She gave an unladylike snort. "Please." She waved the question away. "He was such an amateur. People should learn how to use knives before attempting to play with them." She reached behind her and pulled the switchblade, encased in an evidence bag, from her belt. "Here you go. I didn't even get any of my nasty little paw prints on it." He took the bag carefully, allowing his fingers to brush hers, feeling the unnatural cold of her fingertips.
"Let's go get those statements taken care of," he said and sighed. "Steven and his men will take care of Mason."
"Are they going to lock him up?" She moved ahead of him as they left the bedroom and headed for the front door.
"They'll lock him up. He'll be lucky if he sees the outside of a cell in the next twenty years. Shooting at the State Police is a heavy crime."
Lance had seen the officer carefully lifting a pistol from the bedroom floor and putting it in an evidence bag as his partner read Mason his rights.
"They'll lock him up for shooting at a police officer but not for beating the hell out of his wife?" Harmony shook her head as they moved outside. "The world is a sick, sick place, Lance."
"We do our best, Harmony."
"And when your personal best isn't good enough?" she asked as they reached the Raider.
As she turned to him, Lance saw the shadows that filled her amazing green eyes. They were pure, brilliant, with no specks of darker color. Almost mesmerizing.
"When my personal best hasn't been good enough, I keep fighting," he sighed as he leaned against the door, trapping her between him and the interior of the vehicle. "I come out here every time the neighbors call. I try to help Liza as best I can. Until she lets go of her fear enough to help me put him behind bars, then there's nothing I can do."
"And the little boy?"
"I do my best, Harmony." He knew the question she was asking, the warning behind it.
"I uphold the law, baby. I don't make it."
She inhaled slowly. "I'm not cut out for this job. Maybe Lenny will trade places with me." They both knew that wasn't possible. The papers she had signed had been clearly written. Harmony had to work patrol, not a desk.
"You have to take satisfaction from the good you can accomplish," he whispered, reaching out to touch her pale cheek. "When you see the arrest turn into a conviction, when you know you've done your job well enough to stop the leaks in the system. The good outweighs the bad, Harmony."
"If he gets free again, he'll kill them both," she told him. "He told that boy to scream if anyone came in. And he almost screamed. He'll make that child pay. And when he does, I'll go hunting."
And there was Death. He heard the transformation in her voice, watched as she stared back at him ruthlessly.
"Will you let Jonas win that easily?" he asked. "How many other children could you help by living, Harmony?"
"What will it matter if I've failed one of the few who gave me his trust?" she asked him then. "Don't let that bastard escape your law, Lance, or he may well find Death's justice."
Then she reached up, laying both hands against his chest as a breath shuddered from her. And he felt it then. The heat in his body building, reaching out to her as the winds whispered of pain at his ear.
Reaching up, he covered the backs of her hands with his own, standing silently as she let her head lean forward to rest against his chest as well. Other eyes watched them, and Lance knew it. As the ambulance pulled from the drive, the other officers moved slowly to their vehicles, glancing back at them curiously. And Mason. Lance could feel his gaze boring into his back, stripping through him as hatred pressed against him. Tommy Mason was going to be a problem. Lance could feel it.
"Sorry." Harmony straightened with an abrupt movement, pulling her hands from his chest and straightening her shoulders as she stared up at him defiantly. His hands still held hers. Turning them over, he looked down at her reddened skin and knew that the mating heat was taking its toll.
She had touched another man. The hormonal forces inside her didn't differentiate between touches. It was showing her, warning her, that no other male's touch would do.
"I didn't think about this," he whispered as he lifted her hands to his lips and placed a kiss in the center.
She inhaled roughly as Lance felt arousal tearing through him. Dammit, wrong place. Definitely the wrong place for this.
"Let's get those reports written so we can head home." He released her slowly. "We can check in on Liza and Jaime at the hospital if you want to, when we're finished." She shook her head firmly as she ducked away from him and slid into the Raider.
"It's better if we don't," she finally whispered. "Better for all of us." As they drove to the department, Lance kept his window down a bare inch, allowing the winds to move through the vehicle, to whisper at his ear. Warnings. Danger. Pain. And Tommy Mason's name.
He pulled into the parking lot of the Sheriff's Department and sighed wearily before leaving the vehicle, staying close to Harmony as they moved up the steps toward the entrance.
Inside, a crowd milled within the reception area, which wasn't that unusual on a Friday night. The State Police cruisers were parked at the curb, which meant Steven and his partner, Lyle, were booking Mason.
Following Harmony, he stepped into mayhem. With no warning, no whisper of the wind to guide him, he came face-to-face with Reverend H. R. Alonzo.