PROLOGUE
When I imaginedher coming down the aisle, I didn’t imagine her in a casket.
1
HAYDEN
I hadnothing to offer her but my big dick and one hell of a ride.
I worked long hours for shitty pay.
I was the last thing a woman could want.
Other than the uniform and the handcuffs—which they all claimed to love but when the moment came, they were all talk and no action—I wasn’t much. Something that should’ve bothered me, but I didn’t give a fuck really. I was who I was and I wasn’t about to apologize for it.
Growing up, all I’d ever wanted to be was a cop, now here I was. One of Chicago’s finest. With vomit on my shoes, a scratch on my arm, a headache I couldn’t shake, downing bitter black coffee at two in the morning at a hole in the wall diner that’d seen better days.
I needed to get home and get into bed. Tomorrow was going to be another long day. I was still behind in my paperwork and the chief was riding my ass to get caught up, but the chance of that ever happening was about the same as me going home and finding the entire Victoria’s Secret catalogue girls waiting for me in my lounge room. Wishful fucking thinking.
To say it’d been a rough day was an understatement. I should’ve been off at a reasonable hour, hell, if I had a wife at home, I should’ve made it home for the dinner she would’ve been cooking and serving up on the overpriced china she’d insisted we buy. But since I had nothing to go home for and no one waiting for me except a cold slice of last night’s pizza or maybe it was from the night before, I’d stayed. So when the call came in, I was one of the first to put up my hand.
There’d been a hit and run on our turf and I was one of the first on the scene. A scene I’d never forget. A kid, barely five years old, had chased her ball out on the road only to be wiped out by an inconsiderate asshole who thought he was on the NASCAR circuit.
Four hours on the scene and I still had no idea if she was going to make it or not, but there wasn’t anything I could do there. My job was to find the selfish prick who’d driven off, not even bothering to look in his rearview mirror.
We’d found the car, but not the driver, but really it was only a matter of time. It always was. There was no way someone could get away with this and I refused to let them. Maybe it’s what made me so good at my job. I was a determined son of a bitch who didn’t rest until the wrongs were righted.
Draining the dregs of the stale coffee in front of me, I eyed the surly waitress behind the counter hoping she’d pull her head out of her phone long enough to refill my mug. I don't know why I kept coming back here. The service was shit, the food was average at best, and at this time of night, even the few of us customers in here looked tired and miserable.
Eventually, she grabbed the pot and waddled over to where I was, refilling my mug with a grunt, not bothered at all that it spilt over the rim.
“Thanks,” I replied, remembering my manners as I pinched the bridge of my nose trying to ward off the headache.
I needed to go home and get some sleep, and after taking a sip of the sludge, I realized sitting here wasn’t worth it and maybe I was better off. Digging my wallet out of my pocket, I threw some cash down on the table and gathered my stuff.
Yanking open the door, the annoying bells dangling above my head jingled just as someone crashed into my stomach.
“Hurphmf,” I exhaled as I braced myself.
It was a sad fact, but I was used to having fists swung in my direction. Hazard of the job. So as soon as the connection happened, I was no longer half asleep but back on full alert.
“I’m so sorry,” the most beautiful voice apologized from under the stained gray ball cap.
“You’re fine,” I confirmed, stepping to the side and letting her pass.
She was a tiny little thing, at least she was compared to me. There was a mass of long dark curls peeking out from under the cap, she wore jeans that molded to her perfectly with a rip at the knee, and red cowboy boots. Cowboy boots that caught my attention, but also the oversized flannel shirt—looking like it belonged to a guy—that was knotted at her hip with a tight white tank underneath held me captive.
I was a cop and I was trained to pay attention to the details, and seeing the way her tits spilled over the top of her skin tight tank reinvigorated my hunger and it wasn’t for cold, stale pizza.
She slipped past me, leaving me surrounded by the scent of cherries and something innocent, something that had me wanting to beat my chest like a caveman and protect her from the big bad things of the world. Things I knew all too well. And when she looked up at me with those big, brown doe eyes, I was done for.
Standing there like a chump, I watched as she slipped into a booth and hid behind the menu.
“You coming or you going to stand there and let the cold air in?” the surly waitress asked impatiently.
With one last look at the woman who was way too good for me, I shuffled out the door and headed home to bed. Tomorrow would be here soon enough, and if I had any hope of functioning like a normal human being, then sleep was a necessity.
The next three nights played out exactly the same way.
