She calls me out on it.
“If you want to touch me you can, you know,” she says in a husky tone. “You don’t have to wash me.”
“I like getting you all soapy,” I tell her, which is the truth. We don’t really have time to be messing around like this right now, but it’s 5:00 a.m., and we’re running on practically no sleep, which is our fault and no one else’s, so we need to suck it up today and be on the ball. When we leave this shower, reality is going to hit. Everything about us is going to have to be pushed from our minds, our focus on Elizabeth, so I’m going to enjoy this moment while I can.
“I wasn’t sure how you were going to act this morning,” I admit to her. “I didn’t know if you were going to regret what happened.”
“What? You fucking my brains out last night and giving me four orgasms?” she says, turning her head to me and flashing a cheeky smile. “I don’t regret anything, Ranger. And I’m not going to regret anything else we do together.”
I grin. “Good, because I’m going to want you again. And again.”
“Me too,” she admits, running her fingers down my wet chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Me either,” I say, running my thumb along her plump lower lip. Water from her hair drips down her cheeks, and I wipe it away. “I want this. I want you.”
“You have me,” she breathes, and in this moment I think she knows what I’ve known all along.
That she’s mine.
We finish up in the shower, and then I do a run to my room in a towel to brush my teeth and get dressed.
Time to be badass.
FOURTEEN
“JO,” I say quietly, nodding my head at the man standing in the corner of the room, a black hat on his head.
“I know,” she replies, not looking up. She keeps her eyes on her drink. “How do you want to handle this?”
I look around the bar, taking in the exits and playing out the possible scenarios in my head. “I think you should go to the bathroom, or out the front, and call for backup. If he tries to leave, I’ll stop him.”
“Okay,” she says, waiting a few moments and setting down her untouched Scotch-and-Coke before standing on her tiptoes and kissing me, then casually walking to the ladies’ room. I keep an eye on our suspect without making it obvious, nursing my own drink, pretending I’m here just for that.
We’ve been tracking this man all day. We got an anonymous tip that he was staying in a house just down the road. Now all we have to do is get him before he escapes again. I won’t admit it to her, but I’m concerned Jo will get hurt when we try to bring him in. I mean what if he tries to take her as a hostage or something? Fuck. So this is what the men have to put up with every time something goes down, the fear that comes with caring about someone? I don’t know how they deal with it. How did Sin keep it together when Faye was kidnapped?
A woman in a red dress approaches me, and it honestly can’t be at a worse time. I don’t want to draw any attention to myself right now, and if I reject her, she might do just that. I can’t lose visual of the suspect.
“Hello, handsome,” she purrs, scraping her teeth up her bottom lip. I notice that she has red lipstick on her teeth too. “How about a drink?”
Women don’t even wait for men to offer to buy them a drink nowadays; they just suggest it, apparently.
“I’m actually here with my girl,” I tell her, forcing a smile. “You are very pretty, but I’m going to have to decline.”
I glance back at the corner of the room. He’s still here. Unfortunately for me, so is the woman.
“Where is she, then?” she asks, running her hand down my arm. I stare at it in distaste. I really, really don’t want to be dealing with this right now.
“Right there,” I say, nodding my head toward the bathroom as Jo reappears, heading straight for me. The woman pouts, then walks away, and Jo quickly reclaims her seat next to me.
“A fan of yours?”
“Something like that,” I tell her, waiting for her to instruct me on how we’re going to handle this.
“They’ll have the place surrounded within minutes,” she says, looking straight forward.
“Are they coming in or are we taking him down?” I ask, placing my hand on her nape and squeezing gently. “Tell me what to do here, Jo.”
I’m not letting this man go. He’s our only lead right now, and I’m not letting this opportunity slip through my fingers.
“We don’t move until they come in,” she says in a calm voice. “We don’t want him to grab someone as a hostage, or anything like that. The squad is going to come in and take him down.”
She’s only just said those words when the door opens and eight police come storming in, guns in their hands. Everyone drops to the ground. Jo and I move toward the door, behind the men, watching while the suspect is arrested. I have to admit that it feels like I’m doing less than I could. Yes, we’re the ones who located him, but we could have taken him down ourselves just as easily. This way is safer though, and I guess they know what they’re doing. We watch him being put away in the cop car and then drive back to the police station ourselves.
“I have a good feeling about this,” Jo says, nodding. “He has to give us something, anything that can help find her.”
“We’ll find her,” I say, reaching my hand out onto her thigh. “Don’t worry about that.”