Free Officer out of Uniform (Lock and Key Book 2) by Ranae Rose Page A

with a hard-on. It’d plagued him throughout the sleepless night, and ached now as he escorted Sasha to her car, seeing her off as she embarked on a trip to visit her mother.
    It was a stroke of luck that she was heading out of town. It meant he wouldn’t have to worry about her being in the same county as a killer, at least for a day.
    “See you,” she said, climbing into her car with a sultry smile.
    At least, he thought it was sultry, but maybe that was just deprivation screwing with his perceptions. Either way, he was stricken by both relief and remorse as he watched her drive away. God, he hated that he’d had to stop things between them the night before. It’d just about killed him, and his self-restraint had left a predictable ache deep in his balls.
    It was worth it, though, because she was safe.
    Nothing out of the ordinary had happened after Wolf’s barking fit the night before, but he hadn’t been willing to take the risk. When he was inside her, nothing else mattered. The rest of the world didn’t exist.
    Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford to forget about the rest of the world right now.
    He stopped halfway to his truck, boots crunching against driveway gravel. He could afford to spare a few minutes before he left for work. Now that she was gone, a nagging feeling told him that he should have a look around the outside of the house, inspect things in broad daylight in case whoever or whatever Wolf had been barking at the night before had left any clues.
    He made a slow circuit of the house, his gaze roving over every surface, every tuft of grass, hungry for details, abnormalities.
    He found none. Still, the prickling feeling between his shoulder blades wouldn’t let him stop looking. He walked slowly, letting his gaze linger on anything and everything. He even bent down, careful not to get his uniform dirty as he examined the doors and windows for any signs of forced entry.
    Nothing.
    Eventually he made his way to his truck and climbed in, the space between his shoulder blades still burning. He couldn’t shake the feeling, and he would’ve been reluctant to leave his home and Wolf alone, if he hadn’t been looking forward to hopefully getting called back onto the manhunt for Randy Levinson.
    He was out there, and he wouldn’t get away, this time.
     
* * * * *
 
    Randy drew a deep breath of early morning air, already feeling the day’s heat as it filled his lungs. It’d be a hot one. All the more reason why just minutes ago, he’d been tempted to off Officer Henry Dryden right then, before the sun rose too high above the sappy, heavily-needled coastal woods.
    A few problems had made him think twice, though. A hot blonde with big tits who followed Dryden around like he’d hung the fuckin’ moon was complication number one. She’d strolled outta the house with him a few minutes ago. There was no ring on her finger, so Randy figured she was his girlfriend. In order to kill Dryden, Randy would’ve had to get rid of her too.
    And there’d been a third person in the way. A little old lady – Dryden’s nearest neighbor – who’d taken her sweet time shuffling down her driveway to fetch her morning paper. She’d barely made it back inside by the time Dryden had climbed into his truck.
    Of course, Randy could’ve taken them all out in a flat minute. Popped a bullet into Dryden and his girlfriend, then done the same to the old woman. But he wasn’t too keen on the idea of killing a little old lady if he didn’t have to. He wasn’t a goddamned monster.
    She reminded him of his granny, who’d kept Randy and Troy on Sunday afternoons back when they’d been kids. Sundays had been the best day of the week back then – sitting around at her place eating pie had been a sweet deal compared to being at home with his old man.
    Back then, Randy had spent a lot of time fantasizing about his parents dying in some sort of accident, so that he and Troy would have to go live with their granny. But the