Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 21482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 72(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 72(@300wpm)
“And your old corporal’s running high on his power trip.”
I nod.
“You’ve had trouble already?”
“Just petty shit. He knows my schedule, knows where I patrol—and just likes to see how far he can push. But there’s no way to push back, legally. Not yet.”
“And by the time he does—”
“Yep.” It’ll mean he’s crossed way over—and one of us will be hurt. Hopefully him, if I have to defend myself…but then he’ll do everything he can to wreck my career. I sigh. “And of course every time I don’t push back, he just gets bolder. So I’m just waiting at this point.”
“I’ll be waiting with you.”
My throat tight, I nod.
“You didn’t think about leaving the sheriff’s department when so many turned their backs on you?”
“No.”
His face is troubled. “If your brothers turned against you, why stay?”
I shrug. “Not all of them did. And even if they had, how the fuck is anything going to change if someone doesn’t stay and change it? Holland’s trying. And I’ll keep trying, too. If someone doesn’t stand up and tell them to their faces that looking the other way is just as bad as Pierce groping—” Recognizing my temper’s starting to boil again, I break off, shake my head. “No. I never considered leaving.”
He’s staring at me, his eyes a rich, glowing amber. “Tell me how you are difficult. So I’ll know what you believe will send me away. Because it wasn’t you taking thirty seconds to work through something. It wasn’t you saying we ought to be just friends. It was me, not sure whether you’d want me—and not sure whether I pushed too hard. But I won’t be going away from you again, Sam. And I intend to prove it.”
“I—” Breathing shakily, I stop. And try to start again. “Aren’t they obvious?”
“I haven’t seen anything that would send a man running.”
“I have. Plenty of times.” A short, bitter laugh escapes me. “Alicia just told you one. If I have a fight, it takes me days to come down from it. And I get really angry during it. Then I cool down and am more reasonable. But I’m not always reasonable in the moment.”
“What about violent?”
“Thinking or doing?”
A slow grin widens his mouth. “What were you thinking yesterday when you stopped me?”
“Of shooting you.”
“I can survive that. Stings a bit but”—he shrugs—“I’m guessing that also means you just think of violence, not do it.”
“Not for a while, anyway. My punching days ended in high school.”
He waves that off. “That was you protecting Alicia, which is something entirely else. All right. Next?”
“If you do asshole things, I’ll call you out for being an asshole. Usually I’m then told that I have no sense of humor and that I must be real fun at parties. The last one is said sarcastically, of course.”
He looks genuinely bewildered by that. And offended. “But you’re the most fun at parties.”
“I know! But if you tell the guy you’re dating that his shitty misogynist joke is a shitty misogynist joke and not funny at all… Well. They don’t like it being pointed out to them. And it’s not like they had to like everything I liked or think the same way about everything—”
“But you drew the line at asshole shit.”
“Exactly! And a few of them complained that I didn’t respond to their texts fast enough.”
His brow furrows. “You always responded to mine real quick.”
“That’s because I like you.”
He kicks back in his chair and stares at me. “You didn’t like them—the guys you were with?”
“Not by then, usually. They probably didn’t like me much by then, either. People usually don’t after they get to know me well.”
“I know you well, so that sure as hell isn’t a difficulty to me.”
“Oh, but I’m not done. Some of them didn’t like my schedule because I couldn’t hang out with them on demand. They wanted me to whine to Holland until I got a day shift. Others didn’t like how high Alicia was on my list of priorities.”
“As in, higher than they were.”
“Yeah.”
“There’s the difference between them and me.” He leans forward, elbows on his knees. “I figure if Alicia needs you, you’ll go to her. And I will never ask you to put her lower. I’ll trust that if she’s your priority, you have reason, and that doesn’t ever mean I’m less of a priority to you.”
Suddenly thrown off-kilter, I can only blink at him. That sounds like a promise. As if something is already decided.
“You got more?”
“More?”
“Difficulties. Because I don’t see anything yet that’s an issue for me. Hell, some of these things are why I want to stay. So they sure as hell wouldn’t make me go.”
“Oh.” Heart pounding, I set my cup aside. “I— Okay.”
I have no idea what to do or say now. Brandon seems like he’s got an idea, though. He comes up out of his chair, taking up a good quarter of the kitchen and my entire world.