Partners

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It almost felt as if they’d never been apart, Chad thought as he rubbed his cheek against the top of Andrea’s head. He still felt as though he should send her away, especially now that she was carrying their child, but he didn’t think he could bear to be without her any longer. Growing up in a houseful of women, his mother had been constantly reminding his sisters that there was someone for everyone… he’d made a mistake thinking that Rita was that someone. After her, Chad had never thought to fall in love with anyone ever again but Andrea had gotten under his skin and inside him, bone deep. He’d never considered himself the kind of man who would be happy to belong to someone, but he was Andrea’s down to the soles of his shoes.

His hand rubbed over her stomach again, and this time Andrea’s hands came up to rest over his. “Do you want a boy or a girl?” she asked him, craning her neck to look up at him with a smile.

Chad couldn’t have cared less, and told her so. “Though it would be nice to have a little girl,” he conceded. “I bet she’d look just like you.”

Andrea laughed up at him, wriggled around so that he cradled her in his arms. “You still have to propose to me properly, Lieutenant Shelten – just tossing a ring into an envelope isn’t gonna cut it,” she said, waving one fist in a threatening manner.

“Give it back to me then, and I’ll ask someone else to marry me since that wasn’t good enough for you,” Chad teased, grabbing her left hand.

She snatched it back out of his reach and put her hand on his face as if to push him away. “Hey! That’s my ring… I suppose I could lease it to you, though.”

Chad curled his fingers around her wrist and held her hand in place, kissing her palm tenderly. “Will you mar-”

“Yes,” Andrea interrupted, making them both laugh.

His arms tightened around her as he leaned down, feeling her small hands sliding up on either side of his face. “I love you,” he whispered.

Andrea’s lips parted under his slowly as she kissed him back, finger-combing his hair and gently grazing his scalp with her nails. “Love you too,” she murmured against his lips, sighing encouragingly when he slid a hand down to cup her bottom and press her against him. She threw a leg over his hip and Chad moved his hand up beneath her shirt, stroking the smooth stretch of her lower back until Andrea was arching against his body in silent appeal. He pushed her onto her back gently, leaning down to unbutton her shirt and kiss every inch of skin that was revealed – Andrea’s stomach was as taut and muscled as ever, but in a few month’s time it would be rounded with their first child. Just the thought that she was carrying his child excited him in a way he wasn’t sure she’d appreciate, but all he wanted to do now was make love to her and reinforce the bond he’d done his best to break. “Chad,” she whimpered, tugging at him. He’d been completely unaware that he’d stopped kissing her and was simply resting his cheek on her abdomen.

“I know,” he said softly, moving up to kiss the hollow between her breasts. Sliding his hands up her sides, Chad was just about to draw the straps of her bra off her shoulders when a loud knock at the door made him freeze. “Ah, shit.”

“Maybe if we ignore it, they’ll go away,” Andrea whispered, pressing a thigh up between his legs to rub against his crotch enticingly.

Maybe, Chad conceded. He’d just bent back to his task when another knock sounded and Rita’s voice rang out. “Chad? Are you in there?”

The sound of his ex-wife’s voice effectively dampened his ardor, and he dropped his head back between Andrea’s breasts with a groan. “Perfect.” His fiancée’s hand rose to cup the back of his neck as she sighed, and he rolled away from Andrea who was looking as disappointed as he was. “I’ll make it up to you,” he promised softly, and her answering smile was the kind that rekindled the warmth in his stomach.

“I know you will. Tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.” He walked to the door, scooping up the other room key from atop the television set as Andrea hopped off the bed to clean up the papers strewn about the bathroom. When he opened the door, Rita immediately breezed past him and started looking around for Andrea. Her eyes fell on the rumpled covers of the bed and she frowned meaningfully – he’d never quite understood how she could have such a hang-up as far as sex was concerned, not with the way she looked and dressed, but Chad had long since given up trying to puzzle her out. “Come on in,” he said sarcastically. Hopper came through the door and nodded in greeting, then eyed Meredith apprehensively as the pitbull woke from a doze beneath the table and stalked out to smell him.

Andrea walked into the room with them and snapped her fingers for Merry to come to her, and he obediently plopped down at her feet with his eyes fixed on Rita. “You find out anything?”

Hopper took a deep breath and pulled the folded picture out of his jacket pocket. “Yeah. I went with my CI and asked some questions about this girl… turns out her name is Isabella Contrarez. She was a maid working for Tobias Booth.”

“Booth? As in, Councilman Booth?” Andrea asked, sitting down on the bed.

Chad glanced over at her as he reached a hand down to scratch behind Meredith’s ears absently. He remembered reading through the autopsy report that the Jane Doe – now known as Contrarez – had been pregnant. “I wonder if it was his child,” Chad said thoughtfully, looking over at Hopper. “Who’d you talk to about her? We might be able to find out just what her duties as maid entailed.”

Hopper frowned. “I doubt that’s a good idea – we only found out her connection to Booth through her mother.”

“You went to her mom’s house?”

“Yeah. She took the news pretty well, considering.” His ex-partner glanced over at Rita, who seemed to be trying to get as far from Andrea as possible. “Of course, she’d figured that something had happened to Isabella… why don’t you come sit down?”

Rita shook her head. “I’m okay.”

Chad rubbed his temples and sighed. “So what do we have so far? We know Detweiler’s been letting El Giron out to take care of his dirty work, and that makes both of them involved in the Contrarez murder. Faith’s traced the hourglass to some men’s club downtown, and it seems all our friends are on the member’s list… including Barry Colburn, the council appointed to you when you were arrested. Seems he showed up looking for you when I’d borrowed you.” It was pretty smart of them to have their own lawyer to fix whatever problems came up, Chad thought – with a roster of killers and dirty cops, there wasn’t much a person couldn’t accomplish. “What’s going on with Baxter and Mrs. Garza? She put you at the scene.”

Hopper leaned forward, tugging a notepad from his back pocket. “See if you believe this…”

_ _ _ _ _ _


Andrea listened in disbelief as Hopper told them about Damien and the safe house, showing up at Baxter’s house, and he finished by describing a run-in with a judge’s assistant. “So Damien just shot him?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Hopper sighed. “I thought it was gonna be my ass on the chopping block next. He was involved in whatever’s happening – his girlfriend was the one to leave me that message about the hourglass being in the mail.”

“Where is she?”

Hopper shook his head, and her mouth tightened. Of course. “The world’s going crazy lately.”

“It’s been that way all along; we’ve just gotten caught up in it more than usual,” Chad said acidly, staring down at the murder book. He looked over at Andrea with anger in his eyes that she knew wasn’t for her; she’d seen the look on his face when he put the murder and the autopsy results together. “There has to be something more to this, though – it’s all well and good that we’ve found a link to Colburn, Booth and Detweiler, but it feels like something’s still missing,” he said in frustration. “It’s just not enough.”

Andrea moved over behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders lightly. “Maybe if we get Mrs. Garza to tell us why she lied about seeing you there, we can uncover the rest of the story,” she told Hopper. “We got you guys a room next to ours; it’s not safe for any of us to be anywhere they can find us.”

Hopper stood, looking at her quizzically. “Don’t worry, I can stay at Rita’s when I take her back.”

Rita sucked in a breath as Andrea looked at her. “What are you talking about? You can’t take her back.”

“They were watching my place, not hers – anyway, she’s not mixed up in this,” Hopper insisted.

“He still doesn’t know?” Chad asked Rita incredulously. Andrea smoothed her hands along his broad shoulders and said nothing, watching the other woman start to fidget.

“Know what? What’s going on?” Hopper asked, a hint of anger creeping into his voice. “Rita? What’s going on?”

Poised to witness the most satisfying blowout Southern California had ever seen, Andrea was unreasonably disappointed when Chad tossed the other set of room keys to her partner. “Talk about it next door, huh?”

Rita gave him a semi-grateful look as she left the room with Hopper, and Andrea walked around to face Chad who had his fingers steepled in front of his face. “What did you do that for?” she demanded. “She had it coming, you know that.”

“She still has it coming, Andy –but it’s not just our problem anymore. He deserves to hear it without having an audience.” Chad dropped his hands and the corners of his mouth quirked in a smile. “They’ll probably be loud enough so you can hear through the wall if you’re that interested.” He cocked his head and, sure enough, the murmurs from next door were rising in volume.

Andrea sank down on Chad’s knee and allowed him to pull her close. She’d dreamed of Rita finally getting her comeuppance, but now that it had arrived she found that she’d lost her taste for revenge. “Hopper’s never really known about her, even after all the games,” she realized. Chad sighed and she placed a kiss on his temple lovingly. “She was good for something, at least.”

“And what was that?” he asked, moving a hand to rest on her stomach.

“She made it obscenely easy for me to twist you around my little finger,” Andrea teased with another kiss, rumpling his hair.

The shouts from the adjoining room abruptly stopped and she got up from Chad’s lap when she heard the sound of a slamming door and a car starting. Chad came over and looked out the door at Hopper, who was pacing in front of the motel angrily. “You should have told me,” he yelled.

Chad leaned against the door frame and folded his arms across his chest. “It wasn’t my story to tell, Hopper.”

“You lied for her,” the other man accused.

“Yes, I did,” Chad acknowledged, still giving the appearance of lounging at his ease. Andrea could see the tension in his frame, and moved closer to place a hand on his arm soothingly.

Hopper stopped pacing and ran a hand over his shaven head. “I would’ve done the same,” he said, sounding defeated.

“Where’d she go?” Andrea asked, glancing around. Hopper’s truck and Chad’s SUV were still there…oh no, she hadn’t. “Where’s my Jeep?” she demanded. That’s it, I’m going to kill Rita. My sympathy has officially dried up.

Both men looked at her with unreadable expressions, though she could have sworn that Chad was ready to start laughing. “We’ll get it back for you tomorrow,” Chad promised her. “You didn’t really need it right now anyway.”

“Don’t make excuses for her,” Andrea started, then rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly. Rita wasn’t important right now, and Chad was right. Damn it. “It’d better be in the same condition I left it here in, that’s all I’m gonna say.”

Hopper came back into the room with them and they talked about their strategy once more – Andrea would arrange for Faith to call in Mrs. Garza for another statement, and Hopper would meet her there…hopefully getting the truth out of her. It turned out he had Detective Choi on his side, so they wouldn’t have any problems arranging it. “I’ll get to the bottom of this if it’s the last thing I do,” Hopper said on his way out. “The earlier you can get her to Metro, the better.”

“See you in the morning,” Andrea said, impulsively hugging her partner before she closed the door. “We’ll get this settled, don’t worry. Why don’t you give Rita a call and see how she’s doing? It’s never a good idea to go to bed angry, you know? Just make sure she didn’t get my car into an accident,” she teased.

Chad was running a bath when she came back inside, so she locked the deadbolt and shed her clothes hurriedly to join him. Hotel bathtubs were always too small for both of them, and it seemed as if most of the water sloshed over the side when they were finally situated comfortably, but Andrea figured it was worth having wet shoes. She laid back in the protective circle of his arms and closed her eyes, luxuriating in the hot water and the feel of having him near. They stayed in the tub until the water started to grow cold enough to make her shiver, then Chad dried her off and carried her into the main room to the bed. Meredith was already curled up underneath one of the chairs fast asleep and snoring.

Andrea snuggled against him contentedly, breathing in his scent and running her fingers through the dark curls of his chest hair. “This feels nice,” she mumbled sleepily.

Chad stroked her hair back from her face tenderly. “Yes, it does.” She fell asleep to the feel of him pressing a kiss to her forehead.


tbc…
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