Jessica thought about it a minute. “I don’t know. I guess I’ve really always done it, but never on purpose, ya know?”
Tiny nodded, understanding what she meant. “Do you want to sit down?” he asked, looking just a little bit shy again.
“Sure.”
Tiny sat down on the grass, and to his surprise and delight, she positioned herself between his legs and leaned back against his chest. After a moment’s hesitation he put his arms around her waist and brought his face down beside hers. They sat in silence for a few minutes, then Tiny asked her the question he’d been wanting to ask the whole day.
“What happened in Sacramento?”
Jessica was silent for a moment, then she leaned her head back against his shoulder, still watching the sun sink below the horizon. “I was on patrol with my FTO. It was only my second month on the force, and we got a call that there was some action happening over on Mack Road—”
“Mack Road?”
“It’s kind of like your Home Avenue here.” Jessica felt him nod, his hair brushing her cheek. “Anyway, we got to the call and we heard gunshots, but we couldn’t tell where they were coming from. My FTO got out and told me to call it in, so I did. He went off around this apartment building, and I wasn’t sure if I should try and follow him or not. I knew that according to my training I should, but he’d been really weird about me being female and all, so I didn’t want him to get pissed at me. But then I heard more gunshots, and I jumped out of the car and headed around the building. Well, there’s my FTO lying on the ground—he’d gotten shot in the leg. And the next thing I know, they’re shooting at me…”
Tiny could feel her shudder as she remembered the fear that had run through her. He hugged her a little tighter, and she continued her story.
“I radioed in that I had an officer down and that I needed backup code three. They got there within three minutes, the report says, but I was so freaked out that it seemed like forever.” She shook her head ruefully. “I’ve begun to wonder if I’m cut out for this field. Maybe I should have been a doctor or something like my dad wanted.”
“Jess, that’s a lot to deal with so early in your career, especially if you weren’t used to that kind of thing before.”
“Before?” Jessica asked, not sure what he meant.
She felt him shrug. “Well, I mean, by the time I was eighteen I’d been shot two times and knifed once, but being in a gang will do that to you.”
Jessica turned to look at him. “You know, I’d forgotten that you were in a gang before you were a police officer. It’s funny how there doesn’t seem to be life before police work.”
Tiny grinned. “Oh, I had a life before this. It was destined for really bad things, but I had one.”
“How did you come to join FORS?”
“Midnight,” Tiny said simply, but when he saw that she didn’t understand, he elaborated. “I was laid up, having been stabbed by a guy in my own gang, and Midnight came to see me. Eventually she talked me into coming to FORS. She was so different than other cops, and she was so nice to me.” He grinned sheepishly. “I have to admit, I had a major crush on her.”
“I’m not surprised,” Jessica said, her voice holding no malice at all.
Tiny looked at her for a long moment. “You aren’t the jealous type, are you.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I can be,” Jessica said honestly. “But I really like Midnight, and I can see how any guy would have a crush on her.”
Tiny tilted his head, as if measuring her up.
“What?” she said, not sure why he was staring at her.
Tiny shrugged, shaking his head. “Do you want to get some dinner?” he asked, avoiding her question. He’d been wondering why someone as great as her didn’t have a boyfriend, but he was too shy to ask.
Jessica nodded. “Okay.”
They went to TD Hayes, a restaurant on the beach. Jessica found that Tiny was a pretty good conversationalist once you got a couple of drinks in him. They talked about his family and how they were so happy that he had joined FORS and gotten a respectable life. She told him about her brothers and her father and how they all wanted her to become something other than a police officer. They even talked about Joe and Randy, Midnight and Rick.
“I’m just glad that Midnight’s going to be okay,” Jessica said. They had been discussing Midnight’s “accident.” She frowned. “What do you think happened?”
Tiny shook his head, his eyes hooded. “I don’t know, but I know if I find out, there’s a few of us who’re going to beat the guy to death.” His voice held so much loyalty that Jessica smiled.
“I just hope that Joe is right, that she’s going to bounce back from all this.”
“She will—she always does. It’s Joe’s judgement I’m worried about right now.”
“Why? Because of Randy?”
Tiny nodded.
“You know about the affair, I take it?” Again, Tiny nodded. “And you’re not sure what her intentions are now, right?”
“I just don’t like the way she did it,” Tiny said. “I mean, if she was unhappy with Joe, that’s one thing—but to turn around and sleep with another cop? Knowing Joe’d hear about it? That’s something else totally.”
Jessica looked at him for a long moment, thinking about what he’d said. “What if that wasn’t her real intention?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’ve talked to Randy, and she really loves Joe. She was just being stupid and trying to prove her independence when she walked out. She didn’t really intend on having an affair… It’s like the affair found her.”
“So what are you saying? That Dickerson wanted to sleep with her because Joe’s a fellow cop?” He shook his head. “That’s not how we usually operate.”
“I know, believe me,” Jessica said, her brows drawn together as her mind clicked away. “It just seems strange that she’d do something that she knew would get back to Joe, especially if she still loved him as much as she does.”
“Well, I think she wasn’t thinking, and she just did what she wanted and didn’t think about the consequences. And that’s why I’m still mad at her.”
Jessica looked at him for a long moment, still thinking about it, but eventually she shrugged it off.
The rest of the date proceeded casually. Eventually Tiny dropped Jessica off at Joe and Randy’s. He walked her to the door and stopped, unsure whether or not to kiss her goodnight. Jessica helped him out by reaching up to kiss him.
Tiny was once again surprised at her forthright actions, but pleased by them as well, because he had a feeling their relationship wouldn’t get very far if it weren’t for her willingness to take some of the first steps. Tiny hadn’t gotten used to the fact that he was trimmer now than he’d ever been. His weight and height had always made him feel self-conscious—although it had come in handy in the gang, it made talking to girls, and subsequently women, near impossible. He needed someone like Jess to make it easier for him. Once he was aware she was open to him, he could take it from there.
And he did. His kiss was much more relaxed this time, his hand coming up to touch her face gently, his other holding her waist. Jessica felt a jolt of excitement when he touched her. His hand was smooth on her skin, not like she had expected it to be at all. When he moved that hand to her hair, holding the base of her neck, his lips more ardent on hers, she moved in close to his body, reaching into his jacket to slide her hands up his sides to his back. She felt the shoulder holster that he wore, and for some reason that excited her just a little bit more. It was like being reminded that he was a police officer, just like her, made them more right for each other.
When their lips finally parted, Tiny looked down at her, his eyes widening melodramatically. “I guess you were holding back last night, huh?”
“You should talk,” Jessica admonished.
Tiny shrugged, looking a little abashed. “Making moves on women is not my strong suit.” He sounded uncomfortable
and averted his eyes.
“Hey!” Jessica said, ducking under his gaze—not hard to do, since he was over half a foot taller than her. “That’s okay with me. A man who’s willing to let me make the first move is so much better than a guy who climbs all over me, waiting for me to tell him to stop.”
“Really?” Tiny said, his voice full of wonder—he sounded very young. “I always thought it made me seem… chicken.”
“More like a gentleman,” Jessica said confidently.
“No one’s ever accused me of that before.” Tiny grinned. “Joe, yes—me, no.”
“Consider yourself accused, then.” Jessica stood on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the lips.
Tiny left a little while later, and Jessica went into the house, using the key Joe had given her, after taking a few minutes to bring her heart rate down long enough to remember the access code. She went to her room—Joe and Randy had long since gone to bed—and after undressing and putting on a night shirt, she lay in bed thinking about Tiny. It took her a long time to fall asleep.
Chapter 3
The next morning, halfway into the office, Joe realized he hadn’t called Midnight about the chief’s heart attack and promptly dialed her number. There was no answer. He tried again, thinking he might have dialed wrong. As a last resort he tried her car phone. She answered on the second ring.
“’Lo.”
Joe could hear the radio in the background. Midnight didn’t go anywhere without some type of music on—anyone who knew her knew that.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“Good morning, Joseph. I’m just fine, and how are you?” Midnight said, upbeat. Well, Joe thought, at least this was a change from yesterday. “Spider knew I was coming in. I talked to him yesterday. Don’t you check your voicemail?” she asked.
“Sue me,” Joe said lightly. “I called because I forgot to tell yo—”
“The chief had a heart attack, I know.”
“How? Who?” Joe stammered.
“I got a call from the assistant chief yesterday. He wants to have a meeting.”
“What for?” Joe asked suspiciously.
“Got me,” Midnight said, shrugging. “Maybe he just wants to give us the chief’s status and his game plan for the next couple of months, or something.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“You are such a pessimist, you know that? I don’t meet with him till eleven, so I’ll be in when you get there. Maybe you can bring me up to speed.”
“You got it,” Joe said, smiling. He was happy that his partner was back, at least in some way.
They hung up, and Joe looked over at Randy. “Hopeless.”
“No worse than you,” Randy said, and Jessica laughed from the backseat.
Joe glanced up at her in the rearview mirror. “You be quiet back there, or I’ll start drillin’ you on your date last night.”
Jessica quieted immediately, giving him a mock salute. Randy had already gotten the details that morning while Joe showered. She knew Joe was happy about the match between Tiny and Jessica—he thought they’d make a pretty good couple. Jessica was the right amount of outgoing for Tiny without being too much for him, and Tiny would be a nice, stable but strong person for Jessica. He knew Tiny could hold his own once he was comfortable with a woman; he didn’t doubt that he could woo Jessica if he wanted to. It was Joe’s intention to find out if Tiny was so disposed.
Midnight hung up her cell phone with a grin, looking over at Carrie. She had offered her mother a ride home, since she didn’t expect to be going back for a while. Carrie had agreed, but she had also told her she didn’t think it was a good idea for Midnight to go in so soon. Midnight had shrugged. “I really don’t have a lot of choices. If the assistant chief wants to see me, I gotta go in.”
Her cell went off, beeping incessantly. She pulled it off her belt, and when she saw the numbers in the message she started to grin. A few minutes later she got another text. Her grin got wider. When the third text arrived and a fourth right after it, she started to laugh out loud. Carrie, who had been thinking her daughter must be important to receive so many messages on her first day back, looked over at her.
“What is it?” she asked as the fifth text went off.
“It’s my crew,” Midnight said, grinning. “They’re welcoming me back to work.”
Carrie looked perplexed. “How?”
They came to a stop in traffic, and Midnight held up the phone. “See, they’re putting in a ten, a space, and then a ten-eight. I’m the first ten, and ten-eight means ‘on duty.’”
“So what are the other two numbers?” Carrie asked, noticing as Midnight scrolled through the texts that they all had two-digit numbers following each “10 10 8.”
“That’s their radio call numbers.” Midnight looked at her mother and realized Carrie had no idea what she was saying. “A radio call number is a two-digit number that identifies the officer for the dispatcher to call back to. I’m Lincoln ten. The Lincoln is the phonetic word for ‘L,’ which identifies me as a lieutenant. The ten is my identifier number—probably the tenth lieutenant in the department, for all I know. Anyway, Joe is Sam twenty-two, standing for sergeant.” She looked at Carrie again. “Does that make any sense?”
“Actually, yes, it does. You’re a lieutenant?” Carrie hadn’t realized her daughter had a rank.
“Yeah.” Midnight shrugged as she switched her cell over to vibrate so she wouldn’t have to hear the beeps. She clipped it to her belt so she’d feel it if it went off again, which it did. “I’m on the captain’s list, but they’re not promoting anyone right now.” What she didn’t tell her mother was that she was number one on the list, much to the mortification of many men in the department.
“Will I ever know everything about you?” Carrie asked, sighing.
“Probably not,” Midnight said, with just a little bit of an edge. She was enjoying her time with her mother, but her heart wouldn’t let her totally forget her lost childhood, or what had happened to Thomas because of their neglect. Jack had avoided the hospital as much as possible, showing up mostly just to pick his wife up. He couldn’t handle the guilt seeing his daughter caused. His sponsor had told him that the best thing would be to avoid the conflict if he thought it might make him slip up. So that’s what Jack Chevalier did. Carrie didn’t like it, but she understood that Jack had to choose his own way to do things, and pushing him to see Midnight wouldn’t be the best for any of them. So Carrie made the most of her time with her daughter, trying constantly to understand the complex woman she had become.
Midnight dropped Carrie off at her and Jack’s home. It was a different house than the one Midnight had lived in as a teenager. It looked nice, and clean. Midnight imagined that her father was the one who kept up the yard. She had long since remembered how compulsive he had been about that type of thing when she was little. They had spent almost every other weekend in the yard, weeding, fertilizing, watering, and the rest. Midnight had remembered a lot of things from her childhood since she and Carrie had become uneasy friends again. Many times she’d ask Carrie about this or that, and Carrie would be amazed at Midnight’s memory.
Now, as Midnight drove away, she looked up into her rearview mirror. Her mother stood at the curb, waving. It was strange, the twists that fate could take. Here she was, thirty years old, and she was finally getting to know her mother. But then the pain started, the stab in her heart that reminded her that her husband and daughter were in England and she had no idea when she’d see either of them. She planned to call the Debenshires that day to try and talk to Robert, to see if he knew when Mikeyla would be coming home. She had no desire whatsoever to talk to Rick. Whenever she thought about him her blood ran hot and cold. She missed him like crazy, but the pain was subsiding little by little each day. She didn’t want to talk to him and have it all come back again.
Reaching over, Midnight popped a CD into her stereo—No Doubt. She’d bought the CD for one song, unable to
find it as a single, but had ended up liking a lot of the tracks on it. But the one that was playing now, as she turned up the volume, was the song she had liked from the first time she’d heard it a month before. It was called “Don’t Speak,” and she felt it was very appropriate for her life at the moment. She always liked songs better if they meant something to her. She sang along, feeling every word.
As the music faded away, Midnight glanced down at her left hand on the steering wheel. It was bare. Serves him right, she thought as she drove on toward the office. She was comforted by the feeling of her cell as it vibrated over and over—she knew it was her other family welcoming her home, and that made her feel really good.
Joe walked into Midnight’s office a half hour later. Randy and Jessica were with him, and both stood hesitantly at the door. Midnight glanced up, smiling at Jessica as she stood and walked around her desk. “I heard you were here. How are you?” She extended her hand to the other woman.
“I’m fine, Midnight,” Jessica said, returning Midnight’s smile with a warm one of her own.
“She’s better than fine,” Randy put in, grinning at Joe.
Midnight glanced at her, raising an eyebrow as she looked back over to Jessica. “What’s going on?”
Jessica grinned. “Oh, nothing really…”
“She’s seeing Tiny,” Joe said.
Midnight looked surprised. “Really?” she said, a wide smile on her face. She looked Jessica over, as if trying to size her up, then nodded approvingly and glanced over her shoulder at Joe. “Perfect choice, huh?” Joe nodded in agreement. She looked over at Randy. “And how’s the academy going?”
“Good,” Randy said simply.
“So why aren’t you there?” Midnight asked, sounding a little bit like a mother.
Randy looked uncomfortable as she glanced over at Joe.
“That’s, uh, somethin’ I was going to talk to you about,” Joe said, looking a little uncomfortable himself. “Randy, why don’t you two go and check out those reports we requested yesterday?”
Betrayals Stand (MidKnight Blue Book 5) Page 7
