Caldwell Avenue, 4:00 a.m.

Sergeant Jack Riley waited outside his south side townhouse in the darkness like a goddamned criminal. Where the hell was she?

If she didn’t get here in the next thirty seconds he was going after her. To hell with the consequences. He’d called her cell. She hadn’t answered. Finally he’d left her a voice mail and told her he was waiting.

He didn’t have to say more. That was enough to have her scared shitless, he’d bet his next paycheck. He didn’t like being the last to know anything and he damned sure didn’t like her sneaking around behind his back. She had gone too far this time. He’d let her ridiculous little mistakes go in the past. Overlooked all her annoying faults. And she had plenty.

Not this time.

This was serious shit and he wasn’t about to allow her to screw up all that he had worked for. No way. If anyone went down for this it would be her. This was her fuckup.

He spotted headlights up the street. Fury roiled in his gut. The stupid bitch rolled to a stop at the curb and shut off the lights and the engine. He didn’t wait for her to get out. Too many neighbors with nose trouble to stand around out here and have a discussion. And they damned sure couldn’t go in the house. Not with Larry and his kid here.

He walked up to the passenger side of the Corolla he was stuck paying three-sixty a month on and rapped on the glass. The automatic door lock clicked to the unlock position. She didn’t say a word as he settled into the seat. Wasn’t any need for her to say a damned thing. He knew what she’d done.

He just didn’t know the precise details. The devil was always in the details.

He let another ten or so seconds elapse just to make her sweat, then he demanded an answer. “You ready to tell me what the fuck is going on?” He clamped his mouth shut to keep from screaming at her. Same went for his hands. Squeezed his fingers into fists to prevent slapping the living daylights out of her. He knew better than to do that. Cops couldn’t be knocking their wives around—even if they deserved it. He worked double shifts three, four days a week and she couldn’t even keep her shit together for one fucking night.

“I had to check on something.”

Her voice trembled like a frightened child’s. The sound made his dick hard. Her fear was like a drug. It gave him a hell of a rush. Hell yeah. That’s what he should do. Take her in the woods somewhere and break her down like a shotgun and give it to her like she’d never had it before. Teach her who the hell was boss once and for all.

“Like what?” He stared across the darkness at his idiot wife. Seeing her eyes wasn’t necessary. He could smell her fear.

“I was just being paranoid. I couldn’t remember if I put the glasses in the right place after I cleaned up.”

He’d been a cop too long to buy that load of bull. Every nuance of her tone screamed liar, liar, liar.

“Are you lying to me?” He allowed the question to echo in the darkness for a bit. “You said you took care of everything. That was supposed to be the end of it.” He shook his head. Damn, he wanted to teach this dumb bitch a lesson. “You had one thing to do.” His mouth tightened in fury. “Just one. How could you screw up that one thing?”

She said nothing but her breathing told him she was growing more terrified by the second. She drew in short little shaky puffs of air. “I’m sorry. I was trying to help. I made a mistake.”

He was the one who’d made a mistake. “If I come home just one more time and find you unaccounted for,” he warned, “I will make sure it’s the last time. Do you understand me?”

“Yes. I swear this was the only time. I just had to—”

He thrust his fingers into her hair and jerked her face close to his. “Don’t lie to me, Sarah. Old man Haines told me you were out a second time that night. The babies’ crying woke him up. He said next time he was calling nine-one-one instead of me. Can you even fathom what would happen if he told anyone about that?”

“I needed milk,” she whimpered. “Chloe wouldn’t have had any milk for breakfast so I ran out before I went to bed.”

Did she really think she could fool him? “You just gonna keep lying?”

“I won’t do it again. I swear.”

“Good.” He twisted his fingers in her hair. She made a desperate sound. “You try to take me down with this, I will make sure they know it was you.”

She somehow managed to hold back the sobs he could feel quaking her body.

“That’s right,” he promised. “I’ll tell ’em all the things you’ve done and then you’ll wish you were the one dead instead of poor Gabrielle. Too bad your friend didn’t realize when you first met that you would be the death of her.”