Perfect Fling (Serendipity's Finest 2)

Her large mirror had a message scrawled across the glass with red lipstick: HE’S MINE.

Erin’s gaze flew to Cole’s in question, because who else could he be referring to? Why go after Erin’s maternity clothes and nothing else unless she felt possessive of him? There was no other he in her life, none that would elicit this kind of reaction, anyway.

Color highlighted his cheekbones, anger and a hint of regret in his expression. Clearly they’d come to the same conclusion.

“Who is she?” Erin asked him directly, ignoring the dizziness flooding through her.

He didn’t answer immediately, but Erin could see the wheels turning in his mind as he ran through possibilities.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Cara suggested, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Sam and Cole can talk some more.”

Erin shook her head. “I want to hear what they say.”

“I’m not hiding anything. Hell, I don’t know anything.” Frustration laced Cole’s tone. He met and held her gaze, his expression angry but open.

She believed him.

“Go downstairs with Cara. Sit down. You’re pale and look like you’re about to collapse.”

Erin didn’t want to admit it, but Cole was right. She was shaky, and it wouldn’t hurt to get off her feet for a little while.

“Go,” he said firmly. “I’ll talk to your brother and make some phone calls, see if there’s something going on with any old cases that I don’t know about.”

“Fine.” She spun around and walked out.

• • •

Cole’s head pounded as he turned to Sam. Usually considered the mild-mannered Marsden brother, but no less intimidating than Mike, Sam glared at Cole, full-on fury in his expression.

“If there’s another woman, if you’re fucking with my sister, I will kill you.”

If Cole had been hiding anything from this cop, he might be worried. “I’m as in the dark as you are.” Ignoring Sam’s snort of disbelief, Cole grabbed for his phone and called his boss on his home number. No more screwing around.

The man answered on the first ring. “Rockford? It’s me.”

Cole listened as the older man reamed him for not returning his calls, for falling off the grid, and immediately jumped to wanting to know when he’d be ready to return.

“No time soon. I’ve got a situation.” He spelled out the entire deal with Erin, from her being pregnant with his kid to the shredding of clothes in her room.

No time to hide the truth from his boss, not if Cole wanted to call in favors and help. Besides, much as he tried to ignore the truth, Erin and this baby would change his life. How remained to be seen. But Cole owed the other man the truth if it affected his job, and it did. Already Cole was operating differently, ignoring calls and remaining on leave longer than ever before.

“Pull recent cases, names of people who had a hard-on for me, and women who’ve indicated interest.” As Cole spoke, a vision of the one female he’d done his best to forget about came back to him in vivid detail.

Victoria Maroni wanted Cole for herself. And that was her scent he’d smelled downstairs. She’d always had a heavy hand with the perfume.

Son of a bitch.

“Call Witsec. Check on Victoria Maroni,” Cole added.

Sam’s eyebrows rose at the mention of a specific name.

Cole held up a hand. “Right. They were holding her to testify in another case involving her husband’s associates.” Last time Cole saw Victoria, it was right after he’d shot her husband during the raid that took down his operation.

His boss said he’d get back to him when he had something. Cole ended the call and turned to Sam. “Before you say a word, she’s the wife of the last guy whose organization I infiltrated. He treated her like dirt and as I moved up in his inner circle, I befriended her. When things went down, I made sure she was protected. She misread the situation.”

She’d looked to Cole as her savior, her white knight, a man who’d rescued her from a life of hell for no other reason than his love for her. He’d just been doing his job. He remembered how he’d thought of her as a poor deluded woman, one deprived of love and affection.

“She mistook my friendship and protection as something more than it was. I felt sorry for her, but I never perceived her as a threat.”