed him off me.

  “Get out,” I told him, breathless.

  “So this is how it’s gonna be, then?”

  “There isn’t any other way,” I replied.

  Without another word, he opened the car door and slid out. Only a minute later, Tony returned. He opened the door and guided a handcuffed brunette into the back before coming around the front and dropping into the seat Lee had just vacated. I sent him a tight-lipped smile, noticing he seemed a little perplexed.

  “Everything okay?” I ask
ed, nervous tension coiling inside me. Had he seen Lee?

  “I just don’t get it.”

  “Don’t get what?”

  “Why someone would risk being arrested for the sake of a piece of string to stick between their arse cheeks.”

  The woman in the back seat scowled furiously while I burst into laughter, a small part in relief that he hadn’t spotted Lee.

  “People are bonkers.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  ***

  The next few days on the job were fairly quiet, and Tony and I were practically chomping at the bit for some action. It wasn’t like I wanted anything dangerous to happen, but when your day consisted of dealing with minor incidents and paperwork, you needed something to break up the monotony.

  I was about to get my wish.

  We were sitting in the patrol car, having a quick coffee break, when a call came in about a Gran Coupe that had just been reported stolen. Apparently, it was headed in our direction, and when the vehicle went sailing by seconds later, I immediately hit the sirens and started the engine.

  As soon as the assailant saw us following he increased his speed. I’d been driving since I was seventeen, and, not to brag, but learning how to drive in London gains you a lot more skill than learning to drive in other places. I could park in the smallest space known to man, but more importantly, I could manoeuvre my way through narrow streets and cobbled alleyways at high speed like nobody’s business.

  “I think we need some music,” said Tony as I yanked on the gear stick a little too hard.

  “Don’t even think about it,” I told him, unable to stop the smile from spreading across my face.

  He smiled right back. “But it’s tradition. You can’t break with tradition.”

  “Fine, put it on and shut up. I’m trying to drive here.”

  Tony tapped a few buttons on his iPod, and seconds later the opening chords to “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC came blasting through the speakers. Don’t laugh. The very first time we were in a high-speed chase, this song had come on the radio, and it had been so appropriately badass that we’d made a tradition out of putting it on when chasing down a stolen vehicle ever since.

  It also had a strange way of helping me concentrate, kind of like how surgeons listened to “Stayin’ Alive” during operations. I pressed harder on the gas pedal.

  Whoever was behind the wheel of the BMW had some mad skills, though, and even I had a hard time keeping up when they made a sharp left turn. If the music wasn’t so loud, I was sure I’d hear tires squealing. I almost lost control of the wheel, but Tony launched himself forward in time to grab it. Before long we were on the motorway, and I swore loudly, because it was going to be harder to catch him now. Or her.

  The assailant dipped dangerously in and out between vehicles, causing several drivers to swerve, almost leading to an accident. It was moments like these that I wondered if we should continue chasing him, because if he kept up the dangerous driving, people were going to get seriously injured, or worse, killed.

  Tony was on the radio, reporting our location and proximity to the stolen car, while I tried my best to get closer. I saw the vehicles up ahead start to slow, traffic building up. The BMW pulled left to drive in the empty bus lane, and I followed suit. Unfortunately for him, about half a mile ahead there were a number of buses using the lane, and what with the traffic on the other side, he had nowhere else to go.

  I had to brake suddenly when the BMW screeched to a halt and the driver’s-side door flew open. A man exited, and Tony was already out of the patrol car, running after him as I spoke into my radio.

  “The perp is now on foot. Male, about 5 feet, 9 inches, wearing jeans and a black hoodie, white trainers. PC Pollard is in pursuit.”

  Slamming the door closed behind me, I went after Tony. Thirty or forty yards ahead of me, he chased down the thief, who had jumped over the metal railings separating the road from the area beyond. I was out of breath as I ran, my legs pumping to catch up with them. Tony closed in on him, kicking his foot out to trip him up, and the guy went flying face first into the grass. As I reached them, I heard him swear and try to get back up, but Tony grabbed his arm to stop him as he ordered, “Hands above your head, now!”

  The thief began raising his hands as Tony quickly pulled out his cuffs, locking his wrists together and lowering them behind his back. Next he instructed him to turn around, and that was when I came face to face with Liam Cross.

  Ten

  Liam was just twenty years old. I found this out when I accessed his file back at the station so I could fill in my incident report. He was looking at a court date within the next few weeks, and most likely prison time. The scary thing was, I didn’t know how to feel about that. Stealing cars was like a job to him, and, growing up in his family, he saw it as a means to an end. Steal so you can put food on the table, or don’t, and go hungry.

  Lee and his brothers weren’t little kids anymore; they could get out of this racket and make an honest living for themselves if they really wanted to. The problem was, I had no idea how deep in they were, who they had ties to, and if those people would ever let them get out.

  I was still sitting at my desk, filling out the report, when Lee strode confidently into the station, all tousled hair and cocky swagger. He wore jeans and a white T-shirt with oil stains down the front, a work shirt tied around his waist. Clearly, he’d just come from the garage. Probably been working on a ringer, I thought to myself disgruntledly.

  After that first glance, I refused to look at him again, staring intently at the papers in front of me and listening just as intently to his voice as he spoke. It quickly became apparent that he was there to post bail for Liam. The constable he spoke to scurried off, and Lee stood by the reception. I allowed myself one more glance at him and found him leaning back against the wall, his eyes scanning the space before they found me. I looked away again.

  Jumping when my phone buzzed in my pocket, I dropped my pen and pulled it out.

  Lee: You arrested my brother?

  Oh, he had some nerve. I shouldn’t have responded, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.

  Karla: I didn’t arrest him. Tony did.

  Lee: But you were there.

  A second went by, and my anger flared. He was acting like I should have, what? Convinced Tony to let Liam go with a gypsy’s warning and a slap on the wrist?

  Lee: Not gonna come over and say hello?

  Okay, that did it. Without thinking, I pushed up from my chair and strode across the room. I’d inherited my temper from my dad, and sometimes I just didn’t have the strength to hold it back. Lee smirked when he saw me coming, but there was a hardness behind it. I cursed myself for giving him a reaction. I should have just continued ignoring him.

  Checking to make sure nobody was watching, I grabbed his hand, yanking him around the corner and into an empty corridor.

  “You’ve got some cheek,” I hissed.

  Lee held his arms out as he asked sardonically, “What? No hug? No kiss?”

  I slapped down one of his arms. “Quit being a smart-arse. Your little brother could go to prison. He could do a seven-year stretch, and he’s just a kid.” My throat constricted with worry. I didn’t even know Liam, but he looked so much like a younger version of Lee. Maybe that was why the idea of him doing time stressed me out so much.

  Lee’s eyes flickered between mine, his mouth firm as he studied me. It obviously surprised him to realise that I actually cared about what happened to his family. He took a step forward so that there was barely an inch between us.

  “You think I don’t know that?” he gritted out, voice low.

  “I had no idea it was him in that car. I was doing my job. So don’t you dare try to lay the blame on me.”

  Lee scowled. “When did I ever lay blame?”

  “Your text.”

  “I asked you a question. I never blamed you. Liam’s actions are his own, but I practically raised that kid. I’m allowed to be angry.”
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  “I never said you weren’t, but it’s your own fault for leading him down this path in the first place, so don’t go directing your anger at me. It could have been any number of officers chasing him. He still would have been caught.”

  Lee shook his head and turned away for a second. His shoulders rose and fell sharply, like he was trying to gain some composure. Finally, he swiped a hand down his face and turned back to me, one eyebrow arched, “Were you behind the wheel?”

  I bristled. “I don’t see how that has anything to do with it.”

  “Liam’s driving is second to none. No ordinary cop would have caught him.” He paused, some sort of interest lighting his eyes. “You must have some skills, Snap, chasing down a Gran Coupe in a Vauxhall Corsa.” He actually seemed impressed.

  “Yeah, maybe I should pack it all in and come work for you, huh?” I deadpanned, cynicism lacing my every word.

  We locked eyes for a long moment, a silent battle of wills. He didn’t like me insinuating he was a thief. Few people enjoyed the sight of their true reflection.

  “Be real careful about what you say next, Karla,” he warned me.

  “Or what? Will you have some thugs come and rough me up? That’s generally how it works with people like you, right?”

  He neared me again, and my back hit the wall. His voice was low and measured when he spoke. “You have no clue what you’re talking about. And, just so we’re clear, I would never hurt you, never. If any man tried to lay his hands on you, I’d make sure that was the last thing he did.”

  I stared at him, not sure how to feel. I’d been all geared up for a fight, and then he went and said something that was so protective, but equally so wrong. It took me a long time to reply, and when I did, my tone was a good deal softer.

  “I know what I’m talking about.”

  “No, you don’t,” he said, snapping his fingers over the material of my shirt. “When you put this uniform on every morning, you see a woman working to make the streets a safer place. To you, the law works to keep good people from hurting bad people, but ever since I was a kid, I knew that wasn’t true. The police were just a bunch of pricks in black and white threads and a stupid fucking hat, trying to stop me from feeding my family.”