Marie Rochelle - Devilishy Yours

  Marie Rochelle - Devilishy Yours

  Chapter One

  “Come on Sergeant Webster, don’t put me on leave now. I swear that I’m okay.”

  “No, you haven’t been the same since you came back from you last undercover assignment. I want you to take six weeks off.” Sergeant Webster insisted, flinging the file down on his cluttered desk.

  Leaning back in the leather chair, his no sense boss stared at him. “You’re a young man. Take this time off to find a woman.”

  Ryan Lerner didn’t want to take this bogus leave of absence his over protective boss was trying to toss his way. He wanted to stay busy.

  He had known that what had happened to Syleena’s Webster mother wasn’t his fault. Vivian Webster was a first class whore, but she didn’t deserve to be stabbed twenty times by one of her prostitutes.

  “I swear that I’m fine. Let me have the latest jewelry robbery case. “ He insisted.

  Standing up, his friend and boss for the past four years placed his hands face down on the desk,

  “Stop asking me to take back your vacation time. It’s Halloween night. Go home and pass out candy to those greedy kids in your neighborhood.” One hand shot up from the desk and a finger pointed toward the door.

  “Ajana Bennett isn’t your problem. I’ve noticed how you can’t take your eyes off her picture inside the file. Yes, she’s a very attractive young woman but she is more dangerous than two cobras loose in your bed at night.”

  “But I was the one who figured out Ajana was the burglar stealing from all the local jewelry stores. It isn’t fair another cop will get the credit for bringing her in.” Ryan snapped. He was tired of taking a back seat like Sergeant Webster ordered him to do. He wanted to be back out there with the other men.

  “Hell, it wasn’t your case in the first place.” Sergeant Webster yelled back falling back down into his seat. “Jones was all over this case until you talked to that reporter.”

  Ryan shrugged. “Can I help it if she fell for my charm? Plus, who knew I would look so damn good on television?”

  “Now isn’t the time for your humor. Miss Bennett stole a priceless jewel during her last robbery. We need to find her and the jewels ASAP.”

  “Good, I’m glad you see it my way.” Ryan sat down overlooking the hard glares tossed his way. “I talked to some people that know Ajana and I think she might be back in town.”

  He wanted to solve this case more than anything to prove he still had it. That whole thing with Syleena turned out badly. This was a clean slate he was working with now. Sergeant Webster had to give him another chance to prove his skills as a good cop.

  “You aren’t going to let this go, are you?” His boss sighed, as his hand reached for the thick manila envelope on the desk.

  “You know me better than that,” Ryan uttered. “I’m the cop for the case. I know it’s the truth and so do you.”

  “I’ll let you work on the case under one condition.” Sergeant Webster taunted, waving the file in front of his face.

  “What’s the condition?” He wasn’t agreeing to anything until he heard what the stipulations were. Sergeant Webster grinned at him like the cat that had swallowed the canary.

  “You take this file home and don’t open it for 48 hours. Time is of essence in this case, but you need to rest before tackling it.”

  Was that it?

  He didn’t like the conditions but he would agree to them.

  “Deal,” he reached for the file only to have it jerked back from him.

  “What is it? Why did you do that?”

  “Are you sure you’re up for this?” Sergeant Webster questioned, arching an eyebrow. He was touched that his friend was concerned about him, but there wasn’t any reason to be. He was fine and all he wanted to do was move on to a different case and leave the past in the past.

  “I swear if I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t ask you to give me this case over.” It seemed like hours passed while Sergeant Webster tapped the folder on his desk simultaneously, slowly staring him straight in the eye. Ryan fought hard not to squirm in his seat form the unrelenting look. It reminded him of something that his father would do.

  “Don’t make me regret my decision.” Tossing the folder at him, Sergeant Webster moved from behind his desk over to the closed door. “It’s time for you to go. If you need any extra help you have all of my numbers.” Opening the door his boss waved him out.

  “Thanks for giving me a second chance.” Standing up with the file in his left hand he walked toward his friend. “I’ll try my best to have this case solved before I get back from my vacation.” He promised as he strolled out the door.

  Ryan smiled as Sergeant Webster mumbled something under his breath then slammed the door shut behind him.

  “I doubt I will have to call you. I can handle Ajana Bennett all by myself and then maybe I’ll earn your respect back.”

  Moving over to his desk he started to clear off the top and shoved things into drawers. He didn’t want any of his coworkers messing with his things playing practical jokes on him. They knew how much he hated that but they constantly did it just to get a rise out of him.

  “Did you finally do all of us a huge favor and quit?” A voice joked behind him.

  “No, I’m going on vacation for six weeks,” he answered without turning around to look in Angelo Jones’ direction. He quickly shoved the Ajana file into a stack of other paperwork on his desk. The less people that knew about him on the case, the better especially when it came to cocky Angelo Jones, he never had been a fan of the man behind him.

  “The boss thinks you need all that time to clear your head.” Angelo asked resting his hip at the side of his desk. “You must be in bad shape. Usually the department only gives us three weeks for us to get our shit together after a hard case.”

  Don’t let him goad you.

  “Nah that’s not it I had some extra vacation time saved up so Sergeant Webster gave it to me now. I haven’t had any time off since I started working those last two undercover cases. It might be fun to do something just for myself.” He finished gathering up the rest of his items and shoved them into the bag on his chair.

  “Well have fun while I’m gone and please don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Ryan patted Angelo on the shoulder then brushed past him. He was halfway to the door when he heard.

  “Lerner, do you know if the Sergeant has made any decision about who’s on the cat burglary case? I want that case so bad I can taste it. Miss Bennett is hot. I wouldn’t mind a few hours alone with her in the interrogation room.”

  Keeping his back to Officer Jones, Ryan tossed back over his shoulder.

  “I don’t know we didn’t talk about that while I was in his office. You know how the boss can be. He always wants to be sure that he assign the right man for the case. Like I said, I’m outta here, so I’ll see you next month sometime.”

  Pushing open the door Ryan left the fast pace of his job behind him as he strolled to his car at the end of the parking lot. He loved how the stars brightened the dark sky. He had to admit it might be fun going home and passing Halloween candy out to the little kids in his neighborhood.

  He had bought a bag and it was sitting on his front room table.

  Chapter Two

  Standing by his car door Ryan thought about his conversation with Angelo and hated to admit that he agreed with his cocky coworker. He had taken several peeks at the photo inside the Ajana Bennett file. She was stunning with her not quite black hair that almost touched her shoulders.

  Huge pecan color eyes hypnotized him from a gorgeous oval face. But what he was fascinated by the most was how the blue wraparound dress brought out the pe
rfection of her cocoa skin.

  His fingers had traced a path from her shoulder all the way down her bare arm in the photo. He couldn’t get over how he wondered did her voice sound as good as he hoped it would.

  “Man, you can’t be drooling over the suspect in an on going investigation.” Shaking his head Ryan unlocked his car, tossed his bag on the passenger side and got inside. Starting the car, he pulled out of the parking lot and headed for his house. He paused at a stoplight and watched several kids trick a treating when he felt a gun shoved in the back of his head.

  “Don’t turn around or say a word. I know how to use this and I don’t have a problem pulling the trigger.” A muffled voice threatened behind him. All his years of training still hadn’t prepared him for this moment. His heart accelerated to beat a mile a minute.

  “What do you want?” He needed to figure out a way out of this situation without getting his brains splattered all over his windshield.

  “Didn’t I tell you not to talk?” His captor shoved the gun further into the back of his head. “But since you have, I might as well answer your question: I want you to take me to your house.”

  “No, I can’t do that.” He argued. “How about we go back to the station and talk about this?” Ryan asked as the light finally turned green.

  “Don’t debate with me Officer Lerner. Either you drive me to your house or you’ll regret it more than you could ever imagine.” The voice of his attacker threatened again.

  The sound of car horns blowing behind him made Ryan pulled away and go in the direction of his house. He didn’t have a clue what this person wanted at his house. How long had this stranger been waiting in his car to kidnap him?

  “What do you want with me?” He asked again hoping for an answer this time.

  “You’ll find out soon enough after we are inside your house Officer Ryan. Now stop asking me so many questions and drive. Oh and don’t try to get cute when we get to your house. Pull inside your garage and close the door behind us. We don’t want the neighbors meddling in our business now, do we?”

  Idea after idea kept racing through his mind but none of them would be good to act on. He couldn’t let this person hurt anyone if things got out of hand. When he finally reached his house Ryan pressed the garage opener and drove his car inside making sure it shut behind him.

  “Okay, we’re here. What do you want from me?”

  “Get out of the car, and then slowly move to the back door that leads to your kitchen. Don’t try any funny business. I don’t want to hurt you but I can if you make me.”

  Ryan got out of the door, and as soon as he slammed his door shut the gun was shoved in his lower back. “Let’s get moving officer. I hate to be kept waiting.”

  He walked as slow as he could while he wondered what would happen to him after they made it into his kitchen. Did this person bring him all the way home just to kill him?

  Walking up the steps he twisted the doorknob then stepped on the sandy colored tile that covered his kitchen floor. “Talk to me; maybe we can find a way to work this out.”

  “Stop trying to talk me down. Move toward the living room? I’m the one running the show not you. When we get in there, I want you to handcuff yourself to a chair and be quiet until I ask you a question.”

  Like hell he would do that. He wasn’t about to be defenseless when he didn’t have a clue what this person had in mind. “No, I’m not going to do that. If you want to talk with me I can do it without the handcuffs.”

  He flinched as he heard the barrel cock behind him.

  “Do you want to die tonight? I know I wouldn’t want to die on Halloween. Now get in that damn living room and do as I say.”

  Ryan placed one foot in front of the other until he came into the living room. He paused at the entrance. “Can I turn on some lights? I can’t see one hand in front of my face?”

  “You did fine in the kitchen and the lights weren’t on.”

  “Yeah, but the street light shining through the windows helped.”

  He heard a low groan before his kidnapper say. “Go ahead but remember I do have a gun.”

  Twisting slightly to the side, Ryan turned on the light with a flick of his wrist and the room lit up like a baseball field at nighttime. “See, I did as you ask.”

  “Good, now I see a chair over there in the corner that would be perfect for you to handcuff yourself to. Get over there and do it.”

  He wanted so badly to spin around and knock the gun out of the person’s hand; but he didn’t. He had to find out what this person’s agenda was first then he could act later. When he turned around to sit down he was stunned to see how short his captor was.

  “You’re a lot smaller than I thought you would be.” He uttered pulling his cuffs out of his back pocket. “Are you positive we can’t talk about this? You can get into a lot of trouble holding a cop hostage.”

  “Shut up and do as I asked you to.” The gun didn’t move from his direction as the person moved closer to him. “You talk way too much. It’s starting to give me a headache.”

  Ryan stuck his hands behind him and quickly locked the cuffs. He didn’t want to push his luck. He had already gotten away with a lot. Tilting his head to the side he noticed the person wore several layers of clothes. He was having a hard time determining the age and build. Plus the black gloves and ski mask wasn’t helping him any either.

  “Finally, I never thought you would shut up and do as I instructed.” His captor tossed the gun down on the couch. “Now you stay here and be a good boy while I change out of these clothes. I’m not about to stay covered up in this mess.”

  Ryan watched in shock as the person went to his hall closet and pulled out a duffel bag. How in the hell had that gotten in his house?

  He couldn’t remember the last time he was in that closet. If he had to take a guess it was probably the middle of last week.

  “I’ll be right back. Don’t you get into any trouble while I’m gone.” His kidnapper waved at him then disappeared into the kitchen.

  He heard the muffled sounds of his captor changing clothes.

  He still couldn’t believe this shit.

  He was an officer of the law and he hadn’t known an intruder had been inside his house. Maybe Sergeant Webster was right; maybe he has been off his game since the Syleena Hyde case.

  “How in the hell am I going to get myself out of this mess?” He wondered out loud in the empty room.

  “I can answer that if you want me to.” A soft voice inquired breaking into his thoughts.

  Ryan swung his head back over to the kitchen and his eyes widened from utter disbelief at the identity of his captor.

  No, it couldn’t’ be.

  Angelo Jones and the rest of the Atlanta police department would laugh their heads off if they saw this right now.

  “It can’t be you.” Sauntering across the room, his kidnapper placed her hands on either side of his chair and leaned into his face.

  “Yes, it’s me Officer Lerner,” Ajana Bennett snapped in his face.

  “Since you wanted to know where I was so badly; I thought I might as well hide out at your place until you cleared my name. I can’t show my face on the streets because of you, and you’re going to fix that.” Moving back from him, Ajana crossed her arms over the white sweater she was wearing and glared at him.

  “So, where do we begin?”

  Chapter Three

  Ryan couldn’t believe his luck. Standing not ten feet in front of him was the woman he was supposed to hunting down. How in the hell had she planned all of this? Was the entire police station asleep when she climbed into his car?

  Damn, he was doing everything he could not to notice how her picture hadn’t done her justice. Ajana Bennett was beautiful. His attraction for her only heightened as she positioned herself in front of him, displaying a killer body in form fitting clothes. He knew now why half the jewelry stores let her walk right out the door with the rings on her fingers. No, he wasn’t going to get s
idetrack by Ajana like he had done with Syleena. This was his second chance at redemption, and he wasn’t going to blow it.

  “We can begin by you getting me out of these handcuffs. After I’m free I’ll call the station, and then take you in. I won’t press charges if you don’t put up a fight.”

  “Are you crazy? Half of this town thinks I’m a jewel thief, and the other half probably doesn’t care if I’m innocent or not; no one cares about what will happen to me if I’m apprehended. So no, I’m not about to turn myself in. However, you will tell me why you gave an interview to that reporter.” Moving his hands Ryan tried to get them free but the handcuffs were still too tight.

  He learned long ago how to get out of handcuffs, and once he did, Miss Bennett would be taken down to the station and booked on two separate charges. His offer not to press charges ended the second she ignored his plea.