Chapter 2
When Regan woke up early the next morning, the birds were chirping and the sun was starting to rise. The scene was like she was in a freakin’ Disney movie except she didn’t feel like a princess. More like the ugly step-sister. She ran a hand over Colin’s muscled back while he slept. He’d kept them both up late, not that she minded, but when she had to get up at four—forty-five to get ready for work, late nights sucked. She kissed his warm back and rolled out of bed.
Her plan was to figure out the best way to get a quickie divorce before anyone at the station or any of their friends had time to ask why or try to change her mind. She was good at research. How hard could it be to get an uncontested divorce, anyway? With the Internet, instant gratification was at her fingertips, and she was positive that she could get whatever she wanted.
Leaving Colin was never in her plans, and if she could think of another way to keep him, she would. She’d lost too many people in her life.
She was at work by six and plugged into her station, ready for the nine-one-one calls. The dark room was relaxing to the casual observer, but five large television screens scrolled call numbers next to the officer who responded. She had to be careful not to send the same officer to two different calls. Each person had their own workstation, a small cubby with its own computer.
Today someone had vanilla-flavored coffee and Regan could smell it as it swirled around the room. While she waited for her phone to ring, she listened to others taking calls while she checked email. She entered ‘quickie divorce’ into her search engine. The results instantly popped up on the screen. She clicked through to the first result, which claimed that she only needed one hour to complete the forms. After an appearance before a local judge, an uncontested divorce would be complete. With an additional hundred dollars, the company would make sure that the court date occurred within two weeks.
Two weeks would be enough time to get the divorce complete before Colin’s initial court appearance. That would work.
“Trouble in paradise?” a shrill voice said from over her shoulder.
With a swish of the mouse, Regan made the screen blank.
“No, Sheila. It’s nothing for you to worry about.” Regan hated that woman. Sheila Jones, the senior dispatcher on the day shift, could never get promoted to supervisor because people couldn’t stand her. Her biggest flaw was that she was a gossip. There was nothing that happened within the station walls or with one of the officers that she didn’t know about and discuss with everyone. Regan had no doubt Sheila knew about Colin and the civil case.
“Divorce sites?” Sheila asked, raising a slender brow. “But you just got married. I wouldn’t let that stud out of my sight.”
“Well, Sheila, you’re not me.” Regan swiveled around in her chair and stood. “I’m taking a five to use the bathroom.” With a quick smile to Sheila, Regan left the room.
She felt like crying, but didn’t. She was too strong for that. Divorcing Colin was going to be tough. He was so well liked by everyone that she would look like the designated A-hole pitching him to the curb.
Especially after he’d chased her for three years. She hadn’t wanted to get caught by any man, especially one who was a police officer. They came with too much baggage and she already had a trailer full of her own. She’d been content to date, socialize with the dispatch team from work, and flirt shamelessly with the men at the department.
Colin hadn’t taken her hints about not getting serious. He wanted her and made no qualms about it to other officers. But she’d watched other co-workers who’d tried dating a police officer. Most officers were committed to their jobs and needed a woman who understood that. Regan wasn’t worried about handling the stress, but she wanted to be first in her man’s life. Colin made her a priority, so finally when he asked her to marry him, she said “yes” because she loved him, and in the end that was all that mattered.
Now she was stuck with a bunch of complications she hadn’t thought of when she devised this brilliant plan. Locked in the bathroom by herself, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed the one person she could confide in.
“Brian?”
“Regan. What’s wrong? You sound funny.”
Her anxiety started to evaporate. “I’m so glad to hear your voice. I’m in the bathroom at work. Colin and I are getting a divorce.” She hadn’t meant to blurt out the reason for her call, but when it came to Brian, she told him everything. Growing up, she never knew how much time she’d have to talk to him, so she got used to blurting out the truth whenever she had something to tell him. “I hate this foster family. I need three hundred bucks. I’m getting married.” She’d told him all of this without fanfare or build up. She’d wanted to tell him about the divorce in person to gage his reaction, but there was no time.
“What? You said you loved him.” There was an echo in the background on Brian’s side of the line.
“Stop smiling.” There was no need for her to see Brian to know the news made him happy. He’d never made his dislike for Colin a secret. What had gone on between them to cause the rift had always been a mystery. Neither man had revealed anything to her, but she assumed it had a lot to do with the lawyer-cop relationship.
“I never thought he was good enough for you, you know that. I’m just surprised.”
“There’s more to it. Can we get together tonight to talk? Colin has to work the late shift.”
There was a pause and a muffled response. “I only have a minute before court goes back in session, but I should be able to see you tonight. I’ll pick you up at six and we’ll go to our special spot. Got to go.” He hung up.
She felt relieved to have told someone about the impending divorce. It made it more real, more frightening. She was splitting up with Colin, she told herself again. Her heart cracked a little bit more.
Someone pounded on the bathroom door. “I’m coming,” Regan said. She washed her face and hands, and wiped water across the back of her neck to cool her heated skin.
Once back at her desk, she noticed that Sheila was tied up with a project, everyone else seemed to be very busy with work, and no one made eye contact with her. Damn.
Regan’s bathroom break had been all the time Sheila needed to tell everyone about the divorce. Her console lit up with a call. She sat down and slipped on her headset. “Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?”
~ ~ ~
The bullets hit dead center on Colin Rourke’s target. He was still a great shot, despite the pain in his shoulder. Even though it had been almost six months since he’d been pulled down a flight of stairs by a drug suspect, the recoil still hurt the injury.
“Nice group,” Jack Geib, a classmate and friend from the Police Academy, said, securing his rifle.
“Thanks, but look at yours.” Colin hit the button that would bring the target to them. “Three shots in the head touching one another. Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
“I might be good, but still, when the Special Reaction Team gets called in, I’m stuck on some roof top while you guys have all the fun busting in doors and kicking ass.”
Colin checked his watch. “I’ve only got a few minutes before class starts. You know how the lieutenant gets when we’re late. I’m surprised she doesn’t make us do one push-up for every minute.”
The conversation reminded Colin of another night when he and Jack had been shooting at the indoor range.
“I’ve got to get back out on the street. Nights like this bite. It’s so freakin’ cold my balls are hiding up in my stomach. I can’t wait to get home to warm up with my hot, new wife.”
“If I had a wife as smokin’ as yours, I’d transfer off this swing shift crap and be in her bed every night.” Jack had swung his rifle over his shoulder.
Colin clapped Jack on the back and then left. That night, Colin had gone back out on the street to pick up a man on Commercial Street. Going to that call was the biggest freakin’ mistake of his life.
~ ~ ~
Before each shift, the officers gathered to hear announcements, warnings, and whatever else the lieutenant wanted to tell them. Today, Colin arrived in class with moments to spare. The lieutenant glared at him before turning on the overhead projector to start her briefing on the run-down of the night’s activities. It had been a hell of a day and being late would have added to its nightmare quality.
He was still thinking the whole divorce thing had been a dream. There was no way Regan was going to get rid of him because of a stupid court case. He didn’t do anything wrong. Together they’d beat this bad rap.
Once the shift was over, Colin snuck into the locker room, hoping to avoid conversation. His mood went from sour to all-out rotten. He’d arrested three teenagers for drinking underage and punched one guy for grabbing his arm.
“Rough night?” Jack slapped Colin on the back before opening the locker next to his.
“Why?” Colin considered sneaking a peek in the mirror to see if he looked hung over. He shrugged out of his uniform shirt and un-velcroed the straps on his bulletproof vest.
“I heard that the little woman is bailing on you. The big D.” Jack looked around his locker door and made eye contact with him.
Shit.
Trying not to show how surprised he was that someone was spreading his personal information around, Colin blinked then slammed his locker. “Whatever. I don’t know where you heard that, but do you think I’d let a babe like Regan get away?”
Jack shut his locker, the metal-on-metal clank echoing in the cement block locker room. “Just saying what I heard. Know I’m here for you, man.”
A half hour later, Colin only heard half of what people said to him as he left the building and went to his car. His thoughts were three floors up in the darkened dispatch room, even though Regan wasn’t there now. Had Regan been telling everyone that they were going to get divorced? They hadn’t discussed a divorce more than Regan telling him how amazing her idea was. He unlocked the door and climbed into the dark interior. As far as he was concerned, they could take his house, car, and anything else he owned as long as he got to keep Regan. Unless she really wanted to leave him? Was this her way out of their marriage? It had been hard for him to convince her to marry him in the first place.
No. He was being paranoid. The pending case was getting to him. He was seeing doom and gloom in places he didn’t need to look, especially after her willingness in bed last night. He grinned to himself. She’d been a tiger. After he’d gone down on her, she’d been all over him, sucking, biting, and finally sliding down over his hard shaft. His pants grew uncomfortable, and he shifted in his seat. He needed to see her.
Working together had never been a problem before. They reported to different chains of command, and she was able to take a few minutes here and there so they could sneak in quickies now and then. Not being able to talk to her every night and trying to stay away was hell. Between his work and her job, two more days passed and Colin hadn’t had a chance to talk to Regan again about her hasty decision. His mind drifted during class on the second day. He would find her in the building as soon as she arrived. He’d corner her and talk her out of divorcing him.
“Rourke? You with me?”
He snapped his head up and focused on the lieutenant. “Ma’am?”
“You need to report to Internal Affairs this morning before you hit the streets, then the captain wants to talk to you.”
Colin nodded. He hated all of the political bull with administration. He was a cop’s cop. He’d rather be on the streets doing his job, never interacting with the brass.
The higher ups liked him well enough, but he’d never been a fan of politicians and people who were sunshine and butterflies while talking to the media and then talked trash behind closed doors with the people closest to them.
Jack nodded to him as he took the stairs two at a time to the fifth floor. The lofty air. The secretary smiled at him. “Good morning, Colin. The sergeant is ready for you.”
He’d never been to the Internal Affairs office. He knew the sergeant in charge of the unit, but they weren’t friends. Colin scoffed. Was anyone friends with an officer whose job it was to rat out his buddies?
He knocked on the door.
“Enter.”
Colin pushed open the door to reveal the closet-sized office, big enough for a desk, a single chair, and a filing cabinet.
“How’s it going, Sarge? Do I need a union rep here?” Colin asked, sitting in the empty chair.
“You probably should, but I only wanted to run a few things by you. Sorry to put you though this, but it’s my job.”
The sergeant, a big, burly man with a shaved head and enough room on his duty belt for all of his tools and a few extra spaces to carry stuff for the skinny officers, crossed his arms.
“In the Ramirez case, since they haven’t retrieved a body, they only want to go after you to pay for their emotional pain and suffering. Colin, I read the call for service. It said you dropped Ramirez off on the bridge between Port City and Southport.”
Colin resisted the urge to stand, confronting the sergeant on his level. His brain jumped back to the call-in question.
That January night had been bitter cold, but it hadn’t snowed. It was dark, clear, and crisp, one of those nights Colin hated to leave his car. When the radio crackled, he prayed it wasn’t a call in his sector but it had been.
“Four-seventeen. We have a pick-up request at Commercial and Maple Streets.”
“Copy,” Colin said into his mic. He’d left the warm gun range in the station, climbed into the cruiser, put it in gear, and headed toward his call. It was most likely some homeless guy who hadn’t gotten to the shelter before it was full.
It was calls like this that made Colin give thanks for all he and Regan had—a nice home, jobs, and a nest egg—so eventually they could start a family. Regan was always concerned about something happening to him and losing the house. She liked to have a stash of cash in the bank as a safety net. He didn’t argue about it because she almost always deferred decisions to him.
He drove slowly, scanning the streets for a cold guy with a grocery cart. When he reached the intersection, a man stepped out of a doorway and signaled by raising his gloveless hand.
Colin had lowered the window. “Dude, you need a ride?”
“Thanks, man. I need to get to my friend’s house in Southport, but dammit, he ain’t answering his phone. I don’t got no money for a cab,” he said, as he pulled on the passenger side door handle.
“Can’t sit there. Back seat.” Colin gestured to the molded hard seats behind the Plexiglas. No money for a cab? So now he was a taxi driver?
He should have seen the trouble coming. He’d gotten out in the freezing cold to pat the guy down. He never let anyone in his car before patting them down for weapons. It might have been cold, but Colin wasn’t stupid. He’d met officers who were less than cautious and it bit them in the rear big time.
The man made a disgusted face as Colin ran his hands down his jacket and his pant legs one at a time, before Colin gave the all clear for the man to climb in the back.
Colin had returned to his warm seat and cranked the heater to full blast. “What’s your name?” Colin asked, preparing to run his passenger through the system to see if he could spend the night in the warm, welcoming county jail.
“Rodrigo Ramirez.”
Colin’s gaze snapped to the rearview mirror and his shoulder twinged in recognition. Even through the Plexiglas window, he could see this was the scumbag who had dragged him down that staircase six months ago as he’d been trying to arrest the dirt bag for dealing drugs.
“Where do you need to go?” Colin asked tightly, knowing he couldn’t arrest Ramirez on a technicality or anything even slightly plausible. It would look like he was seeking retribution. Fucking dumb luck.
“Broadway,” Ramirez said with a smile.
Colin turned the cruiser around toward the big bridge between Port City and Southport.
As Colin came to the crest of the almost mile-long drawbridge, his passenger pounded on the Plexiglas. In the muffled tone of someone in the back of the cruiser, he yelled, “Drop me here!” It was the last time Colin had seen Ramirez.
~ ~ ~
Colin resented the Internal Affairs sergeant and any information the sergeant gave him. Did he think Colin was guilty? “That’s right. I got a call from dispatch to pick up a man headed for Southport. He told me he was Ramirez, but I did nothing to that guy.” His blood pumped through his body and he needed to punch something or someone.
Regardless of the fact that Ramirez totally deserved a beating, Colin had left him on the bridge where Ramirez had wanted to get out.
“Colin, a video surveillance camera taken from the drawbridge house has footage of an officer driving onto the bridge in a black and white with your plates and then getting out of the car and tossing Rodrigo Ramirez off the bridge.”
Colin felt the ax fall onto his chest. “Are you kidding?”
“I wish I was. We got the footage this morning. It was also sent to the major television stations in the city. This is going to be huge for the department, so you’d better tell me everything you know.”
Colin folded his arms and sat staring at the sergeant. Maybe he needed the union rep and a lawyer. His mind was spinning like bullets in a revolver. This was worse than he’d thought when he told Regan about the case. This was why the captain and the sergeant both wanted a personal audience with him. Ramirez’s lawyers had video evidence against him. He was going to sink along with Ramirez’s cold, dead body. “So how come I’m not being arrested?”
“There’s no probable cause. They don’t know if he’s actually dead. They haven’t found Ramirez’s body yet. With the tides and the current under that bridge, he could be anywhere.”
“Sarge, I swear I didn’t throw anyone off the bridge. You know me. I’m usually the one trying to talk people back onto the bridge.”
“No one is sorry to see Ramirez gone, at least no one here at the PD, but I’ve already received thirty calls from the public saying they saw you on the bridge that night and they want justice served. They don’t want their ‘protect and serve’ people tossing suspects off bridges.”
The humor was lost on Colin. He tried to formulate a plan to get out of this, already tried to figure out how this could have happened to him. He was a good officer and he didn’t have any enemies that he knew of. It had to be a joke.
“Am I being set up?” Colin asked seriously. “Is this Candid Camera?”
“No joke, Rourke. This is very much for real. You’re going to have to meet with the department lawyers as well as the captain. I suspect they’ll want to push this through the courts as quick as possible.”
After a brief pause, Colin looked up. “Can I leave now?”
The sergeant gave him a curt nod and a slight smile. “Good luck.”
Colin bolted from the office. He was going to hell, also known as county jail. They’d find Ramirez’s body, and Colin would take the fall for his death.
He spotted Regan through the window in the dispatch door and his heart constricted. There was one thing he never wanted to do and that was to let her down. She’d had enough disappointment in her life. He watched her handle a call and then she looked in his direction. A smile started across her face. It started in her eyes and traveled to her mouth. He wanted to run in there and crush her in a bear hug, sucking up all her strength and energy, but he couldn’t. She put up a finger, telling him to wait.
She spoke to her supervisor and then stood and strolled to the door. “What’s going on?” she asked, letting the door close softly behind her. “You look like crap.”
He folded her into his arms and kissed her head.
“Not here,” she hissed, pushing him away. “We’re supposed to be ending our relationship.”
“I don’t care. I need you. This divorce thing, I never agreed to it.”
She smiled and pushed him into a closet across the hall from dispatch. They kicked their way past buckets and cleaning supplies until they reached the back wall. He let his eyes adjust to the almost blackness. A sliver of daylight from under the door gave enough light for him to see her.
“What’s really going on?” she asked, pulling his hips to hers.
“It’s worse, much worse than we thought last night.”
She gave him a worried look that he could barely see in the dark closet.
He continued. “They have a video of who they say is me throwing Ramirez off the bridge.”
She stepped back, away from him, but still held on to his arms. “That’s awful. Why would anyone throw someone off a bridge?”
“You know I didn’t do it. I couldn’t. Sure he’s a bottom-feeder, but I wouldn’t kill the guy.” He moved closer to her and heard her breathing hitch. “Regan, sweetheart, we’re in this together. You trust me, right?”
“Of course, I do. I just . . . I need . . . Give me a minute to process this.”
He waited in the dark for her to agree that they would work together to clear his name. He wouldn’t lose everything. He couldn’t.
“The divorce will only take something like two weeks. I checked. And then you’ll have to move out, maybe to Jack’s or I could move to my brother’s. But no. I need to keep the house.”
She was talking without a filter, blabbering on, and he couldn’t take another second of it. He closed the short distance between them, his lips seeking and finding hers. Using only his actions, he pleaded with her, begged her and showed his love for her. Through his kiss, he wanted her to remember she trusted him. They were in this life together, divorce or not.
He didn’t want her going on about them separating. With his forehead resting on hers, he whispered, “I want to know if we’re in this mess together or are you going to bail on me for real?”
She touched her lips with her fingers. “We’ll prove your innocence,” she said softly before kissing him on the lips and fleeing the closet.
He fell back against the wall. Relief flooded through him. She was with him all the way on this. She was tough, tough enough to take on Port City and the court system.
~ ~ ~
As soon as Regan’s shift ended, she ran for her car and the quiet interior. It was difficult to concentrate on everyone else’s problems when her own life was circling the toilet bowl. Resting her head on the steering wheel for a minute gave her the chance to catch her thoughts.
Her phone rang. It was Brian’s ring tone. She ran her finger over the screen to answer it. “Brian.” Her friend had always been there for her.
“Hey, squirt. Are we still on for tonight?”
“That would be great. Colin has another few hours to his shift, and I need to talk to you.”
“I’ll see you at our restaurant in half an hour.” He hung up without saying goodbye. It was one of his quirks, never to say goodbye. Regan figured that he thought if he never said goodbye, then she wouldn’t leave him either. He’d already lost two sets of parents, losing more family would mess him up.
She squealed her tires as she pulled into the small parking lot of the Pizza Hideaway. They’d spent enough time here to equal months of their lives. The memories of this place threatened to overwhelm her, and she sat in the car a few minutes to settle her emotions. This was where she and Brian had met after they’d been separated. Every chance they got, they came here to talk and share what was going on in their lives.
She knew crying it out would help her rattled emotions, but she wasn’t that type of person. A rap on the window startled her.
“Ma’am, could you step out of the car, please?”
She sighed and lunged for Brian. He wrapped her in a hug and kissed her forehead. “I’m so glad to see you.”
“Me too,” he said, hugging her tighter.
He was her older brother, but not by blood. Her parents had taken him in when he was eight, adopted him and raised him as their own and as her sibling. She’d been six at the time and thought having an older brother was much cooler than getting a baby brother or sister. Her parents had died on the plane that’d crashed a week after the World Trade Center disaster. Together, she and Brian survived the troubling teen years and made it through college stress.
Over the years, Brian had rushed to her rescue and scared off boys who weren’t good for her. He hadn’t been able to scare Colin off, however much he tried.
Regan led the way inside and found a quiet back table. The checkered tablecloth and drippy candle was stereotypical, but she thought it was perfect and asked for their candle to be lit.
Brian took hold of her hand. “Tell me what’s going on. You seem sad.”
“I am,” Regan said, “I’m divorcing Colin.”
“It’s about time.”
“Brian,” she chastised. He could be so exasperating. “This is serious. I have to keep from possibly losing everything we have.”
“I guess that makes sense.” He squeezed her hand. “As a lawyer, I have to tell you that they might still come after you if they thought you weren’t divorced for real.”
“That’s not true,” she stammered. “Divorced is divorced. No longer together. Dating others.”
The thought of dating someone or having some bimbo latch on to her husband made her queasy. Put on your big girl panties, she told herself. She had to do this for their future.
“Colin’s loss.”
“It’s not for real, Brian. We’re getting divorced so Colin won’t own anything.”
Brian pulled his hand back and crossed his arms.
“That’s a dangerous game you’re playing, Regan. I’d think long and hard about it. Anyway, it’s your decision. If you want to move in with me, I have a spare room.”
“Thanks, Brian. It feels so good to tell someone. The plaintiff’s lawyer has a video that shows someone who could be Colin throwing a man off the big bridge between Port City and Southport. I haven’t seen the video, but, oh, Brian, this sucks.”
“You’ll be fine once you get away from that jerk. I never thought he was good enough for you.”
“What’s up with you?”
“I have a few irons in the fire.”
“Like?”
“Nothing you need to worry about. It should be profitable.”
The waitress came, took their order, and delivered their drinks. Regan watched the people in the room. She always wondered if any of the people she saw were ones she helped on the job. The people who called her line were faceless people handling some of the worst times of their lives.
Who was her nine-one-one operator?
She smiled at Brian as they shared a pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, and onions. Her phone chimed that she had a text message. From Colin. He was leaving work and heading back to their house. She tucked the phone back into her pocket.
“Something important?”
She shrugged. “Nothing that can’t wait until we’re done.” Why she didn’t tell him it was Colin, she wasn’t sure. He was her brother in reality, if not by blood. She trusted him as much as she trusted anyone. There were some things he didn’t need to know. She sucked in a deep breath and choked down another bite of pizza washed down with a long swig of beer.
“I’ve got to go home,” she said finally.
Brian gave her the big brotherly look that said, Don’t do anything stupid.
She wanted to laugh...Stupid? Like divorce your husband to keep everyone’s assets safe?
She left a few bills on the table, and after a quick kiss on the cheek, she left Brian.
Colin’s car was waiting for her when she pulled into her garage. Talking to Brian always made her feel better about things. This time he made her uneasy. Was it possible that someone could come after them for fraud even though they were actually divorced?
She turned the doorknob, and with a sigh, she went into the house.
“I wanted to be standing in the doorway with only my shoes on, but that’s been done,” Colin said with a wink.