Page 25 (1/2)

Cara had cared House, maybe even loved him Todd ached for the pain she felt, even as an insidious curl of jealousy rose within hione now, poor bastard A death he hadn’t deserved

He’d find the guy’s killer--because it was his job and because he liked to give victiers eased over Cara’s flesh "I can be a hard ht Protecting those who can’t protect thee had been all he had He wanted her to understand him

The darkness inside, a darkness he knew she’d felt

Her cheek rested on his arazed at him "Why did you become a cop?"

The memory of his mother’s scream burned in his hteen years"

Most folks took the staterow up and be like his father

Some truth Some lie

"But why did you join the force?" The dark eyes that stared back at hi her a story he’d never told another Not even the grandfather who’d wound up raising hio by and ouldn’t see hier" A hard, brooding stranger who smelled of alcohol and smoke One whose eyes had been flint sharp and whose h Everyone said so" And there had been so many plaques and le week, s that sauysdealers Robbers Killers He made a lot of eneive when they’ve been betrayed"

Cara didn’t speak Just watched hiot out one day Tony Costa My dad had been undercover in the guy’s crew Busted hi coke and for the ot out?" Cara asked, surprise in her voice

The woman didn’t understand the huher-ups Pleaded toa seven-year sentence" He sucked in a deep breath This was the part that he hated to remember "I was fourteen when Tony was paroled I remember because it was my birthday Mo the house to go get it" He’d been going to have a swio back home to set up before his friends ca for us in the driveway He had a gun"

"Todd…"

"He et the bastard over there so he could watch’ But dad was undercover, and et him She told Costa she could call his captain, but--" A lu back the words "But Costa knew a call to the captain would have cops swar over him So he smiled at my mom, and he killed her The bastard shot her point-blank in the head"

She wrapped her arainst his neck "I’m so sorry"

He felt cold Even with the warainst hiun on ainst hi over his body, ruffling the sheets and covers

Her head lifted "He shot you"

Todd caught her hand Brought it to rest against the old, jagged scar on his left side "I tried to run, but the bullet caughtlash of the pain in his side The fiery agony had stolen his breath, then he’d seen the blood So much blood His Hisout on the floor, with ht he’d done so he couldn’t still sers curled over the white scar "You got out of there You lived "

"A neighbor heard the gunshots Called nine-one-one I woke up in a hospital,beside er in her voice--and the soft echo of pain, for hi Costa He caed s he’d done in his life" His dad had been the saer, but he’d also see Todd had never seen the o too deep into the devil’s world, only darkness will fill you’ It was the last thing he ever said to me"

"Did he catch the man who’d shot you?" Quiet words in a beautiful face that was suddenly deadly

The ere still closed to the night The ely tense around hi him in My dad shot Costa in the head and in the heart Then he turned the gun on hihteen years on the force, and his dad had eaten his gun And left hi me For years, I didn’t understand why he’d done it--"

"He thought it was his fault," she said, her voice soft "Huuilt presses on them"

This was the part he didn’t like to think about "I bla shot If he’d just been at ho, none of this would have ever happened" The words cah he liked to think the man knew better

Yeah, he liked to think that "When I first woke up and realized that one, I wished it had been hi that, even when his father had finally come to see him in the hospital He’d wished it until…"His captain ca at randfather’s" His mom’s father had been an affluent, somewhat reserved man who lived in one of the older, richer parts of Atlanta He’d never approved of his only child et a custody hearing for Todd when the captain had co with his dark news

"How did you feel, when you learned what had happened?" Her naked body pressed against his, and the flesh-on-flesh contact was strangely co Her hand stroked his scar, softly, tenderly, and the mysterious eyes that stared into his held no censure

Just patience Warmth

Warmth in darkness

His skin didn’t seem quite so cold anymore, but inside, he still felt like his heart was encased in ice "I was so fucking glad that Tony Costa was dead So fucking glad"

She pressed a kiss against his chest Right over his heart "But what about your father?"

He’d been furious with him "He didn’t have to die, Cara There were so many other options for hiht he did"

"Well, he was da" He’d taken the coward’s way out The easy way

"He ht that he’d failed you, yourothers would have a hard ti the fact that he’d failed to protect the ones who’dlike that They’d told him that his father had been disturbed, pushed past his reason by the murder of his wife

But the siun into his mouth

And chosen to leave the world and his son behind

He hadn’t forgiven him for that, not yet

Not deep inside