Protect & Serve(35)

When he lay in my arms, head burrowed into my breasts, I knew everything was going to be all right. The trial tomorrow, Peter Wallace’s fate—none of it mattered. We were free.





10





I stood outside the doors where Nathan would soon make his exit, dressed in my nicest suit and smiling so hard I thought I might pop the surgical glue on my cheek. He’d done it. He’d testified. I couldn’t possibly have been prouder of the man.

News crews had gathered down the steps near the street, waiting for him to make his appearance. As he finally emerged past the door, he looked around, eyes narrowed.

“So, this is it, huh? I do a good deed and now they throw me to the wolves?”

I laughed, following his gaze toward the reporters. “It’s not so bad. They’re going to love you. You’re a hero!”

“Nobody ever loves a billionaire,” he muttered, straightening his tie. I knew he hated it. It had been a bitch convincing him to wear one during his testimony.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” I said, trying not to grin too hard and hurt myself. “Come on. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

Nathan smiled. “Did you bring your gun?”

I laughed and shook my head, following him out the front doors and down the courthouse steps toward the clamoring journalists and flashing cameras.

Their voices rose in a chorus around him, cries of “Mr. Hale! Mr. Hale!” so loud they were all we could hear. I knew Nathan had planned on slipping past them without making a statement, but he stopped when it became clear they weren’t going to let up. He held up his hands to calm them down.

“Mr. Hale,” one woman said, speaking excitedly into her microphone. “It only took the jury thirty minutes to reach a guilty verdict on the Peter Wallace trial. How much do you think your testimony tipped the scales in the prosecution’s favor?”

Nathan smiled patiently and looked around at the multitude of stations all vying for footage of the city’s most prominent billionaire. Then he put his arm behind my back and pulled me forward beside him.

“I think when anyone does the right thing, it makes a hell of a lot of difference—more than we ever think it might,” he answered, his arm remaining tight around my waist. I looked up at him as he continued: “We’re made to believe that one person can’t make a difference without money or power. I have both, but none of that mattered. What mattered was a woman—a detective—so driven by the desire to do the right thing that her actions convinced me it was time to stand up for something greater than myself. You all know me as the billionaire playboy Nathaniel Hale, the guy who throws obnoxious parties and spends way too much money on cars and other frivolous things.” He smiled, turning to face me. “But that’s not me anymore. Now I’m the guy who does the right thing, because one woman dared to stand up and challenge me. And that could’ve been any of you. Anyone can stand up and do the right thing, because all it takes is one person to show the rest of the world how powerful they really are.”

Oh God… I thought to myself.

“But this woman,” he added, a grin slowly spreading over his face. “Is the real hero of this story, not me. And she’s my hero.”

I smiled as he leaned down and kissed me, completely aware of the cameras all trained on him, on us in that moment. What he was doing was going to cost me my badge—my entire career. But as the media stuttered, desperately trying to make sense of what was happening, I let Nathan wrap me up in his arms and give me what I’d always wanted, what I’d always needed: redemption.

“Mr. Hale!” a reporter shouted over everything, breaking the stunned silence, but Nathan just put a hand up and released my lips long enough to shout, “No more questions.”

I found myself being pulled away, my whole life leading up to this moment flashing before my eyes. What in the world was I thinking? What in the hell was I going to say to the captain?

And how soon could I get this man somewhere private and do something totally and completely indecent?





11





“What the hell is this?” Captain Pierce asked, staring at the gun and badge I’d dropped onto his desk. I was ready for this. Surely he had seen what happened on those courthouse steps as much as anyone else did.

“Sir, we both know what this is,” I replied, trying to remain as calm and level as I could. “You saw what happened earlier today, and I’m turning in my badge.”

“Sandra, I’m afraid I can’t accept it.”

Did he think I was stupid? I was an employee of the state, and I could quit right now, walk out of here, and forget any of this happened. “Captain Pierce…” I said indignantly, prepared to give him a lecture about all the bullshit I’d put up with over the last few years in this office, but he cut me off with a hand loudly slamming down onto the table.