“Sadie?” he frowned. “Why?”
She grasped the front of his uniform. “Monroe—he had someone at the ready to harm her if luring me here didn’t get your attention. Please, Gabe.”
He kissed her forehead. “I’ll be right back.”
When he hurried off to talk with his dad and apprise him of the situation, she leaned back against the nearest car and wrapped her arms around herself, missing Gabe’s embrace already. A few moments later, he returned, a deep scowl creasing his brows.
“Dad’s sending two cars over right away,” he assured her. “And Joe’s on his way. Whoever Monroe had watching Sadie better be glad that the other deputies will get to him before Joe does.”
“Ms. McCoy?”
Elle turned toward the sound of her name, glad Gabe kept his arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight against him. “Mrs. Monroe.”
The woman came toward her, an officer at her elbow, her youngest son tucked close to her side, and took Elle’s hand in hers. “Thank you. For saving my children. For saving me.”
“I didn’t save you,” Elle assured her. “That was all you. You made the right decision, Mrs. Monroe.”
Janice glanced at Jeremy and Sandra being loaded into the backseats of police cars, but then pressed a kiss to the top of her son Brian’s head. “I hope so, Ms. McCoy. My Sandra…” Her expression was pained when she met Elle’s gaze. “What he did to her… I hope they’ll understand why she did what she did.”
Elle squeezed her hand, wishing she’d been able to help the woman and her children sooner, that she’d been able to reach out to them before their situation had come to this. “I hope so, too.”
Elle didn’t know how much time passed before she and Gabe were able to finally leave, but her head was pounding and it was all she could do to make it to where Gabe had left his Tahoe.
“I need to call Charlotte,” she told him as he handed her into the SUV. “Before she hears anything on the news.”
He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “I’ll take care of it. You look completely drained. Just rest while I drive you home.”
She nodded, her eyelids drooping as the exhaustion dragged her down. The next thing she knew, she was waking up in Gabe’s arms as he carried her into his house and down the hall to his bedroom.
“Hey there, handsome,” she drawled sleepily.
“Hey there, beautiful.” The dimpled smile he gave her was so sultry, warmth began to spread through her body, pooling in all the right womanly places and bringing her fully awake and alive.
“I seem to recall we had some plans for the evening,” she mused.
He lifted a single brow. “Oh yeah?”
She nodded. “Mmm-hmm. I believe there was a hot bubble bath involved.”
“I might be a little low on bubble bath at the old bachelor pad,” he told her, his aqua eyes growing darker as he peered down at her, “but I think I can handle the hot part.”
“Oh, honey,” she said with a grin, “I have no doubt about that…”
Gabe set her on her feet, then removed his gun, laying it on his dresser before taking off his gun belt and setting it aside. She watched him with hungry eyes as he removed the clips from his uniform buttons, placing them in a neat little pile.
The pace he was undressing at was maddeningly slow.
“Here,” she murmured, stepping closer, slipping her hands beneath his shirt and sliding it off his broad shoulders. “Let me help you with that.”
Next was his T-shirt. She untucked it and drew it over his head, tossing it aside. Then she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his bare chest, grinning at the low moan it elicited.
Then she slid her hand down between them, cupping him through his pants. “I think the bath can wait just a little while,” she said, giving him a slow grin. “Don’t you?”
* * *
Gabe didn’t answer. Couldn’t. His powers of speech had left him. All he knew was need—the need to be inside Elle, to lose himself in her love, to reassure himself that she was safe in his arms.
He pulled off her T-shirt, then popped the button on her jeans, slipping his hand inside and finding her already slick with desire. And at that moment, any restraint he possibly maintained left him. He captured her lips with his in a savage kiss, his fingers stroking her with demanding caresses as she moaned and arched against him.
