“You mean your father?” I cut her off. I raise my brow. “The same father who didn’t listen to Robert Hayes when he went in with his suspicions about the Turners?”
Harper flinches like I slapped her.
I immediately regret the bluntness, but I don’t take it back. She needs to hear this.
“You saw it yourself, Harper,” I continue, gentler now. “You were the one who brought that information to our attention, so we could protect Emma.”
“I know.” She shakes her head. “It’s just that if there’s more than circumstantial evidence, I think my dad would act on it.”
“We can’t take the risk that Turner will find out we’re moving against him.” I take a chance and put my hands on her shoulders. “Did you see he’s running for governor? He’s one step away from becoming untouchable. If he becomes governor, investigations disappear and federal scrutiny decreases. Then we’re fucked.”
“And you think my dad would warn him?” she asks incredulously.
“That’s not what I’m saying.” But in my gut, I feel that he would. “I’m saying the more people who know, the more chances of a leak.”
She takes a ragged breath. I’m relieved when she reluctantly nods.
She looks upset—rightfully so. I think about kissing her to distract her. It was the deal, so she wouldn’t complain, but suddenly that feels too transactional. And, really, what I want from Harper Garrett isn’t just a kiss.
I pull her to me, wrapping an arm around her back. “I need to know something before this goes any further.”
“This?”
“You and me.” I twirl one of her loose curls around my index finger. “I want you in my bed. But that’s the easy part, Harper.”
Her hands grip my biceps and her body arches into mine, a sweet kind of surrender that, in reality, makes meherprisoner. “What’s the hard part?”
“That I want you there tomorrow, and next week, and a month from now.” I tighten my grip and tug. “I wantyou, Harper. Not just your body, not just the attraction. I wantyou. The sharp-tongued deputy who follows me into danger even when she knows better. The woman who reads romance novels and pretends she doesn’t. The one who’s terrified of what’s coming but shows up anyway.”
I reach up and cup her face, my thumb brushing her cheekbone.
“I want the commitment,” I continue. “The choice. I want you to choose me, knowing exactly what that means. Knowing that I’m never going to be the safe choice.”
Her eyes search mine, and I can see her processing every word.
“I need to know if you can handle that,” I say quietly. “If you can be with me knowing what’s coming, knowing that I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect the people I love, even if it means crossing lines you swore you’d never cross.”
I let the question hang in the air between us.
“So, what’s it going to be, sunshine?” My voice drops lower, more intense. “Are you down with that?”
34
HARPER
Are you down with that?
The question hangs between us like a live wire.
My cop brain fires immediately, cataloging everything he’s asking. Not just sex, not just attraction. He’s asking me to commit to a man who operates outside the law I’ve spent my entire adult life upholding.
The logical answer isno. The smart answer isno. The safe answer isno. The answer that keeps my badge and my integrity in Iron Ridge intact—that answer isfuckno.
But I already made this choice. I made it the moment I drove to Blackthorn Ranch and handed over notes suggesting the Turners might have caused Mr. Hayes’s death. And I made it again when I saw that van go over the bridge and didn’t call it in, and I reinforced it when I turned a blind eye and drove home as Luke took the zip-tied woman away.
I didn’t report any of it.
I destroyed evidence.