“I’m fine.” She tips her chin up to me.
I study her as her chest rises and falls. My heart almost stopped when I saw her, before the rage returned.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I hiss.
I can’t trust her.
She tries to yank her arm away, but I tighten my grip, pulling her closer to me. Enough to feel her warm breath beat against my neck. I inhale her vanilla scent in an attempt to calm down, to settle my emotions.
The defiance in her jaw tells me she doesn’t want to be here.
“Why are you here?” I press. I have to know.
“I-I don’t know,” she falters. I pull back and study her face. She’s telling the truth. I doubt she even realizes I can read her like a damn book.
“Tell me what you’re doing here, Zara.” I drop her arm as she steps back, looking down to the ground.
What the hell do I do with this woman? She’s a thorn in my side. I can’t leave her here with Romano’s men prowling around. It’s irritating that I can’t even seem to get her out of my mind.
“I followed you.” That fire in her eyes returns, and I bite down on my tongue.
“You want me to believe you aren’t here with your father?”
Her eyes flick to the dead guy on the ground beside us who has bullets from her gun lodged within him.
Pulling the magazine on my own weapon, I do a quick count before shoving it back into place.
“Frankie, move!”
I look up, and she shoves me out of the way into the side of the container, stepping in front of me. Before I have time to register what is happening, gun shots ring out and I grab hold of her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I shout, looking over at the new body tumbling into the dirt. My nostrils flare as I spin her to me. Her hand trembles as she looks down at the smoking gun.
“He was going to shoot you,” her voice shakes and I pull her against me.
“Don’t fucking do that again.” Keeping a tight grip on her biceps, I pull back and search those green eyes.
“I just saved your goddamn life. Why are you so angry?”
That, I don’t want to admit the answer to. “I’ve never had a stalker before. I’ve become quite accustomed to it. I can’t have you dying on me.”
I can’t help taking a moment to study her. Despite the burning rage at her putting herself in this much danger, I kind of admire her determination. She has guts and the potential to be a lot more than what she is.
I’m pretty sure she’s just killed a cop. He doesn’t resemble any of Romano’s men. One thing this has cemented: she isn’t working for her dad.
And she has a weakness.
Her feelings for me, whatever they may be. You don’t jump in front of someone unless you don’t want them to get hurt.
“I need to arrest you, Frankie.” Her lips twitch into a smirk, shaking me from my thoughts.
Putting my theory to the test, I lean into the crook of her neck.
“Is that right, detective?” I slide my bloody hand down her side, reaching the hem of her jeans.
Letting my beard tickle against her neck, somehow I resist the urge to bite down on her flesh.
Her sharp inhale covers the moment I take the handcuffs from their holder.
This confirms exactly what I thought. I can definitely use this woman. She is so distracted by me, she doesn’t realize I have her cuffs until they snap over her right wrist.
“What the fuck?” she hisses at me.
“I think you are the one under arrest, baby,” I mutter against her throat.
Her body goes stiff against me. I clasp the other link over my own wrist. She yanks it, pinching my skin.
“I can get out of this, you know. I have the key,” she says through her gritted teeth.
“I wouldn’t dare, if I were you. You want to get out of here alive? I’ll make sure you do. Seeing as you have a clear disregard for your own life, this—” I hold up our chained wrists, “—is non-negotiable.”
She visibly shivers.
“Come on, I’m not that bad. Being cuffed can be fun.” I wink.
Her nose wrinkles as she looks up at me.
I yank her towards me so her body slams into my side.
She relaxes against my touch.
My voice drops as my lips brush the lobe of her ear. “We are more alike than you think, detective.”
She looks past me, deep in thought. “How is my dad involved in all of this?”
“That’s something I still need to find the answer to,” I answer honestly.
She holsters her weapon with her free hand. She could shoot me with the damn thing. Apparently, she seems to have me under her own kind of spell.
“Good shot earlier, much better the second time around,” I chide her.
“I’m not supposed to shoot to kill,” she snaps back.
“It’s your life against theirs. You always put yourself first. There are no second chances. Remember that next time,” I walk us out between the containers, spotting Grayson in front of me.
“There won’t be a next time,” she mutters to herself. Even looking slightly disheveled, with splatters of blood over her. To me, she is pure perfection.
I hope she’s right and there won’t be a next time. Yet, something is screaming at me that isn’t true.
Grayson’s head tilts to the side as we approach, his blue eyes focusing on the cuffs. One of his brows raises. “Boss?”
“I cuffed her, don’t worry. Detective Zara O’Reilly, meet my right-hand man, Grayson Ward.”
Grayson shifts on his feet, and his lips thin. He has a dead body next to his feet. Zara flicks her gaze from it to Grayson.
“Good to meet you, I guess,” Grayson says, then turns his attention to me. “We really need to go. Jax and Keller are taking care of the last of the guys behind the warehouse.”
“Excellent. I’ll meet you later.” I tug on her arm, breaking her stare at Grayson.
She takes a step closer to me, now flush against my side, which causes my mouth and brain to disconnect.
“Good girl,” I rasp.
She stiffens beside me.
Shit.
Electricity fizzles around us.
Grayson clears his throat. “Enzo has the clean-up crew on the way. I’ll do a quick count to see how many guys we lost.”
His little dose of reality reminds me, Romano has to die.
“I’ll take Zara with me. You head back with Keller? Text me the location. I’ll have to take your Audi.”
With a grumble, he tosses me his keys.
As I go to walk away, I turn back to face Grayson. “Good work today, G. We are one hell of a team.”
He smiles back at me and slowly nods. “Yeah, we are.”
I look back towards Zara, who’s watching our interaction intently. Tugging on her wrist, I set a brisk pace.
She stumbles forward and walks beside me. Stepping over bodies, I’m surprised she’s keeping her lips shut. I know her brain is working overtime as we approach Grayson’s car.
Spotting the bobby pin in her hair, she sucks in a breath as I slide it out and open the metal up. She watches intently as I straighten it out and bend the top half over. Pulling our cuffed hands up in front of my face, I stick the makeshift key into the hole and jab around until it clicks, freeing my wrist.
She subtly nods her head, holding out her free hand.
“Let me try,” she says.
I grin, placing it in her hand.
“Just wiggle it about until you feel it click.”
It doesn’t take her long to master it, releasing her wrist and rubbing over the skin.
Opening her door with a flourish, I step back and cup her elbow. “In you go.”
She doesn’t move.
“Zara, get in that fucking car before I drag your ass in there,” I bark at her, losing my patience.
She blinks at me a few times, before huffing and finally obeying.
We drive back to her apartment in silence. My fingers tap on the steering wheel, weighing my options. She isn’t safe to be around her dad, nor any of the cops at this point. Why do I care about her?
It’s several minutes of blissful silence before she shatters it. “You okay over there?”
“Just plotting,” I reply, keeping my eyes on the road. I can’t look at her; she’s far too distracting.
She turns in her seat, one knee shifting towards the center console. “Plotting what? My death? My kidnapping?”
I let out a groan. Jesus Christ, this woman. “Both are on the list.”
Keeping Zara alive is my best bet. Keeping her close? Even better.
I pull up outside her apartment and spot the amused grin on her face.
She bites her lip. “Oh, you’re letting me go?”
I give her a curt nod.
Her eyes thin to slits. “Why?”
“I don’t need anything from you,” I reply with my best neutral expression.
“Great.” As she reaches to open the door, I hit the internal locks. She spins around to glare at me.
“That means no more following me, Zara. This is your final warning. If I see you skulking in the shadows again, I won’t have a choice. Don’t put me in that position.”
She chews the inside of her mouth, looking deep in thought.
I swear she’s fucking with me.
“Deal.” A grin forms on her lips and she holds out her hand.
Reluctantly, I place my large palm in her little one, ignoring the protests from my dick as our fingers touch. I give a little pressure, and she doesn’t flinch. I can’t figure her out.
She’s right, killing or kidnapping her would be the easiest option. I let out a breath. I can’t do that. So I hit the button, and she slips out of the car, walking into her apartment without so much as a look back.
My fingers grip around the steering wheel before my head falls against it.
Fuck. What a mess.
I stay parked outside Zara’s for an hour in silence, waiting for her lights to go off. Her dad had run off before he would have spotted her. I just hope none of the other cops saw what she did for me.
Fuck.
I pull out my phone and dial Enzo.
“I’m heading to the safe house, Frankie.”
“Yeah, I’ll meet you there. I need a favor.”
I swear he mutters, fucker in Italian under his breath. I choose to let this one go.
“Keep a detail on Zara for the next few days, will you?”
I won’t be able to rest, not if there is a chance they did see her there. In the meantime, I need to work out my next move.
I have to end Romano, yet nothing seems to get me closer to him.
