His eyes slid to the side. “You’ve been ignoring my calls, so I had to get creative.”

“Uh-huh, and how did you know where I was? Just happened to be in the neighbourhood, did you?”

One eyebrow rose sardonically. “Nah, I had to bust out the old police scanner.”

I sputtered a laugh but went silent when he shot me a serious look. “You’re not joking.”

“Nope.”

I sat up straighter. “Well, be that as it may, you need to go. Tony will be back any minute, and if he sees you here, it won’t take him long to put two and two together.”

Lee bristled, working his jaw. “Do I look like I give a fuck?”

His question angered me as I twisted in my seat to glare at him. “Well you should give a fuck! If you have any feelings for me at all, you’d care whether or not I lost my job.”

His expression softened, and he seemed remorseful for his flippancy. “It’s not like they can fire you for having a sex life, Karla.”

“Maybe not. But my superior has it in for me, and if she ever caught wind that I was seeing someone with a record, she’d use it against me. Not to mention she’d probably start looking into you and your business,” I said, pausing to eye him meaningfully. “Is that what you want? Do you want police sniffing around your garage, Lee?”

“They could sniff all they wanted. They wouldn’t find anything.”

“Right, because it’s all above board.”

His expression sharpened. “Not what I said, Snap.”

A leaden silence fell between us. I wanted to tell him to leave, that he was committing an offence by the simple act of coming inside a police vehicle without permission. At the same time I didn’t want him to go. I’d missed him. And every night my dreams had been full of his voice and heated looks, how it felt to finally be with him.

“Why does your boss have it in for you?” he asked, breaking the quiet.

I turned my head to see he wore a fierce look, and for some reason it made me thaw slightly. Letting out a slow breath, I answered, “She and my dad have had some feud going on since like, forever. So, even though I was barely out of nappies when it happened, she hates me just as much as she hates him.”

Lee’s brows drew together. “What did he do to her?”

“Beats me. Everyone says they had an argument and he’d called her some pretty horrible names, but that’s hardly the sort of thing you carry around for decades.”

“I dunno, your old man’s quite the fucker. He’s pretty much universally hated by everyone I know. And to be honest, with the amount of big players he’s put away, I’m surprised he’s still breathing after all these years.” He paused and slid his eyes to mine, picking up a pen that had been resting on the dash and flicking it between his fingers. “Though as they say, the devil can wait for his own.”

I stared at him, conflicting emotions warring within me. At once I wanted to agree, because he was sort of right about Dad. But then again, this was my own father we were talking about, the only one I was ever going to have, and the insinuation that he was going to hell pissed me off. Any of the warmth I might have felt toward Lee vanished as I told him sternly, “You need to leave now. Otherwise, I’ll have no other choice but to arrest you.”

“Any excuse to slap a pair of cuffs on me, eh? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were something of a fledgling dominatrix,” Lee joked before leaning in close to whisper, “But we both know that’s not true.” A pause. “Fucking beautiful sight to see you give yourself to me like that, Karla.”

I swallowed thickly and closed my eyes, memories of the nightclub flooding my mind. They were so visceral I could almost feel his fingertips digging into my hips, taste his tongue as it invaded my mouth. Suddenly I was too hot, unable to find enough air. I desperately wanted to undo some buttons on my shirt, but I wouldn’t give Lee the satisfaction of knowing he was getting to me.

“I can’t do this. It needs to end before it begins.”

Moving closer, he closed his hand over my knee, his voice deadly serious. “This started a long time ago.”

Before I could react, he reached out and grabbed my chin, turning my face to his and laying a quick, butterfly-inducing kiss on my lips. After only a second of hesitation, I pushed him off me.

“Get out,” I told him, breathless.

“So this is how it’s gonna be, then?”

“There isn’t any other way,” I replied.

Without another word, he opened the car door and slid out. Only a minute later, Tony returned. He opened the door and guided a handcuffed brunette into the back before coming around the front and dropping into the seat Lee had just vacated. I sent him a tight-lipped smile, noticing he seemed a little perplexed.

“Everything okay?” I asked, nervous tension coiling inside me. Had he seen Lee?

“I just don’t get it.”

“Don’t get what?”

“Why someone would risk being arrested for the sake of a piece of string to stick between their arse cheeks.”

The woman in the back seat scowled furiously while I burst into laughter, a small part in relief that he hadn’t spotted Lee.

“People are bonkers.”

“Tell me about it.”

***

The next few days on the job were fairly quiet, and Tony and I were practically chomping at the bit for some action. It wasn’t like I wanted anything dangerous to happen, but when your day consisted of dealing with minor incidents and paperwork, you needed something to break up the monotony.

I was about to get my wish.

We were sitting in the patrol car, having a quick coffee break, when a call came in about a Gran Coupe that had just been reported stolen. Apparently, it was headed in our direction, and when the vehicle went sailing by seconds later, I immediately hit the sirens and started the engine.

As soon as the assailant saw us following he increased his speed. I’d been driving since I was seventeen, and, not to brag, but learning how to drive in London gains you a lot more skill than learning to drive in other places. I could park in the smallest space known to man, but more importantly, I could manoeuvre my way through narrow streets and cobbled alleyways at high speed like nobody’s business.

“I think we need some music,” said Tony as I yanked on the gear stick a little too hard.

“Don’t even think about it,” I told him, unable to stop the smile from spreading across my face.

He smiled right back. “But it’s tradition. You can’t break with tradition.”

“Fine, put it on and shut up. I’m trying to drive here.”

Tony tapped a few buttons on his iPod, and seconds later the opening chords to “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC came blasting through the speakers. Don’t laugh. The very first time we were in a high-speed chase, this song had come on the radio, and it had been so appropriately badass that we’d made a tradition out of putting it on when chasing down a stolen vehicle ever since.

It also had a strange way of helping me concentrate, kind of like how surgeons listened to “Stayin’ Alive” during operations. I pressed harder on the gas pedal.

Whoever was behind the wheel of the BMW had some mad skills, though, and even I had a hard time keeping up when they made a sharp left turn. If the music wasn’t so loud, I was sure I’d hear tires squealing. I almost lost control of the wheel, but Tony launched himself forward in time to grab it. Before long we were on the motorway, and I swore loudly, because it was going to be harder to catch him now. Or her.

The assailant dipped dangerously in and out between vehicles, causing several drivers to swerve, almost leading to an accident. It was moments like these that I wondered if we should continue chasing him, because if he kept up the dangerous driving, people were going to get seriously injured, or worse, killed.

Tony was on the radio, reporting our location and proximity to the stolen car, while I tried my best to get closer. I saw the vehicles up ahead start to slow, traffic building up. The BMW pulled left to drive in the empty bus lane, and I followed suit. Unfortunately for him, about half a mile ahead there were a number of buses using the lane, and what with the traffic on the other side, he had nowhere else to go.