Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
That officer being me.
“Thanks for hanging with me for half the day,” I grumbled.
It had taken half a day, too.
First, we’d gone to the police station where we waited for the mom to get off work.
Then we’d gone to Subway to get the kid and his mom food since they wouldn’t be having time to make anything seeing as she would be too busy lighting a fire under Jaylon’s ass—Jaylon’s words, not mine.
And now we were heading back to the station, well after lunch.
Hell, we were heading more toward dinner now instead of lunch.
Auden parked the cruiser in his designated spot and got out.
I followed much more slowly, limping slightly when I got out.
“Knee?” he asked.
“Knee,” I grumbled. “Knocked it wrong on the concrete when I tackled that kid.”
We walked into the station via the side door.
I veered right when he veered left.
I was just entering my office when I heard a woman’s throaty laugh.
That laugh wasn’t from the woman I wanted to hear it from, though.
“What are you doing in my office?” I snapped, seeing Elliette there shooting the shit with a man I didn’t know.
“This is my lawyer, Tim.” She pointed at the man beside her.
He didn’t look much like a lawyer. In fact, he looked more like a criminal than he did an upstanding member of the law.
I would know. I had to see these kinds of people every single day.
Hell, one even tried to shoot me today.
“And,” I said stiffly.
“I want my job back until the investigation is over,” she ordered, crossing her arms over her chest.
Instead of answering, I went out of my office, across the hall, and down another hall until I got to a door that said ‘Chief’ on it.
I’d go to my dad, but he wasn’t at work today.
So Chief Austin it was.
And when I got there, I wished I didn’t have to interrupt him, because he looked angry as fuck.
“I don’t want that bakery in my town, Seymour,” Chief Austin snarled.
I wondered idly if the ‘bakery’ in question was the one owned by his daughter, who’d just said that she was getting harassed by the city, courtesy of her father.
I decided to keep my nose out of it, because despite everything I had to deal with, I liked my job.
Even more, I’d just built a new house.
I wasn’t poor, but I wasn’t rich, either.
I had a good sized nest egg, but it wouldn’t stay ‘good sized’ if I didn’t work.
Maybe I could sell feet pics…
“Can I help you, Carter?” Chief Austin snarled.
I hated that I was going to have to make his mood even worse, but it wasn’t like I had a choice.
“Elliette Garrison is in my office with a ‘lawyer’ requesting her job back,” I said with little fanfare. “Would you mind…”
Chief Austin stood up, and his rolling chair went slamming against the plate glass window behind him.
I inwardly winced.
“Fuckin’ A,” he growled. “Like I have time to deal with this bullshit today.”
He stomped his way toward my office, and I followed in his wake, making eye contact with three of my brothers who, might I add, were gathered around a desk eating my donuts.
And then there was my girl, sitting on top of Atlas’s desk, sucking her fingers clean of cream filling from her own donut.
This little shit…
I narrowed my eyes at her, letting her know without words that she was going to pay for it later.
She wiggled her fingers at me in such a cute way that I wanted to burn this memory into my soul.
God, I fuckin’ loved her.
I turned my attention back to the chief, then sped up when I saw I’d lost him in my daydreaming about my girl.
I heard her giggle behind me, and that lightened my heart despite the bullshit I was about to have to handle in my office.
When I got to my office, Chief Austin had taken my desk chair and was sitting in it with a glower on his face.
Elliette was already giving her spiel.
“…no outward harm,” Elliette said. “And she didn’t say that I was hurting her, so I didn’t know. Had she communicated with me…”
Chief Austin interrupted. “You’re a menace to this police department.”
Elliette sat up straighter, “But, Chief…”
“And, despite your assurance that you would have stopped had she communicated with you about her pain, that’s still not how this police department works. I pride myself in having a department where the citizens of Dallas can trust their chief of police, and the police officers who work under me. I will not have you in this department, or anywhere near it, with an attitude like the one you have. I’m sorry if you feel like that’s unfair, but it’s a fact of life.”
“What are you saying?” the lawyer asked, sounding bored.
“I’m saying that a board meeting was called early this morning, and the topic to discuss was the one we’re talking about now,” he answered. “The investigation found plenty of wrongdoing. Again, I don’t condone it, and I won’t allow my department to become branded by bad press if we kept you on because you ‘didn’t mean to.’ As of 0600 this morning, you’re no longer an employee of Dallas Police Department. You will also not receive any letters of recommendation from me or any of your former bosses. Your locker, as well as your personal belongings, can be cleaned out before you leave. I better not see you in my department ever again.”