Adam’s Outlaw Page 2

  Adam couldn’t believe what he was saying. He was teasing her, delaying the carrying out of his duty. He didn’t know why he was still lying on the ground like some star-struck adolescent making out with his first girl. He certainly didn’t know why his hands were caressing her hips.

  “Don’t call me babe. My name is Toni, and I’d like to get up now.”

  “Tony? As in Tony the tiger? I never had anybody like you in my cereal box as a kid.” He could feel her breasts moving against him in short, quick thrusts as she breathed. She was inviting. Her eyes flashing half in fear, half in anger, her body pressed snugly against him. Damn! The thoughts he was having were definitely against police procedure.

  She licked her lips nervously and his admiration for her grew. Afraid? Yes, but she wasn’t going to give an inch. She certainly was intriguing and he hadn’t met many women that interested him. He never allowed himself that kind of distraction. What would she do if he kissed her? As soon as he considered doing it, he knew he wanted to kiss her, wanted to press his mouth against those soft, trembling lips. He must be crazy. He was a police officer. He couldn’t kiss a woman and then arrest her.

  Toni felt a sudden tension in the man beneath her. As his eyes seemed to probe hers, waves of confusion swept over her. Her body began to quiver, and she knew he felt it too. What was happening to her? She was lying on top of a stranger in the woods, alone, and, she hated to admit it, aroused. The truth was, she wanted to touch those sensual lips, taste the mouth that seemed to be moving closer, slide her hands up inside his T-shirt.

  “All right, Sergeant Friday,” she blurted out, “I’m your prisoner. I confess to all charges. I’m responsible for the Peachtree Vigilantes. I’ll tell you our MO. We sweep into an area and roust out the bad guys and make the parks safe for America. If safety is a crime, arrest me.” She slid one knee to the ground and made a motion to rise.

  “Oh, don’t worry, outlaw, I intend to.”

  She looked back at him and caught her breath. The moon had come out from behind the cloud, throwing jigsaw pieces of light across the path. She could see that the man had the most incredibly piercing eyes, dark, dark eyes that sizzled with intensity. The blood dropped from her head like mercury in a thermometer plunged into icy water, leaving her dizzy with the sure knowledge of what was about to happen.

  “Why arrest me?” she asked, delaying the inevitable. “I’m not the criminal.”

  He slid one hand up her spine to her neck, capping the back of her head and nudging her down. “I don’t know what you are.”

  “I’m just a woman, a woman who’s in over her head. Please—please, don’t kiss me.” She hadn’t meant to sound so breathless. She’d meant her words to be a protest, a reprimand, a refusal. They weren’t. “ ‘Lucy Locket lost her pocket’ … I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. What I meant was—”

  “What you meant was that you want to be kissed. You’re an open book, and I can’t seem to stop myself from reading your secrets.” It was true, he thought. But what was even truer was that it took every ounce of control he had to stifle the compelling urge to kiss her. She was too close, too inviting, too beautiful. He raised his head.

  Toni didn’t think she’d relaxed her neck muscles. She didn’t think she’d met his lips halfway. In her mind she’d braced herself against his attack, an attack that didn’t come. Instead, she lowered her head, brushing her lips against his, and felt his tentative refusal. She didn’t know at what point the kiss changed, but it did, into something soft and warm. Suddenly her hands were in his hair and his fingers were caressing her face.

  “Oh, hell, outlaw, now you’ve done it.” Adam stiffened and tried to break the bemused spell her kiss had woven. He looked dazedly into her dreamy eyes. “We can’t do this. It’s—”

  “Wonderful,” she finished. “Wonderful.”

  “It’s unprofessional.” He pulled her against him and rolled over, pinning her easily beneath him.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Arresting you, darling, before I completely forget my duty. It’s not going to work. I don’t influence easily and I can’t be bought.” He stood, then took her by the hands and pulled her to her feet.

  As she swayed momentarily, he curbed his desire to slide his hands beneath her oversize T-shirt and touch the nipple puckering against the soft cotton. She was dewy-eyed and unsteady on her feet. He knew that if he didn’t jerk her back to the present, he’d lose the last thread of his control.

  “Let’s go, outlaw,” he muttered, more as a growl than a command.

  She’d been wrong, Toni thought. He wasn’t Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson was a smiling imitation of the man standing before her. Graceful, thick eyebrows arched over dark eyes, serious now with the return of reason. His jaw was strong, uncompromising, and he seemed pained, his features drawn into an angry frown. Suddenly he’d become Dirty Harry and she’d turned into Minnie Mouse.

  “Go where?” she asked.

  “To headquarters, ma’am, to see the chief. He’d like to have a discussion with you, on behalf of His Honor the mayor and the City Council. Afterward we’ll probably have a little talk with the judge.”

  “You’re serious, aren’t you?” The feel of their kiss was still on her lips and her body was protesting the sudden chill that had rushed over her. It was the night air, she told herself. The day had been a scorcher, but the night had turned cool. She ought to have worn a jacket.

  “I’m always serious. Are you cold?”

  “No. I mean, yes.” It was late August and August in Georgia was hot. There must have been some crazy inversion in the jet stream.

  “Here, take my shirt.” He started to lift it over his head.

  “No. Please, don’t take off your clothes. I mean, if we’re going somewhere, let’s go. I’m just a little nervous. I’ve never been arrested before.” She’d never kissed a strange man in a park before, either.

  “Fine. As soon as I retrieve my gun. Come over here.” He took her hand and pulled her into a patch of pale moonlight. “Can I trust you not to move? I’d hate to have to handcuff you. I’ve already broken enough regulations tonight. I guess one more won’t matter.”

  “Of course you can trust me. I’m a very honest person. If you’ll let me go, I won’t even tell anybody about what happened.”

  “And what won’t you tell anybody?”

  Her gaze flicked over him. He was at least a foot taller and fifty pounds heavier than she. Everything about his stance dared her to argue.

  “Why … that you kissed me,” she retorted with a dare in her voice.

  “I see. That’s your honest observation of what happened, that I kissed you?”

  “Well, not entirely. All right, I’ll admit it. I suppose you could say that I kissed you, if I’m being entirely honest.”

  “I do like an honest woman,” Adam said seriously. “I’d like to shake your hand. It is truly remarkable to find a woman who can be trusted.”

  Any thought of running went straight out of Toni’s mind when he took her hand. That warm feeling enveloped her again. The cold was gone but the shivering intensified. How could such a hard man have such warm, gentle lips and hands?

  He held her hand for a moment. Then, satisfied that she wouldn’t run away, he released her and turned to look for his weapon.

  Toni watched him search. He was an enigma, she mused, the ultimate alpha man. He stood peering into the woods until he spotted the gun, then, reached into the brush to pick it up. This was her chance. In that second before he turned to face her, she shoved him and dashed off into the woods.

  Adam swore as he watched her disappear. “So much for honesty, darling.”

  Two

  He should have never dropped his guard, Adam told himself as he listened to the crackling of underbrush, trying to pinpoint which direction she was headed. From the time he’d started this assignment, he’d known he’d have to act quickly when he found the midnight marauders. He’d followed their trail for three nigh
ts, just missing them—until tonight.

  Tonight he’d found them and then he’d let their blue-eyed, blond-haired munchkin play Houdini and disappear. But he knew this park and she wouldn’t get away. The nearest exit turned her toward downtown and the remains of the old prison farm. He took off after her.

  The little thief was faster than he’d expected. After eluding him for several blocks, she turned away from civilization into the only other secluded patch of woods left in a sea of buildings and asphalt. Adam cut through the trees after her.

  Even those trees would go soon, he thought as he dodged through them, if Atlanta landed the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. The complex would be built in the adjoining industrial area, turning the old prison farm into prime real estate. Of course that was all speculation. The Olympic site committee wouldn’t release their recommendation for months.

  Taking off at an angle, he quickened his speed and quickly reached a point where he could block her escape. He had her now. Leaning against a tree, he waited, hearing the crunch of her footsteps come nearer.

  Breathless from her mad dash, Toni raced around a tree and ran straight into the arms of the enemy. “Oh, no!”

  “What kept you?” He scooped her up in his arms and held her, one hand secure in the bend of her knees and the other pressed against her rib cage. He could feel the thundering of her heart beneath his fingertips.

  “Get your big paws off me, Sergeant Friday, or I’ll scream loud enough to wake the dead.”

  “That’s about all you’d raise out here, the ghosts in the old prison building up ahead.”

  “What prison building?”

  He tramped through a thick stand of pines into a clearing behind a crumbling, vine-covered building. “This prison building, the old prison farm. They tell me it’s haunted, probably by the dishonest people.”

  Toni took a good look at the old structure and shivered. In the moonlight it looked like something that belonged in a nightmare. She expected Freddie to come screaming out of the castlelike building any minute.

  With effort she forced her attention away from the building and back to her sanctimonious officer of the law. “There’s a difference between someone who commits a crime and someone who … tells a lie,” she said stiffly.

  “Not to me. Dishonest is dishonest. People who try to tell themselves otherwise are just lying in a different way.”

  “But what about people who have some terrible tragedy befall them and they can’t live up to their obligations? I believe that we’re all our brother’s keepers. It’s up to those who are more fortunate to help those who aren’t.”

  “There may be legitimate instances when that happens. But what about those who use those kinds of excuses to get out from under their obligations? They always manage to find some bleeding heart like you to come along and help them wallow in their misfortune. No way, babe, I won’t buy it. There’s help out there, if a man wants it.”

  “It must be easy to have everything all black and white. Don’t you ever have areas of gray in your life?”

  “No way. A thing is either right or wrong, good or bad, honest or dishonest. I keep things simple.”

  “So you think I belong in a place like this? Is that the way you keep things simple?”

  When she looked up at him, he was singed by the heat of the anger seething in her eyes. He hadn’t intended to deliver a sermon on his personal beliefs. He never talked philosophy with the criminals he arrested. He never let them kiss him either. But this woman was different. Without knowing she’d done so, she’d touched the part of him he kept most private.

  “No, you don’t belong here,” he said. “Where you belong is at headquarters, right away.”

  “No, where I belong is on the ground. I’m perfectly capable of walking. I won’t try to get away again.”

  “More honesty?”

  “I can’t blame you for that. I guess you don’t have much reason to trust me, do you?”

  “It isn’t that exactly,” he admitted. “If we’re being honest, I’ll have to admit that you scare me. You’re dangerous. Holding you is like holding a bomb that’s ready to explode any minute. The feeling is very stimulating.”

  Stimulating, she thought. Lordy, she knew what this man felt like when he was stimulated. She could recognize the feeling very well. The last thing she wanted right then was to face the kind of honesty he was giving her. Everything about this night was irrational. Change the subject, Toni, she implored herself.

  She bit back a real swear word. She had to stop swearing, either the real thing or her silly nursery-rhyme substitutions. He read her too well. No sense in giving him any more clues to the anxiety attack he was responsible for.

  “Eh … I’ve never seen this building before. Was it really a prison farm? I can’t believe it’s sitting right here so close to the downtown area and I’ve never seen it. How’d you find it?”

  Adam gave a deep sigh of relief, welcoming the new direction of her conversation. “This is where I left my bike when I went looking for you and your friend tonight. I’ve known about the place for … years.” He didn’t have to tell her that every police officer knew about the prison. And every punk drug dealer as well. It was a popular place for drug deals and other clandestine operations.

  “At the time they built it, it wasn’t downtown,” he explained. “It was a farm where they raised the food that they used to feed all the prisoners. It dates back to sometime after the War Between the States. It’s been condemned for years.”

  To Toni the building was wicked looking. It wasn’t that big, but its rock turrets and thick stone walls were formidable. Bars still covered the windows. The moonlight cast ominous shadows across the Gothic structure, giving it an eerie atmosphere. Unconsciously she snuggled closer and dropped her voice to a whisper. “It is pretty spooky looking.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of an old deserted building?”

  “Of course not,” she declared with more confidence than she felt. “Will you put me down?”

  “Are you sure you want me to?”

  Toni wasn’t at all sure she wanted him to release her. But any other answer would lessen her bravado. “Of course I do. I’m your prisoner. I won’t try to run away again.”

  “Oh, yes. I forgot. The words of an honest woman, no doubt, an honest liberated woman who hides out in the darkness, putting innocent people at physical risk.”

  “I am not a crook. I’ve simply been doing your job, protecting the elderly from the muggers.”

  “Sure you have. What did you intend to do if one of those muggers came armed as I did tonight? Scream him to death? Get real, lady. If you’re some angel of mercy, you’re playing a dangerous game. Is this how you get your jollies?” He lowered her feet to the ground and released her upper body.

  “Spoken like a man who’s sworn to aid and protect the public. Boy, you must be a real compassionate man, Officer. Don’t you ever help people without worrying about a reason for doing it?”

  “I do my job. Otherwise, I believe in a man’s being responsible for his own actions. The more do-gooders do, the less irresponsible people have to do.”

  He walked to a clump of trees and wheeled a shiny, powerful motorcycle out of them. “Put this on,” he said, handing Toni a black helmet. “You sit behind and hold on to me,” he added as he strapped a matching helmet on his own head.

  “I do not intend to ride on that—that thing.”

  “Suit yourself, but I think it’s going to be a little difficult for you to keep up on foot. Unless you’d rather I handcuffed you to the building while I call for a black and white.”

  Adam knew he was being too harsh with the woman. But it was either be stern or admit that she’d gotten to him. Even now, he was drawn to her in a way he didn’t understand.

  Toni took one look at the building and decided that riding was unequivocally better than waiting for more formal transportation. “I’ll ride.” She fastened the helmet on her head and climbed on the cycle
.

  “I thought you would.”

  The machine roared into life, and like a phantom from some gothic novel, they moved through the moonlit courtyard and onto a small road bumpy with broken pavement.

  “Why isn’t it being used?” Toni yelled. The wind caught her voice and hurled it behind them.

  Adam turned his head and lifted his helmet so that he could hear. “What?”

  Toni slid off her own helmet and leaned forward to speak into his ear. She could feel the rough stubble of his beard on her cheek. “I said, why isn’t it being used?”

  “It was retired in the late forties when the new jail was built, and then condemned. The city still owns it, but they can’t agree on what to do with it, and the historical society won’t let them tear it down. One group wants the property zoned industrial. Another wants to make a halfway house out of it. So far nobody has managed to get a majority of support.”

  He stopped at the corner. Beyond was a familiar, well-lit downtown street.

  Toni breathed a sigh of relief. “Where are you taking me, Officer.… Just who are you?”

  “I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t tell you my name, did I. I’m Captain Ware, Adam Ware, of the special investigative force attached to the mayor’s office. And we’re going to headquarters.”

  “Oh, dear. I’m being arrested by an officer who really is an officer. Nothing but the best for the Peachtree Vigilantes.”

  Reaching behind him, he shoved her helmet back on her head and let his own drop back into place. The motorcycle took off again. In a matter of minutes they were pulling into the parking lot at the Atlanta Police Department. Adam wheeled the motorcycle into one of the slots marked for official use only and shut off the engine. Turning, he removed both his helmet and Toni’s.

  “Now do you believe that I’m an officer of the law?”

  “I never doubted it for a moment. Are you going to put handcuffs on me?”

  “Do I need to? No, don’t answer that. I think I’d better.” He snapped the silver bracelets around her wrists, then started to lead her around the building, away from the public entrance. He momentarily considered letting her go. After this she’d have a record and he hated to be the one to do that to her future.