Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry, but what?” I asked, looking at Quaid like he’d lost his mind.
“I’m staying here tonight,” he repeated. “Unless you want to come to my place.”
I tilted my head up to look at him. “Where is your place?”
I may have asked the question as if I was considering it, but I didn’t plan on actually going there. It was to buy me time to figure out a way to get out of this.
I could not have this sexy beast of a man in my apartment while I slept. I just couldn’t.
I’d die of sexual overload.
“It’s a new build in the Melissa area.” He expounded, “I have one set of plates. Four forks. Four spoons. A steak knife. A sectional. One bed, and a really fuckin’ awesome shower.”
“You almost had me with the shower,” I lied. “But I’m not sharing a bed with you.”
“There’s the couch,” he offered.
I thought about it long and hard before answering.
Honestly, he wasn’t going to let me stay here by myself. I could read that by the set of his shoulders, and the way he crossed his arms over his chest, as if he was readying for a fight.
“I want to stay here tonight and think about how this is going to work logistically.” I paused and really looked at him. “You really think he’s going to try again?”
Maybe if I bought myself time, I could figure out a way to have him under the same roof as me without throwing myself at him.
“Yes,” he confirmed with very little hesitation. “I think that he’s going to try again. And the bad thing is, I think you need to keep your dating profiles up. Keep accepting dates… but string it along. Get to know them first. Don’t accept any actual dates, though. Maybe as you get to know them the guy we’re looking for will show his hands, use some of the same mannerisms as he did before when you were talking to him. You can’t really change your personality, and that sounds like he’s allowing it to bleed into his conversations with these girls.”
My shoulders drooped. “You can have the bed.”
“I will not sleep in the bed while you sleep out here. That’s non-negotiable.” He dismissed my offer.
“I really meant something more along the lines of, we’ll both sleep in the bedroom but separately. I have a pullout oversized chair in there. It’s actually pretty comfy.” I looked at him. “Is that okay?”
“Perfectly,” he agreed. “I don’t have to work tomorrow. You don’t either, correct?”
“No.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “But I have an online class I have to take around eleven. I could skip it, but it’s the review before the test on Friday.”
“Then that works.” He braced his feet apart, as if ready to hit me with another surprising verbal blow. “I have to go back to work for three more hours. Go get changed, you’re doing a ride along with me.”
So that was how I found myself in the front seat of Quaid’s police cruiser, riding along with him, while he did his job.
At first it was a little boring.
We started out driving around the area.
“Tell me. Is this what you do all day?” I asked.
“Nope,” he answered as his eyes looked at his computer as he typed the license plate of the car in front of us into the program. “I usually pick up one or two shifts a week, but I’ve gotten into a more desk job position over the last six months after I hurt myself. I took over for our old sergeant when he went out for neck surgery. Only, he doesn’t plan on coming back, and apparently, I’ve done too good of a job at running the ship at the station. Therefore, from now on, I’ll do a lot of the leg work at the station when it comes to the patrol units. If something arises, like it did tonight with one of my officers, then I’ll pick up a shift.”
Something beeped, and I looked at the gibberish on the screen.
“What’s that mean?” I asked curiously.
“It means he has a warrant out for his arrest,” he said. “Whatever happens after this, you stay in the car.”
My eyes widened as he flipped on the lights, and the man in front of him sped up for a second.
Only, the speeding up thing he did was just so he could get over into the lane that would spit him out into a parking lot beside us.
Quaid called the stop in, then got out of the car.
I watched with an excitement that I didn’t think I would ever feel.
This was the coolest thing ever!
And, twenty minutes later, the man who was sitting in the back of the police cruiser was grumbling.
“I swear to Christ, Officer,” the older gentleman said. “I returned that car to the airport!”