Sunny trod through the snow, laughing at the rare treat, exchanging smiles and greetings with neighbors and strangers as she made her way to the hospital, stomping her feet before she entered to get the snow off.
Her face was flushed and pretty with happiness when she spotted Tonio in the canteen.
“Hi,” she greeted. “Isn’t the snow beautiful?!”
“Yes, it is.”
“You weren’t here Friday,” she said. “I was worried.”
“I got a stomach bug. I’m much better,” he added, glowing because she was concerned.
“I was off for two days,” she said. “I never take sick days or vacation days, so I had to start taking some of them or lose them. I’ve missed talking to you,” she added.
He beamed. “I’ve missed seeing you, too.”
She got hot chocolate and a nut bar and sat back down. “That friend of mine that I wanted you to talk to...” she began.
He hesitated. “I talked to David,” he said. His face was pale under its light olive tan. “He’s so scared,” he said. “His sister’s scared, too.”
“Why?” she asked gently. “Has something else happened?”
He bit his lip. He wanted to tell her, so badly. “I can’t say,” he said. “That guy, the detective. If he’ll promise to be careful, I’ll tell him. I won’t tell you,” he added, his face grim, his big brown eyes eloquent. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Sunny.”
Her high cheekbones flushed. Her eyes brightened. “That’s very sweet of you. But I want to help. I don’t want you hurt, either.”
He felt warm inside. He felt as if he’d known her all his life. “But he has to make sure nobody knows,” he said. “David’s got throwaway phones. It’s the only way he can even talk to me, and not for more than a couple of minutes.”
This sounded serious. She drew in a breath. “I’ve trusted him with my life,” she said after a minute. “I told on Rado, when it happened,” she added. “I told him, because I knew that Rado did it. He kept my confidence, even though he could never prove that Rado was directly involved. If Rado had known that I told Cal, he’d have killed me, too.”
He relaxed a little. “Okay, then.”
“Cal comes here on cases. Not very often, but if there’s something like that boy who was shot, it’s not unusual for him to be in the hospital.” She grimaced. “He’s easily recognized, because he’s in the news so much.” She smiled. “Female TV newscasters love him. They won’t even talk to Rick Marquez, they go straight to Cal,” she added, laughing. “He’s a widower.”
“Oh, like...” He almost said, like my dad, but he caught himself just in time. “I see.”
“Do you want to try tomorrow after school?” she asked.
He hesitated. He was still uneasy about it. But if it would save David, maybe it was worth the risk. If he did nothing, his friend could die. “Okay,” he said.
“Good. I’ll phone him when I get off duty.”
“You get off real late, don’t you?” he wondered. “Will he be awake?”
“Cal doesn’t sleep much,” she said.
He recalled what she’d said, that the guy had been a merc. “He fought, didn’t he?” he asked.
“Yes. He was in a war in Africa, a big one. The group he was with was decimated. Only a few of them came home.”
He frowned. “Why was he there?”
“The legitimate government was overthrown by a particularly vicious rebel leader. He thought nothing of butchering women and children. Cal and his friends put the elected ruler back in power. They saved hundreds of lives.”
He smiled. “He sounds nice.”
“He is. Try not to worry so much,” she added softly. She frowned. “Can’t you talk to your father about this?”
He shook his head. “He wouldn’t understand. He’d go storming to the police and David would die.”
“I see.” She had a very poor impression of Tonio’s dad. It was such a shame he wasn’t more supportive. “Well, I’ll help you all I can. So will Cal. You don’t tell anybody, okay? Especially not your friend David.”
He started to protest. Then he realized that she was right. David had let it slip about Rado’s connection to the DEA. The boy couldn’t keep secrets. “I won’t tell him,” he promised.
She cocked her head. “He knows something about Rado, doesn’t he?”
Tonio’s face was like still water. He just smiled.
“When you get older, I’m never playing poker with you,” she said abruptly.
He grinned.
“Okay, then, I’ll go to work. You be careful. Very careful. Do you live someplace safe?” she added worriedly.
He wanted to tell her that he lived on a big ranch, that it had lots of burly cowboys, that his dad was a lawman. But she was safer if she didn’t know much. Even about him. Especially about his dad. All she had to do was let something slip around her detective friend, who might mention it to someone who knew his father. He didn’t dare.
“I live someplace safe,” he promised. “You be careful going home in the dark,” he added and was concerned.
“I get cabs,” she said softly. “I’ll be fine. It will work out,” she added solemnly. “You can get through anything if you just think past it, think ahead. Christmas is coming,” she added, laughing. “Santa might bring you something awesome!”
“Dad’s getting me computer software, instead of Xbox One games,” he said sadly. “The only console game I have is Destiny 2. He thinks I game too much already.”
“What sort of software?” she wondered.
“Educational stuff,” he said with absolute disgust.
She burst out laughing. “I used to get perfume.” She made a face. “I’m allergic.”
“Gosh, that’s bad,” he said.
“At least I’m not allergic to flowers, and that’s a good thing, because the ward’s covered up in them this time of year,” she added with a grin. She grabbed her coat and purse. “I wish I could play in the snow,” she said ruefully. “Maybe it will last for a little while.”
“Maybe it will. I’ll see you tomorrow, Sunny.”
“See you, Tonio.”
He watched her walk away and wondered for the tenth time if he was doing the right thing. If he got David killed by talking about Rado, he was never going to get over it.
* * *
Sunny called Hollister on her way through the lobby.
“Tomorrow,” she said when he answered. “Same time as last.”
“Good news at last. Be careful in the snow,” he added. “It’s refreezing. Slippery as hell.”
“I’ll be careful,” she said. “Good night.”
“’Night.”
She went out the door and looked around. There were usually cabs everywhere. But not tonight. Not one. She shivered faintly in the cold. It was only a couple of blocks. If it hadn’t been for the ice, she might have risked it. What if she fell? Snow wouldn’t stop Rado’s gang from looking for victims. She gnawed her lower lip, worrying.
Just as she was thinking about sitting in the lobby until a cab drove up, a big black SUV pulled up at the curb.
“Hurry,” John called. “I’ll get ticketed. My lieutenant would never let me live it down,” he laughed, throwing open the passenger door.
She ran to him, almost sliding down in the process. She jumped up into the cab and slammed the door. “How in the world...?!” she exclaimed.
“I was working on a case with ties to a bank robbery last week,” he said, looking both ways before he pulled into traffic. “Crime doesn’t keep business hours,” he chuckled. “I thought it was about time for you to go off duty.”
“There were no cabs,” she said. “I was debating whether to try and call one. Every time, I get put on hold or cut off, or I get somebody who doesn’t speak English well enough over the phone. I really need to brush up on my Spanish.”
“I’ll read love poems to you,” he teased. “You’ll refresh it very quickly.”
She laughed with pure delight. “You don’t look like a man who’s ever read a poem,” she retorted.
“I have the heart and soul of a troubadour,” he promised. “I’ll prove it to you one day. Not tonight, sadly, I’ve got to write up the report while it’s fresh in my mind. Then I’m going home for a couple of hours’ sleep.”
“You work long hours.”
“So do you, rubia,” he said gently. “We love our jobs.”
“Yes. We do.”
“My lieutenant is having a Christmas party at his horse ranch. We’re all invited. Go with me?”
“Oh, I’d love to,” she said. “But I’m working four more days this week.”
“It’s a week from Saturday,” he said.
“Next Saturday. I’ll see if Merrie York will cover for me. If she will, and my supervisor okays it, I’d really like to go.”
He beamed. “Then it’s a date.” He made a face. “Hopefully nobody will commit a major crime that I’ll be asked to assist in solving. At least, we might get to dance,” he added.
“I love dancing.”
“Me, too.” He glanced at her with wicked black eyes. “I still remember our first dance.”
She flushed. “I felt so bad...!”
He laughed. “You’ll never know how flattered I was when my cousin mentioned what you said.” He didn’t mention that he was feeling really down when she rejected him. One of the nurses he knew had told him what Sunny said, and it had lightened his heart incredibly. Strange, to feel so deeply about the opinion of a woman he’d just met.
“You must know that you’re gorgeous,” she said shyly.
He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not. But I’m very glad that you see me that way,” he added. “You fill my heart.”
Her breath caught, because his voice was low and soft and full of feeling.
“I wish things were different,” he said grimly.
Meaning, that he couldn’t get involved with her. She knew, and understood. He had some sort of complication in his life. She wondered if it was another woman, someone he’d made promises to. She knew so little about him, really.
“You’re worrying again,” he chided.
“I guess I am. Sorry. I’ve had something on my mind today.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
She shook her head, smiling. “I’d love to ask you. But it involves a young friend of mine who’s having problems. He won’t talk to anybody in law enforcement.” That wasn’t quite true. But John didn’t like Hollister and she didn’t want to set him off, when things were going so well with them.
“A patient?” he wondered.
She hesitated, just briefly. “Yes. A patient,” she lied convincingly. “He has a friend who’s being threatened.”
He pulled up in front of her apartment building and cut off the engine. He was very serious. “You don’t need to mix yourself up in anything dangerous. I can help. Tell me what’s going on.”
Her face drew up. Her dark eyes were eloquent. “I wish I could. But I made a promise not to talk to anyone about it. I put him in touch with someone I thought could help.”
“Someone in law enforcement?”
“Sort of.”
“Sunny...” he began, exasperated.
She put her soft fingers over his mouth. She loved the feel of it. He had the most sensuous lips. “I can’t,” she whispered.
He felt her fingers with a sense of wonder at the passion she aroused in him. He turned them and put his mouth hungrily against the palm.
She melted. The hunger she felt was open to him, almost painfully evident.
He ground his teeth together. “This will not end well,” he said gruffly. He let her hand go and got out of the SUV. He came around and opened her door, lifting her down. He held her there for just a few seconds, hoping to subdue the passion he felt. He couldn’t.
“What the hell,” he said roughly. He caught her hand and tugged her along with him to her door. “Open it.”
She fumbled her key into the lock. It was always like this with him. She wanted him. All he had to do was touch her, and she had no will of her own. It had to be a rare thing, this attraction. Probably every woman in the world who felt it thought that she was the only human to ever know such instant joy.
He slid off her coat, and then his. He drew her to him. “I have to go home,” he whispered as his head bent. “I can’t stay.” His mouth brushed tenderly over hers. “I want to. More than anything in the world.”
Her arms linked around his neck, pulling. “Me, too.”
He felt her shiver as his mouth crushed down on hers, gentle for all its frustrated passion. His arms contracted slowly and he lifted her so that she was on her tiptoes, so hungry for his mouth that she had no thought of resisting.
He groaned. “I don’t have anything to use,” he said huskily. “I haven’t had a woman since my wife died. Three years...” His mouth was invasive then, passionate and demanding. “Stop me!”
She was trying to. Her mind said no. Her body was pushing up against his, pleading with him. She was a virgin. She’d never slept with anyone. She went to church. This was wrong. She should say something, do something!
While she was thinking of ways and means to subdue her hunger, his mouth suddenly slid down onto her breast and pressed into it—the damaged one, the one she had to pad so that the wound didn’t show. It didn’t seem to bother him at all.
She felt a jolt of pleasure that went all the way down into her toes. Her caught breath was audible.
He lifted his head. His black eyes were glittering with feeling. “I have scars, too, little one,” he whispered.
He bent and lifted her and carried her to the couch, still kissing her. He dropped down onto it, with Sunny in his lap.
The kiss was so drugging that she couldn’t protest even when he pushed up her long blouse and his hand trespassed onto the breast under the padding.
“Ah,” he whispered, and smiled at her. “Is that all?” he teased, and his fingers drew over the scar, so tenderly. “I have far worse ones.”
“You do?” she managed in a husky tone.
He unsnapped his shirt and pulled it to one side. His chest was broad and muscular, covered with thick, black, curling hair. He drew her hand to a long scar that ran from his left shoulder down his chest almost to his navel. “Feel it?” he asked. “I had to subdue a subject about four years ago. He pulled a knife on me before I could get him cuffed. It took a lot of stitches,” he added with a smile. He cocked his head as her fingers traced it. “Does it make me less attractive to you?”
“Oh, of course not,” she said at once.
He nuzzled her nose with his. “Then why would you think a scar would cause me to find you less attractive? It’s what you are, Sunny, not how you look, that attracts me. You make me...” He paused and searched for a word. He frowned. “You make me whole.”
Her heart jumped into her throat. “That’s how I feel, too,” she confessed.
His mouth settled tenderly over hers. He kissed her with pure reverence. “How strange,” he whispered, “to find someone so unexpectedly who fits you like a glove.”
She smiled under his warm mouth. “I was thinking that, too.”
One big hand went under her and felt for the clasp of the bra. He freed it and pushed the whole works up, staring down at creamy breasts with hard dusky peaks. His face was rigid with self-control as he traced the scar that covered half of her left breast. “This must have hurt like hell,” he said softly.
She swallowed hard. “Yes. But it was what the boy said on that date...”
He smiled. “The idiot?” he teased. He looked down at her soft body. “There’s nothing wrong with you. Nothing, honey. Nothing at all.”
While he spoke, his head bent to her breast. He took it into his mouth and worked the hard nipple with his tongue. She gasped and caught his head, her hands unconsciously tangling in the thick, cool wavy black hair.
“I won’t hurt you,” he whispered against her breast. “Trust me.”
She did. But what he was doing shocked her. It shocked her more that it robbed her of any resistance at all. She arched toward his mouth, her hands tugging at his head now instead of protesting.
He worked his way down to her waist and back up again, slow and gentle and passionate, all at once. It had been so long since he’d had a woman in his arms. It seemed a lifetime. And here was this angel, untouched, unwanted, and she wanted him back. It was like a miracle.
“Mi corazón,” he whispered hungrily. “We have to stop.”
She was on fire for him. She’d never really felt desire before. It was saturating her senses to the point that she didn’t care what happened next. “Are you sure?” she asked dreamily.
He drew back reluctantly. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. She was willing, he was starving. But it wasn’t right. In the morning, she’d hate him. If she was untouched, it was as much because she had principles as much as she lacked self-esteem. He couldn’t take advantage of her.
He smoothed back her long hair, holding her close. The thick hair on his chest tickled her breasts, but it felt like heaven. And not only to him.
“I never knew it would feel like this,” she said, searching his black eyes.
“Two people can start fires together with such an attraction as we share,” he replied. He looked down at her body and clenched his teeth. “I’m going to hit myself over the head with a fire poker later, when I remember that I walked away from you.”
“You could stay,” she offered hesitantly.
“Yes, I could.” He traced her soft mouth. “And in the morning, Sunny, when you come awake and realize what you’ve done?”
She flushed.
“You see?” he asked, his voice deep and slow. “It isn’t only because the stupid boy hurt your feelings. You go to church. You have a fragile conscience.”
“It wouldn’t bother you, though,” she began.
“It would,” he interrupted. “You’re untouched. I can’t offer you a future. Not right now, at least. That being the case, I won’t risk putting a baby in here.” He pressed down hard on her flat stomach and wanted suddenly, desperately, to do just that.
Her breath went out like the tide at just the thought of it. A baby. She’d wanted children all her life. With this man, she wanted them with all her heart. And that was in the face she turned up to him.
For just a few blinding seconds, he thought about it. He could make her pregnant. They could get married, have a life together. And with those thoughts came the memory of Tonio, running away to join a gang.
He groaned and put her to one side. He stood up, fighting a passion stronger than any he’d felt in his entire life. He took slow breaths, trying to calm the anguish desire had kindled in him.
Sunny tidied herself up, grimacing. Had she offended him somehow?
She got to her feet. “I’m sorry,” she began.
He turned and drew her gently into his arms; not too closely, because he was still aroused. “For what?” he asked, smiling. “We wanted each other. It’s not a crime. I’d know, too,” he teased.
She managed a laugh.
“It’s bad, when you start thinking about babies and how much you want one,” he said with a long sigh. “And you know it’s impossible.”
“Babies are easy,” she argued. “You just forget all your principles and beg a man not to stop.” Her eyes twinkled at him.
He chuckled, deep in his throat. “Someday,” he said quietly, and the smile faded. “I promise you. Someday, we’ll have a future.”
“Those complications you keep talking about,” she said, and started to ask what they were.
And his phone went off. He grimaced as he pulled it out. There was a text message, from Tonio.
Adele’s going home, do you want her to leave you something in the fridge?
He typed, yes, omw, and sent it. He put up the phone. “I have to go.”
“Another shooting?” she asked worriedly.
“No.” He bent and kissed the tip of her nose. “Just a meeting I can’t miss.”
“At this hour?” She was worried. “You be careful. There are dangerous people in the city.”
“I know.” He grinned. “I’m one of them. I’ll call you, rubia. The movies, this Saturday?”
“Oh, yes,” she said breathlessly.
“I’ll text you. Then Saturday week, we’ll go dancing at my lieutenant’s party.”
“Something to look forward to.”
“For me, as well.” He bent and kissed her hungrily for a few seconds. He stood up. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
He swept up his hat and coat from the chair where he’d tossed them and put them back on. “Be careful outside in the morning if you have to go out,” he cautioned. “It’s going to be worse than tonight when the temperature falls.”
“I will.” She smiled dreamily. “Drive safely.”
“Sleep well.”
“I will. Good night.”
“Buenas noches, mi alma,” he whispered. He smiled once more before he left.
She locked the door after him, almost floating with joy. It had been so long since she’d felt anything even remotely like what she felt now, for John. He wanted children with her. He’d said as much. That meant he wasn’t looking for a one-night stand.
She was grateful, because she had, apparently, no self-control or willpower where he was concerned. She wished she knew why he couldn’t commit to a relationship. He’d said his wife had died. Was there some other woman to whom he’d made promises, and he was bound by honor to her? Was that why? She wished she knew. He seemed like an honest man, but what did she know about men? She’d avoided them since she was seventeen.
That was probably why John had become so attractive to her. He was the first really adult male who’d ever paid her any attention. Was he just handing her a line, leading her on until he could take her to bed?
She thought about that, about what she knew of him. No, she decided. No, that was definitely not the sort of man John Ruiz was. She knew it. She turned out the lights, put on her gown and went to bed. Her dreams were sweet.
* * *
Tonio was still up when John started heating up the plate of food Adele had left him in the refrigerator. It had been a frustrating day, in some respects. Marquez had sent an officer to get Tina Lopez, but she hadn’t been home and neighbors didn’t know where she went. The officer tried again before he went off shift. Still no Tina.
“You should be asleep,” John commented when the boy joined him in the kitchen.
“I can’t sleep,” Tonio said.
John glanced at him while his food heated. “Problems at school?”
“Sort of.”
“Want to talk about it?”
He did. He couldn’t. “Just normal stuff,” he prevaricated. “How’s work?”
“Tedious.”
“You never talk about what you do,” Tonio commented.
John turned to him. His face was hard and there were deep lines in it. “You don’t know what I have to see at work, Tonio,” he said quietly. “It isn’t anything I can talk about with people who aren’t in law enforcement.”
“You mean like bodies and stuff?”
John nodded. “There are some terrible ways for people to die. I see them.” He turned back to the microwave. “It never ceases to amaze me, what people can do to each other in a temper.”
Tonio had some idea of that. David’s broken arm was a prime example. He sighed.
“You should go to bed, son.”
“I guess. We still going to the movies Saturday?” he added hopefully.
“You bet.” He felt warm inside. Here was his son, who was finally willing to come closer after such a long period of alienation. He smiled. “What do you want to see?”
“That new movie based on the comic book,” he said at once.
John chuckled. “Okay. It will have to be a matinee.”
“No problem.”
“Now go to bed. School tomorrow.”
“I know. But if I get up early enough, I can build a snowman first!”
John just shook his head, smiling. He phoned Marquez later. There was still no luck contacting Tina Lopez. He phoned Banks. Nothing new on the murder victims yet. Longfellow’s note had produced nothing except a grocery list, of all things. Another dead end. He was getting a lot of those lately.
* * *
Later, he texted Sunny, when he was in bed. My life is getting more complicated by the day, he texted. We still on for the movie Saturday?
Sunny answered the phone and saw the first line with pure misery. Then she read the second one. He wasn’t backing away. He really wanted to go out with her. She was so elated that it took her two tries just to type an enthusiastic Yes! in the space and hit Send.
John read it with pleasure. She wasn’t coy. She was up front, honest. She was the sort of woman he’d be proud to be seen with. He wanted her almost desperately. All he had to do was convince his son that the world wouldn’t end if John brought another woman home.
Sunny wasn’t like the very attractive fellow Ranger he’d brought home last year. She was a very feminine, caring, nurturing person. Surely Tonio would respond to her. He just had to bring it up the right way, and go slow. He remembered with terror Tonio running away. He couldn’t risk provoking another such episode.
He’d find a way, he promised himself. He thought about Sunny, remembering her warm, soft body, the way she responded to him. She was innocent, but she wanted him very much. It made him proud. He had to take excellent care of her. He couldn’t risk making her pregnant, but he wanted to. The idea of Sunny carrying his child made his heart run wild.
Sure, he’d find a way to convince Tonio that he wasn’t marrying the Wicked Witch of the West. It would just take time.
* * *
The next afternoon, Sunny was sitting with Tonio in the canteen when a tall, blond man came toward them.
“Is that him?” Tonio asked.
Sunny turned. She smiled. “That’s him.”