Unauthorized Return (Unauthorized Series Book 4) (9 page)

Aria stuck her fingers between the blinds in the living room and peeked out again. She couldn't let it go. She wanted to watch Joanne-Marie come home and see what she had bought. Coleton seemed unconcerned. He sat in the kitchen and eyed her with amusement. "It's her money," he called one more time.

"You keep saying that," Aria replied. But I still want to
know
." Joanne-Marie had left over an hour ago and Aria had tried to forget about it, but she couldn't. She had played one halfhearted game of spades and then took up her station at the window.

A black sedan pulled into the parking lot and Aria tensed. It looked like the car that Joanne-Marie had left in. It was. The driver side door opened and a girl got out. She looked only slightly older than Joanne-Marie. The girl opened the door to the back seat and waited. Joanne-Marie stepped out, carrying the baby. The baby was completely silent and drinking greedily from a bottle. Aria saw a look of joy on Joanne-Marie's face as she watched Roger fill his belly contentedly. Aria immediately felt awful about her doubts. Joanne-Marie's friend opened the trunk and the two women began shuttling can after can of baby formula into Joanne-Marie's apartment.

Aria stepped back, a lump in her throat. She'd been wrong. Oh-so wrong. Coleton had been right, and a complete prince. And now that tiny baby wouldn't be suffering anymore. Aria wiped a tear from her eye and sat on the couch. She wanted to run from her shame. She wanted to hide from her bitter view of humanity.

Once she got herself under control, she stood and walked into the kitchen. She looked into Coleton's handsome face and told him the truth. "You were right. I was wrong. You did a good thing today. I'm sorry for giving you such a hard time."

A sunny smile broke over Coleton's face. "Hey now, no need to be sorry. I always try to help if I can. But I know where you are coming from too. That was a lot of money to give away. There was no guarantee she wasn't going to buy drugs with it. I get it."

"But you still did it," Aria said. "That makes you the bigger person."

"Nah, I don't think of it like that at all. You give all day long, I know you do. You just give in a different way. I've got enough money that giving away a thousand dollars doesn't faze me. That doesn't make me a better person. So now that you know can we play another game of spades?"

Aria sat down and played, and in between they ate dinner. Finally, after the ten o'clock news, she retired to her bedroom and tried to sleep, her mind spinning with the puzzle that was Coleton Savoy.

***

Aria's eyes opened like a shot, confused as to what had awakened her. A crashing noise. Shouting. In an instant, she hopped off the bed and slipped her feet into her shoes. She ran to the window and looked out. Quiet that way. She sprinted down the hallway, pulling her gun out as she went.

She found Coleton, also fully dressed, standing by the front door, his stance alert and watchful. Aria joined him, and listened hard.

A man's voice, yelling, and a thudding, crunching noise. "Bitch! Don't you lie to me! Where did you get the money from? You got some baby daddy on the side? Roger ain't mine, that it?"

"Oh shit," Coleton breathed. "I didn't want to get her in trouble. Just help her."

Aria's mind spun with possibilities. One of the other neighbors was probably already calling the cops, but the Tetam County Police Department was a good twenty miles away. Even if it took a police officer fifteen minutes to get here, Joanne-Marie could be beat up pretty badly in that time. And then what would happen to little Roger?

She made a split-second decision. It was going to put them in danger, but it couldn't be helped. She returned her gun to her holster and hid it under her shirt. Maybe they could stop the situation without anyone knowing she was a cop.

She pulled open the door and felt Coleton grab her arm. "Let me," he whispered. "You stay close by in case I need you, but let's not blow your cover if we don't have to."

He rushed out past her and Aria followed closely. What he said made sense, but she wasn't going to let him get himself killed. He wasn't a cop.

Coleton ran swiftly to Joanne-Marie's door. Aria could tell by the light spilling out that it was open a crack. Before she could say a word, Coleton disappeared inside the apartment. She put on a burst of speed and got there only a second behind him. She pushed the door all the way open and stopped in her tracks.

She could see in the tiny kitchen, which was immediately to her right. Joanne-Marie cowered on the floor, a bruise already popping up on her right cheek. Tears streamed down her face. The baby was nowhere to be seen and Aria couldn't hear him crying. That wasn't good. Fear ran a wicked and painful path through Aria's body. Were they too late to save the baby?

A man stood over Joanne-Marie, his fist raised. The man was about five feet ten inches tall. His shoulders were hunched and from the back he looked like any other small time, small-minded man who thought it was okay to hit a woman. Aria's jaw clenched and she itched to rush in and teach him a lesson about women who hit back.

But she was too late. Coleton was already three quarters of the way to Joanne-Marie's boyfriend. As Coleton passed the stove, his hand shot out and grabbed a heavy pot. Coleton skidded to a stop behind the man, who just started to turn around to see who else was in the kitchen with him. Coleton brought the pot around in a hard, flat arc, and connected with the man's forehead with a sickening
thud
. Macaroni and cheese sprayed against the wall in a fluorescent yellow arc. Most of it stuck there. Aria's heart leapt in her chest. She hadn't known what to expect from Coleton. The man slid to the ground with a boneless thump.

Aria stayed in the doorway, but looked around the living room for signs of the little baby. She heard Coleton speaking softly to Joanne-Marie.

" Joanne-Marie, are you okay? Can you stand?"

Aria started to pick her way through the living room, not seeing any sign of little Roger, and wanting to help get Joanne-Marie to safety. Coleton turned around and waved a hand at her. He wanted her to stay back. She watched closely as Coleton pulled the sobbing Joanne-Marie to her feet and helped her gingerly step over the man lying knocked out on the floor.

"He wasn't supposed to hit me anymore!" Joanne-Marie finally wailed at full volume.

Aria shook her head. So this wasn't the first time.

"But what am I supposed to do? My mama won't take me back. And I don't have anywhere else to go. No one will hire me because I'm only seventeen and I have to work around the babysitter's schedule. He wasn't supposed to hit me again! He promised!"

"Men like that always hit," Coleton said.

"But he's my baby's father! What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know, Joanne-Marie, I don't know," Coleton said and Aria could hear the raw emotion in his voice. Aria had seen countless situations just like this over the years, while she had been a patrol officer. It was heartbreaking, especially when you realized just how little options women like Joanne-Marie really had.

The sound of sirens raised in the distance and Aria turned towards Coleton, trying to wave him out the door. He nodded and flapped his hand at her. Joanne-Marie still hadn't noticed Aria. Her one good eye was fixed on Coleton, her face a mask of grief and fear. Coleton put an arm around her and pulled her in close to his chest, walking her slowly through the apartment as she covered her face with her hands and cried.

"Let's just get you outside for now," Coleton said. "Your boyfriend is going to jail tonight. Maybe things will look better in the morning."

"How can they look better?" Joanne-Marie screeched. "How can anything ever get better?" She cried into Coleton's chest, her shoulders wracking with sobs.

Aria retreated to the door, catching Coleton's eye one more time. She mimed holding a baby and then held her hands up at shoulder level.

"Where's Roger?" Coleton asked.

Joanne-Marie uttered a little shriek and looked back to the kitchen. "Oh," she said. He's still back there on the floor. I think you knocked him out."

"No, I mean the baby."

"Oh, Roger Jr., he's still sleeping, I'll run and get him," Joanne-Marie said, drying her tears on her sleeve.

Joanne-Marie disappeared down a tiny hallway to the left of the living room and Aria stepped forward to Coleton. "You have to get out of here before the cops show up. Meet me around the back of the building."

He nodded and Aria sprinted out the door. She had to trust that he would do as she said. They only had a small chance to make this all work and not blow their hiding spot. The sirens were getting closer, but as she swept her gaze past the parking lot, she couldn't see any red and blue lights ripping through the air.

Aria ran down the sidewalk and into their apartment. She sprinted straight to the back wall and pushed the window open, then pulled the screen out quickly. She climbed out of the window and made sure it was easy to climb back in, then she ran down the back of the building, praying that Coleton would hurry.

She heard cars pulling into the parking lot and her heart fell. Coleton had to be seen by now, but no, she saw his dark form round the corner of the building just in time. He met her and she grabbed him silently by the hand and pulled him to their window.

She twisted herself up and into the window, then turned around and motioned for him to climb inside too. He did so and then Aria put the screen back in place swiftly, and shut the window, then pulled the drapes.

She tiptoed to the front window and tried to peek outside. The blinds of the window covered almost every square inch, but she managed to find a tiny hole that afforded her a decent view of the parking lot without her having to move the blinds at all. She had to drop down to her knees to see out of it properly.

The first thing she saw was a police officer talking at length with Joanne-Marie. The young woman had the baby over one shoulder and he slept happily, one pudgy fist curled in Joanne-Marie's hair.

From behind her, Coleton leaned close and whispered into her ear. "She said he's never slept that well since the day he was born. She said he drank three bottles worth of the new formula and then fell asleep and hasn't woken up since. Normally he wakes up several times a night and cries and there's nothing she can do for him."

Aria smiled lightly. "Well at least the baby's happy. Too bad it caused Roger senior to blow a gasket," Aria whispered back.

"Guys like that don't need an excuse to blow a gasket. It's what they do," Coleton replied, but his whisper had a hard edge to it. Aria wondered if his father had hit his mother.

An ambulance pulled up and they watched the two paramedics head into the apartment with their gurney.

Aria spoke in a more normal voice, but still low pitched. "I thought you were going to try to talk to him."

"You don't think I should have hit him?"

"Oh no, I absolutely do think that you should have hit him, but ... I guess I had you pegged as someone who would try to talk first."

"I know when people are beyond talking," Coleton said.

Aria studied the side of his face in the dim light as he knelt on the floor beside her. He was a mystery, this Coleton Savoy. But he was a very smart and interesting mystery. She shook her head and returned her gaze out the window.

Roger senior was awake and handcuffed to the ambulance gurney as the paramedics checked him out. A police officer was talking to him sternly, and Roger's bottom lip had taken on the belligerent pout of a five-year-old. Aria knew he wasn't going to learn anything from this experience. She just hoped they were able to keep him in jail for a while so maybe Joanne-Marie could figure out a plan of action that would get her out of his reach. Maybe she had some family who would take her in. Anything.

Coleton turned to her again. "Can I use your phone?"

"Sure," she mumbled, wondering who he would call in the middle of the night. She ran into the bedroom and grabbed it, checking the clock on the wall. 5:25 a.m. The sun would start coming up over the horizon soon. Hopefully they could get a bit more sleep when this was all over because they hadn't gone to bed until after midnight.

She shoved the battery back inside the phone, handed it to Coleton, then returned to the window and sank back down to watch the officers outside, praying in her mind that none of them would come to their door. That Joanne-Marie had no idea who Coleton was or where he had disappeared to.

Coleton stood and walked into the kitchen to use her phone. Aria kept both eyes out into the parking lot but still tried to hear what Coleton was saying in the kitchen. She could only hear his side of the conversation but eventually figured out he was talking to a lawyer – probably his lawyer.

"Sorry, Ford, did I wake you?" He paused for a moment. "Great. I need something from you and I need it quickly. Do you have a pen and paper?"

"Okay, I want you to go to the Starlight Apartments in Tetam County. In apartment seven there is a young woman and her baby living there. Her name is Joanne-Marie and I don't know her last name. Her boyfriend Roger is being taken to jail right now for hitting her but I don't know how long he'll stay in there. I need you to convince her to leave the apartment before he gets out. I need you to set her up anywhere she wants to go. I don't care if she wants to go to Hawaii. You get her out of there and get her a place to live and maybe a job or school or something – something that she can do to make her life better. Right now she's living under this abusive asshole's thumb because she doesn't have anywhere else to live or any other way to survive. I want you to change that for her. I don't care how much of my money you have to spend."

Aria's heart pounded in her chest. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. How much money did Coleton really have? This was so much bigger than just giving someone a thousand dollars. Something like this could cost tens of thousands of dollars - no, hundreds of thousands of dollars - before it was over. Was he going to take care of this girl for the rest of her life?

Coleton began speaking again and Aria strained her ears to hear every word. "That's exactly right, Ford, thank you. Just take care of her and the baby. Even if something happens to me, I want my estate to take care of her."

Coleton waited for one more beat and then said something that made absolutely no sense to Aria.

"Purple elephant in a meadow. I will, bye."

***

Coleton hung up the phone and got himself a glass of water. That was it. He had done all he could do. Now he needed to focus on his own issues again. Ford was a good lawyer, and a good man. He would take care of Joanne-Marie and Roger Junior. He would make sure that they found their way to safety. If Coleton was still alive after his father's trial, he would call Ford again and see what the situation was.

He returned to the living room and sank down onto his knees next to Aria. Her eyes were wide and staring at him. She must have overheard the conversation. He hoped she didn't think he was stupid for trying to help someone that he'd only just met.

"Purple elephant in a meadow?" she said in a questioning whisper.

Coleton chuckled lightly. "That's our code word. That way he knows if someone is forcing me to say what I'm saying or if I'm saying it of my own free will."

Wonder drove across Aria's face. He thought it made her look more beautiful than ever.

"That's really wonderful what you're doing for Joanne-Marie. You might save her life, and give that little baby a chance at growing up differently from his father."

Coleton warmed inside at her praise. Maybe someday he would tell her what had happened to his oldest sister and her baby. Maybe someday he would be able to make up for being too young to help her back then.

Aria looked back outside at the police officers coalescing in the parking lot. Coleton pretended that he was looking too, but really he was studying Aria out of the corner of his eye. He pretended the parking lot lights were actually beams of moonlight dancing on her face. She was gorgeous, and he felt like he was going to burst just being this close to her.

He saw something shift in the set of her shoulders. She crawled closer to the window and almost pressed her forehead right up against the blinds.

"They're leaving," she whispered. She turned to Coleton, her eyes ablaze. "We did it. They aren't even talking to the neighbors. She must've just said you were some guy walking by and then you took off into the night." Aria leaned closer to Coleton and put her hands on his shoulders in her delight. "We did it!" she exclaimed again, leaning close to him, her face awash in triumph.

Coleton could smell the shampoo she washed her hair with. The touch of her hands on his shoulders instantly drove him mad and he felt his cock twitch and begin to stand at attention. Words as declarations of love flew through his mind. His mouth opened of its own accord and he spoke, not even knowing what he was going to say.

"In your light, I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems." he said, meaning every word of Rumi's wisdom.

Aria's face froze and a tiny gasp filled her lungs.

He couldn't contain himself. Coleton leaned forward and captured Aria's lips with his own. Her body tensed, but didn't pull away. Didn't scream. Didn't whip him across the face with her fist or the butt of her gun.

Coleton closed his eyes and gave everything he had to the kiss. This might be his one and only chance to taste something as sweet as Sergeant Aria Gale. He was not going to waste it. He crawled his hands across her back and raised one to her hair, plunging his fingers into the silky blonde tresses. He had wanted to do this since the first moment he saw he saw her - no, he had wanted to do it since the first moment he realized she wasn't Ava. He felt his cock standing at full attention now, straining against his jeans, begging to be part of the action.

He ignored it, and savored the taste of Aria's lips instead. He pushed his tongue lightly against the seam of her lips, urging her to let him deepen the kiss. She opened her mouth slightly and he took the advantage she offered, tenderly tracing her top and bottom lip, pulling her close to him, feeling the crush of her breasts against his chest. His senses threatened to overload. There was so much about her that he wanted to experience, to touch, to taste, to watch, to study. If only she would relax.

A split second before she did it, Coleton knew she was going to pull away. His heart wrenched in two and his soul tore in half. And then she was gone.

Aria stood up quickly and looked at him, panic written on her face. "I can't," she choked out and ran for the bedroom.

Coleton knelt next to the window for an hour considering those two words before he finally retreated to the couch and fell on top of it, his clothes and shoes still on, his mind alternating between reliving the most perfect kiss of his life and shutting down to avoid the pain of the loss of that kiss.