Officer out of Uniform (Lock and Key Book 2) by Ranae Rose Read Free Book Online

no ignoring his perpetual hard-on for her.
    It almost felt wrong, given the circumstances. Every time his mind flashed back to what he’d found at the edge of the road that day, bile rose in his throat. The memory was fresh, and layered on top of older ones. He was no stranger to death, but that didn’t make it any easier to see. Not really. And not a death like that, in any case.
    When he really thought about it, maybe Sasha’s presence and his constant hard-on for her was a good thing. Lusting after her was a great distraction. If he could just indulge without getting stupid and forgetting about what was most important – protecting her – he’d be all right.
    “Do you mind if I turn on the news?” she called out over her shoulder, from the couch.
    An extra-strong surge of lust hit him like an arrow to the gut as her eyes met his.
    “Go ahead,” he said automatically, reaching for the first thing he could lay hands on, then turning away and pretending to be busy as he fought to clear the fog of all-consuming desire from his mind. It was hard to focus on the present when memories of their night together ran rampant through his mind, threatening to cause his dick to bust his jeans’ zipper.
    The object he’d grabbed was a bag of coffee grounds. He unwrapped the rubber band he’d closed it with and grabbed a spoon, then began heaping grounds into the coffee maker. Why not brew a pot? Between Sasha’s presence and knowing that a killer was at large, it wasn’t like he was going to get any sleep that night.
    “How do you like your coffee?” he called, and was hit immediately by a pang of regret. If she hadn’t left before he’d woken up during their first night together, he already would’ve known how she liked it.
    “Cream and a little sugar if you have it,” she replied. “If you don’t, black’s fine.”
    He fixed her coffee the way she’d requested, glad she was there.
    Even though the fact that she thought she needed to protect him was ridiculous, that she gave enough of a shit to spend the night at his place seemed like a good sign. He’d seen her slip her little kitchen knife – her Shun, she’d called it – into her overnight bag, too. In that moment, his perpetual hard-on had hardened a little more.
    There was no way he’d let anyone dangerous get near her, but it was cute that she’d planned ahead like that. Did she plan to borrow one of his frying pans to use as a shield? The thought caused a grin to spread across his face. By the time the scent of brewing grounds rose from the coffee maker, his cheeks ached.
    It’d be a good ten minutes before he could pour any. Reluctantly, he approached the couch. Although his body temperature seemed to rise by a degree or two as he got near Sasha, he didn’t really want to hear the news – didn’t want to think about what he’d seen.
    Sure enough, the news anchor’s voice got under his skin, triggering an automatic response in his brain, one that had him rehashing memories from that afternoon over and over again.
    The warden, dead. Mike – that was his name. Mike Lawrence. Not just the warden, but a guy with a life, albeit one that’d taken a shitty turn a couple years ago when he’d gotten divorced. He still had two grown kids though, and he hadn’t deserved to die. Henry felt bad for him, bad for the family that had to deal not only with the fact that he was dead, but with how he’d died.
    And the fact that his killer was still on the loose.
    A part of Henry itched with the desire to be called into work, to be put back on the search. Surely, the investigators in charge of the case would draw the obvious conclusion – that Randy Levinson had been behind this – soon, and the prison’s search efforts for the escaped convict would resume.
    It’d been well over a month since the initial escape, but Randy Levinson had escaped from the Riley Correctional Center’s custody. If he was back in the area, why wouldn’t the prison’s PERT