Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
He pointed at her chest, and she looked down.
The bodycam was right there in the middle of her chest.
One thing that DPD had done when my dad took over was require 24/7 bodycam footage on every officer on shift.
It’d been decided that it was safest for all involved, citizens and officers alike, to have camera footage to fall back on if shit hit the fan.
“Oh, I, uh…” she stalled.
“Can you access her body cam?” Pepper asked curiously.
“Yes,” Dad said. “Give me a… There.”
He pressed play on the body cam and mute on the show in interrogation room four.
There, we watched her go up to a man who looked slightly shady. After a back and forth, she demanded to have the drugs that he was selling and threatened him if he didn’t.
Without a word, he slapped a couple of bags of pills in her hand and ran.
She shoved them all in her pocket—sans gloves—and started whistling as she headed back to her car.
“Did she at least wipe down the bag?” I pinched the bridge of my nose, my knuckles playing along the back of Pepper’s neck.
“Yes,” Dad said. “She at least had that going for her.”
“You’re firing her, right?” Pepper asked carefully.
“She was fired the moment those cuffs went on her wrists,” Mom assured her. “This is a public relations nightmare due to her notoriety after the kidnapping. Also, she’s a cop, and she was arrested in the highest profile hotel in the area. Now we’re trying to find out if we want to charge her.”
“Charge her, please.” Pepper leaned forward, pressing both of her palms together in a praying motion. “Please.”
Mom laughed. “Sadly, it’s not up to us. We can charge her all we want but it’s up to the DA, who fucking hates us, to prosecute. There are no promises.”
Pepper sighed, wiggling in her seat.
“Peppa!”
Pepper looked over at Forest, who was holding out a pen.
“Oh, pretty.” She took it, admired it, then handed it back.
The interaction was altogether innocent, but it again had the power to rip my heart straight out of my chest.
I was so engrossed with them that I missed most of the discussion that was happening around me until my brothers and Mom started to stand up.
Pepper got up, too, and reached out for Forest.
“Come on, bud,” she said. “We can go back to the bakery and let these boys work out what to do next.”
I got up as well, glancing at my dad, and letting him know with a few words that I’d be back.
I left them all in the office, heading behind Pepper and Forest, chatting away.
I didn’t understand a single word that was said by my boy, but Pepper acted like she got every single word.
“You can take my truck,” I suggested. “I have the car seat.”
“Oh,” she paused. “I guess that’s pretty important, huh?”
I grinned and held out my keys.
She dropped her Jeep keys into my own and said, “I’m sorry, but it’s out of gas. Like really out of gas. I was going to get it on the way home.”
I nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”
She didn’t argue, but I could see the instant rejection in her eyes.
I got the door for Forest, then took him from her arms before strapping him into the car seat.
“Be good for Peppa, will you?” I asked him.
He gave me a thumbs up, and I realized that he still had the pen from my dad’s office.
“Can I see that?”
He handed it to me, and I immediately dismantled it, taking the ink insert out before giving it back.
He took it, frowned, then handed it back to me. “Fix!”
I pulled a set of keys out of my pocket, the ones to my house, and said, “Here. How about we switch?”
He took the keys, threw the pen at my face, and said, “Tanks!”
I pulled away and closed the truck door.
Pepper was already in the front seat and starting it up.
“Don’t let him lose those keys,” I pleaded. “I kind of need those to get into the barn outside the house.”
She smirked at me. “I’ll try.”
I leaned into the open door, one hand on the door, and a forearm on the top of the truck.
“Try real hard,” I purred, leaning in.
My mouth was only inches away from hers, her mouth leaning into my own, before she cursed and pulled back. “Employee, employer.”
I gritted my teeth. “For now, I guess.”
“Forever,” she disagreed, pushing on my chest. “I’ll see you when you get home.”
I backed up, then watched her leave.
Only when she was completely gone from sight did I go back to my dad’s office.
“You got it, you got it bad,” Auden pretended to sing Usher into an invisible microphone.
“She fucking hates him,” Gable sang his own verse by Puddle of Mudd as he came back in.
“Fuck all the way off,” I grumbled to them both.