Then I realized I was in Detective Mitch Lawson’s lap, my hands curled around his neck and not only had I just kissed him (again), I had my forehead on his.
I jerked back and one second later I found myself on my back in what was a bed, Mitch’s bed, and Mitch’s torso was pinning me to it.
Oh boy.
“Mitch,” I breathed, staring up at him with what I knew were wide eyes.
“You’re on a wicked roller coaster ride, sweetheart, I get that, it sucks and I’m sorry. But I saw it comin’ over you, you were about to close down on me and I’m tellin’ you I’m not gonna let you do that. Not after what you just saw and not after how you reacted and especially not how you came right outta that cocoon and gave me you. For ten minutes I had the real Mara in my arms, her light shining unfiltered all around me. I liked it and I’m not givin’ it back so don’t f**kin’ think you can take it from me.”
My heart started beating double time and I whispered, “Mitch, I can’t –”
“You can, I know you can because you just did,” he cut me off, lifted his hand to frame one side of my face, his thumb sweeping across the wetness still on my cheek. “I do not want to freak you more than you’re freaked and I’ll preface this by sayin’ that whatever is goin’ down I’m in this for the long haul, for you, for those kids, you have my promise on that, sweetheart. But my guess is it wasn’t the Trailer Trash Twins who did that to your place.”
I gasped at this news and he kept talking.
“Someone was lookin’ for somethin’, Mara, somethin’ they want really badly. That wasn’t vandalism. That was desperation.”
And that was when my heart stopped beating double time because it stopped beating altogether.
Finally I forced out a, “What?”
Mitch didn’t repeat himself. Instead he stated, “Seems I’m gonna have to start diggin’ a little deeper into your cousin Bill.”
Oh no. Oh shit. Oh no!
“Was that…” I swallowed, “was that the Russian mob?”
He shook his head. “The Russian mob don’t act desperate. I don’t know what that was and I don’t know who but I’m gonna find out.”
Oh boy. The way he said that made me believe he was going to do it and stop at nothing in order to do it.
“Mitch –”
He kept talking over me. “And while I do that, Mara, I’m keepin’ you safe. I’m keepin’ those kids safe and you don’t have a choice in that, sweetheart. That’s just the way it’s gonna be.”
Oh boy. The way he said that made me believe he was going to do it and stop at nothing to do it.
“I think –” I started.
“No thinking. No discussion. Nothing. Mara, I told you that’s the way it’s gonna be, I mean that’s the way it’s gonna be.”
He stared down at me. I stared up at him. Then I closed my eyes tight and saw flashes of the destruction of my apartment so I opened them fast.
Then I asked quietly, “Do you think we’re, um…unsafe?”
“I don’t give a f**k if you are or you aren’t. You’re gonna be,” he promised.
I stared up at him. He stared down at me.
Then I made a decision because it wasn’t just me I had to protect from the forces outside I had no control over. Forces that could do that to my home which meant they might be forces that could do worse things, such as hurt Billy, Billie or me. And I couldn’t put me protecting myself against all things Detective Mitch Lawson before the safety of Billy and Billie.
So before I could chicken out, I whispered, “Okay.”
Mitch stared down at me. Then his eyes roamed my face while his thumb did another sweep of my cheek.
When they captured mine, they were warm, a whoosh swooped through my belly and he whispered back, “Okay.”
Chapter Thirteen