Page 48 of Break Away
She glanced down and bit her lip. No wonderhe’d walked right through the door. “I hadn’t even thought aboutit. Um, I’ll get yours.” She pushed Lucy with her foot so she couldretrieve Levi’s shirt. She spied her hair band that had somehowcome loose and grabbed it, quickly pulling back her curls to somesemblance of control.
“Do you want something to eat? I’ve gotcookies or these brownie things. I could make tea, or coffee. Youlike coffee, so that’s what I’ll make.” She should shut up and shutdown the nerves that had her babbling like an idiot. Maybe sheshould gather an ounce of maturity and handle the post-coitalmoment with poise.
Levi caught her hand before she could move tothe kitchen. “Zoey, look at me.”
She wanted to look anywhere but at him,because she had a sinking feeling that looking at him would lead tokissing him, and kissing him would lead to doing what they’d beendoing against the door, and doing that again would lead to moreemotional intimacy, which scared the crap out of her.
She let herself be pulled to him. He framedher face with those wide palms and tipped her head up. “You’reavoiding me.”
“Pfft. You wereinme not five minutesago, so you can hardly say I’m avoiding you.” But there was noavoiding him now. His bold blue gaze had fastened on her andwouldn’t let her go.
“Maybe that was the easy part. Maybeacknowledging that we have something together that goes beyond hotsex is harder.”
There was no hiding from the compassionpractically radiating off him. She found herself confessing whatshe was most worried about. “You could hurt me, Levi. Really,really hurt me.”
He lowered his forehead to hers and she foundher hands linking with his. “We’re both taking that risk,sweetheart. But if we don’t take a chance, what we lose could beeven bigger.”
She drew in a shaky breath. “I like you, Ireally do. But I have issues. You might want to reconsider yourinterest in me. I’m a bad bet.”
He put a finger to her lips. “Zoey Hardesty,will you go on a date with me?”
Why did that have her going all mushyinside?
“We’ve already had sex, don’t you think we’rea bit late for a first date?”
“No, we’re not. Will you?”
She let out a huff of breath. “Okay, but thisdoesn’t mean we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, or any such nonsense.We hooked up, and we’ll go on a date, but that’s it.”
Why did it feel like as soon as she took astand, the ground began to crumble beneath her feet?
“One step at a time, sweetheart. One step ata time.”
Chapter Fourteen
Levi entered the police station, taking hisseat for morning roll call as Brad stepped behind the podium at thefront of the room. Levi had woken up alone in his own bed. He wasgetting that Zoey had intimacy issues, but she hadn’t kicked himout of her cottage until after they’d gone toherbed. Theencore to what they’d done against the door had been equally ashot.
He could work with that.
He wasn’t exactly sure where he wanted to endup with her. In the past few months he’d made major life changes,and he thought he was dealing with some issues that he hadn’treally understoodwereissues. But he felt like he wasbreaking away from the hold some things in his past had over him.He’d stopped running and was dealing with them. He felt lightersomehow.
He made a mental note to call his partnerfrom the Oakland PD. Maybe it was time and distance from the event,or maybe it was getting his head screwed on straight, but he wascoming to terms with the decision he’d made.
Regardless, leaving OPD and joining thepolice department in his hometown had been the right move. Handsdown, the best thing about moving home was finding Zoey. For thefirst time, he was thinking about a future that included someoneelse. If she had commitment issues, he was willing to let her setthe pace. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to push when thingsneeded pushing.
He’d left for work feeling pretty good aboutthe situation. Lucy had still occupied her sunny spot, and eventhough he could easily maneuver around her with the motorcycle, hestill tossed her the Eggo waffle he’d saved for her. He was partialto the buttermilk variety, and Lucy seemed to agree. On his ridein, he’d mulled over what had happened with the car coming up theirdriveway, then speeding away like a racecar driver. The driverhadn’t been turning around on the street by accident. Whatever hadbeen their intent, it hadn’t been innocent, and that had himworried about Zoey’s safety.
Waiting for Brad to start, he pulled out hisphone and texted Zoey to find out if she’d made it safely towork.
His phone vibrated a few seconds later, andhe opened the screen to a pic of Lucy riding shotgun in a ForestService truck plus a thumbs-up emoji. Worked for him.
Levi had informed Brad first thing about thecar and the driver’s reckless effort to get away. Brad includedthat in the briefing and gave orders to increase patrols in thearea around where Levi and Zoey lived. Once the meeting was over,Brad called Levi into his office, shutting the door behind them.Brad picked up a file folder from his desk and dropped it ontoLevi’s lap.
He opened the folder, the name Paul Clausonjumping out at him. He read the report, a sick feeling growing inhis gut along with the rising anger. He looked across the deskwhere Brad sat. “Same fucking MO.”
“Yeah. After you told me Zoey’s story, I didsome digging. The local sheriff’s department let Clauson resign, sohe went to Colorado, where he was hired by a small-town PD. Fromwhich, surprise, surprise, he took early retirement. I called, gotsomeone who would talk to me. I suggested that it seemed suspiciousClauson would retire at a relatively young age when staying only acouple of years longer would have allowed him to increase hisretirement substantially. The cop I spoke to was plenty pissed. Hetold me, off the record of course, that Clauson was allowed toleave after another officer accused him of raping afifteen-year-old girl.”
Levi thought if he ground his molars anyharder they’d turn to dust. Zoey’s claim that cops covered forother cops was ringing infuriatingly true. “Why didn’t theyprosecute?”
