The Chase (9 page)

No sense crushing her before they were able to do this again.

“Mission complete.” She snuggled into his side and he flopped his arm over her.

“Off the charts. I knew it. In fact, I might chain you to this bed.” He caught his breath and rolled to face her. “What do you think? Wanna try it?”

“Only if you’re chained too.”

He shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”

“Kinky.”

“Uh,
fun.
”

She laughed at him, sat up and smacked his leg. “Let’s eat. I’m hungry.”

But she straddled him and leaned forward so that amazing rack pressed against his chest. “Your body makes me nuts. I’m sending that surgeon a bottle of scotch. The guy’s a genius.”

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate the endorsement.” She kissed the center of his chest, then rested her cheek there. “Thank you for scaring off my demons.”

Careful here, buddy
. Slippery slope. He could tell her he’d chase away her demons on a daily basis, but knowing her independence, her strength, she’d despise that. He tickled his hand over her spine, massaging as he went. “You chased your own demons. I helped.”

“Yeah, but you were the one I wanted help from.”

He smiled and sat up, holding her in place so she didn’t go anywhere and then kissed her. Hard. Like the first time.

“Anytime, babe. Anytime. Now feed me so I can have at you again.”

“Oh, my. Ecstasy round two.”

She leapt off the bed, walked to her closet and grabbed a red silk robe. The lady liked red. She came back to the bed, grabbed his jaw and dropped a kiss on him. “I’ll meet you in the kitchen. Take your time.”

Jo left the bedroom and Gabe flopped back on the bed. He could sleep for a month. Right here. Apparently he needed a new mattress, because this king-sized deal Jo had was freaking fantastic.

He glanced toward the two side-by-side windows. Through the crack in the heavy black drapes, the Manhattan skyline winked at him.

“I gotta get up,” he muttered.

His aching body needed rest. And food. And Jo again.

He levered himself up and glanced around the room. Not surprising, it screamed of Jo. She’d managed to fit a white loveseat in the corner of a roughly fourteen by fourteen room. Red pillows added a blast of color to the stark white. The walls were a subtle white, maybe a little pink thrown in. He wasn’t sure, but it was oddly perfect. He stood and straightened the funky black and white comforter and his gaze zoomed in on the triangular pattern. Eventually, the lines blurred and he blinked.

He retrieved his underwear from the floor and slipped them on. The jeans came next. His shirt was somewhere. He rolled to the other side of the bed and found it on the floor.

Insanity. All of it. The sex. Sex with Jo.

What were they doing? He shook his head. Getting busy with each other might embarrass them both. Worse, it might screw them up on the job. He couldn’t be worried about her all the time. Nor could he be arguing with her about laying low. Not with what he did for a living. When hitting a building, he needed to concentrate on the bad guys.

He shoved his arms into his shirt and pulled it on.

Too late now
. Whatever this was, they were in it. Together.

Chapter Seven

Gabe twisted the shower knob and grabbed a towel off Jo’s fancy rack inside the oversized stall. This shower would suit him well. He didn’t have the room in his midget bathroom, but the multiple body sprays would do wonders when his overworked body ached.

It wouldn’t hurt to have Jo join him in there either.

He’d let her sleep though. 5:00 a.m. came early for some. Plus, time was running short and Gabe wanted to be outside the front door before Ramirez showed up for his security detail.

Soon enough, the team would figure out Gabe was getting busy with Jo, but he was in no rush for that.

Containment. That’s what they needed. At least until he figured out where this thing was heading. For a guy who lived a relatively simple life, things had suddenly gotten a whole lot more complicated.

He didn’t need complicated. He had enough of that on the job. He tossed the towel over his head and rubbed. His short hair only took a few minutes to dry. If he timed it right, Ramirez would see him in the hallway wearing the same uniform from yesterday. What Ramirez wouldn’t know is that Gabe had showered and put on the fresh uniform he kept in his car for emergencies.

For insurance, he balled up his pants and shirt to wrinkle them before dressing.

Not wanting to disturb Jo, he slapped the bathroom light off before opening the door. Should he leave, or nudge her and let her know? Damn, he hated to wake her after he’d kept her up half the night.

Then again, he’d look like a jackwagon if he left. If that didn’t send a hey-babe-thanks-for- the-stupendous-lay-but-I’m-outta-here message, he didn’t know what did.

Say goodbye
.

He slipped into the pitch-black bedroom, feeling his way around the bed to where she lay and set his hand on her back. Her soft snoring put a smile on his face. He’d break her chops fierce about that. “Hey,” he whispered.

Nothing.

Gently, he ran his hand up her back to her cheek and rubbed.

“Hmmmm.”

That moan got the brain in his crotch thinking back on the previous hours of the two of them inventing new sexual positions. His morning erection suddenly did an encore.
Oh, hell
. Now he’d have to face Ramirez with a boner. Not to mention, time was ticking. He checked the bedside clock. Five-eighteen.

He tickled Jo’s cheek with one finger. “Honey, I’m leaving. See you later. Ramirez will be outside.”

Another moan. He rolled his eyes. Total freaking killer of a decision. He could easily climb back into bed, coax her into getting rid of the boner and head off to work with time to spare.

Except Ramirez would be standing outside.

Jo reached up, her hand hit his thigh and worked its way—
whoa, there babe
—to the waistband of his pants.

“Come back to bed.”

“Can’t. Ramirez will be here soon.”

“Gabe, I’m naked and my sense of touch is one hundred percent accurate. You should come back to bed.”

Her voice held the gravel of sleep. Morning phone sex with her would be wicked fun. Forget the phone, he’d take the sex.

He slid his hand down her sheet-covered body, over the curve of her hip. It would be so easy to give in. “If I get back in bed, I won’t get out.”

“What’s your point?” She wrapped her hand around the back of his leg and urged him forward. “Come on, Sergeant, live a little.”

Another glance at the clock. How fast could they make this happen?

With the current state of his body, pretty damned fast.

He looked toward the hallway and the silence in the room expanded. If he walked out of this apartment and found Ramirez standing there, forget it, he’d never hear the end of it. The guys would ride him endlessly.

She nudged his leg again. “I don’t care about Ramirez.”

“Yeah, you say that now.” The clock blinked. Five-twenty. He bent low and kissed her cheek. “I’d love a replay, but I don’t want my team talking shit. I’ll be back tonight. How’s that?”

“And you’ll bring your erection?”

He cracked a smile. This woman. Total trip. “Usually it comes with the rest of me.”

“Okay then. You can leave.”

But she pulled him back and kissed his neck, then his jaw. “I have morning breath. Don’t want to scare you off.”

“After last night? Nothing is scaring me off. Pretty damned incredible, lady.”

“I know. Now leave before I make you stay.”

He glanced at the door, then back to Jo. The neon numbers on the clock blinked again. Completely unfair. He marched to the living room, shoved his feet into his boots and did a piss-poor tie job. He’d fix ‘em later.

He opened the front door.
Crap
. Ramirez. Wearing his tactical uniform and a mile-wide grin. Gabe’s stomach lurched. “You’re early.”

“Five-thirty, dude.”

Gabe checked his phone. Yep. Apparently Jo’s clock was slow. Maybe she could have mentioned it? Not a break to be had this morning.

He jerked his thumb to the door. “She’s asleep.”

The shit-eating grin expanded. “I’ll bet she is.”

The ragging begins.
He’d have to shut this down quick. Ramirez was about to find himself on the receiving end of the U-boss death glare. “I hear that from you again and you get an ass-kicking. I hear it from anyone else, I’ll figure it came from you and you get an ass-kicking. Either way, you get an ass-kicking.” Gabe folded his arms. “You can choose to do the right thing here, Ramirez. Outside of that, I’m still your superior. I got no problem finding you grunt work. Are we clear?”

The grin disappeared. Not a shock. Ramirez was no genius, but he understood chain of command. With Gabe on the track to lieutenant, this was not a difficult decision to land on the right side of.

Ramirez cleared his throat. “Understood.”

“Good. Get Ms. Pomeroy to work and report in.” Gabe turned to leave, but shifted back. “And thank you. For volunteering your downtime. She appreciates it. You keeping your trap shut about what you saw here,
I
appreciate.”

“No problem. I like Jo. She got a bum deal.”

“Yeah, she did. We’re gonna fix it for her.”

—:—

At precisely 3:00 p.m., Jo followed Bev into the small conference room next to the mayor’s office. This conference room held a gleaming mahogany table with deep-cushioned leather swivel chairs. The room even had mahogany chair rails as accents. All in all, it screamed power and money and good taste.

Already in the room was Lieutenant Tom Ross, otherwise known as Gabe’s boss. Tom was the fourth member of the Clean Sweep Task Force and Jo, although having worked mostly with Gabe over the months, found him to be just as diligent in the success of the project.

Tom stood when they entered. “Bev, Jo, good to see you.”

The normal greetings and small talk were exchanged as they took their seats. All meetings had a set system by which they ran. The process included them all sitting in the same positions meeting after meeting.

It never bothered Jo. It was a rank and file thing. The mayor would take the leadership chair at the head of the table. Bev and Tom, being the next highest in rank would sit next to the mayor and then Jo and Gabe. Jo appreciated the almost ceremonious feel. She always knew what to expect.

And staring at Mr. August never hurt.

“Good afternoon, sir,” someone said from the outer hallway. A second later, Mayor Allan Graff entered the room, his stride efficient and determined. He was not only the most powerful mayor in the country, he was the shortest. At five foot seven, Jo stood three inches taller than him and always kept a pair of low-heeled shoes in her office for impromptu meetings such as this.

Call her paranoid, but towering over the mayor didn’t seem like a smart move for a woman who’d worked so hard to be welcomed into his world.

They all stood and a variety of “Hello, sirs” followed.

In typical fashion, Jo’s pulse kicked up. For two years she’d badgered the mayor’s aids to get face time with him, and her efforts had paid off in a spectacular way. Today it was a task force, but by the time she was done, she wanted that nationwide initiative. The man in front of her had the influence and contacts to make it happen.

Height challenge aside, he carried his authority in a way that instilled a sense of don’t-mess-with-me in those around him. Maybe it was the prematurely gray hair or his uncanny ability to slice through reporters like a guillotine, but he demanded and received respect.

He glanced at Gabe’s empty chair. “We’re missing Sergeant Townsend.”

In other words, how dare he.

“Yes, sir,” Tom said. “He got called out earlier and needed a quick shower. He should be here in a few.”

“A shower?”

Tom flicked a glance at Bev and Jo. “Yes, sir. Pedestrian meets subway train. They had to peel the body off the bottom of the train.”

The mayor pulled an “ick” face.

Maybe Jo did too. How did Gabe do his job day after day? The
cha-chunk
of the door handle sounded and Gabe strode into the room in a fresh uniform, his short hair still damp.

“My apologies, sir. Got…uh…caught up.”

He glanced at Jo and gave her a succinct nod as he came around the table. Business as usual. Not that she expected him to give her a “Hi, honey,” but—
jeepers
—something containing a wee bit of warmth wouldn’t kill Mr. August.

Then again, he’d just unglued a corpse from the bottom of a subway train.

The mayor shook his head. “Not a problem, Sergeant. Rough one?”

After taking his seat, Gabe flipped his notepad to a clean page and gave his pen a click. “Helluva mess, sir. All cleaned up, but the trains are behind.”

“It’ll screw up rush hour.”