After Love (18 page)

“I can't wait to spread this around the station,” Vinny announced, both cops laughing loudly as they drove away.

Nick opened the door of his townhouse and let Harley in first. “Backyard, Harley,” he said as he walked him quickly to the back door and into the small fenced-in yard area, which now had a combination lock on the hasp. Not only had Harley opened the latch on the back door to make his great escape, but he'd also lifted the hasp lock on the gate. “Bath time.”

Nick grabbed an unopened bottle of dog shampoo and turned the hose on. He began to hose Harley down, which would have been a good plan except Harley didn't like baths and began to run around the small space in circles far faster than Nick could spray him. Finally Nick stepped on the leash to stop the dog, then tied him to the barbecue pit. The battle was half won.

Within a half hour Harley smelled like the vegetable section of a Whole Foods, and the red that had been on his paws and face was gone. Nick left him tied to the barbecue pit so Harley could dry off without shaking water all over the house. Nick too was soaking wet, so he stripped down and jumped into the shower. He welcomed the masculine scent of his woodsy soap. He'd had enough strawberry stench for one night.

Nick dried off and pulled on a pair of jogging shorts before rescuing Harley from the backyard. The dog skulked into the house, thoroughly humiliated by the bath and his master's disapproval.

Nick grabbed a beer before returning to his bedroom and turning the TV on. He scooted up against the headboard and clicked through the channels until he found ESPN
SportsCenter
. He'd called Bobbi while he was in the patrol car and, without mentioning his fake arrest, he'd passed on the information Emily had given him. He knew he had drawn enough attention for one night, so she would have to send someone else to see if they could find the infamous Leo. So when his phone rang, he assumed it was her or one of the other agents.

“Archer,” he said without checking the caller ID.

“Good, you're still up….How's Harley?”

“Harley, Harley, Harley…He's fine!” Nick had perked up at the sound of Jamie's voice, but her concern about Harley annoyed him.

“Whoa…really?”

“Yeah, sure…No, he's a bad dog.”

“What happened?”

“What didn't happen? He was with me on Sixth Street tonight, looking for that dealer, and I was at the Jackalope with some girl trying to parse out intel. The bar-back walked by with a box of bar garbage, and Harley jumped him.”

“Jumped him? Is he all right?”

“I guess….Some scratches on his back where Harley tried to climb over him.”

“I meant Harley.”

“Harley's fine, just not very happy right now. And neither am I. Thanks for asking.”

“Harley didn't bite the guy, did he?”

“No. All he wanted was the box of scraps, mostly strawberries. He was a fucking mess, juice dripping all over the floor and strawberry parts all the way up to his eyes.”

“The guy?”

“No, Harley. He buried his face in a pile of garbage. It was like a drug! It was so undignified. Then the cops arrived, and…Wait a minute, how did you know something had happened?”

Jamie laughed. “I have a scanner, and one of Mike's friends thought I'd be interested because one of my dogs was involved.”

“It'll probably show up on YouTube tomorrow. There were lots of customers with phones recording the whole scene. Bobbi's going to kill me.” The cops had circled the block, then let him off at his truck where it was parked in a lot on Seventh Street. He'd driven straight home from there.

Jamie was silent for a moment, then she said, “Bring Harley to me.”

“What can you do? What good is a drug dog that is addicted to strawberries? For all I know, he could have this issue with every fucking fruit on the planet. Oh, and did I mention that some of the loosies that are killing those kids are strawberry flavored?”

“I'm going to have to break his habit. What time can you bring him by?”

“I don't have class on Mondays, so I could be out there around noon.” Nick's heart skipped a beat in anticipation. Another training session! Maybe he should make it earlier. Then they'd have the whole day together.

“Noon is good. See you then.” And the phone clicked off.

Well, that was abrupt. But he didn't care. Tomorrow he would get to spend time with Jamie…hopefully in that old iron bed. He plugged his phone into the charger and placed it on the nightstand.

He was about to turn
SportsCenter
back on when he noticed Harley's chin propped on the edge of the bed. The dog's head didn't move, but his eyes, with their almost-human eyebrows, focused toward the TV, then toward Nick, trying to work his way back into his master's good graces.

“You're a troublemaker, Harley. You might have gotten us both fired, but at least we get to go see Jamie tomorrow.” He couldn't resist rubbing the dog's ears, thinking about what would be a treat for both of them.

Nick's phone lit up with a text message. He picked it up and smiled. It was from Jamie.
Who was the girl?

Nick shook his head. “Interesting, Harley…She wants to know who the girl was. Do we tell her? Will it make her crazy with jealousy?”

Harley's ears perked up. “Yeah, you're right….She deserves a little tweak for not returning my calls this week.” Nick typed,
Emily. U don't know her. Met her on the street 2night.
He hit the “send” button and smiled. He waited for several minutes, wondering what her response would be. When no answer came, he sighed. “Maybe I should have tried a different approach. What do you think, Harley?”

Harley's eyes shifted back to
SportsCenter
.

“You're right. We're missing the scores.” He unmuted the sound. “Is that better, boy?”

Nick's cellphone lit up with another text from Jamie.

Eagerly he picked it up and read it aloud.
She just wanted to pet your puppy.

Nick chuckled.
She was petting my puppy when he blasted off after the strawberries.

This time there was no response, and after several minutes he commented to Harley, “I think she was jealous. Good job, Harley.”

Harley's tail thumped on the floor. All was right with the world.

Nick's truck almost knew its way to Jamie's farm without his help. Unfortunately, there were no cell dead zones anywhere along the way.

“I know Bobbi, it was a mess…but I think
disaster
is too big of a word. I had no idea Harley liked strawberries.”

“You know who called me today? The Austin chief of police. He was laughing at you…at us.” Bobbi's anger oozed through the phone line.

“Get to the good stuff….Did they find Leo?”

“Lucky for you, yes. We're testing his stock, and we'll know sometime today if it's the bad shit. He apparently doesn't have a lab, so if they're the lethal ones, we'll have to turn him.”

“Need my help?”

“Please, no. Get Harley trained or, better yet, get a different dog. Let me know when you're on your way back. We all need to sit down and put a plan together.”

The phone line went dead. That was the way Bobbi said goodbye. He looked down at Harley and petted his head. “We got Leo, Harley….Good job. Not that you had anything to do with it. You were pigging out on strawberries….Bad dog.” Nick shook his finger at Harley as if he were a child.

Nick parked under the big oak tree and tried not to seem too eager as he walked up Jamie's steps and knocked on the wood-framed screen door.

“I'll be right out,” she called.

Nick's foot tapped impatiently as he looked out at the horses grazing in the pasture closest to the barn. Maybe he could talk Jamie into a horseback ride…before he rode her. He couldn't remember ever being so excited about being with a woman. It had been only two days, but he was as horny as a teenager.

He heard the creak of the screen door and turned around. If he expected to be greeted with a big kiss or even a hug, he was doomed to be disappointed. Jamie knelt down and Harley rushed forward to greet her with happy yips and a wildly wagging tail. She wrapped her arms around his neck and scratched his ears.

“I heard you've been a bad boy. Well, we're going to work on that so you can be the superstar you should be.” She stood and held out her hand. “I'll take good care of him.”

Nick thought he'd misunderstood her. “I'm ready to go through his training with you.”

“I think he needs more intensive training than we can give him in an afternoon.”

“That's okay. I can rearrange my schedule,” Nick offered.

Jamie exhaled a long sigh. “Look, Nick. I've always been up front with you about what I need out of our…uh…friendship. But it's over.”

Nick felt his jaw drop and had to force his mouth closed before he said something he would regret…like begging her to reconsider.

“Things didn't turn out the way I thought they would,” she went on.

He could tell she was nervous because she was having trouble meeting his gaze. “I thought things were pretty fucking great.”

“Oh, the sex was fantastic, but I just don't have the time or energy to keep it up.”

“That's my job.” Nick tried to tease her out of the funky mood she seemed to be in.

“I've been neglecting the dogs and my work. I've been trying to get a government contract, and I have to prepare my presentation.”

Nick didn't understand it, but he could certainly take a hint. Now he knew why she hadn't returned his calls. She'd gotten her rocks off and didn't need him anymore. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. Stiffly he thrust Harley's leash toward her. “Text me when you want me to pick him up.”

“Will do.”

Nick held Harley's big head in his hands. “You be a good boy, Harley, and study hard. I'm not leaving you. I'll be back.” He knew all the dog was hearing was, “Blah, blah, blah, Harley, blah, blah, blah.” Hopefully Harley wouldn't feel like Nick was deserting him forever like his other owner had, however unintentionally.

Without another word to Jamie, he whirled on his heel and walked down the steps. He was almost to his truck when he heard her call out.

“Nick…”

He looked back, his vision suspiciously blurry.

Jamie hesitated, then added, “Be careful out there.”

He gave her a curt nod, then climbed into his truck, turned it on, and spun out in the gravel in his rush to get away from there.

Bobbi leaned over her desk and propped her forearms on the glass top as she stared at Nick. “So what's the plan?”

Nick thought for a minute. “Usually in the drug business you follow the money, but I think I'll follow the waste.”

“I have no idea what that means…and I'm not sure I want to know. So, how's your dog's diversion training going?”

“I left him at the kennel for a few days. Jamie said she was going to spend all her time getting him through this.” That was a loose interpretation of what she'd said, but all things considered, he didn't think Bobbi needed to hear the ugly details.

“I know I got you into this, but I'm no longer convinced that the dog is an asset. Let's see how well you do without him.”

For Nick the roles had reversed. Now he was the one who thought having a K9 partner was a good idea. But he wasn't in the mood to get into an argument with Bobbi. Between him and Harley, they'd done nothing but screw up for the past two weeks. To be honest, Jamie had been a distraction, and it was good that he wouldn't have to think about her anymore. Yeah…right.

“What has Leo told you?”

“Nothing so far. But we're still working on him,” Bobbi answered. “I don't think he's our man, but hopefully he'll give us something useful. I'll let you know.”

“I'm going to check out some real estate.”

Bobbi stood and started to follow Nick toward the door. “Just stay below the radar. I'm tired of getting calls in the middle of the night.”

“I'm focused now. This guy is going down.”

“Promises, promises,” Bobbi muttered.

Nick didn't feel like going home to an empty house. He thought about dropping by the Jackalope and hanging out with Gina, but he knew he wouldn't be welcome there so soon after last night's debacle. Tomorrow he had class, and maybe he could get a name out of Bane. Nick was sure Bane knew more than he was telling. But short of waterboarding—which the department frowned upon—Nick had no easy way of coercing information out of Bane or any other student. They'd just have to trust him enough to let something slip.

Which reminded him, it was time to drop by his chemist and pick up a fresh supply of safe loosies. Nick headed back to his truck.

Later, after his visit and a few hours in a corner booth at an off-campus bar where he'd hoped to bump into his new best buds, Nick gave up and headed home.

The townhouse was dark and quiet…too quiet. Nick wandered from room to room, not able to settle down. He had always been okay living alone. Funny how he'd gotten accustomed so quickly to sharing his space in both his house and his truck. So much so that now he found he was talking to himself, which was disturbing on so many levels. Had he always had one-sided conversations with himself and just not realized it?

He dumped out Harley's food dish, cleaned his water bowl, and placed the dishes back on their mat, ready to fill as soon as the dog returned. Nick took a beer with him to the bathroom, where he showered, then sprawled on his bed to watch the late news.

But he couldn't focus on the TV. He kept checking his phone, even though he knew there would be no messages from Jamie. She'd kicked him to the curb. Had it been so bad for her? Had he not lived up to her expectations? After having the best sex of his life, it was humbling to realize his partner had been disappointed.

Nick's ego had taken quite a blow. Even worse, he had done what he had vowed never to do: he'd let his heart get involved. The thought of not spending more time with Jamie, even without the sex, was devastating.

The whole concept of love was a big joke…and not a very funny one. He should have known better.

“Look out! Hide your fruit!” yelled a cop in the police-station lobby as Nick entered. “Where's your killer dog?”

“Go screw yourself, Lou Where's your partner?” Nick asked.

“Alex? He's in his office.”

Nick went to the elevator and quickly snagged a car to the fourth floor.

“Hey Nick…you out on bail?”

“Everyone's a comedian.” Without waiting for an invitation, Nick sat down on the chair next to the detective's desk. “As much as I hate to ask, I need your help.”

Alex realized this was business, and the smile on his face evaporated. “What can I do for you?”

“I need the addresses and landlord information on the last few drug labs you busted.”

“Getting out of that dump you live in?”

Nick pinned him with a steely glare. “I'll wait.”

“You're serious? Sure, why not?” Alex reached into the file drawer on the right side of his desk and flipped through the files, occasionally pulling out a folder and setting it on his desk. He shut the drawer and pushed the pile of about twenty files toward Nick. “These are from the last six months. Good luck with them. We never found anything. Cleanest drug labs I've ever seen. Fuck, I wish my wife kept our house that spotless.”

“Thanks. I'll bring these back when I'm done.” Nick grabbed them and exited the office without another word.

Once back in his truck, he sat in the parking lot and scanned the files, trying to see the connection. The more he read, the more convinced he was that this was the best lead he'd gotten so far. But it also became evident that he needed Harley to go with him. Only a dog's nose could sniff through the disinfectants and cleansers.

Where once his fingers had trembled with excitement, he now dialed the phone with dread.

“Hello.”

Just hearing her voice caused his stomach to twist. “Hi, Jamie. It's Nick.”

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“How's Harley's training coming along?”

“He's doing good.” She paused. “He misses you.”

“Yeah, believe it or not, I miss him too.”
And you,
he added to himself, but he knew she didn't want to hear that.

Again there was silence.

“I'm on this big case, you know.”

“How's that going?”

“Lots of dead ends. I've got a promising new lead, but I can't do it as well without Harley.”

“He's not really ready.”

“This case is too important for me to blow, so I'm willing to take a chance.” Nick managed a weak smile. “I'll just keep him away from strawberries.”

“When do you want to come pick him up?”

“My class is over at five, so I can head straight out there.” He sensed her hesitation. “I won't stay long. I've got work to do tonight.”

“Okay. See you later.”

He hung up and realized he had broken out in a sweat in spite of the air conditioner in his truck blowing full blast. He wanted to see Jamie so much that it hurt…and yet he didn't. It was like pulling the scab off a wound a little at a time. It was always better just to rip it off. Until he no longer had to see Jamie, the wound would never heal.

Nick sighed. He had a bad feeling that this was one wound that might never heal…no matter what.

Sam and Bane were disappointed he wouldn't be joining them after class. But when Nick told them he had to pick up his dog from the trainer, they'd understood. Plus, he gave them a baggie of his special loosies. They thought he was being generous when in fact he was trying to save their lives.

He had missed lunch, so he stopped for a P. Terry's burger on the way out of town. He even bought a junior burger, plain, as a welcome-back treat for Harley. Even though he didn't have anything to look forward to once he arrived, he still found himself speeding along toward Jamie's farm.

He parked under the tree, backing into the space as usual. He hesitated a minute before getting out of his truck. Everything looked the same…and yet everything was different. The cows and horses were in their pastures. He could hear the dogs barking in the kennels. He could see a pitcher of ice-cold lemonade sweating in the June heat. And somewhere on the property he knew Jamie…with her great laugh, her killer body, and her beautiful heart…was hanging out.

He shoved open his door and stepped out of his truck. No one answered his knock. He considered whether he should wait or go look for her. The last thing he wanted was for her to think he had any expectation of sex. At this point he wouldn't fuck her even if she begged.

Ha! Who was he kidding? He wouldn't turn down anything she offered. His pride be damned.

“Harley!”

He heard her voice calling the dog just seconds before a massive object hit him hard, knocking him down to the porch. He rolled over and his face was quickly covered in big, wet doggy kisses. If he'd thought Harley might not be glad to see him, all doubt was washed away by the dog's enthusiastic greeting.

“Harley, bad dog,” Jamie reprimanded, but neither the man nor the dog responded.

Nick grabbed the dog's head on both sides and shook it, play fighting like they had often done back at his house. Harley growled, but it held none of the menace he used when actually facing danger. Finally, when both were exhausted, Nick pushed Harley off and sat up.

“Do you have strawberries in your pocket or is he just happy to see you?” Jamie joked.

Nick held his hands out. “No strawberries.” He got to his feet and smiled down at Harley, who was leaning against his leg as if to keep Nick from leaving again. “I'm sorry to cut his training short, but I'm researching some buildings, and I need Harley's nose.”

“I wish he could stay longer, but now that you know his weakness, you can be extra vigilant until you have time to bring him back.”

Nick's hungry eyes quickly swept her body, appreciating the way the cutoff shorts cupped her ass and the T-shirt clung to her breasts. Her chestnut brown hair was pulled up into a messy topknot with tendrils escaping to frame her face. His gaze focused on her eyes, searching for some sign that she had missed him even half as much as he missed her. He loved the way her eyes darkened to a deep cerulean color when she was aroused, but now they were more green than blue.