The front door slammed open and Ricky looked up from where he was sitting at the table. He heard her go upstairs and he heard her come back down. "It's about damn time you got home. Look…"
"No, you look, you son of a bitch," she said in a low, threatening voice she had learned from Goren. She stood in the living room, glaring at him. She was trying to control the fury that raged inside her and trembled with the effort. It gave her great satisfaction to see that his face was bruised and bloody. At least her partner had landed a few hits before they had overwhelmed him. She started toward him. "You put him in the hospital, you and your goon squad. What the hell were you thinking? You aren't man enough to face him alone so you gang up on him and beat the crap out of him?"
"You spent the night at his place…"
"And that's another thing! How dare you have me followed! Damn you! Do you know how easy it would have been for us to have carried on an affair all this time?" Her voice was shaking. "But he wouldn't, Ricky. He has too much damn respect for me. And that's more than I could ever say about you!"
He got to his feet and started toward her. She didn't move. "What do you mean he wouldn't?" he yelled. "He was always fucking there!"
"Yes, he was…because I needed him. If I had ever told him to back off or go away, he would have. He always loved me and he has never tried to own me or control me." She stepped closer to him and shoved him, hard. He fell back, surprised. "He knows how to treat a person, Ricky. He knows how to treat a woman."
He grabbed her arm but she twisted away, kicking his leg out from under him and knocking him onto his back. She had gone upstairs to retrieve her weapon and her handcuffs, and now she pulled her gun and aimed it into his face. He didn't move or make a sound as he looked down the barrel of the gun. Pulling out her handcuffs, she slid the gun into its holster with a trembling hand, grabbed his arm by the wrist and twisted, slapping a cuff onto it. There was no tremor in her voice as she forced him over onto his stomach. "Richard Waters," she growled with satisfaction. "You are under arrest for the aggravated assault and attempted murder of a police officer." As she yanked his other arm behind his back and tightened the cuff on it, she read him his rights. He struggled against her, but her fury drove her actions and he wasn't able to get her off him. She yanked him to his feet, shoving him in front of her toward the front door. She had called for backup on her way over in her father's car, and a patrol car was waiting, its team of partners just getting to the top step of the porch. He twisted his head toward her. "I should have just shot him."
Shoving him toward them, she said, "You have no idea how lucky you are I didn't just shoot you."
She was sitting on the front steps, still shaking, when a car screeched to a halt by the curb. Logan jumped out and ran toward her. He looked around. "What happened? Are you ok?"
She took her gun out of her holster and handed it to him. He looked almost frightened. "Did you shoot him?"
"Almost. Just hold onto that for me for a little while. I scared myself, Mike."
He sat down on the steps beside her. "I understand that. I can't say I'd have felt any different if I were the one pointing a gun at him. Uh, where is he?"
"On his way to the lockup."
"You arrested him? Good for you."
"How's Bobby?"
"Shit, Alex. The way you took off out of there, they had to sedate him."
She felt badly about that. "Tell me something."
"What?"
"You guys didn't play ball yesterday, did you?"
He shook his head. "No."
"Was it Ricky?"
"Yeah. They ran into each other in the parking garage at 1 PP. It was broken up before anyone really got hurt."
"Were you there?"
He nodded. "I had to help break it up. Damn, it was painful not to be able to jump in on it."
"Who started it?"
He looked at her. "You have to ask? You think Bobby would throw the first punch?" He smiled. "But he sure didn't hesitate to throw the second one…or any of the ones that followed it."
"And the three of you conspired not to tell me."
"That was his idea. He didn't want to upset you."
The adrenaline was gone and so was her trembling. All that remained was a headache.
Logan hesitated for a moment before he finally asked, "Is this it now, Alex?"
"Yeah," she said. "This is it. I decided this morning that it was time to make everything right. But this…if I hadn't been so stubborn…"
"Let it go. You can't go back and change anything."
She folded her arms across her knees and buried her face in them. It took him a moment to realize she was crying. Ah, damn…he hated it when women cried. He gently put his arm around her and sat there with her.
When she looked up at him after a long while, he tried to smile. "Feel better?"
"Not really."
"We really should get back to the hospital. It'd probably be best if we were there when he wakes up." He nodded at the car in the driveway. "Whose car did you steal?"
She smacked him. "I didn't steal it. It's my dad's car and I know where he keeps the spare keys."
"Come on. I'll drive. We can come back later to get it."