Fight For Me (10 page)

He felt his breath go ragged, the painful
memories tearing the oxygen from his lungs. It seemed like a
lifetime ago, and if he thought about it, it had been quite a few
years. Ten years ago he'd lost Emmie, six years ago Gina had
succumbed to her depression, taking his unborn child with her. His
gut twisted at the thought of what he'd lost. Gina hadn't told him,
and instead of seeking help, she had killed both herself and the
baby. He was no hero, but he wasn't about to lose another woman he
loved. His heart lurched. Loved? He scrubbed his hand down his
face. He would protect Cassidy with everything he had.

~*~

Besides everything going on, I'm scared,
Dylan,” Cassidy admitted over dinner.

He made a face. “What are you scared of if
it isn't Rossi, or whoever is stalkin' you?”

“
You.” She speared a
cherry tomato, looking into her salad plate to avoid his perceptive
gaze. “Us.”

He chuckled. “I'm not so scary.”

Oh, but he was. He made her want things
she'd long resigned herself to not having, he made her feel things
she had no business feeling. “I can't be what you want.”

“
You are what I want. What
do you think you have to be?”

Better, more attentive, less of a
workaholic, a mothering person. She was none of those things. She
didn't even know if she wanted to have children. She almost choked
on the tomato she was chewing. “What if?” she couldn't finish the
sentence.

“
Marry me,” he answered
calmly.

She managed not to kill herself with hastily
chewed salad and met his eyes. “Marriage is for love.”

“
Yes, it is.” His gaze was
unwavering, and her stomach flip-flopped.

“
We... We're not in
love.”

“
You sure about that?” he
countered. “Because I'm not.”

She couldn't have this conversation. She
stood up from the table, nearly upending her water glass and
knocking over her chair. She knew she was running, but she did it
anyway, managing to say, “I'll see you in the morning,” over her
shoulder.

~*~

He watched her retreat, literally running
down the hallway and into the guest room. Today's revelations and
his none too subtle declarations of love had thrown her, but
instead of standing and fighting, she had fled. He knew that was
against her nature, and decided to count that as a win. If she was
off her game, that meant she was feeling something. What, he wasn't
sure, but he'd take it.

What if she was pregnant? He'd dealt with a
woman unhappy about carrying his child before, ending as badly as a
story could. Gina hadn't wanted to be married to him, hadn't wanted
to be a mother, hadn't wanted to be pregnant, hadn't wanted to
live. For the millionth time he wished he'd been home to talk to
her, wished Emmie had been around to help Gina through her
depression, wished things were different. He rested his head in his
hand. If things had worked out differently, where would he be? He
certainly wouldn't be sitting in his own kitchen contemplating what
to do about a feisty prosecutor with a stalker on her tail, who he
had just discovered he loved. He heaved a sigh. He loved her. He
didn't know when it happened, but there it was. Now he just had to
keep her safe until she could accept it, and love him back.

~*~

Chris Delmonico tucked his pistol back into
its holster. Vincent Rossi wasn't bothering anybody, and hadn't
been for a while. He held his nose and looked to his right. “I'm
thinking he's been here for what, a week or more?”

Jason's eyes were watering, a handkerchief
held over his mouth and nose. “At least,” he agreed, his voice
muffled. “Adrienne will know more.”

He almost laughed at his partner. Hopelessly
in love with the ME Adrienne Marquette, Jason was trying to appear
professional, but the smile in his eyes when he said the doctor's
name was telling. First Jason, now Dylan. He shuddered. Women were
trouble. Besides, they had a dead body to clean up, and a stalker
to find. This guy wasn't terrorizing the pretty prosecutor, no
matter what Dylan thought he knew.

He turned at a sound behind them to find
Brandon Davis and an incredible-looking blonde entering the house.
“Been dead at least a week,” Chris said instead of greeting the
pair. He and Davis were not friends, and although he knew he should
be cordial and work with the prick, he had a hard time doing so,
even for Dylan's lady love.

“
Not the guy stalking Ms.
Everett, then?” the blonde officer asked, her face turning an odd
shade of green.

“
Sure doesn't look like
it,” Jason answered, ushering everyone out of the house. “Dr.
Marquette will be here any minute.”

Chris caught the sneer that ran across
Davis's face at Jason's mention of the ME. So, Davis didn't approve
of the relationship? Funny, that. Turning his attention to Davis's
Barbie doll compatriot, he asked, “It seems we came to the same
conclusion, albeit a wrong one. Any ideas who we should be looking
at next?”

She rolled her shoulders, pushing her assets
against her uniform shirt. Damn, he needed to pay attention to her
face, not her chest. She stuck out her hand. “Nice to finally meet
you, Detective Delmonico. I'm Officer Tiffany Morgan.”

He took the offered hand, finding her
handshake firm. What kind of things had she been told? “Finally
meet me?”

“
I've heard stories about
you. Working out in Chicago for a few years before coming home to
Aylesford. Undercover work.” She winked and he held back a laugh.
“Surely more interesting than what you find in Ayles County, that's
for sure.”

That was the truth, but there were reasons
he left Chicago behind, and he wasn't about to talk about them now.
“It wasn't all that. I'm hoping you might have another lead for us
on this string of crimes happening both here in Aylesford and Tyler
as well. ACA Everett is being targeted, and although it seems we
all thought it was the guy in there,” he gestured over his
shoulder, “it's not.”

“
I've been
cross-referencing, but I'm not coming up with anything promising,”
she answered. “Brandon seems to think it's a family member, or
perhaps a partner, maybe waiting for someone to be paroled. It's
hard to tell.” She bobbed her head at the house. “That guy had a
grievance against the good ACA, and had threatened her before. The
only thing that didn't make sense was the time frame.” She kicked a
rock in the yard. “We need to look for someone with a strong
motive, something more recent.”

The woman was a looker, but she wasn't dumb.
“You're right, Morgan,” he agreed. “We've done similar work with
the list provided by Ms. Everett; we should share.”

“
Yes, we should,” she
said, cut off by a loud bark from Davis. She jogged away and Chris
found himself watching her ass. He ran a hand over his neck. He had
crimes to solve, yet he was standing here ogling a fellow
cop.

Jason appeared then behind his left
shoulder. “Adrienne says it's very likely natural causes. So, not
only is he not our guy, there's no reason for us to hang around
here.”

Great. They were no closer to finding the
stalker than they were this morning, and they'd wasted time and
energy on a dead man. “I'll tell Dylan.”

Jason's blue eyes flashed with pity. “Have
fun with that.”

Chapter Seven

“
What?” Dylan barked at
his friend.

“
Rossi's dead—has been for
probably ten days,” Chris said again.

“
So, he could've blown up
Blue, but he didn't send the headlines,” Cassidy said from the
hallway. After fleeing from dinner she was feeling stupid and
shaky, and this latest development wasn't helping at
all.

The men turned to face her, the look on both
handsome faces telegraphing their shock at finding her standing
there. Dylan recovered first. “It's lookin' that way,” he
answered.

She choked back a groan. She knew now she
was the target considering her recent mail, but they were no closer
to figuring out who it was, nor to stopping him. “Well, shit,” she
finally said, unable to come up with anything more eloquent.

“
Our thoughts exactly,”
Chris agreed. “We're going back through your cases, Cassidy. We'll
find who this is, I promise.”

Dylan shook his head. “Don't make promises
you can't keep, Delmonico.”

“
I didn't,” Chris
insisted. “We will find him.”

“
Until then, though? He's
got to know my address. He knows where she is, who she's with. I
can't risk her like that.”

“
No!” she screamed before
she could stop herself. She swallowed, collected her thoughts. “I
mean, I'm not leaving you, Dylan. I can't.” Again, she'd said more
than she'd meant to, and without thinking. What the hell was going
on with her? Instead of dwelling on her out of character outburst,
she said, “I can take time off work, give J.D. my cases, but I
can't leave you, here or otherwise.”

“
I'd go anywhere with you,
Cassie,” Dylan promised quietly. “As long as you're
safe.”

Chris's head swiveled from Dylan to Cassidy,
his lips turned up in a half smile. “I'll be damned, Black. She
loves you, too.”

The color leeched from Dylan's face at the
same time she heard herself gasp. “You love me?” she managed to
choke out.

“
I do,” he answered, his
golden eyes boring a hole in his friend. “I didn't want to rush
you, and after dinner...” he trailed off.

“
You knew I wasn't ready
for it.” She retreated down the hallway, unable to respond further.
She'd meant what she said—she wouldn't leave him, and she was smart
enough to know she'd have to deal with everything else soon. She'd
think about love, or lust, or whatever after they caught the crazy
who wanted her dead. At least, she thought this guy wanted her
dead.

After Mason's abduction by
someone she'd called a friend, she wasn't ruling anything out, but
she hadn't been threatened directly, had she? He had blown up Blue,
killed Judge Simmons. She blew out a breath. Killing the judge
didn't bode too well for her own existence, but she had to hold
onto the hope that he wanted to terrorize her but not kill her, and
he wouldn't kill Dylan to get to her. If she let herself think
about what was more likely the truth, she'd lose her head, and she
refused to let that happen.

She sighed. She wished she could call Mason,
talk this over with him, but he was in Australia with Kat, and she
wasn't going to interrupt their honeymoon with her issues. They
were gone another three weeks, and hopefully this would all be
behind her before they made it back. It was all she could do to get
them on a plane after the incident at the cafe, and even then
they'd left her with implicit directions to call if she needed
them. How could her overprotective banker of a brother and his
dance instructor wife help in this situation? She sat on the bed
and let out another long sigh. Maybe she needed a bodyguard. She
pinched the bridge of her nose as she thought. No, that's not what
she wanted. She wrapped her arms around herself and fell back
against the coverlet, admitting something to herself she wasn't
ready to say to anyone else. All she needed was Dylan.

~*~

“
What the hell, man?”
Dylan gritted between clenched teeth. He knew she wasn't ready for
an honest to God declaration of love, and now Chris had done it for
him. He just hoped she didn't retreat behind her ass-kicking
prosecutor mask and shut him out.

Chris shrugged, spots of color evident on
his cheeks. “I didn't know she didn't know.”

He shook his head. “She doesn't know what
she knows. She's used to being the strong one, the one who holds
everythin' together for everyone else. Now she's got this asshole
on her tail. She's not ready to deal with me and my shit. She's
just barely allowed herself to care more about me than a passin'
bodyguard.

Chris's dark eyes widened. “You love
her.”

“
We've established
this.”

“
No, you really love her.
Like give your life for her, love her.”

He stared at his friend. Anything less
wasn't love. “I love her.”

“
What the hell is going
on?” Chris asked, his hands flying around.

“
Your Italian is showin',”
Dylan remarked to diffuse whatever situation Chris was worried
about.

“
Whatever.” He paced
around the living room. “First Caufield, then Jase, and now you?
Should I be worried? Running away from women?”

Chris had lost his mind. “What's wrong with
fallin' in love?”

“
Nothing, in theory. And
your women are great, all of them, really, it's just...” He stopped
himself and Dylan didn't question it. He and Chris had talked
enough for him to know his ex Monica had done a number on him,
ultimately causing him to leave Chicago and find his way back to
his family and Aylesford. Still, he couldn't believe the man was
standing in his house telling him he shouldn't be in love with
Cassie.

“
Look, Chris, I don't much
care what you think, but I do need you to find whoever is doin'
this. That's all. Find him, stop him, make him pay. The rest will
work itself out.”

~*~

Cassidy watched the attractive blonde
therapist put Dylan through his paces. She had to admit he didn't
need the sling any longer, and was probably more than capable of
driving as well, yet he'd made no mention of sending her back to
her own home, and she'd made no requests to go back either. It was
more workout than what she thought physical therapy was, but then
again she'd never been shot or even broken a bone. She lived life
inside where she was safe, her only danger coming from the
criminals she helped bring to justice. She shuddered. She might've
been safe before, but she surely wasn't now.