Chapter 5

Zane finished up his report and saved it on the system. Then he did his final rounds before leaving for the night. He said goodnight to the officer on duty, Tex. Tex had come on duty after the day’s drama so had not been in the station at the time that Zane was cuffed in his office.

Zane believed it would be a quiet night despite the arrests they had made earlier in the day.

Hope’s accomplices were all teenagers. Street kids just trying to earn a buck. Zane was tempted to simply let the kids go but he didn’t have the right to do so.

He had seen so many kids just trying to make a buck and getting sucked into doing something criminal. By the time they found out what they would be doing for the job it was too late to back out.

Generally, they would be out on the street again in a few days but they’d have a record. Something that could have been avoided if people like Hope didn’t get involved with them.

Zane sat in his car for a while in the parking outside the station mulling the day’s events before he started the car and drove home. He pulled into the garage and closed the door behind him using his remote. He waited until the door was fully closed before unlocking the cruiser and stepping out. Then he unlocked the door to the house and entered.

The entry from the garage took him into the kitchen. He placed his keys on the counter in the middle of the kitchen where he always ate breakfast. His cat, Flunker, entered the kitchen and immediately crossed to him where he began rubbing itself against his legs as it meowed hungrily.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m a bad parent,” Zane muttered. He opened the fridge and took out his cat, Flunker’s, dinner. He scooped a portion of canned food into her bowl and returned the tin to the fridge. Then he grabbed a six-pack of beers to end his night with. He left Flunker hungrily gobbling his dinner. Zane left the kitchen and entered the lounge. He turned the light on and froze.

Hope was seated in his favorite chair.

“Nice to see you again, officer,” she smiled. She held a gun trained on him and he did not doubt that she could and would use it if she had to. Zane hesitated and then advanced slowly into the living room.

“What do you want?”

You’re not curious about how I got in?” she asked disappointed.

“Breaking and entering would be my guess,” Zane said. “Would you mind getting out of my chair?” he asked.

“Sure,” Hope stood and shifted to the sofa which stood at an angle facing away from his chair. He watched her as she moved. She had changed clothes since he had last seen her. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, revealing high cheekbones. She wore a tight t-shirt and a short, loose matching skirt. Her legs seemed to go on forever and his mind began to race with dirty thoughts as he watched her seat herself on the other sofa. He crossed the living room and sat down in his chair. He opened a beer and offered her one. She declined.

He took a sip of his beer and studied her. She had crossed her legs and her skirt flared slightly revealing more of her thigh than she knew. He enjoyed the view.

“What do you want?” he repeated.

“I like you,” she answered.

“Why? You know I’m going to put you in prison.”

Hope smiled. “Perhaps. But I don’t think that day is today. Or tomorrow even.”

“You’re too confident for your own good,“ Zane said calmly as he sipped his beer. “I don’t understand why you are flirting with your greatest occupational hazard.”

Hope laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself. You and the police are not my greatest occupational hazard. You are one of them but certainly not the greatest.”

“Criminals fear someone more than the police?”

“We all have bosses we serve willingly or unwillingly,” Hope replied.

She moved to the edge of her seat and her skirt rode up revealing more of her thigh. If she noticed him look, she gave no indication of it. “I think I was rather cryptic today in everything I told you. Sorry, I had to be. Times are hard and you never know who you can trust.”

“Really? Did someone betray you?”

“Ask yourself, how did you come by the information regarding our operation?”

“A tip-off.”

“Exactly. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

“So you think I’m going to play private investigator and find who tipped us off?”

Hope laughed. “No. I didn’t come to talk about that.”

“What then?”

“Do you mind if I make myself some coffee?” she asked.

“You’re going to draw this out as long as possible are you?” Zane asked.

“No longer than I have to I promise,” Hope smiled and then continued, “but I thought you might want to draw it out as long as possible.”

Zane sighed. Hope was teasing him. He told himself to relax. He told himself he would catch her. He just had to keep a clear head.

“Sure, be my guest,” Zane waived his beer toward the kitchen which was visible from his vantage point in the living room. Hope stood and walked to the kitchen. She filled the kettle and turned it on. Then she began scouring the kitchen for, cups, coffee, milk, and sugar. She searched all the lower cupboards and shelves giving him a great view of her legs from where he sat. He guessed it was deliberate. She was so busy searching or, pretending to search for the items, that she never noticed Zane leave his chair and approach the kitchen.

“Coffee’s in the cupboard on your right. Two shelves up. Sugar’s next to the coffee. Mugs are in the cupboard above you and milk’s in the fridge.”

Hope straightened and spun around in surprise to look at Zane. Her eyes flicked from his to the table where she had left her gun.

Zane could have picked it up when he entered the kitchen but he didn’t believe it was necessary and had left it. She saw the gun still on the table and weighed the need of picking it up before she decided it wasn’t necessary. She realized he could have picked it up if he had wanted to but hadn’t. She relaxed visibly and her eyes met his again.

“Decided you can’t wait to arrest me?” she asked teasing him.

“You haven’t had coffee yet. Maybe I can get a confession or at least a statement from you while you drink your coffee.”

“I guess you could get a confession or statement of sorts. Or both,” she smiled biting her lower lip again. Tension hung in the air between them as they studied each other. Zane placed the remainder of his six-pack on the table next to the gun.

“Coffee?” she asked.

“Sure. Why not?” Zane replied, his voice a soft rumble.

Hope moved to where Zane had told her the coffee and sugar would be and placed it on the counter in front of him. Then she turned around and reached up to where Zane told her the cups would be.

Zane watched silently enjoying how her skirt rode up as she reached for the mugs above her head. She placed them on the counter and filled them with sugar, coffee, and hot water.

Then she turned. “You take milk?”

“That’s why I have some in the fridge,” he smiled.

She smiled at his sass and brushed past him. He caught her scent as she passed him. It was delicate, feminine, and sexy. His gaze followed her to the fridge where she bent over to retrieve the milk from the lowest shelf. He enjoyed the view again and then asked, “Would you mind putting my six-pack away while you’re there?”

Hope straightened and fetched his six-pack from the table. She bent over again as she put it in the fridge and then returned to her position in front of Zane to finish making the coffee.

She poured the milk into the cups, closed the milk, and picked up their cups. She moved around Zane and placed them on the table. Zane had watched Hope’s every move as she made coffee. He had watched as she moved around the kitchen retrieving the cups, coffee, sugar, and milk. And he had watched her as she placed the cups on the table right by the gun. Despite the gun being right there before her, she left it and turned around.

“Are you going to join me or are you going to leave your coffee to get cold?”

Zane hesitated only for the briefest of moments as he lost himself in her eyes again. Her lips demanded to be kissed; her eyes were filled with a hunger that matched his. It had been ages since he had been with a woman and this woman drove him crazy. She had a certain ‘joie de vivre” that rolled off her in waves. It filled him with desire, with want, the likes of which he had not known in ages.