Page 75 of Hot Cops

At least,hispart did. The guy saw the cop car and panicked, ran off. He didn’t know how long Sunnie had been struggling, and he’d missed seeing the guy hit her.

“You going back to the precinct?” Finn asked.

Landon shook his head. “No, I was at the end of my shift when…” He didn’t finish the sentence, exhaustion kicking in for him too. It had been a long night.

“You headed home?” Finn asked.

Landon nodded slowly, glancing down the hallway toward Sunnie’s room. He didn’t want to go home, wasn’t sure he could leave her alone yet. As long as he was close, he could protect her. Which was ridiculous. There was no threat.

“You wanna stay here?” Finn asked.

“Yeah. I do.”

Finn had an extra bed in his room that belonged to his cousin Fergus when he was home on leave, which was rarely. As a result, Landon always had a place to crash after a few beers in the pub with the Collins clan.

Finn turned on the television, searching for the Orioles game he’d just left. It had gone into extra innings. Then he grabbed them both a beer from the kitchen. “I need a distraction,” Finn said. “If I sit here and think about her wrestling for… Goddammit, the guy could have had a weapon, could have really hurt her!”

“Don’t think about it,” Landon said. He was obsessing over it enough for both of them.

He and Finn sat quietly, watching the game, sipping their beer. Landon was fairly certain neither of them was paying much attention to it, but he was glad for the chance to be near Sunnie.

The game ended, but they still didn’t move, just kept watching the wrap-up sportscast and then the nightly news. It was well after midnight when Finn stood up and announced he was going to bed. Yvonne had come in a few minutes earlier, chatting before heading back to her own room next to Sunnie’s.

Landon wondered if Sunnie had managed to fall asleep, or if, like him, she was struggling to shut her thoughts down.

“Come on, man,” Finn said. “You don’t need to guard the door.”

Landon stood up slowly. He’d debated all night about whether he should tell Finn about the kiss. In the end, he had decided not to. The kiss had been impulsive, ill-timed, and something Sunnie appeared to want to forget.

Landon should probably do the same. But he wasn’t going to. He couldn’t.

“Okay.”

Finn remained at the foot of the stairs that led to the landing outside his attic bedroom. “You saved her.”

Landon shook his head, but Finn wouldn’t let him shrug off what he’d done.

“You were there. You saved her. I’m never going to forget that, brother.”

His peace spoken, Finn climbed the stairs.

Landon was slower to follow.

He’d spent most of his childhood wishing he’d been born into this family, a brother, a cousin, a son.

Landon adored his mother, but without a father or siblings of his own, he’d reached out and grabbed hold of Finn and Aaron, Darcy…and Sunnie.

Tonight, Aaron had called him son. And Finn, brother.

Those words felt like a dream come true.

Until he considered Sunnie…and that kiss.

CHAPTERFIVE

Sunnie trudgeddown the hallway toward the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. They felt gritty and dry from too little sleep. She’d heard Yvonne get up about an hour earlier, knew her cousin had peeked into Sunnie’s room to check on her, but she’d pretended to still be asleep, unwilling to deal with everyone giving her hell for last night. At the moment, Landon appeared to be the only one who’d forgiven her stupidity. Which only left seven hundred and thirty-seven Collins family members to go.

When she entered the kitchen, it was close to noon. She was surprised to find not only Yvonne and Finn there, but her sister, Darcy, as well. Typically when there were three or more of her family members in a room, the noise rose to ungodly levels. Hell, even their whispers were loud.

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