Officer in Pursuit (36 page)

It hadn’t escaped him that he and
Kerry would probably be dead, if Henry hadn’t been
there.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“You kidding? You saved our lives.” He
knew Henry had done what he’d had to, that he’d shot Bradley Sawyer
not just for Grey and Kerry’s sake, but because he’d had to do it
to save his own life, as well. But the bottom line was that Henry
had killed for him and he didn’t know where to even begin
expressing his gratitude.

“We’re even,” Henry said. “I owed you
– everything, you know that.”

Grey finally stopped rehashing the
night’s events inside his head, paused long enough to remember the
time that summer when he’d found Henry on the verge of eating his
Glock.

“You scared the shit out of me,” he
said, pushing the recollection away, trying to reconcile it with
the image of Henry standing in the doorway now.

“I thought I’d lost everything. Lost
Sasha. I couldn’t stand – shit, it doesn’t matter. I almost threw
everything away on one stupid decision, one low moment. You stopped
me. And I wouldn’t let that happen to you – wouldn’t let you lose
her.” He tipped his head toward the bed where Kerry lay
resting.

Grey nodded. He knew Henry regretted
what he’d almost done, knew he wouldn’t do now what he’d tried to
do then. But everyone had a breaking point. Everyone.

Henry’s had been seeing Sasha laid out
on the ground, dead – or so he’d thought, at the time.

Grey didn’t know what his was, didn’t
want to know. But the thought of Bradley Sawyer brutalizing Kerry,
snuffing out her life – the life he’d made so miserable for so many
years – was more than he could bear. He didn’t know what he
would’ve done if he and Henry had been too late to save her, didn’t
want to think about it.

Because he loved her, and love hurt a
hell of a lot, when it came to situations like this.

CHAPTER 27

Waking up in the hospital felt
surreal. Everything seemed to feel like that, lately: either too
bad or too good to be true.

“Don’t get too excited,” Grey said,
rising from the chair against the wall, “but it’s 7:30, which means
you’re up in time for breakfast. I bet they’ll let you order some
of their signature hospital Jell-O.”

Kerry sat straight up, pushed the
sheets out of her way and swung her legs over the side of the
bed.

Or at least, she tried. It was hard to
make her legs do anything when her back didn’t want to cooperate.
Just sitting up had stolen her breath.

“What are you doing here?” she
demanded. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and the left half of
his face was plastered with bandages. “Shouldn’t you be in bed in
your own room?”

“Staying in the hospital overnight,
just because of a few stitches? No thanks.” He grabbed one of her
hands and squeezed. “I have a reputation as a badass to maintain,
remember?”

“Just stitches? You said last night
that your face was broken! And I saw you get knocked out
cold.”

“It’s a tiny fracture. I’m all right,
and I wanted to spend the night here with you. What about you – how
do you feel?”

He was squeezing her hand so hard her
fingers ached, but she didn’t say anything about it.

“My back and my ribs are killing me,
but it doesn’t matter. It could’ve been so much worse.” Finally,
she had the chance to say what she hadn’t the night before. “Thank
you.”

“Couldn’t have done it without Henry.
He saved our asses. And who the hell else carries a flashlight and
a gun in their pocket?” He paused for a moment, and a devious smile
curled one side of his mouth. “I bet he has handcuffs in there too.
It’s probably some kinky habit Sasha talked him into.”

She twisted her hand around inside of
his and squeezed right back. “Stop joking around for once, Grey.
I’m trying to thank you for saving my life.”

She finally locked him in eye contact,
and something deep inside him snapped, freeing a pent-up reserve of
relief and crushing happiness. Happiness because she was alive and
here and the only person in the world who’d ever wanted to hurt her
was gone. That fact wasn’t just a weight off Kerry’s shoulders – it
was a weight off Grey’s, too.

“I wasn’t joking,” he said, “not even
about the handcuffs. I played my part and I’d do it a thousand
times over. But so did Henry, and so did you. If you hadn’t wrecked
that truck, God only knows where you’d be now.”

The look in her eyes said that she did
know, and that she wouldn’t be here – not with him, and not at
all.

“Sasha helped too,” Grey said. “She
called the police as soon as we realized you were missing. She got
in touch with Jeremy and he came as fast as he could. There were a
lot of people involved in what happened last night – a lot of
people who care about you. You’re not alone, Kerry.”

He thought her eyes looked wet, but
she looked away, toward the window, before he could be sure. “I
know that, and it means a lot.” Her voice was soft. “What you did
for me, and what they did. I’ll thank them later – especially Henry
– but for now, I’m thanking you.”

She laid a hand on his shoulder and
exerted a surprising amount of force for a 112 pound woman with
several broken ribs, pulling him down to her level.

She kissed him much harder than he’d
been expecting, pressing her lips full-on against his, even teasing
him with a hint of tongue. The kiss lasted for a solid 10 seconds
and gave him what was perhaps the most inappropriate boner of his
life. When it ended, he hurried to adjust his jeans in case a nurse
or doctor walked in.

“Did you sleep at all?” she
asked.

“I drifted off for an hour or
two.”

“That’s awful – you need to get home
and rest. I can’t believe the doctors and nurses let you hang
around in here instead of staying in a bed of your own.”

“They couldn’t argue with me – I was
Superman. I didn’t change into these clothes until a few hours
ago.”

She gave him a reproving look, like
she thought he might actually go lie down for a nap if she kept it
up long enough.

“Do you remember what Jeremy told us
last night about Brad?” he asked, aching to reassure her that she
wouldn’t ever wind up in the hospital like this again because of
her ex-husband.

She nodded, but a dent appeared in her
lower lip. “Yes. I know he’s gone.”

“You don’t have to worry about him
anymore. You’re free.”

“I know. And I’m glad, believe me –
I’m just waiting for it to really sink in. I think it’s going to
take a little while for me to wrap my mind around everything that’s
happened.”

Her words hit him where it hurt. He
couldn’t blame her for her residual fear, and he didn’t know how to
wash it away for her.

“They were the most terrifying moments
of my life,” she said. “When he fired through the windshield at you
and Henry. When he tried to run you over, and then when he hit you
with the gun and tried again to shoot Henry… I was so afraid that
you were going to die because of me.”

“Not because of you, for you – there’s
a difference. But it doesn’t matter anyway, because I’m
fine.”

“That’s almost as scary –
thinking that someone would die
for
me. I mean, I know you would, but I wouldn’t want
you to.”

“It’d be better than letting anything
happen to you. A hell of a lot better.”

“I know you feel that way, and that’s
the thing: sometimes, I just can’t believe I have people who care
about me so much. It’s … amazing. Humbling. Not something I thought
I’d ever have.”

“I don’t just care about you. I love
you, Kerry.”

He had to tell her, had to be clear.
Every fiber of his being wanted her to know. At the same time, he
was afraid of what her reaction might be. Afraid that her
ex-husband might’ve soured her on the idea of love. Her abuser had
been the one person who’d sworn to love her more than anything and
Grey knew that. But he needed her to know.

She sat frozen, and her eyes were
definitely wet. She didn’t say anything.

Maybe, like everything else, she just
needed time to let it settle in.

That was okay. He could wait. She was
worth it and for now, he was happy just to have her
here.

* * * * *

Three weeks passed before Kerry worked
up the courage to tell Grey what every part of her was sure of,
what she’d tried to say before but hadn’t been able to get off the
tip of her tongue. As she’d worked up the strength to actually say
it out loud, their bodies had healed. His stitches had come out and
her ribs had knit halfway back together. They didn’t hurt nearly so
much anymore.

So there was no excuse for her to
lower herself into a seat at her kitchen table like a bomb might go
off if she moved at anything faster than the speed of drying paint.
She did just that though, tense and nervous, tentatively happy –
aching to finally tell him.

“Coffee’s good,” he said, draining the
last of his cup and setting his mug down on the table as he leaned
back in his chair, stretching.

It was something he did every morning,
something that had become familiar to her. He was still in the
habit of spending the night with her – sometimes they went to his
place instead of hers – though it was something done purely out of
desire now, not because he needed to protect her.

She was finally free, and this was
what she wanted. This was what she’d chosen. Every time she sat
across the table from him and had a cup of coffee, she felt like
her heart was overflowing. Her old life had taught her not to
expect much, and now, she was still adjusting to this – to having
someone who fulfilled her every secret desire, every hope her
ex-husband had so brutally crushed.

She was adjusting though, and she
couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

“Hey Grey,” she said, setting down her
own half-finished cup of coffee.

He met her eyes across the table.
“Yeah?”

“I love you.” Saying it made her heart
beat faster, like it might explode. At the same time, it felt
right.

She was hot and tingling and hopeful
as she waited for his response.

He flashed her a broad grin, one that
curved the narrow scar on his cheek and reached his
eyes.

The sight of his smile multiplied her
emotions a hundredfold, and suddenly, it was difficult to sit still
in her chair.

“I love you too. You know that,
right?”

She knew. And over the past few weeks,
she’d tried to show him that she loved him too, even if she hadn’t
been ready to admit it out loud.

“Yes. But I was afraid to tell you I
felt the same way, at first. After all, you told me you loved me
just a few hours after you’d sustained a head injury. I had to be
sure it wasn’t something you said on some crazy
impulse.”

She was teasing because she needed
humor to cut through the truth, which was that she’d been afraid to
say it back, even if she’d felt it. Sitting in the hospital, seeing
his face bandaged where it’d been sewn back together, all because
of the only man she’d ever dared to say she loved…

It had made it impossible to speak the
truth. Impossible to speak at all, for a little while.

Now though, everything seemed more
real. More settled. And she was sure: she loved Grey.

She loved him like she’d never loved
anyone, and she was absolutely sure that he was worthy of being
loved. There was no reason to hold back, no reason to let her
shitty past ruin the good thing they had now.

Grey was up out of his chair and
around the table in a heartbeat. His lips were hot and tasted like
coffee when he pressed them against hers, kissing her so deeply
that she forgot there was any such thing as the past or the future.
There was only this single moment with him, and it was
perfect.

EPILOGUE

“Going to your jiu-jitsu classes
doesn’t count as a New Year’s resolution,” Grey said. “You already
do that.” He stood at the foot of his bed in just a pair of jeans,
looking mortally offended by Kerry’s declaration.

She was sitting on the edge of the
bed, also half-dressed in just her bra, panties and a sparkly party
top. They were getting ready for the New Year’s party Sasha and
Henry were throwing at their house.

“I got out of the habit this past
fall, while I was waiting for my ribs to heal. Now that I’m finally
back in good enough shape to handle anything, I want to go twice a
week, every week.”

“Anything, huh?” Grey froze with a
long-sleeved shirt held in one hand.

“Yeah. I feel fine – I can’t even tell
that my ribs were ever fractured. They used to twinge a lot, but
not anymore.” After the first few weeks, she’d dared to try some
gentle yoga. It’d felt good to start getting back into her fitness
routine, and she had a feeling it’d helped with her
recovery.

“So then.” He made no move to put his
shirt on – not that Kerry was complaining. His abs were as chiseled
as ever, and the sexy V of muscle arrowing down beneath the
waistband of his jeans was always a welcome sight. Kerry had gotten
him a new set of adjustable weights for Christmas, to replace his
old broken ones, and he’d been putting them to good use. “Do you
want to hear my New Year’s resolutions?”