Page 65 of Tough Justice

Tori opened her mouth to ask why, when Max and Neil sauntered over.

Max gripped the back of one of the empty chairs. “Hey, Wil. Tori.”

Beside him, Neil crossed his arms, revealing his pricey-looking silver watch. She couldn’t stop from glancing at Wil’s watch with its simple leather strap and being a little annoyed with the surgeons. As an ER doctor, Wil made a good amount, but sometimes, the surgeons seemed to flaunt the differences in their salaries. Wil always took it in stride.

“I hear you got another Ferrari,” Wil said to Max. “What color?”

“Black.” Max smiled broadly. “Come for a spin. Once you get behind the wheel, you’ll be buying one before you know it.”

Wil laughed, shaking his head. “Not a chance. I like my Nissan, and I prefer to spend my money on vacations. I’ll be sure to wave to you in your little Ferraris next time I’m racing down the runway in my private jet.” Everyone laughed. Wil’s European and Caribbean vacations were legendary. “But I’ll take you up on that drive.”

“Any time. Just say the word.”

…

The sky was dark as Tori pulled into her driveway. She should have been home hours ago but wound up staying late to help with some tough cases that came into the ER at the end of her shift.

As she locked her Subaru, her entire body seemed to sag, but not just from sheer exhaustion. Her mind was frayed at the edges like an old rug. She still didn’t know what to do about Deck. Starting a new relationship with this much doubt couldn’t be healthy. Perhaps she’d been thinking too much with her libido and not enough with her brain or common sense.

She recalled her last conversation with Mike right before he relocated. He’d wanted them to try the long-distance thing. Somehow, she knew not to pursue it. The second he was gone from her life, she’d never given him another romantic thought. She’d spent only a fraction of the time with Deck that she had with Mike, but Deck was the one who remained in her thoughts.

Tori unlocked the door and flipped on the lights. As usual, the house was quiet. Coming home to someone again would have been nice. Coming home to Deck would have been nicer. But she had to consider the possibility that he’d already figured out how incompatible they were and that was the real reason he’d stayed away for the last week.

Or worse, now that he’d slept with her, maybe that was enough to satisfy him, and she’d never hear from him again.

The only sound in the house came from the refrigerator humming and gurgling as it made ice. When the last cube had fallen, an eerie silence settled once again around her. The loneliness, however, was deafening.

“Maybe I should get a dog,” she muttered, thinking of Thor as she filled a glass with water and took a sip. She could always pay one of the local kids to walk it when she was at work. It would be a better fate than spending a life behind bars at the local rescue shelter. Coming home to a smiling, furry face and a wagging tail would be nice. And how great would it be to take him or her outside after a long shift and unwind together?

Tori set her glass on the counter then went to the kitchen doors that looked out over the yard. Fencing would be a must. She flicked on the backyard light and froze. Her muscles went bowstring taut and her heart slammed against her ribs.

A man stood in the shadow of her yard—a big man.

She gasped, stumbling backward and slamming into her dining room table before her ass hit the floor. Call 911. Find a weapon. Do something!

The man turned and ran to the door. Deck was wrong.

Someone was after her, too.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Tori!” Deck bolted up the steps to the back door. He couldn’t miss the fear in her eyes as she stumbled and nearly fell.

Being away from her for a week had driven him so crazy he had to come see her. So no one would see his Interceptor, he’d parked way down the street, then he and Thor had waited in the dark on her back porch for nearly two hours.

Sensing the urgency in his voice, Thor bounded onto the deck beside him. All he could do was watch helplessly through the glass slider as Tori scrambled backward on the floor, her eyes still wide with shock and fear, her chest heaving. “Tori!” he repeated. “It’s Deck!” One of the neighbor’s lights came on in the adjacent lawn. That’s all he needed. Local police responding with guns blazing. His dog snorted. “Easy, Thor.” He rested a hand on his dog’s head to calm him down before he tried crashing through the door.

Deck knew the instant Tori recognized him. Her eyes squeezed shut and she put a hand to her chest. Slowly, she made it to her feet and unlocked the slider. Thor’s tail thumped wildly, and he nuzzled her hand.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” As much as he wanted to pull her into his arms, it was obvious from the pulse pounding at her throat that she needed more time before he touched her.

“I thought you were—” She let out an unsteady breath. “Never mind.”

“Are you okay over there?” a voice from the neighboring lawn yelled.

“I’m fine, Stew.” To add credibility to her words, she waved.

“Can I come in?” Before the entire neighborhood went to DEFCON 1.