Operation Willow Quest (30 page)

Maybe Tate would be
cheered up by the fact his new wheels could break the speed limit after all. It
didn’t, however, help her situation. She was losing time and Officer Sourpuss
wasn’t making an effort to move things along any faster.

Dropping her head onto
the steering wheel in frustration, she only heard, didn’t see the car that
passed by, slam on its brakes and do a squealing u-turn, despite the officer
staring open-mouthed with disbelief at the driver.

“Hey! You can’t do
that!” the police officer yelled, and Willow’s
head snapped up at all the commotion.

“Willow!”

“Del?” she breathed,
watching him run toward her, shoving the officer out of his way to reef open
the driver’s side door. “Del!
What are you doing?”

“Are you okay?” he
demanded roughly.

“I’m fine. What are
you
doing?” Willow demanded, and saw the officer getting
agitated behind him.

Del
ran his hands over her
and searched her face, smoothing the hair off her forehead and running his big
calloused hands up her neck and jaw as though probing for injuries. Bringing
her hands up to hold his wrists, Willow
pulled his hands away to get his attention. “Del! What are you
doing?
”

“Sir, step away from
the vehicle,
now
!” the officer instructed,
his voice rising in pitch.

Willow
sent a nervous glance
at the furious policeman. She saw he had his hand resting on his gun and the
holster was unclipped. “Del,
you better do what he says,” she warned.

Del
sent the officer an
irritated glare but ignored his warning to move away. “I saw the lights and
then I saw you…I thought—”

Immediately, Willow
realised
what he’d thought. “You thought I was hurt; no,
I’m fine…I got pulled over for speeding,” she admitted with a wince of shame.

“Speeding…in
this
?”

“Step away from the
vehicle!
Now
!”

Willow
jumped and Del spun around in surprise as the officer, tired of
being ignored, drew his pistol, aiming it at Del, his face a bright, unattractive shade
of burgundy.

Slowly Del lifted a hand,
automatically shielding her body. “Look, I saw the car and thought my
girlfriend had been hurt,” he told the man with the gun in a calm, steady
voice.

She was distracted by
the mention of “girlfriend” briefly, until she saw the officer’s gaze drop to Del’s neck where his
silver chain was visible, and his eyes hardened. “Typical—you military guys are
all the same—think you’re above the law just because you wear a fancy uniform.”

“Officer—”

“You stay out of it,
ma’am,” he ordered swiftly, his gaze never leaving Del’s face. “Sir, move away from the
vehicle.”

“Okay,” Del agreed, his tone
placid, as he slowly stood and raised his hands in front of him.

“Turn around,” Officer
Fun-police ordered, unhooking his handcuffs from his utility belt as he
cautiously approached.

“Look, this has all
been a big misunderstanding; he was just—”

“Ma’am, shut up,” he
snapped.

Willow
’s jaw dropped at the
order, turning stunned eyes on Del
as he stared down at her with a snort of disbelief. “You can’t speak to me like
that.”

“Ma’am, that’s your
last warning,” he said as he roughly pushed Del against the van.

Willow
slid from her seat and
stood beside Del,
hands on her hips and frowning at the flustered policeman. “You call me ‘Ma’am’
one more time,
mate,”
she warned, his
overreaction beginning to take its toll on her frazzled nerves.

“Get back in the
vehicle,” he yelled at her, reefing Del’s
arm up behind his back roughly.

“Stop it! He’s got
broken ribs—he’s just come out of hospital!”

“Get back in the car,
or I
will
arrest you, Ma’am,” he
yelled, ramming Del
hard against the side of the car as he tried to turn around. Hearing
Del’s grunt of pain, Willow leaped forward, her fist connecting
with the side of the officer’s jaw in a purely reflex action.

“Then I guess you’ll
have to arrest me.”

Chapter 19

In the back of the
police car, Willow cast Del a worried glance. “Are you sure you’re
okay?”

“I’m fine.”

She stared out the side
window and groaned. “Who’s going to call Tate?”

Del
gave a pained chuckle
and shook his head. “Maybe we should call Maloney instead. Ox might leave us
there.”

“I’m sorry I got you
into this, Del,” Willow said as the patrol car pulled away,
leaving the van locked on the side of the road.

“I’m getting used to
landing in trouble whenever you’re around, Sheldon. Don’t worry about it.” He
sent his beloved car one final glance as they drove past it, and gave a long
sigh.

* * * *

Willow
went through
processing barely registering anything, as she worried that Del’s injuries may have been more serious
than he was letting on. It didn’t occur to her then that being arrested would
quite possibly result in her being deported and severely limit her travelling
in the future.

As she was escorted to
the holding cells in the back of the police station, a moment of panic gripped
her, forcing her to dig her heels in and freeze in her tracks. “Willow, it’s all right, I’m over here,” Del called out from nearby, and the panic
eased immediately. Across the narrow hall, in a cell matching hers, stood Del. “You all right?” he
asked, his steady gaze reassuring her it was going to be okay. She knew he was
worried about her being locked in a confined space like this, but Willow let her gaze drift
around the cell and forced herself to relax. This was nothing like the cell
she’d been kept in before, and she forced the images away, concentrating
instead on the man across from her watching her carefully.

“I’m fine.”

“Maloney will be here
soon,” he promised.

“Good.”
Although she was seriously dreading having to explain all this to Tate, and
almost considered asking if they could just stay in here until he got over
it—then again, the smell of bleach and bad plumbing wasn’t exactly the kind of
atmosphere that encouraged you to stay overly long.

“You should have stayed
out of it, Sheldon. You know that, don’t you?” Del said after a few minutes.

Willow
shrugged, looking up
at the rough textured ceiling and depressing graffiti on the walls. “He was hurting
you.”

“Why can’t you just do
as you’re told?”

Willow
glanced over at him.
“Why can’t you just say ‘Thank you?’”

“Because, you could
have been hurt.”

“You
were
getting hurt.”

“That’s not the point,”
he retorted, and sighed. “You know, only you could
turn a simple speeding ticket into a police assault charge.”

“It was fine until you
decided to freak the cop out by running in to play the big hero as usual.”

“I thought you were
hurt!”

“Well, I was perfectly
fine…
then
…” she pointed out
sarcastically.

“Can’t you two ever
stop arguing?”

Willow
turned and saw Maloney
and the same policeman who’d placed her in the cell, and smiled gratefully.
“Maloney! Are we ever glad to see you!”

“Quite the adventure
you two have had. Charges have been dropped after a few phone calls. And your
policeman is going on stress leave. Seems you’ve tipped him over the edge.”

“Poor bastard, I know
the feeling,” Del
muttered as he waited for the guard to open his cell.

“I don’t think it took
much, from what his superiors are saying,” Maloney continued, ignoring Del’s quip. “This wasn’t
his first…incident.”

“Does Tate know it was
all a big misunderstanding?” she ventured hopefully.

“Sorry, Willow, you’re on your
own with that one,” he said with a shake of his head.

She groaned. “Awesome.
Well, let’s get this over with.”

“We sorted the cars
out—yours is outside, Del,
and here are the keys. Willow,
Tate’s is back with Summer—she can’t wait to tell him you were caught speeding
in it! Okay, I’m off—enjoy the rest of your day!”

They waved him off and
walked to Del’s
car.

“Wait,” Del said, making her
turn and face him. He moved stiffly across to the passenger side to lean slowly
into the interior. Easing out with a small groan, he turned and handed over her
laptop.

Willow
stared at it blankly,
reaching out to take it from him. “Happy now?” she asked, but the words had
lost their sting.

“It’s all still there.”

She dropped her gaze to
the computer in her hands, then lifted a confused glance to meet Del’s hooded one. “I
don’t understand,” she said with a small shake of her head.

“It’s your story. You
can do what you want with it. I won’t stop you.” He turned away stiffly,
leaving her to stare at his back.

“Del, wait.”

He
paused and looked up, a guarded expression on his face. For a moment she
hesitated—old fears and insecurities plagued her, but she saw the barely
concealed hurt lying just beneath his surface and told herself to take the
risk.

“The story isn’t
important. I was coming to tell you, I suddenly
realised
I didn’t have to avenge any more ghosts.”

Del
stared at her in
silence, and she felt her confidence start to slip the longer he went without
speaking. Then just before she lost her nerve completely, he took a step
closer, and then another, until he was standing before her.

“Will, I was wrong to
demand you had to change; there’s not a damn thing I’d want to change about
you. I want you just the way you are.”

“Nothing?” she quipped,
leaning closer to touch her lips to his softly.

“Not a damn thing,” he
growled, kissing her and pulling her close. “Can you stay? Do you think that
would work?” he asked, resting his head against her forehead a few seconds
later.

“The beauty of my job
is I can do it from pretty much anywhere and I can pick and choose my own
hours,” she said and smiled, running her fingers along the collar of his
t-shirt. “I’m thinking about putting down roots for a while and see how I like
it.”

“You won’t get bored
staying in one place for too long?” he asked doubtfully.

“Only one way to find
out, isn’t there? Somehow though, I don’t think living with you would ever get
boring.”

“You want to
live
 
with me?”

“Well, I’m a grown
woman—I can’t live with my sister indefinitely…that’d be just plain sad.
Besides, I heard there was a Marine base around here somewhere and I thought I
might try my luck.”

“That’s a lot of
Marines,” he said, eyeing her with mock concern.

“I’m only interested in
one
Marine.”

“I thought Marines were
Summer’s
 
thing?” he taunted lightly.

“I changed my mind.”

She saw his eyes darken
and his expression turn serious. “You don’t have to change for me, Sheldon…just
give us a fair chance at making it work.”

Willow
slipped into his arms
and placed her hands against his face, feeling the slightly rough texture of
stubble beneath her palms. “I’ve already changed, and it’s because of you. I
want this to work too.”

“We better go someplace
more private before we get re-arrested for public indecency,” Del suggested between planting kisses along
her jaw line.

“Can I drive?”

“Do I
look
 
like I have a death wish, woman?”

Willow
smiled sweetly,
bringing her hands from behind his back to dangle the car keys she’d taken
while she’d distracted him.

“Sheldon,” Del warned, wincing as
he tried to reach for them.

“Come on, Delaware,
where’s your sense of adventure,” she taunted, backing away as she swung the
keys on her finger and slid into the driver’s seat before he could stop her.

With a low curse and
shake of his head, he retraced his steps and eased himself into the passenger
side of his car. “Just be careful…” he almost pleaded.

“Relax, you big baby.”

She grinned as she
reversed from the car park and checked for traffic. “Just remind me again—what
side of the road do you guys drive on?”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR