His lip split when I punched him, and his head snapped to the side.
“Downtown Raleigh,” he said, coughing and spewing more blood.
“Where?” I gave my fist a rest and just glared down at him.
“25th street. Apartment A.”
I yanked him up a little farther so I could stare directly in his face. “You better not be lying.”
He grinned; his teeth were outlined in red. “We both know I’m dead either way. Might as well take down the guy who sent me here.”
“Enjoy hell,” I spat and tossed him onto the pavement as two patrol cars ripped around the corner with their lights flashing.
“See you there,” he whispered as I turned away.
His final words would likely haunt me. Not because they were threatening, but because they were true.
The cop cars skidded to a stop and they both flung their doors open and crouched behind them, raising their guns at me.
“I’m officer Brody West,” I called, lifting my hands. “Two of the perps took off that way in a black SUV. One of the passengers is shot.”
One of the officers jumped back in his car and drove off in the direction I pointed.
The other one lowered his gun and walked cautiously around the hood of his car. “What the hell is going on, West?” he said, and I recognized him as one of the officers who was part of the bust at the old gas station the other night.
“My cover is blown. Thanks to Snake, I just became the most wanted cop within the organization.”
Officer Newman shook his head and bent down to check the pulse of the man lying on the ground. “He’s dead.”
“I shot him after he opened fired on me and my girl.” Thoughts of Taylor had me dismissing the case and spinning toward the water where I left the boat.
Fear spiked in my veins as I imagined the worst: that she got hit again and was bleeding out or drowning while I was over here beating a guy for the last moments of his life.
What the hell kind of man was I?
But Taylor wasn’t dead.
She wasn’t floating in the water or bleeding out.
But she wasn’t hiding under the boat anymore either. Instead, she stood in front of it, soaking wet and pale, looking toward me and the officer with a drawn look on her face.
I knew then she saw what I had done.
She saw the way I got the information I needed.
And she didn’t like it.
Suddenly, I felt like some adolescent kid who brought home four D’s and an F on my report card and I was standing there silently awaiting judgment by my mother.
Fuck that.
I was a grown-ass man and sometimes I had to do things most people would think were shitty. But I did them because they needed to be done. Because sometimes getting answers required getting my hands dirty.
At least she had the luxury to pass judgment on me. She wouldn’t if I didn’t act the way I did.
“You got this?” I asked Officer Newman, motioning to the body with my chin.
“Yeah.”
I went back into the lake, swimming out to where Taylor stood barely moving as she watched me draw closer.
When my feet hit the bank of the shallow section, I stood up, looking down into her jade eyes. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“How’s the arm?”
“Wet.”
I felt my lips twitch but forced them not to smile.
“Come on.” I offered her my hand. “We can’t row the boat back, but I’ll help you to shore.”
She gazed down at my hand stretched out between us and then looked up. She recognized the test I was giving her. She knew her reaction to my offer would likely tell me everything I needed to know.
Did I still have a chance with her?
Or…
Would watching me shoot a man, then beat him make her shrink away from my touch?
She looked at my hand for long moments before reaching up and pushing it aside. I won’t lie; something inside me sank a little. Her rejection (even though suspected) stung like hell.
Before I could turn away, she moved, not away, but closer. Instead of taking my offered hand, she leaned up and wrapped her arm around my middle and pressed in close against my chest. It took me a minute to react, a minute for my brain to catch up to what my body was already feeling. I brought up my arms; they kind of hovered behind her. I was almost afraid to hug her, to hold her close. What if she changed her mind?
“I’m sorry you had to do that,” she said, her voice muffled against my wet T-shirt.
“You saw?” I asked, wanting to make certain she saw it all.
“Yes, I saw.”
I lowered my arms back to my sides. “It isn’t the first time I’ve done something like that. I’ve done worse.” My heart was thumping slowly in my chest, almost like it was hesitating the same way my arms had.