40. Derrick

CHAPTER 40

Derrick

It is indeed another awkward moment when we return to the Warwick estate with Emma Clarke in tow and have to explain the situation to Thomas. Namely that she’s not, in fact, a prisoner being taken straight to interrogation, but she’s Silver himself.

Herself.

Oh, and she’s his newest employee.

I’ve been on the receiving end of many of Thomas’s most consternated glares, but the one he’s pointing at Raleigh now could level a small mountain. Though, to her credit, she just smiles sweetly back at him. “I solved the problem, didn’t I?” she asks.

“What exactly am I supposed to do with her?” Thomas shoots back.

“She’d be great undercover!”

Emma, for her part, is doing her best impression of a very humble statue. She sticks close to Iris and Raleigh, her eyes fixed on the ground, her hands folded demurely in front of her. She hasn’t made a single peep since she got in the car with us back at Cooper’s, seated snuggly between Iris and me while Raleigh sat in the passenger seat as our driver took us home. I get the feeling that she’s expecting one of us, at any moment, to suddenly regret letting her live and take steps to correct that mistake.

Luckily, Thomas looks to Iris for her opinion. Iris gives a wordless shrug, which apparently tells him all he needs to know. “Very well then.” He turns the full force of his intense hazel stare on Emma. “Come with me.”

Emma looks to Raleigh, who puts both thumbs up, then back to Thomas. “Y-Yes- yes sir.”

With Iris close behind her, she’s marched away to Thomas’s office. I don’t envy her position one bit.

“So… now what?”

I turn to see Raleigh with her arms crossed, pointing her own intense gaze directly at me. I know what she’s thinking about- her bold claim about marriage to Emma before we left the bar. It’s not that I’ve forgotten. But I’m also a little devastated that we’ve reached a point when the words have to be said and I don’t have a ring, or a dinner reservation, or anything.

It’s not that our relationship has ever been conventional. Hell, it’s hard to even call it a relationship when we reunited as I was slapping her in handcuffs less than a week ago. But whatever tradition dictates, what’s happened between us is real, and it’s intense, and I want it to last for the rest of my life.

Then it hits me.

I hold out my hand to her. “Come with me.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, she obeys.

I take her to the garage at the back of the house, where a dozen vehicles are parked in a building as large as my mother’s stables. I reparked my cruiser in here last night, and when I climb into the driver’s seat, Raleigh follows. We readjust until she’s straddling my lap, then I grab the handcuffs, abandoned in the passenger seat yesterday.

It’s a familiar motion now, to put one cuff on my wrist and one cuff on hers.

“I thought I had my entire life planned out perfectly,” I say, my throat suddenly tight with desire. I brush my thumb over her delicate wrist, feel the galloping pace of her heart. I press a light kiss to that leaping pulse, and Raleigh brushes her hand through my hair. “But I ended up making so many sacrifices to get where I am that I don’t even recognize myself anymore.” I lean my head back against the headrest, my gaze locking with hers. “We almost had a one-night stand after meeting at a bar. Can you imagine? If we’d walked away from each other and never looked back?”

She swallows, her eyes already glassy. “I don’t want to,” she says, and leans into my hand when I cup her cheek.

“I love you, Raleigh Warwick,” I tell her. “I love you for everything you are, but- I also love you because you saved my fucking life. You shook my whole world to pieces and rebuilt it from the foundation up, better than I could have ever imagined it. Now I’m going to give you as good a life as you’ve given me. I swear it. I don’t have a ring for you yet.”

Raleigh leans down, pressing her forehead to mine. “I’ll take you. Right here, right now,” she says, then takes a shuddering breath, dropping the bravado. “I love you too, Derrick Lindman. You saw right through the person I thought I had to be and let me be the person I am. I… I can never thank you enough for that.”

Her lips whisper over mine, and I tilt my head up to capture them. I taste the salt of her tears and reach back to grip her neck, comforting, possessive. For a long time, I just hold her there in my arms, memorizing her scent, her heat, the weight of her against me. In the next few months, a lot of that will change, and I’ll be right here, rememorizing her and falling in love all over again.

I open my mouth for her, and Raleigh licks across my teeth. My cock is getting hard, but abruptly, she pulls back. “What now?”

“Well,” I say, trying to catch my breath, “we can go to the backseat if you’re impatient, or up to your room if you can hold out a couple minutes. Because I’m not sure I can.”

She rolls her eyes with a smile. “My room, please . I do not want to be caught by one of the generals in here. And then what’ll you do?”

“After today?” I ask. I think I know what she’s getting at, but I’d rather feign blissful ignorance for just a little bit longer. “We’ll have to get our own place, since I don’t know how long your brother will tolerate me hanging around. I say we build one near my mother’s house. Only if you want, of course. But you seemed to like it-”

“I loved it,” Raleigh agrees. “And I would love to live close to your mother. But that’s not what I meant.”

“After the house is started, we should have the wedding, obviously.”

She laughs. “Yes Derrick. And then what’ll you do?”

“The honeymoon, of course.”

“ Derrick .”

I smile wryly and let the joke die. I know what she’s asking for now, but I don’t want to think about it. Not when husbandry, fatherhood, and general domestic bliss is on the horizon. But it’s a question I need to answer, sooner rather than later.

In fact, I need to answer it before the county comes looking for its missing police cruiser, which we’re currently sitting in.

So. Do I give up the search for Silver now that ‘Silver’ no longer exists? I could fake his death, I suppose. Paste his identity onto some other criminal after they OD or get knifed in an alley. It would be easy enough to do, especially with the wealth of mafia connections at my fingertips once again. Then all the taxpayer’s dollars spent on the manhunt wouldn’t look like a total waste.

Then again, putting on a show for the public has begun to sound very… exhausting. And isn’t that what led to Silver’s creation in the first place? Who’s to say I wouldn’t be inciting some other criminal to come after me for the truth?

One of these days, my lies are going to catch up with me. And I need to make sure they can’t hurt the people around me when they do.

“I imagine Silver’s gang will dissolve now that its leader is gone,” I muse.

“Some of them might still want to come after you enough to try,” Raleigh warns. “You’ve painted a pretty big target on your own head.”

“Maybe. That’s why I’m going to quit.”

Raleigh blinks and splutters. “Wh-what? You were just elected nine months ago!”

“And three months ago I met you,” I say, looking her right in the eye. “And now we’re going to have a baby. That’s my priority, Raleigh. That’s all I care about.”

God, I’m ready to be inside her now. I know she can feel how hard I am between her legs. I take her handcuffed one in mine instead, and open the door for us to climb out of the car. I don’t say anything else until we’ve reached her room and the door is closed behind us, and then I’m pulling her into my arms and kissing her again, ferociously.

She tastes like honey and heaven, and all I want is to get her back in bed. When I woke up beside her this morning and neither of us was trying to leave, it didn’t seem real. I want that every day until I die. I need it.

When we’re both breathless, I pull back, just a little. “I’m turning forty, Raleigh. Before the end of this year, I’ll be about halfway through my life. That car you put in a ditch? That was my mid-life-crisis car.”

“Okay, you don’t need to keep bringing that up,” Raleigh says, flushing. “I’ve already apologized-”

“That’s not my point, sweetheart,” I laugh, kissing her softly. “By the way… how did you steal my car? My keys were still on the hook.”

“I hotwired it.”

“Is that right? Where’d you learn to do that?”

“Online. YouTube.”

I shake my head, smirking "I guess I should be worried about what else you're learning online." I pull her closer. "You really are full of surprises."

She grins. “Well, considering all the stupid and reckless choices I’ve made, I think it’s clear my online education has its limits. Maybe it’s time I learn from real-world experiences.”

I nod, my voice softer. "I’m not getting any younger, and what I meant when I brought up the car is... if I wait any longer, I’ll miss out on the life I could have with you.” I brush my knuckles over her stomach, and we both shiver. “No career plan is worth that.”

“But you…” Raleigh swallows. “What about… your father?” Before I can answer, she hurries on. “It’s a good plan, Derrick. Becoming sheriff, becoming senator, fighting for policy changes-”

“It’s also not something I did honestly,” I say, my tone sobering. “Your brother helped me win that election so I could be a man on the inside for him. I don’t want that to be the way I achieve those goals.”

I watch the understanding dawn in her eyes. She opens her mouth, then closes it. Of all the people here, she probably understands what I’m saying more than anyone.

“I’m not saying I can’t run again later,” I tell her. “Maybe when the kids are a little older-”

“Kids,” Raleigh repeats, a smile spreading over her face. “How many kids are we talking about here?”

“How many will you give me?” I counter, and she laughs.

“Let’s start with…” She purses her lips in thought. “Three, and go from there.”

I kiss her forehead and start walking us toward the bed. “I like the sound of that.”