Behind The Red Doors (Santori Stories #1)(33)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

He puffed out his cheeks in a purifying exhale. But just as one weight lifted from his shoulders, another one settled upon him like a yoke. Okay, he’d admitted to himself that, for reasons still not completely known to him, Faith Sherman was the woman he wanted in his life. Everything was better when she walked into a room, when she smiled, when she laughed. She was sexy as hell, and the earth had moved when she’d cli**xed in his arms, but this…love was more than a physical connection. It was emotional. Risky. And stuck in his heart like a wedge.

Now what?

He rubbed his hand over his unshaven jaw. He’d painted himself into a tight corner with his lies. If he came clean with Faith, he was going to look pretty ridiculous. After she stopped laughing, she’d probably tell him to get lost for good. But he had to try—he certainly couldn’t go through another year like the last one, pretending he didn’t miss her, didn’t need her. Failure, he could live with, but regret…regret was a far colder prospect.

Romance wasn’t his strong suit, but even he knew his only chance to convince Faith that he was commitment material where she was concerned was to come up with something…memorable.

He jammed his hands into his pockets against the biting wind and looked to the sky. He could usually tell by the position of the sun what time of the day it was, but today the sun was a no-show. For all he knew, it could be 10:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. Damn, he had to get his act together.

“Trudy, let’s go,” he called, jiggling the leash. “I need to go shopping—for a watch.”

CHAPTER TEN

Thursday afternoon, February 13, 2003

FAITH WALKED into the police station on rubbery knees and stomped the snow off her boots. The weatherman had predicted snow all week. There’d been a light snow on Wednesday but this morning the flakes were falling pretty thickly. She prayed the weather would improve by tomorrow, not just for the sake of Valentine’s Day sales, but so her flight to Florida wouldn’t be canceled. Although she’d given up on her fantasy of someday having a magical Valentine’s Day, she couldn’t bear the thought of spending it in Chicago, alone. Again.

While Carter proposed to another woman.

Her nerves danced as she stepped up to the information desk and asked for Lieutenant Grayson. She’d been a wreck all day just thinking about seeing him again. Guilt plagued her—poor Jamie had thought she was bored watching her try on dresses for her big date with Dev, but she had covered up by saying she was just worrying about whether their Valentine’s sales had been what they’d hoped for.

She had arrived early, but someone was kind enough to take her to Carter’s desk and told her to have a seat while she waited. His work area was small, but neat, although a layer of dust had settled over everything, presumably in his absence. She pulled out his chair and sat, feeling a sense of loss that they hadn’t gotten to know each other better. She scoured the pictures on his desk with no small amount of curiosity. They were group photos of older people and small children—his extended family? It seemed likely, considering the resemblances. Curiously, there wasn’t a single shot of a beautiful, petite blonde, or a picture of Carter and his girlfriend together.

A bump at her knee startled her, then she smiled down at a beautiful Labrador retriever carrying a baseball in her mouth. “Hello, there,” Faith cooed, and reached down to scratch her ears. “Where did you come from?”

The dog dropped the ball at her feet, and Faith dutifully rolled it into an empty corner. The Lab scooped it up and brought it back, again and again. When she showed no signs of tiring, Faith laughed and turned to a female officer sitting nearby. “Do you know whose dog this is?”

The woman scoffed. “That stray wandered into the station a few months ago and pestered us all to death.” She turned and yelled across the room, jerking her thumb toward the Lab. “Hey, Jimmy! Do you know who wound up taking the mutt home?”

A man turned from his computer keyboard and craned his neck. “Oh, that mutt? I think Grayson took pity on her, didn’t he?”

Faith smiled. “Carter Grayson?”

“Go figure,” the woman said. “Maybe he’s a softy under all that machismo.”

Hmm. Just one more thing she didn’t know about him. For some reason, Carter didn’t strike her as a man who’d take on a pet, and certainly not one with the energy level of this Labrador. She scratched the dog’s ears again and noticed her nametag: Trudy. Well, that explained a lot. “He must have given her to his girlfriend.”

The woman stopped and squinted. “Girlfriend? Are you sure we’re talking about the same Carter Grayson? Honey, that man hasn’t had a girlfriend since the Reagan administration.” She laughed. “Hey, Jimmy, this lady thinks that Grayson has a girlfriend.”

Jimmy slapped the top of his desk. “That’s a good one. I’ve never met a man so commitment-phobic. Whatever gave you the idea that Carter has a girlfriend?”

Faith opened her mouth to explain, then closed it again. Either Carter was extremely private about his personal life around his co-workers, or…

How did you and Trudy meet?

She…came to the station.

What does Trudy do for a living?

She…works from my—our—place…fetching and…running around…. She’s small. Blond. Finicky eater…. She likes baseball.

Trudy, the small, blond Labrador dropped the baseball at her feet.

She’d been played for a fool.

Cold mortification swept over her. Carter had invented a fictional girlfriend to avoid a serious entanglement with her? Talk about embellishment—the bit about the family heirloom had been especially convincing. Her throat constricted, and her heart shuddered. She’d fallen in love with a man who had no intention of ever settling down.

“Are you okay?” the woman officer asked.

“Yes,” she murmured. “I’m fine. But I can’t wait for Lieutenant Grayson after all. I’ll…leave him a note.”

“Okay. He’s talking to the captain. He should be out soon.”

CARTER SHUT THE DOOR to Captain Stewart’s office, feeling better than he could remember, maybe in a year’s time. He was filled with the satisfaction of a person getting his life in order for…the next phase. He’d be returning to his beat on Monday, and, meanwhile, somehow he was going to set things right with Faith. Ask her out. Take her to proper restaurants. Learn to dance, and romance her a little. Or a lot. Meet her family and introduce her to Trudy. Make love to her as often as she would let him.

He rounded the corner to his desk area, whistling under his breath.

“Careful, Grayson,” Marie Shippel said. “Somebody might think you were happy or something.”

“Shippel, even you can’t ruin my good mood.” He pulled out the bottom drawer, withdrew his bulletproof vest, and knocked off the dust.

“Hey, Grayson,” Jimmy said, holding up a bulging manila envelope. “Good news—that jewelry store perp didn’t deactivate the camera in the vault, after all.”

His head jerked up. “Huh?”

“Yeah—the one in the showroom was fried, but the one in the vault was on a different circuit. The D.A. should have all the proof he needs.”

He strode over and snatched the envelope. “Have you seen this?”

“There went his good mood,” Marie muttered.

Jimmy frowned. “No, I haven’t seen it.”

“Has anyone else?”

The man pulled back. “I don’t think so. Why?”

Carter sighed, and took a deep breath. “No reason. I’ll take care of the tape.” The thought of someone other than him seeing Faith like that… God, he really loved her. And the sooner he told her, the better. He looked around. “Have either of you seen Trudy?”

“If you’re talking about that fine-looking woman who was here waiting, she’s gone.”

“I’m talking about my dog.” He stopped. “What woman?”

“Tall and curvy,” Jimmy Peak offered. “Knockout legs.”

His heart jumped. “Faith?”

Marie shrugged. “Didn’t leave her name. But she seemed to have some kind of strange idea that you had a girlfriend, Carter. What’s up with that?”

Panic infused his chest. “What did you tell her?”

The woman gave him a deadpan stare. “The truth—that you haven’t had a girlfriend since I’ve worked here, and I’m about to retire.”

His heart dropped to his stomach. “What did she say?”

Another shrug. “That she was going to leave you a note.”

Trudy came loping around the corner with a baseball in her mouth, and an envelope attached to her collar. Carter fumbled with the envelope and pulled out a check—a sizable check. There was a handwritten note.

Carter,

The company that owns the Valentino diamond sent this reward money, and I wanted you to have it. Was nice meeting “Trudy.” Have a good life.

Faith

Carter groaned and buried his head in his hands. No, no, no! He looked up. “Marie, when did she leave?”

“About ten minutes ago.” Then the woman made a rueful noise. “But if you ask me, from the look on her face when she walked out, she’s looong gone.”