Free Before That Night: Unfinished Love Series: Caine & Addison, Book 1 by Violet Duke

make psychedelic cocktails out of different bottled pills—to do the things high school kids did in parked cars.
    Well, not all the things. But some.
    Never, however, had any of those boys ever held her hand.
    Frankly, judging by the head over heels cherished way she was feeling right now, if they had taken the time to hold her hand, she might not still be in possession of her virginity.
    “I have another shift in the police booth coming up,” he informed her quietly. Come by to see me before you and the kids head out? I’ll make you all my world famous burgers.”
    When she nodded, he gave her another gentle hand-squeeze before leaning in to brush his lips against her cheek. Chastely.
    And in that instant, she understood what he’d meant about the dare.
    Her eyes dropped down to his lips and thought about how daring she could be right now.
    Another skin-tingling bump and slide of their hands had her imagination spinning out of control.
    “You are just trouble in progress for my good intentions, woman.” It was a rumbling grumble that sounded as amused as it did heated.
    “Likewise,” she whispered back.
     
     

 
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    CAINE EXITED THE BRIEFING ROOM with a thousand things on his mind. Cases involving children always hit him hard. And today’s missing child case was doubly tough because the little four-year boy reported missing—taken right from his bedroom sometime before dawn this morning—had also been the victim of child abuse for years, according to his mother.
    Over the past eight years, Caine had seen far too many cases of parents who just shouldn’t have been allowed to be parents, and innocent children hurt beyond comprehension.
    Not just in the form of bruises, but in neglect. His own foster brother Drew had been a victim of that. With an alcoholic mother who’d hardly been lucid enough to even make sure he was fed most days, Drew had been raised by his older brother Leo until not too long ago. Unfortunately, not long after Leo enlisted in the army—during the promising two years their mom had been sober for the first time in their lives—he got deployed overseas, where his unit’s chopper went down without any survivors.
    Drew and Leo’s mother went into another downward spiral after that, not just in the neglect department, but in the physical abuse too. Caine himself was the officer who went to take Drew out of the dangerous hellhole his home had become.
    Drew had only been twelve years old at the height of the abuse, but he’d been taking care of himself for far longer. He was smart as a hell, and socially fine, but emotionally scarred when it came to family figures.
    It damn near broke Caine’s heart when he’d first seen Drew struggle with day to day family affection. It had been after Drew had finally gotten tested for his IQ. When Caine and his folks had tried to hug the kid after finding out he tested at genius level intelligence, Drew had nearly jumped out of his skin.
    What kind of monster makes it so their own kid can’t make heads or tails of a hug?
    Caine felt his hands curl into helpless fists just thinking about it all again.
    He was often accused of getting too emotionaly involved with cases involving abused kids. But really, how could he not? They were innocent, just like the kid that had gone missing today.
    Little Billy Baker. Just four years old.
    God, some days it was harder than others to believe humanity wasn’t totally screwed up.
    Caine was so lost in his heavy thoughts as he got ready to head on out that he didn’t even notice her standing there until she cleared her throat to get his attention.
    “Addison?” He blinked. “What are you doing here at the station?” He closed the distance between them in half a second. “Are you okay?”
    “I’m fine.” She pointed to the bags of food and boxes of to-go coffee cups sitting on the table in their break room. “That missing boy case has been on the news all morning so I brought some