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How long had she been out in the wintery darkness in nothing but the silky gown she’d been so in love with? She looked down at it as Jack ripped off his suit jacket and threw it over her shoulders. The green satin almost seemed alive between how violently she shook and the police lights dancing across the fabric.
The warm scent of him—spicy and sweet and unbelievably sexy—enveloped her as she snuggled into the warmth of his coat. He moved in to hug her again, or perhaps to usher her to the car to get her out of the cold, but she grabbed his hand and stopped him. “Wait. I need to tell you something. It’s really important, and you have to know.”
His eyes blazed with something like fury and relief, and the odd mixture threw her off balance as he stared down at her. “Now?”
“Yes. It’s important,” she said again.
His shoulders sagged, and he slipped his hands beneath his coat to wrap around her waist, hugging her close for warmth. “Make it quick, we need to get you out of this cold.”
“I love you,” she said, hating the way her teeth chattered as she did.
Each and every one of the hard angles of Jack’s features softened as she said the words, then he surprised her by letting out a broken laugh. “Robin, I know. I love you too. Can we go now please?”
“That’s it?You know?”
“Of course I know. You told me on the dance floor.”
She frowned. “No, I didn’t get a chance. I didn’t—”
He silenced her with a kiss, then pulled back and winked. “Not in those exact words, but trust me, you did.”
Her mouth opened, but before she could reply to that impossibly romantic observation, Tommy approached with a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry, bad timing, I know. I’m Tommy, you must be Robin, and I hate to break up this moment, but the word is there are a lot of very concerned people waiting for you at the Snow Hill Inn. I’ve been told to rush you along.”
“You have?” Jack asked.
“Yeah, someone by the name of Joan Patterson keeps calling Snow Hill PD because you guys haven’t answered your phones, and since they’re a little busy right now, they sent me over to let you know. Your new station seems a little shorthanded, my man.”
Jack snorted in agreement, but Robin’s heart stirred as she looked up at him. “Okay, let’s go.”
He made a face like it was about time, and Robin managed to poke him in the side despite the fact that her fingers were so numb she worried they were no longer functional.
Jack lowered her into his still-running car and the blast from the heater warmed her skin. Then he kissed her temple and shut the door so he could speak with Tommy before he joined her. Unwilling to be left out, she pushed the button for the window and lowered it just enough to hear them.
Jack looked down at her through the window and shook his head with a small smile before he embraced his friend. Then he pulled back and patted his shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
Tommy shrugged. “Like I told Snitker, I’m your backup.”
“And it was much appreciated. But how did you know to come to the skate park?”
“As soon as you said Holden was at your girl’s house, I called the lead detective and told him what we knew. He said that was enough to justify a hot and fresh pursuit, so we booked it down here. We spotted Snow Hill PD going somewhere fast, so we headed them off, found out they were coming here, then coordinated the blackout approach together.”
Robin didn’t know what a “hot and fresh” pursuit was, but she figured it had something to do with them being able to pursue CJ from Philly to Snow Hill. The blackout thing had also tripped her up, but considering the way the cruisers had rolled up to the skate park without even using their headlights and were suddenly there as if they’d appeared by magic, it made sense.
Proud of herself for managing to follow the conversation between the two men, she continued to blatantly eavesdrop.
“How did Holden wind up out here?” Jack asked, nodding toward the row of police cars Holden and CJ had been escorted to.
“I heard he jumped in with SHPD as soon as he heard what was going on,” Tommy replied. “He got word at the ball, I think. Something about the mayor?”
Robin bit her lip. She’d liked Holden when Matthew was alive, and now it made sense why he’d been so cold to her in the years since his death. But she’d never seen this coming. If Jack hadn’t voiced his suspicions, she never would have suspected that he was involved in this.
On some level, it was understandable that he’d want to protect his brother. The fact that he’d jumped in with the PD to help if he could was a point in his favor, but at the end of the day, the only reason she’d spent the last four years not knowing what happened to her husband was because Holden had kept the truth from coming out. And for that, he deserved whatever punishment he received.
Jack and Tommy finished going over a few other details as Robin leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes. She was exhausted, but she was also finally thawing out, so that was good. Though, it meant her brain had cleared enough to realize how much she wanted to see her daughter, and she sighed in relief as she heard Jack tell Tommy to follow him to the inn.
Ten minutes later, he opened her door and ushered her up the front steps of the Pattersons’ welcoming front porch. When she stepped inside and Abby immediately ran to her and wrapped her in a tight hug, Robin’s world righted itself with a palpable force.
Jack and Tommy came in behind her, and before he followed his friend into the sitting room to introduce him to the others and tell them about the wild ride they’d been on, he put a hand on her back and kissed her cheek, doing the same on the top of Abby’s head before ruffling her hair.
