Page 6 of Love Me Fierce

Only a firefighter.

When I spin around, I nearly crash into the cop’s giantchest.

Jesus.

I step around him and speed walk toward my car.

“Ma’am?” The cop falls in next to me. “We’re going to need you to move your vehicle.”

“Okay.”

He cocks his head. “Afteryour statement,” he adds in a stern tone, like he was reading my mind. Because the minute I can get behind the wheel, I’m out of here.

“The guy passed me a while ago,” I say to get this over with, peeling off my nitrile gloves and stuffing them into my pocket. “Then I saw him flipped over. I pulled into the median and called 9-1-1. I’m a nurse, so I wanted to help if I could.”

“Where are you headed?” he asks.

“Finn River.”

“You from California?”

He must have seen my license plates. I don’t need to lie, but the temptation is so powerful I have to take a breath to center my thoughts. “Yes.”

“I’ll need to get your contact details,” he replies.

I wish I had a card I could shove into his hands and be done with this. “I need to check on my kid.”

“Why don’t you both come sit in my vehicle? It’s warm.”

“No.”

Shit. Now I’m really going to get on his nerves.

I open the back door. Matty’s bright blue eyes have a desperate edge to them. “I have to go to the bafroom!”

Of course he does.

“All right. Can you find your coat?”

Matty spins around and starts going through the clothes piled up on the seat next to his booster.

“Do you have snow cables?” the cop asks from behind me. He’s standing way too close.

“Yes, in the trunk.”

“How about this,” he says over the wind while I kneel on the seat to help Matty into his coat. “I’ll put them on while you help him.”

My internal alarms are going berserk, but I don’t have another option. “Deal.”

It’s not spoken, but part of this deal is me sticking around to give up whatever information he still needs. Then I will be free to disappear.

I grip Mateo under his arms and lift him from the car. He’s not exactly dressed for snow either in a pair of cobalt-blue Crocs and thin cotton sweatpants. At least he’s wearing socks.

The snow blasts us head-on. I curl around Mateo and wrap him in my arms. His body gives a violent shudder against me.

“We’re going to have to go in the snow, okay, bug?” I shout over the screeching wind.

“Brrr,” Matty complains.

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