He breathed slowly and as quietly as he could trying to hear what was happening in the bedroom. He hoped she would leave again soon for any reason. His luck had run out though. He heard her push open the bathroom door and enter the bathroom.He heard the rustling of clothing and saw the blur of her movements through the shower curtain. He wondered if she could see his blurred outline standing still in the bath. From her blurred outline, it was clear that she was undressing. She finished undressing and sat down on the toilet, relieving herself. Then she flushed the toilet and Zane heaved a quick sighof relief under cover of the noise of the flushing toilet.In the next instant, the shower curtain was swept aside as Hope cried out.“Who the hell are ...?” She broke off her question as she realized that Zane stood in her bath. She held a pistol trained on him. A smile slowly stretched across her face.“Well, well, Chief.”

They dressed and Zane left the way he had entered. Through the back window.Zane left Hope feeling more besotted than ever before. He felt as if he was adrift on the ocean. He had not felt the way he did about Hope since his fiancée. He was disappointed though. She was not going to give him the chance to show her that he could help her. She was going to continue regardless. Whatever hold the people had over her, it was more than she believed he could offer her.He told himself that he had to wise up. He had to be strong and accept that she was going to go down at some point.At this point, everything was between him and her and he had to believe that she would have some honor if she was caught and not take him down with her.Zane pondered their chat and her remark that there were corrupt cops involved. She had denied that there was any corrupt police on his team but since she had turned up here just maybe there were corrupt police on his team and s

Zane arrived back in Hurstville after dark. He felt better after meeting Sanchez. He’d had time to think on the journey back and knew he had to keep his distance from Hope as much as possible.He would try to steer things through Brian and the other officers as far as possible. He was the chief after all.His phone buzzed with a message. Talk of the devil…It was Hope.Why so quiet?He looked at the message. He was tempted to answer it but decided not to. He needed to cut ties. Sanchez had let him know he could still get through this with his job and badge intact. But continuing with what he had done with Hope wasn’t going to help him. He was sad at having to cut ties.He had not felt like this with any woman for a long time. While he hadn’t spent much time with Hope, there was something more than he had felt for other women he had briefly dated since his ex-fiancee. He wasn’t quite sure what it was th

Zane and his men were in place well before three pm. They had arrived separately and crept into hiding in the bushes and long grass that surrounded the Old Mill.The Old Mill had ceased operations years before and was in a state of disrepair. Nevertheless, the owner kept the caretaker employed. Everyone expected it was out of the goodness of his heart that the owner employed the caretaker.The caretaker, Kevin, was in his seventies and lived alone at the Old Mill. He had been loyal to the employer for many years and everyone believed that keeping the caretaker on even though he was unable of fulfilling the duty of taking care of the Old Mill was the owner’s way of repaying Kevin’s loyalty.Why Kevin would be involved in being a contact for a drug cartel was beyond Zane. There was no confirmation that it was him though. Just the fact that he was the caretaker and therefore living onsite didn’t make him the contact. Nevertheless, they stayed well

Amanda woke the next morning to the smell of breakfast. She looked around and grabbed Zane’s shirt from its hanger. She put it on and walked to the kitchen.Zane was busy in the kitchen, frying eggs and bacon for them. He did not see nor hear her as she approached him. He jumped when she wrapped her arms around him from behind and hugged him.“Whoa!” he said. “Careful! You frightened me. I could have burned you.”“Would it matter? You shot me already last night,” she smiled.He took the food off the stove and dished it up for them. He placed the food on the table and then he turned around and put his arms around her. He lifted her and put her on the kitchencounter.“You’re wearing my shirt?” he asked as he took in the sight of her.“I am,” she smiled.“That just drives me wild,” he said as he kissed her. He lifted the front of the shirt where h