Page 103 of Playing With Temptation

“Is Ethan with you?” he asked first, then confirmed, “It is.”

I hung up on Dylan and ran for my SUV. Ethan was on my heels.

“I’m driving,” he yelled.

I didn’t give the first fuck who drove, and I wasn’t stupid enough to argue.

Ethan trailed the Captain’s ass all the seven miles from the station to Westchester Road.

I spent the six minutes locked in my head.

Six minutes of contemplation.

Lucas.

Juniper.

Colson.

The boxes we’d yet to unpack.

The life we’d just started.

Everything revolved around her.

She was the center.

Without her, nothing worked.

Nothing would ever work again.

Ethan made the last turn. I saw the blue-and-red lights flashing, the unit parked haphazardly. Captain Anderson stopped behind it. Ethan did the same. But I was out of my car before Ethan had fully stopped.

I was in a full-out run. But when I heard a woman scream, I pushed to go faster.

Once I hit the porch, I slowed only because I was in the house and what I was assaulted with scorched a path of fury. Rainy was in her bra, the top half of her covered in blood. Her hands were out in front of her, warning off the officer who was trying to approach.

“No!” Rainy screamed. “Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me.”

“Miss—”

“No!”

“Stand down,” I told the officer. “Rainy, baby, look at me.”

“Don’t touch me.”

Fuck, she was trembling so bad I was afraid she was going to pass out and hit her head on the table behind her.

“I’m not gonna touch you, baby.”

“I didn’t do it!” she screamed. “I didn’t let him do it.”

“Okay, Rainy, look at me, baby.”

“I didn’t let him.”

“Please, Rainy, look at me.”