Kara Lennox - One-Night Alibi

“I have to work tomorrow.” It was a lie. But she did have to make the break clean and decisive. This could not be the start of something, much as she wanted it to be.

When he found out who she was—and he would—he was going to be one pissed-off dude.

“Still, you don’t have to run off. It’s early yet.”

He was right about that. It wasn’t yet ten o’clock. Though the longer she stayed, the harder it would be to leave, she couldn’t make herself get out of bed and put her clothes on.

“I’ll stay awhile.”

She snuggled up against him, still feeling the effects of her sexual haze. How sweet it would be if she could fall asleep here with her head on his shoulder, lulled by the rhythm of his deep breathing. Not that she could. Not with what she was keeping from him.

He, on the other hand, fell asleep almost instantly, which made her smile. Men were so predictable. She knew it was a physiological reaction, but it was amusing how he could be revved up in a frenzy one minute and a minute later sawing logs.

After a short while, she surprised herself by falling asleep, too.

When she woke sometime later, she was slightly disoriented. Hudson had an old-fashioned clock radio on his nightstand. Once she got her eyes to focus, she discovered it was almost 2:00 a.m.

She couldn’t stay until morning. There was no way she could hide her identity from him—it was getting harder and harder to be deceitful.

She was hunting around in the dark for her dress when she heard a strange noise outside. That was what had awakened her, she realized.

The wind? An animal, perhaps a raccoon? There were a lot of trees around, and critters liked to hang out near lakes.

She listened. There it was again. Footsteps. Someone was on the balcony. And it sounded as if they were trying to jimmy a window somewhere else in the house.

She sat up and shook Hudson. “Hudson!” she hissed. “Wake up. Someone is trying to break in.”

CHAPTER THREE

HUDSON WOKE INSTANTLY, sat up and listened. He heard it immediately—the sound of a window rattling from the other bedroom. And it wasn’t the wind.

He leaped out of bed and grabbed his pants, jumping into them commando style. His gun was in the safe in the closet, damn it. He’d seen no need to take it with him to a wedding, and he would never leave it where a burglar could steal it. Too many stolen guns were on the street.

“Go into the bathroom,” he said in the take-charge voice he used when he intended to be obeyed. “Take your cell phone and lock the door in case you have to call for help.” He slid open the door of his closet and quickly worked the combination, then grabbed his backup weapon, a sturdy Glock.

He noiselessly opened the sliding glass door that led out to the balcony, which completely encircled the house. As he stepped out onto the wooden decking in his bare feet, he realized Liz was right behind him. And damned if she didn’t have his Louisville Slugger gripped in both her hands. She’d obviously thrown on the first item of clothing she’d found, which happened to be his dress shirt. She’d buttoned only one button.

Some other time that would be really charming.

He wasn’t going to waste time and breath trying to get her to obey orders. She obviously wasn’t the hide-in-the-bathroom type of woman.

“Just stay behind me,” he whispered. He walked to the corner of the house and peered around it.

Sure enough, a guy in a ski mask was halfway through his window.

The ski mask told him a lot. This wasn’t a simple burglary. The intruder knew the house was occupied, and he didn’t want to be identified. The other thing that told him a lot was the gun in the guy’s hand.

Hudson raised his weapon. “Police! Freeze!”

The guy didn’t follow orders. He pulled himself out of the window, pointed his gun straight at Hudson and squeezed off a shot.

Liz screamed.

Fortunately, Hudson pulled back around the corner, and the shot wasn’t too well aimed to begin with. He heard the bullet whiz past his head and sail off into the trees behind the house.

Hudson would have been well within his rights to shoot the guy, but he didn’t return fire. Maybe it was because he was already in so much trouble; if he added deadly force to the mix, even justified, his career was over. Or maybe it was simply because he didn’t want to take the life of some scrawny drug addict.

If the burglar had raised his gun again, Hudson would have shot him. But he didn’t. He turned and vaulted over the balcony railing. It was a long drop, but the guy landed on his feet. Hudson watched him hightail it out to the street and away like a jackrabbit on fire.

“Are you okay?” Liz asked, coming up behind him.

“He missed me by a mile. Not even sure he was really trying to hit me, though he ought to know better than to draw down on an armed cop.”

“Maybe he didn’t know you were a cop.”

“I identified myself.” The more he thought about it, the more disturbed he became.

He’d never had any crime problems here before. His house wasn’t an attractive target for burglars; he didn’t have any fancy electronics or silver or jewelry. And if a burglar were simply choosing a house at random, there were plenty of unoccupied vacation cabins around.

“We should call the police,” Liz said.

“I am the police.”

“Well, yeah, but shouldn’t you report this? Maybe he’s still in the area.”

“You kidding? The way that guy was running, he’s halfway to Louisiana by now.”

“What about evidence? Fingerprints and such.”

“They wouldn’t send out CSI for an attempted burglary.”

“Attempted murder more like it,” Liz argued. “He could have killed you.”

“He wore gloves. He didn’t leave behind any evidence.”

“What about his tattoo? Did you see that?”

Now that he thought about it, Hudson did remember seeing a tattoo on the man’s forearm. Something like a big fish. Now, that could be useful.

“I’ll call it in tomorrow,” he said, “but it’s the kind of almost-crime that makes most cops shrug.” Not to mention, he didn’t want to have any contact with his fellow cops right now. Most of the guys he worked with didn’t believe he’d beaten up Franklin Mandalay for no reason. They knew him better than that. But he couldn’t take their well-meaning pity.

Hudson took the bat out of Liz’s hands. “You could have been killed. Next time I tell you to hide in the bathroom, hide in the bathroom. And by the way, that’s a fetching outfit you have on.”

He couldn’t be sure, because it was too dark, but he thought he saw the hint of a blush as she turned and went back inside.

“I wasn’t going to let you go out there alone.”

“I’m a cop. You’re not. But...thank you.” He tossed the bat aside, put the gun in the drawer of his nightstand, handy in case the guy came back. When he refocused his attention on Liz, she was shrugging her way out of his shirt.

Hudson went instantly hard, ready to go again. Judging from the look on Liz’s face, she was ready, too.

“Oh. My,” she said when he shucked his pants. “I’ve heard adrenaline sharpens one’s libido, but here I have some rather convincing proof.”

“Adrenaline’s got nothing to do with it, sugar. It’s all you.” He playfully wrestled her down to the bed and kissed her—hard and fast, then slow and soft.

“Liz,” he said before the lovemaking got so involved that he lost any ability to think or speak. “There’s something you probably should know about me.”

“I know all I need to know.”

“Maybe not. I was suspended last week. A guy I arrested claims I beat him up for no good reason. Unless Internal Affairs clears me—and really, I have no way to prove the guy’s lying—I might be out of a job.”