by BJ Bentley
“I can’t stop you,” he grumbled, finally stepping aside and sweeping an arm out to usher me inside.
The inside of the precinct was as familiar to me as my own home. As a kid, I’d spent countless hours inside the seventies-era brick and cinder block building shadowing my dad, my hero, around. As an adult, I’d visited Heath at work on occasion. It wasn’t frequent; the building didn’t feel right without my dad inside, trading barbs and the donuts I’d bring him, with his colleagues. But I’d pop in to say hello to Heath whenever I was home from college, long enough to say hi to the men and women I remembered who’d worked with my father but never staying long enough to let my heart break all over again.
I breathed in the familiar scent combination of stale coffee and gardenias as I entered the lobby and waved to the woman behind the reception desk. Jasmine’s perfume permeated the space, not in the way that I’d get a headache later, but definitely more potent than it needed to be. Plus, I liked the smell of gardenias, though I couldn’t say if it was the flower itself I liked or just the nostalgia that was attached to it. Jasmine had been working the reception desk at Aspen Falls PD for as long as I could remember. I think she might have started when my dad was a rookie, though it was hard to judge how old she was just by looking at her on account of what I suspected was a combination of plastic surgery and Botox.
I could feel Heath’s aggravation like a wall at my back, closing in on me and forcing me to move. I fought against shuffling my feet and marched down the hall to the bullpen with my head held high.
A low whistle pierced the air when I entered the room. “Who’s the babe?”
“Hey,” Heath snapped over my head. “Shut the fuck up, Zanetti.”
“What? I’m payin’ her a compliment!”
I side-eyed the overgrown toddler, immediately pegging him as the department douchebag, though, he didn’t actually make it difficult to suss out.
“First off, it’s unprofessional and disrespectful,” Heath seethed.
“Oooh, well, excuse me, ethics committee!”
“Second, that’s my baby sister, you asswipe.”
Zanetti’s cocky grin faltered slightly. “Shit, Poppy? Hell, I didn’t even recognize you. Sorry,” he muttered to Heath before offering me a smile that I might have interpreted as contrite if I were a less perceptive woman.
Zanetti would not be in the camp of police officers who wanted to protect me because I was a woman or because of my family name. He was, however, in the camp of overconfident jerks who thought he’d have a better chance of nailing me if he pretended to play nice.
Mama hadn’t raised a fool, and Daddy had taught me better.
I spotted the captain’s door just as Heath muttered something about working with ‘fucking morons.’ I ignored him and strode to the door, hand poised to knock when it flew open.
“Leighton! Good, you’re here.” Captain Griffin returned to the chair behind his desk, leaving me standing in the doorway. “Don’t just stand there, rookie, get in here and sit down,” he huffed, the white whiskers of his mustache threatening to overtake the lower half of his face.
“Sir,” I greeted, standing at attention.
He eyed me with a speculative gleam in his eye. “Shut the door,” he ordered far less gruffly than he had before. “Now, sit,” he added once I’d closed the door on Heath who was obviously hoping to eavesdrop on my first meeting with our captain, no doubt in an effort to protect me from…something. Anything. That was Heath’s way.
I had to break him of that habit. Might as well start now.
Finally seated across from a man who I knew my father and brother both held tremendous respect for, I felt the first stirrings of apprehension. Would he treat me the same as the rest of the force or would he stick me with some desk job? It’s not like I was the only woman in the department. Aside from Jasmine at the front desk and Carol Ann in records, there were at least two other women who actually wore the Aspen Falls PD badge. The difference was, I was the only one who would be on patrol. Sue Briggs and Geri Ludens were both parking officers, a position deemed ‘safe’ by the boys club.
“I’m gonna cut right to the chase, Leighton, because you’re your father’s daughter and your brother’s sister, and you’re not stupid.” He paused to take a deep breath. “You’re green.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he talked right over me.
“You’re book smart, I get that. Top of your class in college, twice. Top of your class at the academy, too. I respect that, I do, but you’ve never walked a beat. You’ve never had to chase down a suspect or draw your weapon on another human being. You might have grown up here, but you don’t know the people on the streets. At least not the way you need to know them if you’re going to serve and protect to the best of your ability.”
“I can learn,” I blurted when he paused for another breath.
“I’m sure you can. That’s why I’m assigning you to a mentor. Normally, being new to the force, you’d have a probationary period where you’d shadow one of my officers for a time. But considering your family legacy, I want to make sure that you get more than the cursory on-the-job training. That’s why I’m assigning you to one of my best detectives.”
“I’m sorry?” My head was reeling. Not only was Captain Griffin not going to assign me to desk duty or work as a meter maid, he was actually talking about putting me out in the field with the best of the best. Oh, god, please tell me he’s not talking about Heath. I loved my brother, but we’d kill each other on the first day. Probably before lunch.
Instead of responding, he raised his hand, gesturing to someone through the window of his office door. My entire frame strung tight, and I turned, still praying that it wouldn’t be my brother walking through the door. Instead, I saw a man whose face I didn’t recognize, but whose name, I would soon realize, was infamous in first responder circles. However, in that moment in time, a moment in which time all but stopped, it wasn’t his name that had my attention.
It was his broad shoulders. His thick arms. His narrow waist that undoubtedly supported well-defined abs. He wore dark wash jeans and a dark blue t-shirt, a casual contrast to my department-issued uniform with it’s wrinkle-free buttoned shirt and pressed slacks. His scuffed black motorcycle boots were far more stylish than my own brand-new, just-out-of-the-box tactical boots.
I should have stopped there, but I couldn’t help myself.
The sound he made, something between a growl and a scoff, brought my eyes up, but he wasn’t looking at me.
“Captain Griffin.” His deep, rough voice made a deep ache flare to life in the pit of my stomach. As if his physical presence wasn’t enough to command all my attention, his voice brought it into laser focus.
“Brody, come in.”
Something niggled at the back of my brain. Something that felt familiar but was too elusive to grasp. I swung my gaze to Captain Griffin as he spoke.
“Officer Poppy Leighton, allow me to introduce you to Detective Vance Brody. Your new mentor.”
Vance Brody…that niggling in the back of my mind suddenly sounded like a fog horn blaring in the still of the early morning, undiluted and unimpeded, and the initial interest I’d felt fizzled until it blinked out of existence.
“Rookie,” Brody muttered, his eyes sweeping over me once before dismissing me entirely.
Protocol and common courtesy dictated that I stand when addressing someone of a higher rank, but indignation urged me to keep my seat. Refusing to make a bad first impression, I tamped it down and rose to my feet. “Detective Brody.” I extended my hand. “Pleasure to meet you, sir.”
This time his eyes darted to me in annoyance. “Since you’re going to be following me around like a nursing pup for a while, let’s lay down some ground rules--”
“Brody,” Captain Griffin warned, low, though Brody talked right over him.
“First, don’t call me ‘sir.’ Ever. Second, put that away.” His eyes flicked down to my still-extended hand that he�
�d neglected to acknowledge until just then.
I jerked my arm back like I’d been burned and returned his smirk with a glare. I’d heard tales of the infamous Vance Brody from Heath, tales that were filed away in my memory bank but that I was now unearthing for review. So far, all signs pointed toward Detective Brody being as much of a jerk as Heath seemed to think he was. He had no use for rules and a complete disregard for authority, two things that automatically put us at odds. If there were two things that ruled my life, they were law and order.
And I was not about to let the department maverick color outside my lines.
3
Vance
Well, fuck me.
Nobody told me my new mentee was going to be hot. Or Heath Leighton’s little sister. Didn’t that just deflate my threatening erection?
Fuck me, indeed.
“C’mon, rookie, I’ll show you around,” I muttered, infusing my voice with as much disdain as I could muster.
I didn’t have to be a detective to notice the way she looked at me when I entered the captain’s office, and I can’t say that I wasn’t inclined to do the same in return. But that got shot to shit the second I realized who she was.
Poppy Leighton. Sister to my colleague, Heath. Daughter to my idol, Fred.
Inexperienced.
Off limits.
And my responsibility.
“Okay, that’s my partner, Colin.” I pointed to where Colin sat, lounging in his chair with his feet up on his desk and a grin on his face. I’d punch the bastard later. “That douchebag over there, I believe you’ve met,” I said, dryly, pointing to Zanetti. “Stay away from him, for your own sake. And the break room is over there,” I said, pointing to the doorway in the far corner, “but if it’s coffee you’re after, everyone goes to The Beat.”
“If you think I’m going to be fetching you or anyone else coffee, get that little fantasy out of your head right now. I’m here to be a cop, not to be anyone’s gopher.”
I rolled my lips between my teeth to stifle my smile. Little firecracker thought to put me in my place, and it was adorable. “Got no intention of treating you as anything other than the rookie cop you are, so I won’t be expecting you to fetch me anything, but I will expect you to do as you’re told. Remember which one of us has put this city first for the past ten years and which one of us is just learning the ropes.”
I watched her narrow her hazel eyes, slightly darker than her father’s had been, and I could practically hear the internal argument she was having with herself. I couldn’t wait to see which side won. Though, judging by the way she clutched her procedural manual, something I hadn’t even seen since the academy, I could guess which way it was going to go.
“Fine,” she bit out.
I was strangely disappointed, though not surprised, when she gave in. I’d been looking forward to more of her attitude. What a shame. “Good.” I pointed to the empty desk that flanked mine and Colin’s, it’s previous occupant having just retired. “You can take that desk. Settle in, rookie, I’m about to show you the most exhilarating part of being a cop. It’s called paperwork.” I tossed her a wink and pulled out my chair, settling in to review one of the several open cases on my desk.
Aspen Falls was a small city. Big enough to warrant a multi-rank police department, even if each of those ranks covered a wider range of calls and duties than they would in a larger city department. That meant the case files on my desk consisted of everything from homicides to burglaries to assaults. There was practically no form of human atrocity that I hadn’t witnessed with my own eyes, or at least the aftermath, anyway. I’d seen the worst of it with little hope of ever seeing the best of it.
“So, Officer Leighton, following in daddy’s footsteps?” Colin drawled, sitting forward to lean his elbows on the desk as he peered at Poppy.
Poppy had sat, back straight and hands folded on the desk, like she was awaiting instruction. That was, until Colin posed his question. Now, her fingers curled in on each other, her knuckles white with the strain. “You got something against female cops, Detective Miner?”
My gaze flicked from her fingers to her face. I had only introduced Colin by his first name, but I guessed it shouldn’t surprise me she’d address him so formally. She probably already knew who everyone in the station was and using titles was a classic means of establishing boundaries. Between that and her physical demeanor, it was obvious she’d come prepared for a fight.
“Not a thing,” Colin assured her. “Was just a question.”
Poppy stared at him for a moment before answering. “My father was a great cop. So is my brother. I will be too.”
“Confident,” Colin muttered, impressed. He slapped a hand on his desk. “I like her,” he declared, shooting me a grin.
I shook my head. “Get to work.” The stack of files on Colin’s desk was nearly as towering as mine.
Colin and I worked in silence for fifteen minutes, reviewing and signing off on the files as we completed them or sorting them into another pile if they required follow-up. It was at the fifteen minute mark when Poppy’s fidgeting finally got on my nerves.
“What?” I sighed.
“Shouldn’t you be…I don’t know…teaching me something? Or am I just supposed to sit here and look pretty all day?”
I ignored Colin’s snort and leaned back in my chair, steepling my fingers. I regarded her as I would a suspect, my stare blank, giving nothing away. The truth was, her attitude excited me. It’d been a while since I’d felt that old but familiar jolt of adrenaline pumping through my system, something my job used to provide. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt that rush, and maybe that was a sign I’d become jaded, but I didn’t want to psychoanalyze myself at the moment. My eyes locked on her plump, pink lips, thinning by the moment in her irritation. “As pretty as you are, rookie, I don’t have anything to show you right now. So, just sit tight, and let us do our work.” I intentionally goaded her just to see the fire spark in her eyes, turning the hazel more green than gold. I waited with bated breath for her lips to part so her tongue could flay me open, but it didn’t come.
I was once again disappointed when she sank her teeth into her lip, stifling whatever lashing she would have given me if I weren’t her superior, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was part of the captain’s punishment. It would be just like the old codger to stick me with the type of woman who could both excite me and exasperate me, knowing that there was no way I could lay a finger on her, much as I wanted to.
The punch of lust that struck my gut intensified as Poppy chewed her lip hard enough to put a hole through it if she didn’t stop.
“Rookie,” I growled.
Her eyes flashed green again. “I’m well aware of my standing, Detective Brody, there’s no need to keep reminding me.”
I hadn’t meant the generic moniker as a dig, but I could see how she might take it as one. “Apologies, Officer Leighton.” I flashed her a grin. “And you can call me Vance. No need to be so formal with the Detective Brody stuff.”
Her eyes, narrowed in suspicion, assessed me. I kept my frame and expression relaxed, letting her ferret out my sincerity for herself. Seemingly finding what she was looking for, she let her own body relax slightly before mumbling something that may have been an apology but was too low and too garbled to decipher. I did, however, understand the slight nod of her head and the surprising flush in her cheeks.
She was sorry and she was also embarrassed.
“If you two are done flirtin’, we’ve got real police work to do,” Colin said, dropping what I knew would be the last file he’d review for the day into his outbox. He had as much patience for paperwork as I did. Less than zero.
“Shut up,” I muttered, glaring in response to the devilish twinkle that lit his eyes. I needn’t have bothered; Poppy’s death glare was far more incendiary than mine. I was surprised when Colin didn’t immediately burst into flames.
I scribbled my name on one last report, dropped
it in the appropriate bin on the far side of my desk, and stood. “Let’s go, Officer Leighton. We’ve got an interview to conduct, and you’re gonna need to review the case file before we do.”
“What’s the case?” she asked, standing.
I handed her the file, wishing I didn’t have to, and urged her to look. “You heard of Janus?”
“The street drug that’s been landing the kids of Aspen Falls in the morgue?” she uttered, scanning the documents in front of her and wincing when she landed on one of the crime scene photos.
“Yeah, well, that’s my case, and it’s getting bad enough that word around the station is it’s about to become a multi-agency clusterfuck. If we can’t sort it out ourselves before it blows up, every law enforcement agency in northern California will have their fingers in the pot.”
She finished reading and looked back to me. “Wouldn’t more help be beneficial to the case? More boots on the ground, more eyes and ears on the streets?”
“More fingers in the pot means more chances for fuck-ups, and these kids can’t afford any fuck-ups.”
“You don’t have much confidence in your colleagues, do you?”
I wasn’t touching that one with a ten-foot pole. “Bring the file, rookie. You can read the rest of it on the way.” With that, I snatched my keys off the desk and walked toward the door. Halfway across the bullpen I called out, “And when we’re done, Colin’s buying us lunch.”
“Aw, man,” Colin groaned.
4
Poppy
My stomach churned, the veggie omelet I’d had for breakfast burning like acid in my gut. I snapped the manila file folder closed for the hundredth time, unable to bear another word about the horrors a street drug named after the two-faced Roman god of duality was inflicting on the youth of my hometown. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to choke down the bile that threatened to rise like a tidal wave and burn its way out of my body.
