Returning Tides Read online

  “I’ll put some antibiotic ointment on it later.” Tory gripped Reese’s arm and pulled herself upright. “Listen, you two. I’m okay. Let me sign your release so you can get back to doing serious work.”

  Dave eased back on his heels. “Would you mind if I took a look at your leg, Doc?”

  “If you take the splint off, it will swell,” Reese said sharply. She shifted positions, slid her arms behind Tory’s shoulders and under her knees, and pushed upright, cradling Tory against her chest. “She needs to be in bed before we take it off. I’ll see to it as soon as the house is clear.”

  Dave and Flynn exchanged a look.

  “I’m fine, really,” Tory said gently, stroking Reese’s cheek. “Sweetheart, I’m fine.”

  Flynn put her head down and began busily storing her equipment. Dave cleared his throat and said, “I’ll get the paperwork.”

  “All clear, Sheriff,” Allie called as she exited the house, holstering her weapon. Her lips parted in surprise when she took in Reese standing with Tory in her arms, and then her expression went carefully blank. “I sent Strope out to check the perimeter. You’ll need to document whether anything is missing…after you get Dr. King squared away, that is. If it’s okay with you, I’ll dust for prints too.”

  “Thank you, Officer,” Reese said, settled and calm now that Tory’s heart beat close to hers. “Once you’re done here, canvass the surrounding houses. Check with any owners who are home to see if they’ve had any problems with vandals. Look for any signs of forced entry in any houses that are empty.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Fill me in when you’re done, Tremont.”

  Allie saluted. “Yes ma’am.”

  Reese smiled briefly. “Well done, Tremont.”

  *

  “She didn’t sign the release form,” Dave muttered.

  “Give it to me,” Allie said, holding out her hand as she watched Reese climb the stairs as effortlessly as if she weren’t carrying a hundred and thirty pounds of woman in her arms. No wonder everyone thought she was hot. She was hot.

  “Impressive,” a husky female voice said beside her.

  “Understatement,” Allie murmured. She glanced at Flynn and laughed. “How are you doing?”

  “Busy, but getting settled.” Flynn flipped a shock of blond hair off her forehead with long, slender fingers. “You?”

  “About to get a lot busier.”

  “Yeah.” Flynn glanced toward the house. “What do you think? Vandalism?”

  Allie shrugged. “Maybe. Looting has been a problem, what with so many places standing empty. There’s also a lot of new faces in town. Disaster always draws a crowd.”

  “Yeah, I saw that after nine-eleven.”

  “You were there?”

  Flynn colored and glanced away. “I volunteered with a…uh, group of people. Got there just a couple days after. It was…it was bad.”

  “I believe it. How long were you there?”

  “Two months.”

  Allie was impressed. “That’s pretty amazing.”

  “Not so much. No big deal.” Clearly embarrassed, Flynn looked over her shoulder where Dave waited by the truck. “Listen, I’ve got to get back to work.”

  “Me too,” Allie said.

  “So how about we get together for drinks some night. Tonight, maybe,” Flynn said quickly.

  Allie hesitated, and for no good reason at all, flashed on Ash standing naked in a room on Bradford. “I’ve got a couple more hours of work here at least. But yeah, later. Later would be good.”

  “I’ll call you,” Flynn said, backing away, her eyes sparkling. “Tonight?”

  “Tonight.” Allie called out her cell number. “Can you remember that?”

  Flynn patted her chest. “Already etched on my heart.”

  Laughing, Allie shook her head and watched Flynn climb into the truck. It felt good to laugh. It felt a lot better than crying.

  Chapter Five

  “My cane is right over there,” Tory said, pointing toward the counter. “You can put me down, sweetheart. I can walk with that.”

  “No,” Reese said gruffly. She couldn’t put her down. She was afraid, afraid in some animal part of her being to relinquish her protective hold on her mate while there was still the slightest possibility of danger. Struggling not to let her fear bleed over to her lover, she started toward the stairs. “We should see to your leg. I’ll take you to the bedroom.”

  “Stop. Wait a minute.” When Reese kept walking, Tory grasped a fistful of Reese’s starched uniform shirt and tugged on it to get her attention. “Reese. Look at me.”

  Reluctantly, Reese paused, one foot on the lower stair, Tory resting in the cradle formed by the curve of her body. She didn’t want to meet Tory’s eyes because she couldn’t hide what was in her own. She didn’t want Tory to see her fear or her fury. “You’re hurt, baby. Let me take care of you.”

  “You are. You do.” Tory smoothed her hand over the wrinkles in Reese’s shirt, caressing her chest through the thin barrier. She understood Reese’s need to safeguard her, and she would never try to change that. Reese’s sense of duty, her loyalty to her family and her friends, her need to defend those she loved was fundamental to her life. Tory loved her for it. But she’d seen the haunted look in Reese’s eyes just a few minutes before, heard the pain in her voice. As strong as Reese was, she’d been hurt in more than body in that desert horror, and she wasn’t completely healed. “Put me down on the couch. We’ll wait together for Allie to report in.” She kissed Reese’s neck above the crisp line of her collar. “I love you.”

  Reese shuddered and buried her face in Tory’s hair. She took great gulping breaths, purging the bitter taste of loss from the back of her throat with the sweet fragrance of Tory’s shampoo. “I saw you there on the ground and…for a second, I thought…” Reese’s legs suddenly felt weak and she abruptly sat down on the stairs, pulling Tory tighter to her chest, bracing Tory’s injured leg on her thigh to cushion the damaged ankle.

  Tory threaded her arms around Reese’s neck and twisted in her lap so her breasts were pressed to Reese’s chest. She kissed her, and when she heard Reese moan, she caressed the back of Reese’s neck and murmured against her mouth, “I’m all right. I’m right here with you. Right where I’ll always be.”

  “I love you so much,” Reese whispered.

  “I know, darling. I know.” Tory feathered her fingers through Reese’s hair and kissed her gently. “I love the way you love me. Don’t ever change.”

  *

  On his way up from the beach to the darkened house where he’d been staying after forcing the rear door a few days before, he caught a glimmer of light flashing through the scrub pines bordering the property. Slowing, he eased his way cautiously through the brush until he could see the rear deck. A figure moved slowly from window to window, shining a flashlight into the house. He slid his hand to the waistband of his pants and gripped his H&K. The moon came out from behind a cloud, bathing the deck in silver. He saw a woman, young, and with a body that even the drab uniform couldn’t camouflage.

  Pity. Such a waste. He extended the gun and cradled his right hand in the palm of his left, sighting on her head. In the distance, the crackle of police radios and the flashing light bars on top of the cruisers cast a red glow through the trees, lighting the sky as if the night were on fire. The sound of the shot would carry, but he would be just another shadow by the time anyone arrived.

  She reached for the back door handle and he drew in a long, steady breath in preparation for squeezing the trigger. He didn’t have to kill her. He hadn’t left behind anything of consequence. He just wanted to. He was tired of being hunted. Tired of being driven from safety. Tired of watching from the shadows.

  “Hey, Allie,” a male voice called just as an arc of white light cut a swath over the trees where he crouched. A man made his way along the flagstone path from the street toward the back of the house. “Anything?”

  “Not sure,”
the woman replied. “There’s a trash bag in the middle of the kitchen floor. It looks like it’s almost full—food trash, looks like. Doesn’t that seem weird to you? I mean, if you were evacuating, would you leave that stuff inside the house when you didn’t know when you’d be back?”

  “Huh.”

  “And I think the door’s unlocked,” the woman said.

  The officers drew their weapons.

  Calculating the possibility of taking them both out, he judged the odds of clean kills to be low. He could not risk one or both of them returning fire. He heard a grinding sound and realized it was his teeth, and he forced his jaws to relax. He saw the woman’s face in the reflected light of her partner’s flashlight. She was beautiful and young. So many to choose from.

  Next time. Next time he might have her. She would do, while he waited.

  *

  Reese reclined in the corner of the couch with Tory nestled in her arms, Tory’s legs stretched out and her injured foot propped on several pillows. She stroked Tory’s hair and listened to her slow, even breathing. Her service weapon rested on the arm of the sofa millimeters from her right hand. She trusted Allie, but she wanted to clear the house herself and until she did, she wasn’t leaving Tory’s side. Some things were too important to leave to anyone else.

  As each minute passed, her focus sharpened. She didn’t doubt that someone had been in the house. Tory was as levelheaded and objective in a crisis as anyone she’d ever met. After she had a chance to look around, she might have a better idea of exactly what happened. She considered the possibilities. Random vandalism was certainly an option, although any local resident would know she lived here, which ought to make the house less of a target. However, criminals did not tend to be the most intelligent members of the population, and everyone in town knew that Tory was a doctor and Reese the sheriff. Whoever had broken in might have thought there were drugs or guns and ammunition in the house. There were also a higher than usual number of strangers in town, having been drawn by the disaster as seemed to be the case whenever misfortune struck. The final possibility was that the house and its contents were not the target, but that some member of the household was.

  She was the sheriff, which wasn’t always a popular position, although she couldn’t think of anyone in their small village who she’d arrested for anything more serious than car theft. Except for the man who had molested Bri Parker. She’d broken his arm, and had contemplated worse. He must have felt how close she’d come to pulling the trigger of the gun she’d held to his head. She’d bested him hand-to-hand and humiliated him. For some men that was enough to exact payback. She made a note to check his whereabouts. He’d received the maximum sentence for the attempted rape and assault on a police officer, but he might have gotten early parole.

  Tory saw dozens of patients every day, and although Reese doubted that anyone would be angry enough over a diagnosis or some other perceived slight to want to hurt her, the possibility of a stalker was very real. In her capacity as a physician, Tory was intimately involved in people’s lives, often making the difference between life and death. Some unstable individual could easily fixate on her. Just the idea of anyone getting close to Tory, harming her, froze the breath in her chest.

  “What are you thinking about?” Tory murmured.

  “Nothing,” Reese whispered, kissing the top of her head. “Go back to sleep.”

  “I wasn’t sleeping. I was just lying here thinking how much I love lying here in your arms.”

  Reese’s stomach tightened and heat shot through her. Adrenaline and desire tangled and pulsed. She sucked in a breath, her hips lifting almost imperceptibly. She forced herself to breathe evenly. “How does your leg feel?”

  “Your body just got tight as a drum. So don’t tell me you weren’t thinking about anything important. What’s worrying you?”

  “I’m concerned about your leg,” Reese said, which was true. “You wouldn’t have fallen down the stairs tonight if you hadn’t already put too much strain on it. You need to take it easy, baby. You’re working too much.”

  “I’m not working any more than anyone else, and I can’t leave Nita to handle it all on her own.” Tory shifted until she could look up into Reese’s face. “The medical problems never go away, and now we’re seeing a lot more minor trauma, and some of it that’s not so minor, because of all of the recovery efforts. We’re swamped, sweetheart.”

  “I know. But you still need to leave at a reasonable hour.” Reese tapped Tory’s chin. “That doesn’t mean ten o’clock at night.”

  “I left early tonight. I had big plans for you, you know.” Tory sighed. “Dinner and then sex. Lots of sex.”

  “In a little while I’ll take care of dinner. The other…” Reese grinned. “I’ll take care of that in a couple of days.”

  Tory’s eyebrows shot up and she laughed incredulously. “The hell you will. I have no intention of waiting a couple of days.” Then just as quickly, her face grew serious. “What about the baby? Do you think we should have Jean and Kate keep her at their place for a few days? What if I’d been here alone with her?”

  “Let’s see what the investigation turns up tonight.” Reese smoothed her thumb over the worry lines on Tory’s forehead. “This will probably all turn out to be nothing.”

  “Probably.” Tory struggled to sit up and Reese swiftly moved the pillow to the coffee table. Tory eased her leg onto the pillow and said, “So what do you really think happened?”

  “I don’t know yet. I need to look around the house. In the meantime, I want you to think about anyone you’ve seen at the clinic in the last three months who’s been acting strangely.”

  “Strangely how?”

  “Paying too much attention to you, maybe calling on the phone with bogus complaints or asking for special appointments. Anything that seems excessive or inappropriate.”

  “You think someone is stalking me,” Tory said quietly.

  Reese shook her head. “I don’t think anything at all just yet. But that’s on my list. I have a few other things to look into as soon as Allie—”

  “I know you need to talk to Allie tonight,” Tory said. “But after she reports, I don’t want you to go back to work. Not tonight.” When Reese said nothing, Tory took her hand. “You need to be here with me. And I need you here.”

  Reese brought Tory’s hand to her lips and kissed it. “I’ll be right beside you, all night long.”

  *

  “Hey,” Bri said to Allie as she walked into the locker room at the station house shortly before ten thirty. “Smith said something happened out at Reese’s. What’s going on? How come no one called me?”

  Standing in front of her open locker, Allie shot a look over her shoulder. She’d already changed into her jeans and, except for her scanty black lace bra, was bare from the waist up. She saw Bri’s gaze drop and laughed. “Eyes up, Parker.”

  Bri blushed. “Sorry. Reflex.”

  “Yeah yeah.” Allie slipped into a tight, scoop-necked black top and tucked it into her jeans, then pulled on her black cowboy boots. “Tory walked in on someone in the house. She’s fine. And I didn’t call you because I took the call and you weren’t on duty. I handled it.”

  “Jesus, Allie. It’s Reese and Tory!”

  Allie patted Bri’s chest. “I know, baby. But I was going to call you when you came on shift and fill you in. There wasn’t anything for you to do.”

  “You think I should go out there?” Bri paced in a small tight circle, her hands jammed into the pockets of her low-slung black jeans.

  “No. Strope and I checked the whole neighborhood. It looks like someone might’ve been squatting in the house right next door. We did a quick check inside when I found the back door unlocked, and there was fresh trash in the kitchen. And someone had probably been sleeping in the living room.” Allie pulled a black leather bag out of her locker and slid her holstered weapon into it. “Nothing to identify who it might’ve been. We stayed while Reese checked through thei
r house again, and she didn’t come up with anything.”

  “It doesn’t feel right,” Bri muttered. “Just doing nothing.”

  Allie straddled the narrow wooden bench between the lockers and propped her bag against her leg. Bri sat down facing her, their knees touching.

  “I don’t like it either,” Allie said softly. “The whole thing just feels creepy.” She rested her hand on Bri’s thigh. “But there really wasn’t anything for you to do, and I didn’t think Reese and Tory needed all of us showing up at their house.”

  “I’ll do some extra drive-bys tonight,” Bri said.

  “Good. I figured you would.” Allie grinned. “You’ve got an awesome hickey on your neck, by the way. I guess you probably know that.”

  Bri tried to frown while rubbing the sore spot, but her smile came off self-satisfied. “Well, I had the afternoon off.”

  “Yeah, well,” Allie said, squelching a surge of envy, and maybe a little jealousy. “Maybe I’ll get lucky tonight. I’m on my way to the Pied to meet Flynn.”

  “That was fast!”

  “We ran into each other at Reese and Tory’s.” She stood and lightly swatted Bri’s shoulder. “Don’t be giving me that look. We’re just having a drink. And then, if…” She shrugged. “We’re both legal. And I haven’t had any since Deo, and that was weeks and weeks ago.”

  “Well, it’s not like it’s a terminal illness or anything.”

  “Oh yeah, like you go what…more than a day without it?”

  Bri swung her leg over the bench and straightened up. “That’s different. I’m married.”

  “You’re supposed to get less when you get married.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says everyone. That’s why I prefer variety.”

  “Just be careful, okay?”

  Allie frowned at her. “What do you mean, be careful? You know I don’t go in for drugs or anything like—”

  “That’s not what I’m saying.” Bri placed her fingertips gently on Allie’s chest, at the top of her left breast. “I’m talking about this, Al. About getting hurt in here.”