Sweet as Sin by Inez Kelley Page B

steel baton open into a fighting position. Leo’s free arm went around her shoulders from the front, John’s Inez Kelley
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    around her waist from the back. The wind rushed past her ear as she fell into Leo’s badge. It bit into her cheek with a cold sharp prick. Under his shirt, his vest was rigid against her face.
    “No!” Her scream paralyzed each man. She
    shoved them apart. She stood between them, arms outstretched like a blockade, and prayed they wouldn’t clash again. When neither made a move, she slowly lowered her arms.
    Leo took a step closer to John. “Are you asking to go to jail, asshole?”
    “Leo, shut up. And put that thing away!” She pointed to Leo’s steel ASP before turning on John.
    His narrowed gaze locked on the officer and an angry tic formed under his eye. Livvy had a brief flash of him getting arrested if he so much as blinked in Leo’s direction and panicked. They had to be kept apart. She shoved his chest not once, not twice but three times until he took faltering steps into the grass.
    “You! Go sit down. I mean it, go!” Pointing to her porch, she turned to retrace her steps. Rather than see, she felt John start to take a step toward them. She whirled back and pushed him to the stairs. “Sit. Do not move, do you hear me? Stay put.”
    “Livvy, your face. You’re hurt.” He went to cup her cheek and she slapped his hand away.
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    “You should have thought about that before acting like a raging bull. Now don’t move.” She stalked back to Leo with her hands in her hair.
    Leo glared at John as she approached then turned a softer gaze to her.
    “Are you okay?”
    She nodded and wiped her hands down her
    face. The scrape stung in the night air. Leo went to touch her cheek but she stopped him with shaking fingers. “I’m fine, really.”
    Leo tightened his jaw. His voice was soft and commanding. “Liv, how well do you know him?”
    “He’s my neighbor.”
    He looked at her with skeptical eyes.
    She shuffled her feet. “We’ve been seeing each other for a little while.”
    Leo locked his eyes on John behind her and whispered, “I ran him through the system. He has a record, Livvy.”
    Shock smacked into her chest and she closed her eyes. The night took on a surreal quality. This isn’t happening. This is all a strange dream, a nightmare . “What kind of record?”
    She didn’t recognize the calm tone coming from her mouth. How could her voice sound so normal when her brain was scattering like dust?
    “I don’t know. It’s a juvenile record and sealed, but…” Leo looked directly into her face, steeling her for his words. “I tried to pull some strings off Inez Kelley
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    the books. Normally it works. Not this time. I’ve never seen that happen, Liv, except in violent crimes.”
    If Livvy thought she was shocked before, that sentence floored her. Unable to breathe, she wrapped her arms around her waist. What’s happening here? How did this go from exciting and thrilling to bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?
    She wasn’t aware she was crying until a cold tear splashed on her cheek. Leo gripped her arm and she looked up at him. His frown was full of tender apprehension.
    “Be careful, Liv.”
    Chapter Five
    John sat on the stone step, his face throbbing, his head spinning and his chest heavy. I’m too old for this shit. Alcohol buzzed through his veins but it didn’t blind him to what was happening. The secret he’d thought long buried reached up and bit him in the ass.
    Humiliation more than booze kept his head bent low. The landscaping rocks around Livvy’s small porch were polished gravel, variations of white, cream and gray with a few odd bits of color tossed in. They held his attention while he avoided seeing Livvy, seeing Livvy with the trooper, seeing Livvy learn about his shame. One dark blood-colored stone caught his eye and he picked it up, rubbing it between numb fingers.
    He didn’t look up until the cruiser pulled away.
    He