And then I saw the unmistakable hole ripped into the fabric of his vest.
My eyes narrowed. "You got shot."
"I'm fine, Skip. I was wearing my vest."
"You got shot!"
"Babe." David grabbed me and pulled me into his arms. "I'm fine. I promise."
"What did I tell you about getting shot?" I asked even as I snuggled into his embrace and took my first good breath since we got to the estate. Maybe in days.
David sighed. "Not to."
"You know I'm going to have to punish you."
David stiffened. "You're going to punish me?"
"Oh, yes." My chuckle was totally evil. "For a very long, long time."
"Does this mean you'll go meet my parents?"
I plastered myself against David's luscious body. "I could be convinced."
* * * *
"I still don't understand why he did it."
"I'm not sure we'll ever know," Lany replied. "The man was bat-shit crazy."
That was certainly true. Anyone who took on an entire SWAT team had to have a few screws loose.
"I think part of it was due to the rivalry between SWAT and regular cops, part of it was due to the fact that he felt he was better because he was a detective and felt SWAT were just muscle-bound goons, and part of it was that flash stick he found. He truly believed Sal's team was breaking the law."
I tucked the phone into the crook of my neck and reached for my bottle of water. "Did you ever find out who took those pictures and why?"
"Joe traced it back to that new faction that was trying to move drugs into the city. The theory is that they took those pictures hoping to blackmail Sal into looking the other way and not bust them by threatening to go to IAB about his association with criminals. They also planned to blackmail Vinnie and Carlos so they could run drugs here by threatening to tell everyone that they were friendly with the cops."
Okay, I could see where that could have been a problem if they had been working with anyone but Sal and his team. They obviously hadn't known who they were up against.
"And what happened to that faction?"
Lany's snort came through the phone line loud and clear. "Sal busted them."
"Good." I hadn't been looking forward to the increased drug overdoses we would have been facing if more drugs were shipped into the city. I was thrilled with the current level of drugs we had. We didn't need to add to the problem.
"So, is David all moved in?"
I grinned even though Lany couldn't see it. "He brought the last of his boxes over last night. He's supposed to be cleaning his apartment today and handing in the keys."
I was still a little stunned that David was moving in with me. It had only been a month since we started officially dating. It was pretty quick for him to move in, but he spent every night at my place anyway. It just made sense for him to live there.
"Are you okay with that?"
"I love him, and he loves me." I never thought I'd say that. "I'm more than okay with it."
"You're good for him," Lany said. "I was getting pretty worried about how much he had closed himself off after that Julia fiasco. I'm real glad you saved him and brought him back to the land of the living."
"I think we saved each other." I finally had a life outside of the hospital. I went home after work and there was someone there to welcome me and ask me about my day. When the weekend rolled around, I had David with me to go out and do stuff. And every night, I curled up in his arms, no longer alone.
