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When Brax woke up and realized Roni was no longer beside him, his first thought was that she was in the bathroom. But when he got up and looked and didn’t see her there either, he could sense something was wrong. He went to the guest room, he went up front, he went all through that apartment looking for her. But she wasn’t there.

Then his heart dropped. She wouldn’t, he thought. But then he knew, given that it was Roni, that she would. It was just like her to try to handle that whole crazy situation on her own.

He called her cellphone, but it went straight to Voice Mail.

He only had a few phone numbers for her friends in the city, and he called every one of them. But none of them had seen nor heard from her.

Now he was really worried.

He hurried back into the bedroom, put on his shoes, and grabbed his suit coat to go search for her himself. But when he made it to the front door, he saw a note taped up on the door:

“ If you’re reading this, that means you woke up ,” the note read. “ I went to meet a reporter friend of mine. The story should be on the 11 o’clock news. Channel 12. And don’t you dare come looking for me. Roni. ”

Brax had to smile. That was so her. She was going to take her story to the press, which wasn’t a bad idea considering she already knew her career with the NYPD was over. But that didn’t mean he liked the idea. He was going to handle it. He already told her so. He was going to call in favors all over that state if that was what it took to clear her name. But that wasn’t Roni. Even her mother told him on her dying bed how Roni could take care of herself, and to not worry about her. She was going to handle it herself.

But how could he not worry about her? That was the problem.

He read the note again. He wanted to track her down, anyway, and cuss her ass out on the spot for defying him that way, but where would he even start? He owned businesses in New York City, but he never lived there. This wasn’t his town. He just had to believe in her. Her mother did, and she knew Roni better than anybody ever would. He had to believe in her too.

He pulled his phone out of his suitcoat pocket and checked the time. When he saw that it was ten fifty-three, almost eleven, he hurried into her living room, sat on the couch, and turned on the TV.

While he waited, he tried to call Roni again. He couldn’t help but still be worried about her. But her phone still went to Voice Mail. He tossed his phone aside, unable to hide his anger, and waited for eleven o’clock.

When the news came on, he was pleased to see that it led the newscast. Breaking news, they called it.

“What do you have for us, Gus?” the anchorwoman asked the reporter in the field.

“Hello Lisa. We just got our hands on solid evidence, an exclusive recording, that totally blows the police version of events surrounding the shooting death of Michael Bridges completely out of the water.”

Brax leaned forward as the reporter played the recording. He recognized Roni’s voice and could hear the man described as her partner talk about how he shot the young man and how the detective covered it up. Everything Roni said happened, the guy admitted to doing. It was brilliantly done.

Brax couldn’t help but smile. “That’s my girl,” he said out loud as he watched the broadcast. And although he was still worried about her and wouldn’t stop being worried until she made it back home, he was proud of her.

And when the reporter made it clear how that tape “completely exonerated Officer Veronica Ross,” and when they showed a photograph of Roni in her police uniform, Brax’s heart squeezed when he saw her picture. It was her rookie photo, the first one she took as an NYPD officer, and she looked so young and so happy to him. Her dream was just getting started and she was so hopeful. And now those assholes had turned her career upside down.

But he was still pissed at her for taking that risk.

Yet, the more he stared at her photograph, the more he wanted her too. That was the thing about Roni. She took him on more emotional rollercoaster rides than any woman ever had. Highs to lows and all over again.

He leaned back as he watched her photograph. When she finally made it home, he was going to give her a piece of his mind and give it to her good. There was no doubt about that. Her ass knew how he felt about her pulling that dangerous shit when she didn’t have to go there. When he’d already told her that he would handle it for her and had the clout to do so.

But he also knew, by just how hard he was getting just watching her photo, that he was going to give her a whole lot more than a piece of his mind, and he was going to give that to her good too.

He had to have her.

There was no way he could go another day without knowing what it felt like to be deep inside of her. In this one night alone, he’d seen more of her body, and felt more of her gorgeous flesh, than he ever had in all their years of knowing each other. He wasn’t running into some other woman’s arms as a substitute for Roni tonight. Not tonight. Tonight, it was going to happen. It was finally going to happen he just knew it was.

He only hoped they would be able to survive it.

But whether they did or not, his mind, by way of his rock-hard penis, was made up. It was going to happen.