Your Favorite Crime

5. Breaking Rules

Tim aimlessly walked the aisles of the grocery store as his hands shook incessantly. All he could think about was Lucy. She was about to get arrested a few blocks away, and she had NO idea what was going to happen. His phone remained silent- Angela did not call or text to let him know the operation had ended, which made him worry.

10 minutes until the heist would be over.

10 minutes until Lucy would be hauled away in the back of a shop.

10 minutes until he would have to go back to his boring, simple life as a cop where he would never see Lucy again.

It seemed that time moved deceptively slowly, but after 15 minutes, he felt a hand press into his back. "Hey, handsome," a voice said in a low, lusty drawl.

To his surprise, Tim looked to find Lucy standing next to him. "Lucy," he beamed. He wanted to ask HOW it was possible that she was in the grocery store with him instead of in handcuffs, but he was too surprised to care.

"Let's get outta here," she whispered and lead the way back to the unassuming silver Toyota Camry.

After driving for a few minutes, he noticed they were not going back to Lucy's house. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

The air between them felt different and unsettling, so Tim swallowed hard and stayed quiet as Lucy continued driving with a stoic expression on her face. They reached a secluded lookout point that offered a beautiful view of Los Angeles at night. She parked the Camry, opened the back door and somehow reached inside the seat cushion to pull out a gun. Lucy pointed the gun in his direction and ordered, "Get outta the car!"

Tim complied, keeping his hands up as he slowly unbuckled his seat belt and stepped out of the vehicle.

She reached for the signal jammer in the center console and turned it on before shoving it in the back pocket of her jeans. "I don't want to have to do this."

He was staring down the barrel of a gun that Lucy was pointing right at him, and he was fairly sure that he was about to die. "Lucy..."

"You said not to do it tonight. You told me not to go through with the job, and then the cops showed up...Noah and Aaron barely got away. Tamara had to hack the traffic lights to help them escape. It's your fault, isn't it? You're a cop."

Tim's heart stopped. She figured it out. Of course she did. She's brilliant. But, as an undercover officer, he was trained to lie and deny in such a situation. "What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Come on, Tim...if that's even your real name..."

"It is," he cut her off and took a step closer to her. "Lucy, I'm Tim. I'm the guy who somehow brings up sports in every conversation. I much prefer driving trucks, which is why I always give you grief that the house only has Camry's. You know..."

"STOP! I don't know you well enough to know whether you're a cop or not. Tell me the truth."

He took a step closer to press the gun into his chest; he acted more confidently than he felt. She could still hurt him, but he hoped she wouldn't. "Lucy, look at me. The truth is that I didn't want you to go tonight, because I didn't want you to take the risk. I didn't want anything to happen to you." Tim found it difficult to lie into her pretty brown eyes, but that was a truth he could admit to.

"So, you were trying to protect me?"

He nodded.

"You don't have to do that," she replied softly.

"I want to," Tim responded, his voice barely above a whisper.

"If you were a cop, you wouldn't want to protect me. You'd be trying to get me to incriminate myself."