Book'em Sadie (Iron Badges #1)

by Danielle Norman

  Most days, I spent part of my day patrolling schools for cocky assholes who thought they were too important to slow down for buses or school zones. The rest of the day, I patrolled the streets looking for speeders. I learned pretty fast who had the best coffee—it was the Wawa, by the way.

  That was where I was headed when the distinct sounds of metal hitting metal, of tires squealing across asphalt, and of brake pads grinding the rotors drowned out the sound of my engine. I grimaced and turned my bike toward the sound. Cars were already backing up and making way for the emergency responders who had somehow beat me to the scene. Several drivers, who’d clearly forgotten they weren’t supposed to leave the scene of an accident, made U-turns after they came to the realization that this was going to delay their morning. When I got close to the scene, I knew it wasn’t going to just delay my morning—it was going to fuck my afternoon as well, so I called in to dispatch.

  “Thirteen twenty-two.”

  “Thirteen twenty-two, go ahead.”

  “Copy, signal four, multiple vehicles with road blockage and probable injury with fatalities, location Rollins and Orange, directly in front of Florida Hospital. Need assistance with traffic control, send FD with rescue. Standby for the twenty-eights involved and further information on any injuries.”

  “Orange County thirteen twenty-two, copy all, FD is in route. Orange County all units, copy signal four, Rollins and Orange, all units responding please report back.”

  I pulled to the shoulder and quickly removed my helmet before moving to the ambulance that was on its side.

  The paramedic was standing at the back of his truck waiting for me. “That guy”—he gestured to a blue Mercedes that looked as if it had lost a game of Chicken with a light pole—“had been tailing us for the last few blocks and running lights with us,” he shouted at me, as if I needed to worry about an arrest at this very moment on top of everything else.

  “Got it. Did anyone on your team sustain any injuries? Were you incoming or outgoing from the hospital?”

  The back doors to the ambulance were wide open, and I peeked in. The inside was a chaos of medical supplies and equipment, but thank god whoever was on the stretcher had been strapped down and locked in. If not, he probably would have been far worse off than he had been when he’d been loaded into the ambulance. The two paramedics were working to try to free the gurney, so I moved to the next vehicle, which was a blue Mercedes. The driver was still inside, and every window was shattered. Even though I was wearing heavy-duty riding gloves already, I slid a black pierce-proof glove overtop.

  I reached through the window and unlocked the door so I could open it before squatting to get a good look at the driver. He was unconscious, and the rattling sound coming from his lungs was something I’d heard close to twenty times before. It was created by blood and air in the lungs and was generally preceded by slight body reflexes. Not all sweet and clean like they showed in the movies—no, this was real life, and that was the sound of a man dying. “Hey, I need some help over here!”

  A hand touched my shoulder a second before a soothing male voice said, “I have it from here. My staff is helping with injuries, so you do what else you have to do.”

  “Thank you.” I looked up into piercing blue eyes and then dropped my attention to his scrubs and white lab coat. Embroidered in yellow thread on the left side was the name Dr. Ryan Montgomery. “Thank you.” I took a step back and let him get to work as I reassessed the situation. Two other officers had pulled up and were working to reroute traffic. Orange County Fire Department was on scene, and they were helping extricate people from the cars and transport them into the hospital. All in all, there were five cars and one ambulance involved in the accident, and I already had a general idea of what had happened, I just needed to confirm it.

  Pulling my pad of paper and pen out of my front pocket, I walked over to the paramedic driver I’d spoken to when I’d arrived on scene. “First, are you okay and was your patient okay?”

  “We’re fine, just shaken.”

  “What were you saying about the driver?”

  “The guy in the blue Mercedes started tailgating me a few blocks back. When I slowed through intersections, he’d inch close and slide through the light on my tail. I was just getting ready to call him in, when that car”—he pointed toward a red Camry—“failed to yield the right of way. I don’t know if the driver just didn’t see me or what, but he ended up tagging the other car and sent him spinning. That car”—he pointed to another one—“came toward me and swerved but wasn’t fast enough and ended up clipping my front end, which sent me spinning. I hit the curb and we toppled.”

  I let out a huff and shook my head. People really were idiots sometimes. “I’m sorry you have to deal with all of this, so I’ll try to be quick and get you the copy of the report. If you don’t want to wait for it, I can have a copy sent over for you.”

  “I’ll wait. Thanks for the offer, though.”

  “Any time. I’m going to need to get your driver’s license info.” He handed it to me, and I jotted it down along with his phone number before handing it back to him.

  As I wrote up the incident, I kept glancing over at the blue car. I needed to get the driver’s information, but I was afraid that we were going to notify his next of kin. It was a call no one wanted to make, even though it had to be done. Ryan Montgomery and a few nurses were still there, and they had gotten the driver out of the car, but none of them were actively working on him. The doctor lifted his arm to check his watch and then wrote something down on a piece of paper that he had pulled from his pocket. As I approached, someone draped a white cloth over the man they’d just called time of death for, and Dr. Montgomery sat back on his heels. The man looked pale and exhausted, which I could understand.

  “Doctor Montgomery, I’m sorry to bother you, are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. It doesn’t matter how many times I lose someone, it never gets easier and car accidents get to me.”

  I also understood that. No matter how many times we saw some messed-up shit, things still got to us.

  “I think we all have that one situation that’s hard to navigate.” There was a short pause and then I asked, “Would you mind if I checked to see if he has ID on him?”

  I almost hated to ask, because Dr. Montgomery looked a little lost in his own world, but I didn’t want to be here any longer than I needed to be.

  “No, let me help you.” He bent and reached under the man to slide his wallet free from his back pocket. “Here you go, Officer . . .”

  “Actually, it’s Deputy”—I pointed to my star-shaped badge—“Sadie Lazar. Thank you, one of the detectives will be in to talk with you shortly since there was a fatality.”

  “No problem. I should get back inside. I’m sure the ER is going to be crazy today.”

  “Thanks again.” I headed off, sweat dotting my temples as the morning sun beat down on me. I moved on to the next non-severe injury, taking down everyone’s information and asking questions as it got hotter and hotter outside.

  By the time I had everything I needed to process my reports and the scene had been cleared, my stomach was growling. I walked over to my bike and grabbed several bobby pins. I kept my hair braided so it didn’t tangle while I rode, but I needed it up and off my neck.

  “Hey, I noticed that you were still out here. I brought you some sustenance.” I turned around and was face-to-face with Dr. Blue Eyes, who was holding out two bottles of water and a white paper bag. I hadn’t taken time earlier to admire him, but he truly was good looking, he reminded me of… I couldn’t remember the guy’s name, Wonder Woman was in love with him, shit. God, his mesmerizing blue eyes and his mouth that looked as if it was dying to break into a grin. He had the kind of lips that if I ever tasted them, that’s what I’d want for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

  “Take it, it’s not going to bite, it’s just a fruit salad. It will help rehydrate you.”

  I eyed the thing, shocked an
d a bit stunned that he’d even bothered to check on me, let alone bring me something. “Thank you.”

  “You’re not used to anyone doing nice things for you, are you?”

  “My dad and stepmom do all the time.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded, finally accepting the water and snack.

  “Well, now you have another person.”

  “Thanks Doctor . . .” Crap. What was his name? He didn’t have his coat on any longer.

  “Montgomery.”

  “Right. Montgomery, Ryan Montgomery.”

  “And you’re Deputy Sadie Lazar.” I tapped my badge where his eyes were focused. “Keep drinking that water, Deputy Lazar. If you need more, I’m right inside.” Hot doctor took a few steps backward.

  “I’m good. Two should be just fine.”

  “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

  “Yep, inside.” I couldn’t hold back my smile. “Thanks again.” Dr. Montgomery kept walking backward. “Watch your step,” I warned just before he hit the curb. I wanted to laugh but damnit all to hell, the man was cute. After Hottie McDoctorson had finally made his way back indoors, I slowly drank one of the bottles before getting back to work. If people wondered what cops did all day, this was my answer. We did this. We cleaned up messes caused by idiots and occasionally got to talk to incredibly hot doctors.

  “Hey, chickie.” I waved to Bridget, who was tapping her pen against her desk in irritation.

  “Hey! Today’s my lucky day. Harley just came in as well.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Probably still back in evidence. It takes forever to get stuff checked in.”

  “Thanks, I’ll be back by before I leave.” I headed off and caught Harley just as she was leaving the locker. “Bridget said you were here, log anything interesting?” I gave a chin nod back toward the evidence locker where she had just left.

  “Same old, same old, I can’t wait for an opening in motors, I just want out of the squad car.”

  “I hear you. But I learned real fast that we all have shitty jobs, it’s just deciding which shit you prefer to do for the rest of your life.”

  “I prefer not having assholes in the back of my squad car tell me all the ways they want to fuck a pretty thing like me.” Harley rolled her eyes, at five foot nine, she could be intimidating to most men. But when she squinted her almost black eyes, she gave off an evil vibe that scared even me, and she was one of my best friends. “What was that call about this morning?”

  “Which one? The one where Colton needed female assistance or the car accident?”

  “Oh, shit, you’ve had quite a morning.”

  “Tell me about it, follow me while I enter some stuff, there was a fatality at the scene.”

  “Yuck.” I proceeded to tell Harley about Wanda and Pammy and then about the accident. “Hold up, Lazar, what aren’t you telling me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know you. You . . . you make this clicking sound with your tongue when you’re holding something back, like you have to keep your mouth doing something or you might spill. Spill.”

  “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

  “There, you’re doing it again.” Harley pointed at me. “What happened with the prostitutes?”

  “Nothing, Colton and Dan actually arrested them.”

  “Okay, what about the accident? What happened there that you aren’t telling me?”

  “You need to give up the entire goal of getting on motors and go for detective.”

  “Nice try. Tell me what you’re holding back.”

  “Nothing, really. But I did run into the most gorgeous doctor I’d ever laid eyes on.”

  “Laid, you said laid.” Harley wiggled her brows.

  “Shut up or I’m not telling you anything.” I punched her arm.

  “Okay.” She mimed zipping her lips.

  “It was a bad situation all around, but he had to get back inside the hospital and I had to finish getting statements and wait for investigators to get there. It had been hours, I was dying of heat, and he brought me water and a fruit salad.”

  “Did he give you his banana?”

  “That’s it.”

  “Okay, okay, did you at least get his number?”

  “No. I was on a call, official duty.”

  “How about his name? Come on, give me something.”

  This was where I needed to tread lightly, Harley was the kind to track him down. “Ryan Something or other. I can’t remember.”

  Harley eyed me, she was trying to detect whether I was telling the truth or not. I was consciously trying to avoid clicking my tongue. “No, just Doctor Ryan, that might be his last name.”

  “Surrrre.”

  I turned so she couldn’t see my face, because I was getting flushed and with my pale complexion there was no covering a blush. “I have to get these forms finished for legal since odds are, I’ll end up being called in for a deposition. I swear, a big part of our job is answering questions for insurance companies so that they can try and get out of paying. Wanna help?”

  She held her hands up and quickstepped away from my desk. “I’m out of here. I’ll see you at Bridget’s tomorrow night.” She paused to give me a weird look when I twitched my nose. “What are you doing?”

  “Twitching my nose, you know, like on Bewitched. I was hoping all this shit would be done and I would be home and in my bed.”

  “Sadie, Sadie, Sadie, how many times do I have to tell you? You’re a bitch not a witch.” Harley stuck out her tongue and raced out of the room before I could say anything in return…not that I would get in the last word. Harley was one of those people who always had a smart-ass comeback on the tip of her tongue.

  I got back to filling out my forms so that I could head home.

  It was just after five when I pulled my bike into the tiny garage, and almost as soon as I cut the engine, Wasabi started barking. He sounded like a Great Dane, but in all truth, he was just over three pounds. I closed my garage door and then walked into my house. He was waiting right inside the door, ready to lunge at me and bark until I picked him up. “Wasabi, you are so fucking fierce.” I kissed the poodle that forgot to grow. “I can see that Miss Ellie came today and groomed you.” Since Wasabi was the only thing I had to spoil, I allowed his mobile groomer to do whatever she wanted, and she enhanced his badassness by giving him a Fu Manchu beard and a Mohawk.

  “I need a shower, but then we’ll eat.” I set him down, and he followed me to my bathroom and waited. Then the two of us had dinner and watched South Park as the adrenaline from the day slowly eased. I was watching the second episode, and when Cartman yawned, suddenly I was yawning. Why was it that yawns were psychological and had nothing to do with being tired? I could totally be well rested and see someone yawn and then, the next thing I knew, I was yawning. Or I could be cuddled up with my dog, minding my own fucking business and not yawning until some cartoon yawns and then boom I was yawning.

  Turning off the television, I scooped up Wasabi and headed to bed. Tomorrow was my volunteer day at Kidz Klub, so it was undoubtedly going to be a long one.

  2

  Ryan

  I was standing outside a curtained room when I felt it. If I had lived in California, I would have said it was an earthquake, but this was Florida. Last I looked, our weather was clear and we had no hurricanes in the forecast. So, like the rest of the staff, I went on alert because we all knew the world had changed in the last few years. Homegrown terrorism was becoming commonplace and mass shootings were a heartbreaking reality.

  “Need all available help outside, quick,” a nurse called. “Multi-car accident on Rollins, serious injuries.”

  I tried to erase my mind of the memories, the ones that still haunted me when I heard the words car accident. It didn’t matter how many people were wheeled through those doors of the ER, when I heard them, my heart raced for the briefest of moments.

&n
bsp; “Dr. Montgomery, are you ready?” I turned to face Polly as she held out a wad of latex gloves and several boxes of gauze.

  I rolled my neck side to side as if I were an athlete warming up, ready to compete, the adrenaline flowing full force. With Polly by my side, I raced out the side door and into the bright morning sun. It was chaos—an ambulance was overturned, several cars were on the sidewalk, and a blue Mercedes was practically split in half.

  That’s when I saw the deputy, a woman, a pretty female, the first woman I’d truly noticed since my wife had died. I had no clue what it was about her, but I had a hard time taking my eyes off her. And all day, I kept glancing out the ER doors and checking on her.

  Let it go, Ryan, you have no time for a relationship, they are work. Between being a single father and an ER doctor there aren’t enough hours in the day.

  Unfortunately, my brain and body were not on the same page, because when I grabbed my lunch, I picked up something for Deputy Lazar as well.

  I wanted to keep talking with her, but I needed to get back inside, it had been hectic for the rest of my shift.

  I opened my closet, which the hospital called an office, and tossed in my lab coat and scrubs. Then I tugged on my regular clothes, having to lean against my desk simply because there was barely enough room to move, it just happened to be large enough for a desk, not a standard-size office desk either, more like a student’s desk. But, hey, there was a bathroom, which was the only thing halfway decent about the closet. I guess they realized that we needed the shower since having to hose off vomit, guts, and even shit was an almost daily occurrence.

  “Ryan, how have you been?” I tensed at the sound of his voice but finished locking my office door before I turned. “By your reaction I can tell that you are still no happier to see me now than you were back then.”