Hot Cop

“She’s so excited. She and her friend are going to drive to Charleston—she’s going to take the minivan—and spend the night and go to the concert and do some shopping. It’s her first real trip away from us, and she’s been planning it—where they want to eat and everything.”

“I see,” I said, because what are you going to say to a mom whose daughter is missing and she’s talking about birthday plans? I noted the names and numbers of friends and wrote down what they thought she was wearing and what she usually carried with her in her purse or book bag.

“I’m going to head to the station and look into some of the information you’ve given me. If you think of anything else you think might be relevant, here’s my number. If I don’t answer, leave it on voicemail and I’ll get right back to you. We’re going to do everything we can to bring your little girl home.”

“I know you will. That’s just—no guarantee,” Pat said. “But this is Rockford Falls, right? I mean, there hasn’t been a—a homicide here since, what?”

“Don’t even think like that,” I said gently but firmly. I needed to keep them from going off the deep end. “I’ll let you know as soon as we know anything.”

I went back to my truck and headed to the station. On the way, I dialed Laura’s number. It was barely 4:30, so it shouldn’t have surprised me that her voice was heavy with sleep, husky and intimate sounding.

“Hello? Chief?” she mumbled.

“Vance, we’ve got a missing person case. Get up and meet me at the station as soon as you can get there,” I said gruffly.

“I’ll be right there. Just let me—get dressed,” she said. I tried to pretend that her husky voice didn’t go straight to my cock, so I cleared my throat.

“See you there,” I said, and hung up. God, she sounded like pure sin. Something dark and primal curled in my gut. I let my mind drift for just a second as I made the familiar turn toward the police station. How it would feel, warm and tangled up in sheets, nothing but the darkness around us, waking up with Laura Vance in my arms. I let out a long breath and tried to push that thought away and calm my cock down. I was rock-hard and needed to cut that out. I had to focus on finding this kid, not drilling my new officer. Waking up with Laura Vance, I told myself, would look very much like opening my eyes to find her brother Damon’s shotgun trained at my forehead. I shook my head. If I needed to imagine my best friend going nuts and acting like Yosemite Sam to get my mind off boning his sister, I could do that.

Right now, I needed all my skills and all my training to solve this case, even though I had a hunch it was like trying to stop a runaway train. As a cop, we’re never supposed to entertain a preconceived notion, never oversimplify. I’d just seen too may headlines and knew too many firsthand accounts of young women taken and hurt or killed by their exes. Intimate partner violence was so prevalent that I was having a hard time seeing past what I thought was the most probable scenario. I had to get out of my head and figure this out. Maybe Laura could help with that perspective.

7

Laura

Mrs. Rook handed me a cup of coffee, strong and bitter and I was grateful for it. My still-wet hair was pulled back tight and pinned up, and she directed me to the staff bathroom where I found a uniform in my size hanging on the back of the door. When I came out, dressed and ready down to my regulation boots, she grinned at me.

“Are you some kind of wizard? I only got you my size yesterday,” I said.

“I have my ways. I also met my son and his wife for dinner in Overton and picked up a standard size for you at the supplier in town.”

“Thank you so much.”

“Chief’s waiting on you. He’s been here about twenty minutes, and he’s pawing the ground,” she said.

I nodded in thanks and took a long drink of my coffee. My quick shower had helped wake me up, and I was alert and on my game. Cops can’t afford to luxuriate. We might miss a key detail because we’re half asleep. So when I entered Brody’s office, I was alert to his mood, his frustration and urgency, and something else I couldn’t put my finger on. He looked up from a legal pad in front of him and met my eyes. I felt the impact of his eye contact like a blow to the stomach, rendering me breathless. His stare was intense, and he let his breath out before I did.