So, I was making do with what I had until I could make enough money to pay for something other than just bills.
Peter walked to the door and scratched while looking back at me with that sad, pitiful look he always got when he knew I didn’t want to do it. However, that look got to me, just like it always did.
I sighed and slipped on my house shoes, which I had to find first.
They were sparkly pink boots that came up to mid-calf with hot pink faux fur around the top edge. They were knockoff UGGs, but I loved them despite their fakeness.
They were comfortable, and they kept my feet warm.
That was all that mattered.
Grabbing a blanket off the back of the couch and wrapping it around me, I grabbed my keys off the counter and walked out the door, locking it behind me.
We went down the flight of steps slowly like we always did.
The complex itself wasn’t in the best of shape, and the stairs were often overlooked since most of the occupants used the elevator.
My dog, however, was scared of elevators, so we took the stairs.
As we made it out into the parking lot, I walked with him around the side of the building and waited while he walked to the field beyond the complex and did his business.
What I hadn’t expected, though, was somebody else to be out here doing the very same thing with their dog.
A black missile took off after Peter, and my heart lurched into my throat as I started to move forward to do, I don’t know what, but I knew it would have been good. Maybe fall on my face while my dog was eaten alive because he was a lover, not a fighter.
What stopped me, though, was a man’s deep, soothing voice.
He stood in shadows, leaning against the brick of the building as he watched our dogs play.
Play.
“She’s a good girl. She won’t hurt your dog,” the man said gently.
I relaxed, but only slightly as I took a wary step away from the man whom I couldn’t see and stepped into the halo of light above me.
The only thing I could see about the man was the way his eyes glittered from the lamp.
I stood there in awkward silence, not able to see anything but the small section that the light illuminated around me.
The man stayed silent, but somehow, I knew all of his attention was on me.
I could hear the dogs playing in the field, and I was suddenly exhausted. Utterly exhausted.
I must’ve slumped or something, because the man in the shadows asked, “Are you all right?”
I nodded, rolling my neck and said, “Yeah. I just haven’t gotten much sleep lately.”
“Why?” he asked.
I must’ve really been tired, otherwise I wouldn’t have answered him. That was really none of his business, was it?
Needless to say, I answered with, “There’s some loud commotion going on in the apartment beside me. Nearly every night. And at really odd hours. It’s interfering with my sleep.”
I don’t know why I was reluctant to tell the man that my neighbor was having extremely loud sex, but I was a prude like that sometimes.
And I’d been raised in an environment where that went on all the time. It was normal for me to hear sex through the night hours. My dad was part of an MC. It was normal to hear it. Like… really normal.
“Did you just move in?” he asked.
His voice slid over me like velvet, making me shiver with the deep, rough cadence of it.
“Uhh,” I said. “Yeah. I did. Well, like a month ago or so, I guess.”
He made a non-committal sound, and I didn’t know what else to do. Should I keep talking? Should I shut up?
Silence had always worked for me, so I kept my mouth shut for another two minutes before I decided that Peter had had enough playtime. It was nearly four in the morning, after all.
“Peter!” I called.
My Peter, he was a good boy. He loved his mommy, and I loved him.
Which was why it came as no surprise that he abandoned his new friend so fast. He didn’t spare the man a glance and came straight to me.
“You’re such a good boy,” I cooed.
“Wish I could get my dog to do that,” the man muttered, then louder called, “Mocha. Come!”
Mocha came alright, just not to him. She came to me.
That was when I saw she was a beautiful German Shepherd. “Oh, you’re a pretty girl, aren’t you?”
She preened at the attention, rubbing her face along the side of my leg while I scratched her behind the ear.
“See? No loyalty what-so-ever,” the man’s voice said.
From right in front of me.
Startled, I looked up to find him standing right in front of me. If I reached out my hand, I’d be within distance to wrap my hand around his neck. To pull him in close and feel his hard body against mine.
I, of course, didn’t. That would be radical, and Memphis Tennessee Conner wasn’t a radical. Memphis was a calm, cool, and collected girl. I didn’t do rash things. Especially not with strangers I met in the night.
No, sir-ree-Bob.
“Alright,” I said, stepping back. “Well, I’ve got to be at work in an hour, and it’ll take me that long to get ready and get there. It was nice meeting you.”
I moved to the door, but he moved faster.
He had it open and waiting for me to enter.
I couldn’t see him, though. The light in the hallway was out, too. The only thing lighting up the entire place was the emergency lights that were barely light enough to allow you to see your feet as you walked. Oh, and the neon red EXIT sign that was at the front and back exits.
I was surprised when I felt him following behind me up the stairs.
Then, to my horror, he stopped at the apartment next to mine and opened it, letting his dog inside.
“Sorry about the noise. I’ll have to keep it down from now on,” he muttered before disappearing into the darkened apartment.
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
How freakin’ embarrassing!
I’d been talking to the man who’d been responsible for keeping me up for weeks! And told him so!
Shit!
With nothing left to do, I walked into my own apartment and started getting ready for work.
I was a vain person, sad to say.
I hated looking bad.
My father’s club had scarred me for life with the women they’d brought around over the years of my childhood. Over time, I’d seen how awful those women looked as they left. Not horrible in the aspect of they were ugly or anything.
On the contrary, they were all beautiful.
However, after a night of Lord knows what with the club members, they always left looking exhausted.
I would never leave the house, nor a man’s bed, looking exhausted, just because I’d seen that with my own eyes, time after time, since I was sixteen.
I had a complex, and I would never go anywhere looking anything less than perfect. Even if I had to be late.
Which I nearly was, thirty minutes later.
I was backing out of my door just as the sun was rising.
The sun was poking just over the tree line at the back of our complex, shining into the open window at the end of my hall.
Enabling me to see the man and the woman who were stepping out of the apartment next to me.
She looked exactly like one of the many club hanger-on castoffs used to look. Used and exhausted. Mascara running. Hair a mess. Clothes wrinkled.
It disgusted me.
Not the man, per se, but the woman really made my stomach turn.
I mean, have some dignity!
I wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for the man’s smile I could now see.
He looked familiar.
Red hair and beard. Strong, square jaw. Green eyes. Large build. Muscular and bulky.
I could totally picture him in a kilt, throwing a tree. Or wer
e they called cabers?
He really seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t place him.
He was grinning at me, like he knew I was disgusted.
And the woman was no better. She was sneering at me.
Why, I don’t know. It wasn’t like I was coming to knock on his door or anything.
The man had his arms crossed, and was leaning casually against the wall as he waited for her to make her way fully outside.
It was more than obvious to me that he was telling the woman to leave.
Which was probably why she was sneering at me the way she was. She was embarrassed.
Hell, I would be too if I got kicked out by the man I’d been fucking all night.
Combining the woman’s sneer, and the man’s grin, I just couldn’t help it. Literally, I tried with everything I had to hold it in, but my rough upbringing reared its head, and good Memphis took a back seat to ‘Say what needs to be said and fuck the consequences’ Memphis.
“Woof-woof,” I said as I passed.
Her gasp of outrage and the man’s laughing bellow followed me out the door.
Chapter 2
There’s a 99.9% chance that I’m hungry.
-Downy
Downy
“Oh, God!” Foster laughed, wiping a tear away from his eye. “She really said ‘woof-woof’?”
God, the woman I’d met in the dark had been a stunner.
I hadn’t seen much last night when I’d come home to get some lunch, but this morning. My God, she was fucking beautiful. Then she’d said ‘woof-woof’ and I’d about died laughing.
I’d met Foster’s girl on the way home this morning, and I’d stopped to let her out before I went in. Then she’d come out of her door, and I’d been frozen.
I nodded. “Sure as fuck did. You’re really going to have to stop using my bed. That’s disgusting.”
Foster and Miller had stayed over one night when they’d moved to town and had never left. They’d been occupying my spare bedroom. The only redeeming feature about having them here was that they bought food and paid all of the rent.
I hadn’t paid rent since they’d both moved in. However, there really wasn’t enough room for them here.
Foster shrugged. “I’m sorry. You were supposed to be working last night. I needed a bed.”
“Well… then you could find your own apartment,” I offered dryly.
He glared. “I’ve been looking. I just can’t find one that allows pets.”
“You don’t have any pets,” I said dryly.
“That doesn’t mean I won’t have any later!”
I sighed and kicked back in my recliner. I’d do it in my bed, but the bed had who knows what on the sheets, and I wasn’t sleeping in it ‘til the fucker changed them.
“She’s familiar somehow. I haven’t fucked her… but I’ve met her somewhere,” I said tiredly.
I’d worked the night shift last night from twelve in the evening to eight in the morning for some rookie who’d gone home with the shits.
It wasn’t the first time I’d done that, but it wasn’t getting any easier, either.
I was thirty-four years old. I didn’t do late anymore. It was a rare occasion to be up past twelve. Let alone all night.
“I really am looking. There’s a two-bedroom opening up on the first floor next month. I just have to wait for them to get the fuck out,” Foster replied.
I sighed and squirmed until I found my nook, crossing my arms across my chest. “You know, you could go live with your brother.”
“My brother doesn’t like me,” Foster lied.
His brother loved him. What he didn’t like was that his brother and his brother’s wife were all up in his business. That’s what he didn’t like.
Trance’s wife, Viddy, was a sweet woman. She also loved her brothers-in-law and had been here no less than thirty times in the period they’d been living at my place.
“If you’ll help me fix up the place I bought last year, get it livable, you can live here,” I told him.
I don’t know why I’d said it. Nobody, besides Luke and my stepsister, knew about my place.
The conditions in which I’d gotten the house weren’t ideal, and it still hurt to think about why I had it.
“You have a fucking house?” Miller asked as he came out of the bathroom in a billow of steam and balmy air.
I didn’t open my eyes, too tired to bother with niceties. “Yeah. It’s not in the…” I stopped, searching for the right word. “Best of condition. It needs a new floor at least. And a little wiring work. Probably windows, too.”
“Well, what the fuck are you waiting for? I’m tired of sleeping on the freakin’ couch,” Miller grumbled.
I snorted. “Just as soon as I take this here nap. I’ll show you what I need to do, but I’ve got to go up to the college tonight to give them the experience. It’ll only be a short trip.”
By experience, I meant that I had to go tell little police officer wannabes what I did for a living. What my job consisted of. How much I liked it. All of that fun bullshit.
Each of us, and by us, I meant the SWAT team, took turns doing it for the Chief, who taught criminal justice classes at the local college.
“Tomorrow we have that meet and greet with the Longview SWAT at that deli Miller hates. What’s it called?” Foster asked as he started lacing up his boots.
“Don’t you dare leave this apartment until you change my sheets,” I said tiredly. “As for the conference, it’ll be tomorrow at Jason’s Deli at three in the afternoon.”
He grinned at me. “10-4. Where are the sheets at?”
I told him but never did end up getting to the bed. The chair was just too freakin’ comfortable for my exhausted body to handle.
***
“Why do y’all come talk to these kids again?” Miller asked as he walked up the steps to the college with me.
I shrugged. “Chief Rhodes has a career day each semester. He gets a volunteer from different departments to come in and talk to the class about our jobs.”
He nodded and let the door close behind us.
My eyes scanned the area, noting the lack of students who were there this late at night.
“I didn’t realize they held classes this late,” Miller wondered aloud.
I’d just made it to the door when I said, “They have to accommodate the masses. Sometimes this is the only time people can come. I took…”
I trailed off when my eyes connected to a familiar pair of blue ones. Ones that were attached to a body that still looked just as good as it did this morning when she’d left her apartment.
I smiled at her, and she winked at me before turning back to Chief Rhodes who was discussing reasonable doubt to the class.
“…is a type of proof required to prosecute a criminal case,” Chief Rhodes explained.
My neighbor was taking notes, and from what I could tell, coloring them with a shit ton of highlighter.
Didn’t she know that those were supposed to be for accent purposes and not highlighting the entire page?
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen. We’ll take a ten-minute break and meet back at nine-fifteen. Sound good?” the Chief asked.
They all nodded and stood, making their orderly way outside.
My attention, though, was still on my neighbor who was probably bleeding her yellow highlighter through three pages.
Her hair was just as perfect now as it’d been when I’d seen her leave this morning.
Her brown pencil skirt didn’t have a single wrinkle, and the white button-down shirt she’d tucked into it still looked just as impeccable.
The only thing different that I noticed was that her shoes were on the floor next to her chair.
She was different from my usual type.
She had an athletic build with Asian features. Maybe one parent had been half Asian or something, but she had just a hint of the eyes, coloring, and shaping of
the face.
Her hair was colored sort of a toffee brown, and her eyes were nearly the same color.
She still had glossy lips as she’d had this morning, and her makeup looked flawless.
I hadn’t seen her walk out with a large bag this morning. How’d she keep the makeup so fresh?
“Chief,” Miller said, offering his hand.
The Chief took his hand and shook it, looking over to me. “What’s going on?”
Miller laughed. “I came to see what the big fuss was about. Everyone’s been going on and on about how good of a teacher you are, and I wanted to sit in, see what you did to make the class so ‘awesome.’”
I laughed. He’d spoken with another rookie not too long ago who’d gone on and on about how much he ‘learned’ in his classes he’d taken with Chief Rhodes.
The rookie, or ass kisser, shortened to AK by Miller, Foster, and Bennett, had gone on for hours about our procedure not being what the Chief told him was how it was to be done.
He’d then gone on to tell me, who’d been a police officer for going on eight years now, how I was doing everything wrong.
I’d never in my life wanted to throat punch someone so much than I had the day I’d met Adrian Prescott.
He was a weasel.
Harmless, but a weasel nonetheless.
His daddy, though.
Now his daddy was the big wig.
He wrote all the checks for the city. Not the mayor, but the mayor’s advisor. He also had plans to run for the Senate and didn’t like me because I was a threat to him.
Ronnie Prescott was the man my mother had turned down to marry my father. He’d also been the man that my mother turned down a second time when she’d lost my father.
I, unfortunately, was the spitting image of my father.
And since my father wasn’t here to take it out on, he took it out on me.
Ronnie Prescott owned the property butting up to mine, as well.
We were enemies. Or, at least, he thought I was his enemy.
I’d never done anything to provoke the man in my life, but ever since I’d found out the property my mom’s house was on was mine, he’d made it a point to let me know that he, in no way, shape, or form, liked me.
Code 11- KPD SWAT Box Set Page 42
