Unauthorized Return (Unauthorized Series Book 4) (5 page)

Hunter Foley looked through his pants pockets one more time, then ran outside and searched his car again. It was hopeless. He knew he had taken his phone to work yesterday, and that was where it disappeared, but he couldn’t help being thorough. It was in his blood. He walked slowly back into the house, going over yesterday’s activities in his mind one more time. When he entered the kitchen, Jen came out of the bedroom, looking tight in her uniform, with her hair slicked back.

“You still can’t find it?”

He shook his head balefully, almost sick at the thought of it being gone. People were depending on him. People who had that number. He had to be at the airport in two hours. He hoped the day didn’t get any worse.

“Sorry babe,” Jen said, slipping her arms around his waist.

“Not your fault,” Hunter said, planting a tender kiss on the corner of her mouth. “I’ll get another one at work. I’ll text you the number as soon as I can.”

Jen nodded and reluctantly let him go. “When will you be back?”

“Friday night if everything goes well.”

“OK, I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too, but it’s only a few days. Stay focused.”

Jen smiled, a twinkle in her eye. “Yes Assistant Chief. Anything you say Assistant Chief.”

“Don’t you forget it,” Hunter growled, his mind casting back to last night, when she’d said exactly those words, just before giving him exquisite, mind-blowing pleasure. God a man could get used to that kind of thing. His life had never been so amazing as during the last few months. He couldn’t wait until she finished recruit class. He was planning on taking her on a vacation to the Caribbean as a graduation gift, and maybe asking her to marry him. He’d never known anyone who made him feel so wonderful, who completed his life in such a big way.

He pulled her close again and wound his fingers in her hair, messing it slightly, but unable to help himself.

“Hey big boy, fingers off the merchandise," she told him, but her words had no bite. She slipped closer to him and rubbed against him, making him groan.

“God if only I had three minutes,” he complained, and she laughed.

“Three minutes!” Come see me when you’ve got thirty," she admonished him, then pulled away with finality, leaving him slightly saddened.

“Now I’m going to be late,” Jen said, grabbing her lunch and waving at him as she rushed out the door. Hunter watched her go, saying a silent prayer for her safety, as he always did.

Hunter took one last look through the house and finally gave up. The phone was gone.

***

Assistant Chief Dick Harrison stalked through the halls of the police department, an uneasy feeling following him. He felt like he was forgetting something. But what? He knew who was protecting Coleton Savoy. Sgt. Gale. That was bad because she was incorruptible, but good because he was certain he could outsmart her. She wasn’t quite as high and mighty as she thought she was and he was going to prove it. Plus she was new school, so he didn’t care if she ended up as collateral damage. Her dad had been old school, but still not one you wanted to stray too far outside the lines with. Harrison had always hated that old bastard but never felt one way or the other about his daughter. Until now.

Harrison fingered the phone in his pocket. He’d stolen it off of Assistant Chief Foley’s desk the day before, at great personal danger to himself. Foley already suspected him of not being 100% clean. If he knew that Harrison had his phone, that would push him over the edge - he’d go straight to the chief and get him investigated. Harrison swore under his breath about the unfortunate circumstances that had gotten the last chief arrested and how the flow of bribery money that had been coming into the station from Fiore Savoy stopped. But then Savoy had contacted him directly and offered him twice as much money if Harrison helped find and eliminate Savoy’s son. Harrison had his eye on a number of
business
investments that he would be able to buy once this was all finished. He was exactly the right guy to pull this off.

With any luck Gale would call soon and he could get her location. Then this all would be almost over, quickly. But just in case, he had one more errand to run first. He turned to the door marked
Dispatch
and pushed it open, glad to see the dispatch sergeant right there waiting for him.

“All set?” he asked, not liking this man enough to try to make any small talk.

“Yep, we’ve got the traces set and everyone knows if she calls from any other number the call is to be forwarded immediately to you.”

“Perfect,” Harrison said, and showed his teeth in an approximate smile. “Anytime day or night, it doesn’t matter.”

The other man nodded. “Got it. We’re ready for her.”

“You better be,” Harrison replied and retreated back out the door. That was the last thing he could do in house for now. The next step was to get out on the road and start talking to people. Spread the word that Coleton Savoy was alive and well and there was a bounty on his head. Get some eyes on the street. He would find them, no matter where they had gone.

Once he was certain that Foley was out of the city limits he would come back and go through his files. With any luck the idiot had it written down where Gale took Savoy. That would make all of this double easy. But he knew not to expect too much. Besides being suspicious, Foley was smart and careful, which meant the chances of Harrison finding a location in Foley’s file were slim.

No matter. He knew how to grind. He would find them. He had over a million dollars riding on this, and that made a man very innovative.

Aria opened her eyes quickly and took in the room around her. Quiet. All was well. She got out of bed silently and headed towards the tiny living room to check on Coleton. Sounds of exertion drifted her way and she stopped, her hand going automatically to her gun. But the sounds weren’t menacing. Two more steps took her far enough that she could see Coleton, on the living room floor doing pushups, facing away from her. His shirt was off and she could clearly see the muscles in his back and along his sides bunching and clenching as he lifted and lowered his weight.

Aria watched for a long time, strangely fascinated. She hadn’t realized he was so muscular, or that he worked out this way. Something in his manner struck her as incredibly brutish and masculine, as he punished his body with push up after push up - he had to be over one hundred by now. Yesterday, he’d seemed soft-spoken, mostly thoughtful and mellow, but right now he looked raw, powerful, ready to attack and assail. Sweat glistened off of his back and she watched a clear drop traverse the path of least resistance between two defined muscles.

Aria stood in the hallway, lost to herself, her body suddenly thrumming with heat. She bit the inside of her lip but felt nothing. With a heaving grunt, Coleton dropped to the ground and Aria realized where she was and what she was doing. She was in the hallway, staring at her charge without him knowing, like some sort of a female pervert.

Quickly, she backed up and retreated into the room, silently climbing back onto the bed to feign sleep until he was done. For some reason she didn’t want him to know she had seen.

She heard the bathroom door open and, in another moment, the shower turned on. She breathed a sigh of relief and headed out into the living room. He had neatly folded his sheets and blankets and stacked them in the corner. She sat on the couch and snapped on the TV, hoping to catch some news. Nothing but game shows. Somewhere, a baby cried again, long lusty wails that were enough to break a mother’s heart.

She heard the shower snap off and tried to prepare herself for him to come out in a towel. She would die. But she would look.

Lucky for her, he came out fully clothed, wearing cowboy-jeans he had bought the day before and a simple, deep-blue shirt that stretched over his muscles invitingly. She looked at his face, suddenly feeling awkward.

He smiled at her, then plucked at his shirt, noticing where her eyes had been. “I guess they run small,” he said apologetically.

“Oh,” she breathed, unable to say anything else.

“I watched the 5 a.m. news,” he told her, heading into the kitchen. “They didn’t say anything new about the explosion or me.”

“You’ve been up since 5 a.m.?” she asked.

His voice drifted out of the kitchen, along with the sound of pots banging. “Yeah, I’ve had a hard time sleeping for the last several months. I’m only managing a few hours a night.”

Aria stood and walked into the kitchen to talk to him easier. “That’s awful. How do you manage?”

He had his back to her and was breaking eggs into a pan. “Once a week I take a sleeping pill and try to catch up, but mostly I just drink a lot of coffee.”

“Is it because of your father coming after you?”

As soon as the words were out of Aria’s mouth, she winced and wanted to take them back. What a stupid thing to say.

Coleton turned and looked at her, and she expected to see reproach in his eyes. Instead, they were bright and calm. “Yes, it is. He’s scared me since I was a little boy and I guess he still scares me. Well, maybe he scares me even more now that he’s tried to kill me twice.”

Aria’s eyes narrowed. “What? There was another time?”

Coleton scrubbed his face with his hands. “Yeah," he said sheepishly, like it was his fault.

“Tell me,” she said, all business in an instant, the image of his shirtless chest finally pushed from her brain.

“There’s not much to tell really. Before I went to New York I tried to hide out in Atlanta, Georgia, but they found me there quickly. I had to use my atm card a few times on the way there and I guess that’s how they traced me. I was walking in the park and two men grabbed me and tried to push me into a van. I fought them and got away. They shot at me but missed. I was lucky they didn’t just shoot me while I was walking down the path - not even give me a chance to fight back.”

Aria nodded. “You were. Did you report the incident to the police?”

Coleton turned back to the stove and stirred the eggs, then began chopping something on the counter. “No, I just took off and went to New York. And I didn’t use my bank cards again.”

“How did you manage that?”

“I contacted a lawyer in California. I gave him power of attorney to pull money from my accounts and have it deposited in a new bank - one that had branches everywhere in the country. When I needed money, I drove to New Jersey or Maine and picked a different branch every time. I knew there was no way my dad could watch all of them. Besides, by this time I was using a fake ID that I felt confident he couldn’t crack.”

“But he found you.”

“I’m not sure if he did or not. I left New York because I had a feeling he was about to, and this time there would be no warning, no way to fight my way out. I started feeling too nervous to go home, like he had ordered my apartment rigged to explode or something.”

“How long have you been in Westwood Harbor?”

“I got in yesterday morning. I drove straight to the police department.”

Aria shook her head. “That means it has to be a cop that rigged your car to blow up. If your father’s men had been following you from New York, they would have just killed you on the highway somewhere.”

Coleton nodded, his back still turned, his attention focused on the food he was preparing in front of him.

“How long were you at the police station before the car blew up?”

“Maybe two hours.”

“Plenty of time for someone to rig your car if the person already had the explosives.”

“Yeah, but in broad daylight?” he asked.

“It didn’t have to be hard. He could have slung a bag full of C4 under your hood as he was walking by.”

Coleton turned, knife in hand, eyes burning. “Are there cameras in the parking lot?”

“There are cameras on the building, but your car was out of their field of vision.”

Coleton’s face fell and he turned back to the counter.

“But it gives us a starting point. When I talk to Assistant Chief Foley I’ll ask if they’ve checked the cameras for people walking through the parking lot with bags or packages in their hands.”

He nodded but she could tell by the slump of his shoulders he wasn’t very excited by that.

Coleton threw a handful of food into a pot where it began simmering and a wonderful scent filled the kitchen. Aria’s mouth began to water. Within a few moments, he had two ham and cheese omelets on the table. Aria dug into hers eagerly, then closed her eyes and moaned in delight. “This is heavenly. As good as the lasagna.”

“Compliments will get you fed all week long,” he said, taking a large bite of his own food.

Aria huffed softly, planning to compliment him every chance she got. She ate silently, her entire focus on her melt-in-her-mouth omelet, so she was completely taken by surprise when he next spoke.

“Your sister stole my car,” he said.

She looked up at him, dumbfounded, her food forgotten. His eyes were trained on his omelet, but he was just picking at it. His expression was unreadable, but his mouth was tight and she thought she read shame in the set of his neck and torso.

“Stole your car? What?”

“Yes, she stole my car. She conned me. Tried to make me think she was interested in me, and then walked out of my apartment with my car keys. I never saw her again.”

Aria’s mind couldn’t grasp the information. Ava wasn’t a car thief. Or a con woman. But then Aria never would have thought Ava was a husband-stealer either.

Aria held up her hands. “Wait wait wait, tell me from the beginning.” She winced at the tone in her voice but she couldn’t help it. She had to know.