As Seth was about to continue, Linc’s phone began buzzing. He picked it up on the first ring. “Officer Granger,” he answered.
Seth heard a deep male voice on the line. Linc mouthed ‘the lieutenant’ at him and quietly opened the car door to step outside. Seth watched Linc pace up and down the street, speaking very quietly into the phone. He was probably receiving further intel on Ricky’s movements, maybe some new details on the case. Either way, Seth quickly bored of watching Linc pace, so he slid out his own phone. He couldn’t resist.
Seth typed out a quick message to Gentry:How’s my girl tonight?
Within seconds, he received a photo message. His heart thumped as he slid it open. It was a selfie of Gentry at her dressing table backstage at Miami Blues, a hint of cleavage visible at the bottom of the shot. A text message came after.
Going on soon. Wish you were here.
Seth couldn’t help but grin. He typed back,I wish I was there. The things I would do to you once I got you home…
She responded with a winking emoji and:Things like you did last night?
He sent back,That was just a taste. Do you want more?
He watched the three dots flashing as she typed, erased, typed again. Seth’s heart was pounding, his body responding to her flirtatious texts. He wished she was there now, right in his lap, all soft curves and sexy sighs. He wanted to kiss her all over, bend her across his knee and spank her, touch her in those secret places that made her moan. Finally, she replied.
So much more.
Seth licked his lips. Another text came in:Send me a pic?
He looked around nervously. He didn’t want to compromise the stakeout or put her at risk by sharing his location or purpose for being there. He was on official police business at the moment, and Linc was only just outside the car.
He texted back,Not at home right now, but…
Seth hastily held up the phone and snapped a photo with a soft smirk on his handsome face. Even though it was a quick, haphazard shot, he somehow managed to look pretty damn good. His green eyes seemed to glow in the low beam of the streetlight across the way. His cheekbones and jawline were perfectly edged. He sent her the photo.
His effort was swiftly rewarded when she sent another back. This time, she had tugged down the straps of her dress. Her full, perky breasts were exposed except for Gentry’s delicate arm strategically covering her nipples. She was biting her soft bottom lip with a look of pure seduction in her doe eyes.
Show you mine if you show me yours, she texted.
Seth was on the verge of trying to finagle a sexier photo to keep the train a-rolling when suddenly, Linc came rushing up to the car. He was no longer on the phone, and there was a serious look on his face. He opened the door and threw himself behind the wheel, jerking the car into action. Seth jumped in and looked at him, bewildered by his sudden urgency.
“What’s going on? What did Pearce say?” he asked.
But Linc was already peeling out. “When I was on the phone, I saw Ricky exit out the back window of his residence. He dropped from the second floor onto the balcony, took off down the side street, and now he’s getting in a car. We have to follow him.”
21
Lincoln
Linc’s knuckles turned white as his hands tightened around the steering wheel. His foot rammed the gas pedal and the engine revved. He smoothly swerved the patrol car out of the parking lot with his eyes fully locked onto his target. Ricky was behind the wheel of an old, rust-orange Camaro, and his back tires skidded back and forth as he struggled to pick a lane. There were other cars up ahead down the road, which was about to dead-end into a main thoroughfare. Ricky was trying to lose them in traffic.
“Hit it,” Linc hissed to Seth.
Seth understood instantly. He activated the siren and braced himself, leaning forward to keep a tight watch on Ricky’s car as they both hurtled toward the main road and innocent citizens on their commute home. But with the siren wailing, the cars running perpendicular began to slow and move aside right as Ricky hit the corner and turned left. To Linc’s relief, the cars stayed aside for them as the patrol car came barreling around the corner, too.
“He was in that apartment the whole time,” Seth groaned loudly over the siren.
Linc nodded as he floored the gas. “Must have been trying to wait us out.”
“Damn it. All we did was give him time to think.”
“He’s no genius,” Linc retorted. “I doubt his time was very productive in there.”
“You’re right, he was probably losing his mind worrying. Wait, Linc! Look!” Seth shouted, pointing ahead to the intersection.
Even though most traffic was deftly moving out of their way to form a wide berth for the patrol car to get through on the four-lane road, they were now approaching a yellow light. In a moment, it would turn red and trap them behind a wall of cars too close together to make way. Ricky was in front of those cars, skidding through the intersection.