Page 68 of Hot Cops

“Sunnie?” He raced to where she sat, kneeling next to her. The spotlight from the car was bright, both of them squinting. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the sudden light.

She looked up at him, and he saw the determination in her eyes. There was a red mark on her cheek that was probably going to turn into a nasty bruise.

Landon glanced around the surrounding area. The man was long gone. “Are you okay?”

She was still wearing her nurse’s scrubs, but he couldn’t understand how she’d gotten from Johns Hopkins to here. Surely she wasn’t walking home at this time of day? It was a three-mile trek and it was nearly dark.

Sunnie nodded. “Yeah. I think so. Son of a bitch was trying to steal my purse.”

“And you thought fighting back was a good idea?” He touched the red mark on her cheek. Landon’s temper sparked as he considered what could have happened to her.

She tilted her head, as if he’d missed the most important part. “He was taking mypurse, Landon.”

“So?”

“So…it’s a Louis Vuitton. I love this purse.”

He shook his head. “Are you serious right now?”

She brushed off his concern. “The guy wasn’t even that big, and I’m pretty sure I was winning.”

Landon looked at the mark on her face and lost his shit. “Who gives afuckhow big he was? Do you understand how stupid and dangerous it is to fight back? He could have had a weapon or?—”

“Okay,” she said hastily, simply to stop his tirade. “Okay. I’m sorry. Really. But…”

Here we go.

Sunnie was the queen of “buts.”

She lifted the bag. “It’s a new purse, my gift to myself for graduating and getting the nursing job at the hospital. It was super expensive. And it’smine,” she stressed.

“I don’t care how much it cost! You could have been seriously hurt!”

“I know.” Then she gave him her standard Sunnie grin, the one that told him he wasn’t going to like what she said next. “I don’t suppose we could keep this to ourselves and not tell anyone about it?”

By anyone, she meant her dad.

“We need to file a report.”

She considered that. “Yeah, but he didn’t actually get my bag. And I’m not hurt. Honest.”

He tried to do a visual inspection of her. They were kneeling on the ground. He couldn’t see any cuts or blood, and her clothing was still intact, just the red mark on her cheek.

She was the picture of calm, cool and collected, even after the battle she’d just waged. Meanwhile, his heart was racing a million miles a minute as he imagined everything that could have happened.

He tried to lock it down, even as he pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. “Jesus, Sunshine,” he murmured.

Sunnie accepted the hug, though he could tell she was surprised at first. “I really am sorry, Landon. Swear to God, next time,” she murmured against his chest, “I’ll let go of the bag.”

He wasn’t sure who was comforting whom with the hug. He sort of thought she was trying to calm him down. The problem was, he knew all too well how badly things could have gone. Then he realized she was trembling slightly.

Ah, so shedidget it. He tightened his hold.

“What were you doing out here alone?”

She pushed away to face him. “Derek picked me up after work. We got into a fight. I told him to go fuck himself, and the asshole stopped the car and told me to get out. I should have stayed on the main street, should have called for an Uber, but I was pissed off. I stormed away and then…that guy jumped me, and I kind of went all Tasmanian Devil on his ass. Guys suck.”

Sunnie was impulsive. She acted on emotion—reacted—then considered the consequences later.

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