Once a Lawman. Lisa Childs
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to Chad’s handsome face. Along with those gold-flecked green eyes, he had chiseled features. She sighed, disgusted that such good looks were wasted on a man with such an uptight personality. To silently challenge his claim, she raised a brow.
“You’re in a police department,” he reminded her.
“But someone pointed out last week how dangerous this area is at night.”
“Outside,” he explained. “On the streets. You’re safe in here.”
The memory of the two of them in the elevator—her body pressed against his long, lean frame—passed through her mind. She shook her head. She wasn’t safe in here—not with him. But she left her briefcase beside her chair and turned to leave the room, which had already emptied. He followed her as she walked down the hall to the elevators.
“You were late again,” he remarked disapprovingly.
“I was in the building.”
“Flirting with the chief again?”
She ignored his snarky comment, too filled with triumph and pride to be offended. “I was signing up the Lakewood PD as a client.”
Michalski grimaced with disgust. “I really thought the chief was immune to a woman’s charms.”
“I’m sure he is,” she agreed. “But, as I mentioned before, I wasn’t flirting. I offered the best service available. The fastest T1 line, reliable, accessible—”
He chuckled. “The chief gave you the account. You can stop selling now.”
“No, I can’t.” She had too many bills at home, too many responsibilities. “Not in this business.” She quickened her pace to join the rest of the class by the elevators; she did not want to wind up alone with Chad again.
“Don’t you ever slow down?” he asked as he lengthened his stride to match hers. Even in those ridiculously high heels, the woman moved as quickly as she talked. And as she drove. He sighed. “I guess I know the answer to that.” She wasn’t ever going to slow down, no matter what she learned in the class.
“Lieutenant, are you going to be our guide?” Amy asked as she batted her lashes at Chad.
Her flirting didn’t affect him like Tessa’s. Hell, Tessa got under his skin even when she wasn’t flirting. Like now, when she was all but ignoring him.
But wearing a bright red suit, with her blond hair swinging around her shoulders, she was impossible to ignore. When the elevator arrived, he stepped back, allowing the members of his group to file in first. Memories of the last time he’d shared an elevator with Tessa flashed through his mind, but he pushed them away and stepped inside the crowded car.
His group consisted of the overly enthusiastic college girl, an older Neighborhood Watch captain, Tessa and the granddaughter of the owner of the Lighthouse Bar and Grille. The Lighthouse was where most of the police department hung out before and after shifts for great food and conversation with people who actually understood the job.
During the tour, he did his best to keep his mind off Tessa. He focused instead on explaining the workings of the department, showing the 911-command room, the locker room, the gym and the roll-call room. When he brought them to the office floor, which was all but deserted this late in the evening, he stepped back. “Do you want to handle this area, Ms. Howard? You’ve been up here a few times.”
Her blue eyes narrowed in a glare. “That’s fine. I’m sure everyone—” she glanced at Amy “—would rather listen to you.”
“Lieutenant, do you have an office up here?” Amy asked. “I’d love to see where you work when you’re not out in your patrol car.”
“I just use a desk in the roll-call room, which you already saw,” Chad replied, with none of the charm Paddy had probably intended his tour guides to exhibit. But the girl’s attention unsettled Chad. While he wasn’t old enough to be her father, he felt old in comparison to her.
She was still in college although she acted younger than most of the kids he taught in the police academy at Lakewood U. She brought up memories of his crazy college days—playing hockey, frat parties, staying up all night to finish papers that should have been done earlier and would have been done earlier if he hadn’t spent all his time with Luanne. Too bad he hadn’t had more free time…
Fighting against the pressure building in his chest, he drew in a deep breath. He didn’t know why Amy had made him think of his late wife—the young girl was nothing like Luanne. Strangely, Tessa reminded him the most of Luanne, even though the two women looked nothing alike.
“Can we go back down to the weight room?” Amy asked, sticking close as he continued to show his group around the office floor. “You must use that room a lot, Lieutenant.”
Someone snorted over the girl’s flirting, probably Tessa. The snort turned into a chuckle as he quickened his step to gain some distance from the girl.
“We need to get back to the conference room now,” he said, herding the group toward the elevator. “Lieutenant O’Donnell is going to show some tapes,” he said as they waited for the car, “that’ll give you some insight into what a day in the life of an officer is like. Then you’ll have some idea of what to expect on your ride-along.”
As the elevator dinged and its doors slid open, Chad expelled a small breath of relief. He was so not tour-guide material. He owed Paddy for roping him into the job.
“Can I do my ride-along with you?” Amy asked, squeezing next to him in the elevator.
“Uh, Lieutenant O’Donnell hands out the assignments, so it’s not up to me.”
“Do we have to do the ride-along?” Tessa asked, speaking up from the other side of the elevator, which was probably as far from him as she’d been able to get without taking the stairs.
“For voluntary members of the academy, it’s voluntary,” he said and swallowed a chuckle over the anger that flashed through her blue eyes.
“Then can we put in a request for who we don’t want to do our ride-along with?” she asked with a sassy smile.
“You can try.” He fully intended to tell Paddy that Tessa was the last citizen he’d like to be paired with. As Amy shifted closer, he made a mental note to add her as the second to last.
TRY? TESSA INTENDED to get out of the ride-along entirely. She hadn’t agreed to that when she had agreed to enroll in the CPA.
“Are you mad at me?” Amy asked her as they took their seats in the conference room.
“What?”
“For flirting with Lieutenant Michalski,” she explained. “Are you and he…”
“No,” Tessa assured her. “Not at all.”
“Good.”
“So you decided he wasn’t too old for you after all?” Tessa said, intending her comment as teasing, but couldn’t help that a little bitterness had crept into her voice. But she wasn’t jealous—not at all.
Amy shrugged. “He is, but he sure is yummy. And I know there’s something going on with Sergeant Terlecki and Erin—”
“No, there isn’t,” Erin Powell denied hotly as she slid into the chair on the other side of Tessa. “There’s nothing going on between me and the sergeant.”
“Sure,” Amy humored her.
The girl obviously didn’t read the Chronicle, or she would have realized the only thing going on between Terlecki and Erin was mutual hatred. Yet the reporter had been part of his group for the tour…
Tessa turned and studied the other woman. “What is that old saying about love and hate?”
Erin shook her head and sighed. “Not you, too.” She leaned closer and whispered. “Not