John

I’m paralyzed for a few seconds when I realize the girl with her hands up is Mallory McDonald. As quickly as my impromptu gaping session starts it’s over because I realize that she’s going down. Racing across the room at high speed, I’m damn lucky to reach her before she hits the horribly stained carpet. She weighs next to goddamn nothing in my arms and I find myself annoyed that she’s lost weight in the last six months. She didn’t need to lose an ounce—Mallory has always been perfect. Lifting her into my arms, I carry her over to the shabby sofa and lay her down.

Hitting the button on the walkie-talkie on my shoulder I bark, “I need an EMT ready to come down in the basement on my order. I’ve got a fainter.”

Once I finish speaking I look back over my shoulder at Nico and Leo. “Need you to hurry up and clear this so I can take care of her.”

They nod their heads in tandem as they come further into the basement apartment and begin conducting the sweep. I want to stay facing Mallory on the couch but protocol in a breach situation is specific. I need to stay sharp and keep my eyes on the room at large. Failing to do so could turn a bad situation worse and I owe it to Nico and Leo to stay frosty. Fortunately, the place is small as hell so it doesn’t take long for them to scout the entire place.

“Clear,” Nico declares as he steps back into the living area. “We found suitcases and signs of travel in the room—don’t think she’s been here long.”

“Anything weird in her stuff?” I ask, already knowing the answer will be no. Mallory is the sweetest woman alive. She wouldn’t get involved with trash.

“It’s all clothes and toiletries and shit. No drugs or money.”

I nod, not at all surprised, before I press the button on my walkie again. “We’re ready for the EMT but for fuck’s sake send in Barbra and not fuckin’ Curtis,” I order. Even the idea of Curtis getting a look at Mallory is not okay with me. That douchebag hasn’t ever come across a pair of thighs he doesn’t want to get between. Normally I ignore his over-the-top bullshit but I know if he so much as says one flirty word to Mallory, I’ll probably put him through a wall. She’s off-limits, period.

Crouching down in front of the couch, I stare at the beautiful woman I haven’t seen in just over six months. Mallory was always gorgeous but I swear she’s even more stunning than ever. She and her grandma Ruby were my downstairs neighbors for two years back when I lived in Chattanooga. I wanted Mallory—badly—and had even swallowed my pride—seven separate times—to ask her grandmother for permission to take her on a date. I was rejected out of hand each time, which wasn’t really a surprise since her grandmother was easily the strictest person I’ve ever met in my life.

Mallory had never been permitted to date—something I thought was fucking nuts considering she’d been twenty years old the first time I’d gone to her grandmother seeking permission. As crazy as it was it didn’t matter what anyone else thought since Ruby’s rules were all but carved in stone and Mallory was a good girl who adhered to them. I’d never been allowed to spend any time alone with her and it fucking sucked.

Ruby was firm on the fact that Mallory would meet her future husband in church or not at all. I’d wanted Mallory enough to consider changing churches but in the end I knew it wouldn’t matter because in Ruby’s eyes I was a heathen after she’d done some digging and found out that I’d had a girl living in my apartment for six whole weeks the summer after I started police academy. That was enough to put a black mark next to my name.

“You got the milk for free,” Ruby said with an imperious huff. “The poor girl you lived with is probably washed up and living a life of sin thanks to your debauchery.”

The “poor girl” in question had cheated on me with the mayor’s son—who she’d since gone on to marry in a lavish country club ceremony. On the whole, I figured her life had shaken out pretty well. Unfortunately, Ruby did not see it that way. After two years of trying, I couldn’t take the torture of being so close and yet so far from the only girl I’ve ever really wanted, so I applied to the Nashville PD and moved. I hoped time and distance would make me want her less but that shit hasn’t worked at all. Lately I’ve even been considering transferring back to Chattanooga just to be near her, and that’s jacked because I feel more at home in Nashville than I ever did in Chattanooga.

Staring at Mallory, I feel something inside of me shift. I’m not a guy who believes in fairytales but straight up, her rosy lips are giving off one hell of a sleeping princess vibe. Even passed out, she’s undeniably beautiful with her long blonde perfectly curled hair. On top of all that she smells like strawberry bubblegum and I’m desperate for a taste of that sweetness. Further inspection shows that her porcelain skin is as perfect as ever, not a blemish in sight. Setting my fingers against her wrist, I check her pulse and breathe a sigh of relief when I feel that it is steady. Looking down at her dainty hand, I notice her perfectly shaped fingernails are painted a bright glittery pink. Miss Ruby had not allowed color of any kind. I’m surprised but also fuckin’ relieved to see that Mallory is rebelling. Maybe, I think, just maybe, Ruby is no longer in control. I’m closer to the girl I’ve pined for than I’ve ever been, and I know without a doubt there’s no fuckin’ chance I’ll be able to walk away again.

As I take in what Mallory has on, I smile. She’s wearing a white tee with the word love written across the chest in pastel glitter and I’m seeing a lot more of the supple and soft looking skin on her legs than I ever have because she’s wearing cotton-candy colored shorts and a pair of aqua-colored ankle socks with little pink and white unicorns on them. On anyone else, I’d probably think this shit was ridiculous but on Mallory, it’s cute as fuckin’ hell, especially since Ruby only ever allowed her to wear tan, white, navy, or baby blue—absolutely no patterns or flowers or anything like that. Mallory’s personality has always been bright like sunshine and now her style matches what has been inside the whole time.

“The EMT is coming down now,” Leo announces.

I jerk out of my reverie and glance over my shoulder to find him and Nico studying me with great interest. The downside of becoming such good friends with my co-workers is that they’re cops. This means they’re both observant as fuck and they miss nothing. Not wanting to get into it, I turn back around and look back to Mallory.

A few seconds pass in silence before Nico speaks. “You good here if we go upstairs?”

I nod but don’t look away from my sweet girl. “Yeah. I gotta find out what she’s doing here as soon as she’s awake.”

“You going to back off,” Barbra jokes as she steps beside me, “or will I need to climb into your lap to check her over? Cause I gotta tell you, even though my husband would not be happy, I think it’d be worth it.”

I give her a wry look as I stand up and move back to allow her access. After taking my headgear off and setting it down on the table I watch in silence as she checks my sleeping beauty over.

“Hon,” Barbra says in a no-nonsense voice as she waves ammonium carbonate under the girl’s nose, “it’s time to wake up.”

Mallory whimpers and wrinkles her nose as she turns away from the smell. After taking a few deep breaths she turns back toward Barbra and blinks in confusion. “Did I faint?”

Jesus, her voice is still so fuckin’ sweet. As usual hearing it has awakened all of my senses.

“You sure did,” Barbra says with a nod, “but you’re fine now. How about you sit up slowly so you can take a sip of this juice box I brought down for you. Sugar will help stabilize you.”

Mallory nods, sits up and accepts the cherry-flavored juice. After a few sips she pushes her hair back from her face and leans forward to set the juicebox down on the rickety as fuck parsons coffee table in front of the sofa. As she does this, she looks beyond Barbra and sees me.

“Oh my God,” she whispers. “John.” When her face lights up in a smile I feel like my heart is being squeezed. Fuck me, that smile could bring me to my knees.

“I thought I dreamt you!” she laughs.

My responding grin fades as her smile turns down and becomes a puzzled frown. “Why did you break down the door? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

I see Barbra looking at me like I just kicked a goddamn dog but it’s not like I had any clue what was waiting for me—for any of us—on the other side of that door. Also, as much as I don’t want to deal with it, right now I do have a job to do.

“Raided the whole house,” I answer, “not just the basement. We’re here to arrest Mario Santini and any of his associates. Didn’t mean to scare you, honey. That being the case I need to ask why you’re here.”

Mallory’s mouth forms a perfect O as her eyes widen. “He’s a criminal?” she asks.

I jerk my head and nod once. “He is, and I’m really not fuckin’ happy that you’re in his house, babe. You got anything to do with him or his shit?”

If Barbra’s eyes had the ability to shoot daggers, I’d be on the floor right now. I give her a pointed look before I go back to focusing on Mallory. It’s not like I don’t already feel like shit for asking my girl—someone I know is about as dangerous as a baby doe—if she’s consorting with trash.

Her lips tremble as she takes a deep breath. “I have nothing to do with him or his stuff. I rented this place for a month from the Temp Rent site. It didn’t look this bad,” she gestures to the ramshackle space, “in the photos. I thought it was old but clean—boy was I wrong.”

I grind my teeth together. Jesus fuck, she has terrible instincts. Even the best photos in the world would show this place for the tragic seventies leftover it is. The couch is brown with yellow accents and there’s shitty wood paneling everywhere I look. There’s no way this looked good online. “You rented a place without seeing it in person?” I ask.

“I, um, just moved into town today,” she answers. “I rented it in advance so I’d have a place to stay.”

I open my mouth to ask her what the fuck she was thinking but I’m interrupted by the sound of Barbra’s radio with a call in for an ambulance.

Barbra shakes her head as she hastily stands and packs up her go bag. “No one else injured or in need of care here means I’ve gotta take this call.”

“See ya,” she calls over her shoulder with a pointed look at me as she heads for the door.

With a heavy sigh, I pull a small notepad from my back pocket and grab a pen from a slot on the front of my jacket next to my small flashlight.

I already know her name and date of birth, so I write those down first. Looking up I meet her eyes. “Gotta ask you some questions.”

Mallory nods. “Okay.”

“What time did you get here?”

When she looks down at the small silver watch on her wrist I think about the fact that jewelry is another thing she was never allowed to have before. “About three hours ago,” she responds.

“Had you spoken to Mr. Santini at all before today?”

“Well, not like spoke to him, spoke to him?” she says, like it’s a question. Even being interrogated she’s damn cute. “We never talked on the phone but after I paid for the month online he sent a welcome email telling me everything was good to go.”

Mario is a piece of shit but fleecing innocent women of their money is next level. It’s good he’s currently in handcuffs or I’d be kicking his ass right now.

“Did you notice anything weird when you got here?”

Mallory gestures around the space again. “Other than the fact that the front lawn looks like a scrapyard, the entire place reeks of cigarettes and that Mario wasn’t into refunding my money? No.”

“Was he tweaking?”

She cocks her head to the side, her blonde hair falling over her shoulder as she does. “Does that mean drugs?”

Fuck, she’s still so innocent. “Yeah, babe. I mean drugs.”

She shrugs. “He seemed a little high strung to me but I’ve never been around anyone on drugs so I can’t be sure.”

I sigh as I look around the dump of an apartment. “What did you pay for this?”

She winces and bites her lip before answering. “Seven hundred for the month,” she murmurs.

It’s a struggle to keep my composure and not stomp up the stairs and out to the squad car I know Mario is sitting in so that I can knock him the fuck out. He robbed my girl and that shit is unacceptable. This shithole is worth about seven dollars a year. There’s no insulation, which means it’s muggy as hell down here and the furniture looks like it’s probably one sneeze away from falling apart. Even seeing her sitting on that tacky velour couch is making me twitchy.

“Can you show me anything to confirm what you’ve told me?”

She nods and points to something behind me on the floor. Turning, I realize there’s a phone face down on the carpet. I grin when I see that the case is multi-colored and festooned with glitter. If Ruby were around, there wouldn’t be a cellphone at all. Walking over I pick it up and then bring it to her. Mallory looks it over and then breathes a sigh of relief.

“I was sure the screen had broken,” she says softly. “Guess there’s a silver lining in this cloud after all.”

She’s always been so sweet—no artifice or anger inside of her at all. It’s part of what draws me to her. Watching her sliding her fingers across the screen, I find myself praying that my dick doesn’t get any harder than it already is. After less than thirty seconds of scrolling, she holds it out to me. Taking it from her, I read the email she pulled up. Sure enough, she rented this shithole online about three weeks ago. The email exchange between her and Santini is brief and impersonal.

“Looks like I picked the wrong rental,” she says quietly. “Now I’m out seven hundred bucks.”

“Temp Rent will have to refund your money,” I assure her.

She shakes her head. “They won’t, and it’s my own fault because I was too poor to pay the extra fee for travel insurance. I wanted to leave the second I got here today but without the insurance, there was nothing I could do. Now I’m really in a pickle.”

“Babe—”

“Hey.”

Turning, I realize Nico came into the room at some point and he’s watching me with interest. I’ve been so locked on Mallory I didn’t even notice.

He jerks his neck back toward the door. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Running my hand through my hair, I nod before looking back to Mallory. “Be right back, honey.”

“Don’t worry,” she chuckles, “I won’t go anywhere.”

I turn and follow Nico to the tiny hallway outside of the apartment. “We got his ass dead to rights,” he says with a grin. “ATF is coming in to confiscate the cases of stolen booze and the unregistered firearms. Dogs led the squad straight to a metric fuck ton of coke beneath the floorboards in his closet and then to his mattress, which was packed with heroin. They’re goin’ through all the junked up cars in his yard now. Leo says they already found a pound of weed in one of the trunks. This one’s a slam dunk for us, brother.”

This should be cause for celebration but instead it sets my teeth on edge. We’ve been watching Santini for months, slowly building our case. If we hadn’t come today, Mallory would’ve been in this hellhole while one doped up fuck after another came through to score.

Nico gestures over his shoulder toward where Mallory is in the apartment. “Gettin’ that you’re not thrilled about all the shit he had upstairs. Obviously you know her,” he says.

I nod. “Yeah. She’s good though, not involved in this mess.”

He gives me a duh look. “No shit, boy genius. Like I couldn’t guess just by lookin’ at her that she’s way too innocent to be wrapped up in any of this.”

Looking over Nico’s shoulder, I stare at Mallory on the couch. Fuck, she’s anxious and knowing that does not make me happy. Lifting my hand, I rub it against the back of my neck as I try to figure out how to talk her into the plan I’ve been forming in my head since the second I saw her standing with her hands up.

“You got that look,” Nico says in a wry tone of voice.

Damn, I’m so wrapped up in having Mallory close that I completely forgot he was even here for a second. Turning my attention back to him, I raise my brows. “What look?”

“Boom.”

I wait a beat or two. When he doesn’t elaborate, I say, “You gonna tell me what the fuck boom means?”

“Means she’s your boom and you’re goin’ down. You found your match. Seein’ a wedding ring and some babies in your immediate future.”

Thinking of those things with Mallory sounds great but for all I know she’s not feeling me. I gotta figure out what’s what so I can make a solid plan.

“Wh—what the fuck?” I splutter. “You get into the drugs upstairs or did Sophie slip a little something into your coffee this morning?”

He gives me the finger. “Nope. Just callin’ it like I see it. Guessin’ she’s the reason you haven’t so much as looked at a female since you got to Nashville?”

I shrug. “What about it?”

He smirks. “Callin’ it now. Bet you fifty bucks that right this very second you’re plotting how to get her shit into your place by the end of the day.”

I know I look guilty as fuck before I’m able to lock down my expression. A shit-eating grin spreads out across his face as he watches me. Jesus, when did fuckin’ Mayson become a mind reader?

“I’m not taking that bet and I think we’re done here. If you’re through giving me shit I’m going to go back to Mallory,” I say gruffly.

Nico grins. “You do that, John. I’ll expect that fifty on my desk tomorrow morning.”

I give him a pointed look. “I didn’t take the bet.”

Nico throws back his head and laughs. “You didn’t need to. The boom, man. When it hits, it hits. Have fun, brother.”

Before I can respond, he steps around me and walks up the stairs. I take a minute to get my head right before I head back to Mallory so I can do whatever I need to do to get her to come with me.