ADDISON

I’m not kidding when I say that Dominic Kerr goes against every rule I’ve ever set for myself.

Avoid dangerous situations.

Oh well, I wasn’t exactly doing well with that one, anyway.

Don’t get distracted.

Oh please, I never had a prayer.

Don’t sleep with men you’ve only just met.

Umm, oops.

Don’t get your hopes up that he might actually be “the one”.

But…but…but…

All I thought about after Dominic collapsed beside me—and after I assured myself that my heart wasn’t, in fact, going to beat out of my chest after such an earth-shattering orgasm—was that I had no idea how the hell I was going to face him the next morning, or how I was going to concentrate enough to finish the freelance job I’d been assigned to do.

But, I’ve got to admit, it’s not hard to do.

We haven’t talked about our rendezvous the previous night, and we both avoided it this morning while we rushed around to get ready.

Once, I thought he was leaning in to kiss me, but I dodged him.

It was just easier that way. And he didn’t try again.

Dominic had driven me to my apartment so I didn’t have to show up to the station in the same outfit I’d worn previously, and I stayed silent as he scoped out the perimeter of my place and even entered my apartment before I did, pushing me behind him protectively as he deemed it clear with his gun at the ready.

My own private bodyguard. How hot.

After that, we get coffee and I go about my day, snapping a multitude of pictures inside the precinct, watching the uniformed officers as they look on, choosing my shots strategically.

Acting like I hadn’t spent the night consumed by the police chief’s unrelenting sexual appetite.

I mean, I’d already screwed him once. After the initial embarrassment, why not do it again?

Three mind-blowing orgasms in one night.

I didn’t even know that was possible, and I’m surprised I can even walk this morning.

But I’d do it again. I want to do it again.

He’s not the only one with an unquenchable sexual appetite, it seems.

I just didn’t know I had such a thing…until he brought it out.

I avoid Chief Kerr’s office, and I’m relieved that I’m able to steer clear of him most of the morning while I obtain the raw images I need for SKB’s documentary. My gaze wanders back toward the door of his office, still closed. It’s been that way since we arrived this morning.

I worried about showing up to the precinct with him, and what that would look like. “I don’t care what other people think, Addison,” was the only response I received.

Now, as a revolving door of suited, important-looking people slip in and out of his office, I’m paranoid. Irrational fear grips me that he is somehow being reprimanded for his unorthodox behavior with a hired professional he’d been entrusted to aid.

No one fucking knows. Calm yourself.

I’m still staring at the door when my cell phone rings in my pocket, ripping me from my thoughts. A few officers look up from their files and computer screens at the shrill sound, but quickly go back to ignoring me.

The acid rises in my stomach as a wave of nausea courses through me. The number staring back at me on the display is the same one I’d seen yesterday evening, I’m sure of it.

I answer it, if only to stop the incessant ringing. “H-hello?” I say, but my efforts to sound calm are lost in a firestorm of anxiety.

“You’re running out of strikes, Addy, dear. And you can’t hide in that police station forever.”

The line goes dead.

My father is obviously enjoying himself, playing this out like a made-for-TV horror movie.

“Addison?”

I jump, startled by Dominic’s sudden voice. When I meet his gaze, his brows furrow.

“Are you okay?” he asks, and I can see the war going on inside him, whether to stay where he is in the doorway of his office, or to go to me and show the concern I recognize in his eyes.

“I’m…fine.”

“Good. Can I see you in my office for a minute?”

A few officers are watching us, but if Dominic notices, he doesn’t let on. His serious gaze never wavers from mine as I nod and tuck the phone back into my pocket. He steps to the side, allowing me entrance into his office before shutting the door again.

Inside, three men—two in suits and one in a dress shirt and khakis with a badge clipped to his belt—rise from their seats, their hands outstretched.

I shake their hands, but my gaze is firmly on Dominic now, and my eyes silently question him.

“Addison, these men are from the DEA, and Witness Protection.”

My eyes widen at first, then narrow almost as quickly.

So, this is about my father.

“And?” I don’t try to hide the edge in my voice.

“We’d like to ask you a few questions, Ms. Kent.” The man with the badge is clean cut and articulate. “Chief Kerr has given us a preliminary rundown of the situation regarding your father.”

My eyes dart to the agent only for a moment before zeroing in on Dominic again. “He has, huh? Well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask a few questions of my own.”

Dominic’s jaw tightens and his nostrils flare, preparing himself. He nods, knowing full fucking well that I’m going to make him admit it out loud.

“Why’s the DEA here?” I spit out.

The agent holds up a hand. “Ma’am, I’m here—”

“I didn’t ask you. I asked Chief Kerr.”

Dominic swallows, and his eyes are an inferno, silently willing me to back the fuck down. “I called them,” he states matter-of-factly.

“When?” I bark.

His jaw works again, and I can tell he’s pissed I’m doing this in front of his colleagues.

“Right after I did a background check on you.”

“This morning?”

He clears his throat. “This morning.”

I resist the urge to slap the asshole, but my fists clench at my sides just the same. “You looked into me.” It wasn’t a question.

Our audience can see things going south in a hurry. One of the suits takes a stab at diffusing the situation. “The New Hampshire precincts—”

They were from New Hampshire.

Dominic ran a background check on me using the limited information I’d given him. “Wow,” I chuckle darkly, turning to face him. “You’re good, Chief. I’ll give you that. You’re a damn good cop.”

“Addison—”

“Too bad you’re an asshole of a man.”

I turn to storm out of the office, but his hand catches me at the wrist. “Addison!”

“Get your hands off me!”

He tears his fingers from my skin like he’s been burned.

Which is fine by me, because I’m feeling pretty burned right now myself. And all I can hope is that he feels the same shards of pain I do, because that pain is any chance we had of being more than a one-night thing being smashed to pieces before our eyes.

* * *

How could I have been so stupid? So careless?

My camera bag is slung haphazardly over my shoulder, all the zippers not even done up tightly, and I’m pushing my way through the throngs of people on the sidewalk, trying to get as far away from the police station as possible before the veil of tears start to fall.

Too late. What were once hot, molten tears brimming heavily in my bottom eyelids, now have overflowed into abstract streaks of mascara-tinged emotion dripping from my jaw onto the sun-warmed concrete below.

He ran you through the system. Did a background check on you. Found your family secrets like they were his to unbury.

I feel betrayed.

And yet, you were too busy letting him suck, lick, and fuck you to realize that he was eyeing you up like some kind of criminal.

The tears fall from my eyes so fast that I can barely see through my blurred vision. Sobs wrack my body, making my shoulders bob and tighten with each gasp for breath.

“Fuck…” I mutter in a choked voice. “Fuck!”

A woman in a blazer and pencil skirt scowls at me as I pass her. I turn away, humiliated that I’m not only letting Dominic Kerr embarrass me in front of the police department, but that I’m now allowing him to embarrass me even when he isn’t around. Hell, and I’ll probably never get another freelance gig from SKB Productions again, seeing as I just walked out on this one.

“Fuck!” I exclaim, wiping my eyes. How did something that seemed so right in heat of the moment and the shadows of the moonlight suddenly become so utterly, irrevocably wrong?

To hell with you, Dominic Kerr.

I turn the corner hastily, trudging down the sidewalk with no concept of where I’m even going. Even in my absolute state of emotional upheaval, I know better than to head back to my apartment. Away from the precinct, that’s the only place I need to be. Away from Dominic. I’ll head back to the bus stop, take the first bus back to the depot…

Away from the precinct.

You can’t hide in that police station forever.

A prickle of sudden cold fear races down my spine, and I whirl around to look back in the direction I’d come.

I come face to face with the most familiar green eyes, so similar to my own except that they convey more ice and ruthlessness than mine ever could.

“Dad.” The word falls from my lips in a hushed whisper, as though it’s a foreign curse word I’ve only learned and am prohibited to say.

One quick shove has me tripping over my own feet, falling onto one knee in an attempt to stay upright.

“Hello, Addison.”

He slaps me hard, and my cheek burns with the sting of the impact. In my haste, I struggle to stand again and duck behind the rusty dumpster in the alleyway he’s pushed me into. But my choice to put the dumpster between us as a barricade only puts me further from the sidewalk.

“Scream, and I’ll shoot you.”

It’s been at least two years since I’ve seen my father, but he looks older than I ever thought possible. Haggard, somehow. Prison wasn’t kind to him, and that’s something he’ll always blame me and my damning testimony for.

His empty, dead eyes haven’t changed a bit. No emotion is revealed in them, save for the abundance of hatred and revenge he harbors toward me.

And I believe him.

He will shoot me, whether I scream for help or not.

But be damned if I’ll take other innocent people with me.

This is my war. No one else’s.

So, I stand there, silent, and I watch him.

Gun raised, and eyes sharp with intent, a frightening smirk spreads across his stubbled face. “No last words, daughter dearest?”

I’m using every ounce of strength I’ve got to keep the rising panic within me buried. I refuse to show him fear. After over a year of running from him since he was released, of living in fear of this moment, he found me anyway. It was inevitable, and I know that now. But I refuse to give him what he wants.

I won’t beg and plead for my life. My mother did exactly that, and it didn’t help her. And I sure as hell won’t fear him.

“You’re a coward,” I spit out.

He arches a brow, tilting his head curiously, but the smirk he wears never fades. “You’re as stupid as your mother was.”

“The only mistake I made was being scared of you, Dad.” I stand taller. “I should’ve told them everything. Your drug deals, the people you—”

He lunges forward, pushing me back hard against the brick wall. I hiss when my head smacks against it, and hold that breath in when I feel the cold metal of the gun digging into my chin. “Oh, Addy. But you knew, didn’t you? You knew, and you didn’t tell. Because you know what that means, right? Because it means you’re just as much to blame as I am, even though I was the one pulling the fucking trigger.” His smile widens.

“I was just…a kid!” I choke out, my vision still blurred from the impact of hitting the wall.

“Old enough to know better.”

“I want to know why you killed Mom,” I blurt out, seeing his eyes flit toward the direction of the sidewalk. The dumpster is taller than I am, blocking any hope I have of anyone seeing me. If it’s the last thing I hear, I want to know why he took my mother from me.

Something in his eyes changes. If they were cold before, they were now completely void of…anything.

“For the same reason I’m going to kill you.”

He raises the gun in one fluid movement, and the gunshot goes off, deafening me.

Then, all is silent.