Lorie O - Strong, Sleek and Sinful

“Unit Seven, report to the station, please,” she told him, cutting him off.

“Is Unit Six on a call?” Perry asked, ignoring her request. He wasn’t going anywhere.

“Stand by.”

His phone beeped in his ear, and he picked up the handheld, checking the screen to see who the caller was. Then not waiting for Dispatch to return, he switched over.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Perry demanded, relieved as hell Kylie was calling him.

“Get the hell out of sight,” she hissed.

“Where is your meeting point?” He turned and drove along the side of the building, cutting his lights and crawling toward the other side.

“I called you so you could get your arrest. You deserve that much. So just stay on your toes.” She sounded so cold, so distant.

He hated thinking she had shut down because she knew she was heading out. It was one thing knowing he needed to shut down just so he could handle her leaving. But for some reason it hurt like fucking hell knowing she was capable of the same coldheartedness.

“Kylie,” he growled, creeping around the building and spotting Franco parked on the other end, his lights also cut. At Perry’s distance, he couldn’t tell if Franco was even in the squad car.

“Save your speeches for your lady cop friend,” Kylie snapped, the coldness in her tone increasing and so noticeably bitter that Perry brought his car to a stop.

“What lady friend?”

“The one you were hanging all over last night at the crime scene. You know, I thought I knew you better. Funny how well I can profile, yet I nailed you so wrong. Personally, I can think of a lot more romantic locations to flirt with someone than a scene where a young girl was killed.” She hung up on him.

“I wasn’t hanging on her-” Perry slammed his dash when he heard the click in his ear.

Suddenly it was clear as glass why Kylie hadn’t answered his calls all day. He had seen her leave the crime scene last night and apparently she had seen more than he wished she’d seen. Fucking little mousy bitch. Perry was disgusted by the female cop’s behavior as much as Kylie was. And any other time he might have found some warped amusement in learning Kylie got so pissed when she was jealous.

At the moment, though, he didn’t find any fucking humor in it.

His phone beeped in his ear again and he accepted the call. “I want to know right now-”

“Perry, this is a secure line,” Rad growled into Perry’s ear. “What are you doing?”

“Rad, I got a call earlier from Kylie.”

“I just got a phone call, too. Why the hell are you horning in on Unit Six’s beat?” Rad demanded. “He’s got backup in place and calls complaining you’re running with lights and messing up their game plan.”

“Like hell I am.”

“Report to the station now. We’ll discuss this when you get here.”

Perry frowned when he got close enough to Unit Six to tell there was no driver in it. A quick glance around the parking lot showed no other cars, marked or unmarked, anywhere around him.

“There’s no backup. Unit Six is unoccupied.”

“Flynn, report in now or I swear to God I’ll-”

Perry would take his reprimand later. He hung up on the Chief, red flags popping up all over the place as he pulled up behind Unit Six. Franco was moving in on Kylie. Perry didn’t know what the hell the bastard had told Rad to convince him to yell at Perry, but he had to be pretty damn convincing. And a psychopath getting ready to make the cut could convince God to his knees if he wanted.

Perry had thrown his car into park, opening his door, when his phone made another sound, informing him he just got a text message. Reaching over and grabbing the phone, he pushed the button to take the text and read the block letters on the screen.

If I call again, start recording . Kylie had sent him the message.

“Crap,” he hissed, impending doom closing in around him as he dove at his glove compartment and yanked everything out of it until he found the small device he could hook up to his phone to make it record conversations. Then snapping it to his phone, he jumped out of the car. As he gripped his phone in one hand, sweat drenched his palm. He slapped his gun at his waist and sprinted around Unit Six.

His phone started ringing in his ear again. Perry glanced at the screen in his hand. It was Rad calling him back. Perry knew it wasn’t the first time he’d been insubordinate when he sent the call to voice mail, and if he was wrong, he would take whatever disciplinary action Rad wanted to dish out to him, but if he was right, he was about to take down Franco. It would get really fucking ugly before it got better.

Perry reached the front of Franco’s car when he spotted Kylie’s hybrid. She was parked where she’d been parked the last time. Again a flashback of interrupting her meet, not understanding what it was she was about, hit him as hard as if a flood had just released. It didn’t knock him off his feet with the clarity of it. This time Perry saw the reality in the situation. Kylie sat, planted as bait, ready to take on a monster. And it appeared she was fucking alone while doing it.

There better be FBI agents sitting and waiting, or he’d take down that field office, starting with fucking Athey.

A dark shadow appeared in the bushes behind Kylie’s car at the same time sirens sounded in the distance. Hell, maybe Rad was quicker than Perry gave him credit for. The chances were strong the sirens were unrelated, but Perry would love an audience when he nailed Franco to the fucking wall.

The shadow moved quickly, coming up alongside Kylie’s car at the same time the black Suburban appeared at the other end of the parking lot.

“Fucking hell! There are two of them.” Perry barely grunted out the words when he heard Kylie cry out. Whoever was alongside her car had just dragged her out of it as the Suburban pulled up alongside her car.

Her cry was stifled quickly when the person in the shadows shoved Kylie into the back of the Suburban and slammed the door shut. Perry damn near ran backward when Franco bolted to his squad car. The motherfucker had just abducted Kylie and would now run to his car and make a show of trying to catch her.

Perry turned, hauling ass back to his car. His phone rang before he reached it and he pushed the button, willing it to be Kylie.

“Why are you doing this?” he heard her wail.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch.” The outraged male voice sounded too fucking familiar.

Perry leapt into his car at the same time that Franco squealed out of his hiding place. His phone beeped, indicating another call, and Perry cursed. He couldn’t take a call while recording. Glancing down, he saw it was Carl.

“Where the hell are you, man?” Perry asked the darkness of his car as he left his lights off and followed Franco around the corner of the building. He could really use his partner right now, or that supposed backup to truly exist. This was going to be one hell of a bust, and witnesses were always good, especially when taking down a cop who’d been on the force for as long as Franco had.

Perry would kick himself in the ass later for not noticing an insane child molester walking among them, right under their fucking noses, all these years.

Carl pulled into the parking lot in his own car when Perry made it around the corner. Franco was ahead of him and the Suburban was leaving the lot. Perry struggled to listen to the noises he heard in his ear while cutting across the dark lot and pulling up alongside Carl. Fortunately, he knew to ask questions later. Carl parked his car, jumped out, and climbed in on the passenger side, barely managing to shut the door before Perry hauled ass after Franco and the Suburban.

“What the hell is going on?” Carl demanded, struggling with his seat belt.