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I ain t snitchin . They bust my ass if they find out I fingered one of em!
Laura lunged toward the open car, but Caleb snaked an arm around her and pulled her
back, trying to ignore the tight, smooth expanse of skin his hand met when her green t-
shirt lifted above her hip.
I ll bust your ass, you son of
Okay, look. We re taking both of you to the hospital first and then to the police station,
and you re going to take a look at some pictures, Caleb informed him.
I m fine. Jackass here just grazed me, Laura insisted, but he heard her breath coming in
fast gasps and knew she must be in pain.
Well, then it shouldn t take too long, should it? Let s go. He opened the door on her
side and waited.
Laura scowled at him but didn t argue further, which told him just how painful the wound
really was.
****
He was out of his goddamned mind. Really, Caleb thought, it was the dumbest thing he
could possibly do. But watching Laura going over the pictures with their trigger-happy
friend, seventeen-year-old Matt, the idea of her going back to that apartment alone sent
an ice cold flash of panic through him.
Damn her. Damn her to hell for making him care again. He clenched his fists tight under
the table while he sat on the other side of her assailant. What was he even thinking?
Inviting her to stay at his apartment was just asking for trouble, just asking for her to
walk on in, grab his heart and squeeze the lifeblood out of it with her bare hands like she
had the first time.
He couldn t go through that again, Caleb told himself. Only an idiot would open himself
up to that kind of horrific pain a second time.
****
Caleb took the stairs to Laura's small apartment two at a time. Nervous energy was
pumping through him. A place of their own! They still had to iron out the details, but the
guy he'd spoken with had said he could set them up with a small place just a few blocks
from where Caleb and Laura would be training at the police academy this September. A
trade off on the McKinney name, he knew; but hell, if there was ever a time to play the
'Do you know who my father is?' card, getting a deal on a house was sure as hell it. The
place was tiny, but heck, he and Laura were pretty small people. They didn t need much.
Caleb had told his father that he wanted to introduce him to someone special. His father
had seemed pleased and curious. The permanent grin on Caleb's mother's face
Had certainly added to that. The woman's ear-splitting shriek at the news of her eldest
son's engagement still rang in his ears weeks later. He knew his father was going to love
Laura. She was beautiful, ballsy, and she was going to make a hell of a cop. Heck, he
thought with a laugh, she was more like his dad than Caleb was himself.
Though they'd probably have to duct tape Mike's mouth shut.
Caleb wanted to wait until dinner tonight so that he and Laura, together, could tell his
dad that they planned to marry.
He banged vigorously on the door and almost fell into the room when it swung open on
its own. It took him a disoriented second to understand what he was looking at. Or not
looking at would be more appropriate. The closet across the living room was open and
empty. The photo Laura kept of the two of them on her TV set was gone. The couch and
bed were still there, kitchen was still stocked, but he felt a sickening clench in his
stomach when he noticed little things that were gone. Clothes, shoes, makeup,
toothbrush...though his extra one was still there. The jewelry box on the nightstand was
gone too.
That's when he saw it.
A folded piece of paper with his name on it propped up by the digital alarm clock by the
bed.
I'm sorry.
That was all.
His vision blurred, and he shook his head to clear it. Sorry about what, Caleb wanted to
ask, but he couldn t make his voice work. Where was she? Where was Laura...and why
was all her stuff gone? She didn't just...leave? Laura. Her name came out like a plea in
the empty room.
Caleb's eyes fell again on the bed, and he saw them just last night entwined, arching
against and with each other, her soft voice whispering I love you in his ear as she slid,
hot and wet, beneath him and her nails dig into his back. Then Caleb fell to his knees and
lifted up the blankets to look under the bed where she kept all her drawings. She wouldn't
leave without them.
They were gone.
Caleb didn t make it to the bathroom. He threw up on the carpet, next to the bed.
****
The man Chadwick identified was a Hugo Medeiros, a Portuguese crook who had ties to
the Bambetti crime family. His rap sheet was long, but they couldn t find anything to link
him to the child trafficking.
It took him a few minutes to realize Laura was talking to him. What? Caleb asked.
I said, so could it really be the mob then? Laura repeated after the kid had been taken
away.
He scowled, his thoughts still wrapped up in the decision he knew he had to make. How
could you let Chadwick get the jump on you like that?
Laura stared at him. Come again?
You re a cop. Alert at all times. We re never off duty. What the hell were you thinking
just walking into your building without checking it out first? You keep telling me what a
good cop you are, and then you pull an amateur move like that.
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