Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 72715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Jake shook his head at his thoughts. He was just preoccupied with Brianne, as usual looking for any excuse to put her before this case. He couldn’t believe she wouldn’t do something as simple as promising him she’d sit tight. And he reminded himself she wouldn’t be tied up now if he’d been able to trust her. Stubborn, headstrong woman. She’d already proven she’d take dangerous risks, given the right incentive.
The right incentive. Jake paused at the top of the steps leading down to the subway. When I love someone, I stick by them. Her words came back to him—Brianne’s incentive for making that trip to The Eclectic Eatery. When I love someone…
His heart squeezed tight in his chest, and Jake slapped his hand against the hard metal railing. How the hell had he let those words slip by him unnoticed? Because for the first time since meeting Brianne, he’d been a cop before a man. A detective before the man who loved her in return.
He’d turned a deaf ear to her words and her pleas. He’d cuffed her to a chair and left her alone…so he could watch Ramirez walk himself into a police station and willingly give up?
Not likely. Jake shook his head as reality reared its head. There wasn’t a chance in hell Ramirez would willingly admit defeat and surrender. No possibility at all. Which meant…the phone call to the cops had been a setup.
“Shit.” Jake turned and hit the street at a dead run. He only hoped he wasn’t too late.
A few minutes, but what felt like hours later, he re-entered the building—and the doorman was nowhere in sight. A quick glance behind the desk confirmed Jake’s worst fears. The man lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. The whoosh of revolving doors sounded in his ear, and he turned around in time to see an unfamiliar couple walk in the door.
“Where’s Harry?” the woman asked.
Jake didn’t think she’d like his answer, so he dug into his pocket and flashed his badge instead—a move that stopped both people cold and had them exchanging wary glances.
Jake reached behind the desk for the telephone and pulled it onto the high counter. “Call 911. Give the police the address and tell them it’s the penthouse,” Jake called over his shoulder as he ran for the elevator.
During the silent ride up to the apartment, Jake’s life passed in front of his eyes. It was a cliché he’d heard other cops describe, but it was real. And everything he saw, everything he wanted now and in the future, included Brianne—if Ramirez hadn’t hurt or killed her already, he thought fearfully.
Moving on autopilot, he removed his sneakers in order to maintain the element of surprise. He positioned himself flat against the side of the enclosed area, a place that he hoped hid him from immediate view. At last, the elevator doors slid open. A quick glance told him Brianne and Ramirez weren’t in the open entryway.
Gun in hand, he crept silently into the apartment. He knew better than to call out, but damn he wished he knew where to check first. Though he’d left Brianne in the kitchen, it seemed unlikely Ramirez would keep her in the open, unlocked room. Then again, he’d have to move both Brianne and her chair, something Jake knew Brianne wouldn’t allow. Not without a kicking, screaming fight.
He started toward the kitchen, just as Norton ran into the room, doing his infamous run-and-skid routine. The dog normally saved the bit for Brianne. Norton being happy to see Jake when Brianne was around was unusual, and the knot in Jake’s stomach tightened.
He knelt down beside the excited dog. “Come on, boy. Where is she?” he whispered.
Norton nudged Jake’s leg and started running. Jake mentally took back any bad thing he’d ever said or thought about the dog. In Jake’s book, loyalty to Brianne counted for everything. The dog led him to the kitchen. As Jake got closer, he heard the sounds of a scuffle.
No matter how much he wanted to storm into the room, he had to know what was going on first. Jake paused alongside the wall to the left of the entry and looked around the corner and into the room where he’d left Brianne. He nearly lost control at what he saw.
Ramirez loomed over Brianne. Her blouse was torn, and Ramirez rested his hand, which held a gun, on her shoulder, while his free hand hovered over her breast. Fury and a possessiveness unlike any he’d ever known ripped through Jake, but the other man’s gun kept him silent. He knew he didn’t have a clear shot at Ramirez as long as the thug stood in front of Brianne.
Taking a gamble, Jake walked into plain view and leveled his gun at the other man. “Let her go, Louis.”