Sheltering Emma (Police and Fire: Operation Alpha): Finding Shelter #1

by Drake, Aspen

  My eyes are bulging out of their sockets in frustration. “Eli, you witnessed a murder, you stole money that was probably already stolen, and then you spent it all like an idiot. We have to go to the police. Now!”

  Eli stares at me like I’m the crazy one here. “Do you know what will happen to me if I go to the police?”

  “Yeah,” I reply. “Your ass will live. Let’s go.”

  “No way.” He plants his feet stiffly on the floor and seems to brace himself deeper into the sofa. “I’m not going to jail just because I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “You’re being overly dramatic, Eli. The police have experience dealing with this type of thing. They can handle it better than you have.”

  “And you’re being overly optimistic.” He huffs out a breath, digging his thumbs into his temples before looking at me again. “Don’t you watch any movies? Once an investigation gets started, the psycho looking for me will know where I’m hiding. You don’t think sudden interest from the fucking SAPD won’t throw up any red flags?”

  Okay, that’s not a bad point. I cross my arms over my chest and just stare at him. “This is ridiculous.”

  “Once word gets out that I’m here, he’ll send his goons for me. I won’t know who they are, but I assure you, they’ll know me.”

  “There is such a thing as witness protection. You just have to stay hidden long enough to testify.”

  He’s not convinced. “You may as well lay me in the dirt and put a daisy on my head.”

  My eyes roll. “I think you’ve been watching too many movies.”

  “Come on, Em. You know I’m right.” He probably is, or at least, he could be. Maybe the police wouldn’t be able to help him at this point.

  “You know I hate you, right?” I heave out a heavy breath and slump down into the sofa.

  “I know you do, sis.” He gives me a more genuine smile. “But you’re also the only person who loves me enough to help. So, what are we gonna do?”

  Ten

  Hunter

  I can’t stop thinking about her. She’s just a girl I picked up at a bar, so I don’t know what makes her special to the point that I can’t get her out of my goddamn head. But I can’t. Every time my phone rings, I wonder if it’s her. Then I remember that I didn’t give her my number. Although, it’s not like she couldn’t find it if she wanted to. She knows my name. She knows where I work. She could certainly track me down if she tried. But maybe she’s not the kind of girl who has to track down a man. It wouldn’t surprise me. She’s gorgeous. Gorgeous women don’t need to go begging for dick. And in her line of work, she probably meets guys all the time.

  I press the intercom button and ask Rena to come into my office.

  “Yes, Hunter. What can I do for you?” She has a pen and notepad in her hand, ready to write down my request.

  “Can you order a chicken club from Bacon Bits? Use that service…Meals2Me.”

  “Sure thing. It’ll be here in about half an hour.”

  Half an hour. I can handle that. Now that I know Emma will be stopping by soon, I can finally focus on work. The reports I’m getting back from my team aren’t conclusive yet. In fact, if Livingston hadn’t specifically given me these names to look at, there wouldn’t be anything to tie them together other than being pretty girls. But we aren’t giving up yet. Not only is it important to me that we exhaust every lead or possibility before giving up on these women, it’s also a really good exercise for my team to work together.

  I’m almost caught up on emails when Rena pops her head in with my sandwich in her hand. “Here you go…”

  I cut her off. “Is she still here?” I stand up and head toward Rena to catch Emma before she gets to the elevator.

  “Who?”

  “Emma, the delivery girl. Has she left already?”

  “No, it wasn’t her. It was a man.” Rena is still holding my bag in front of her with a confused look on her face.

  I sigh and take the bag. “Thank you, Rena.” I stand there for a second, contemplating my next move. It’s a little desperate, but I really want to talk to Emma. “Rena, could you please order another sandwich? If there’s any way to request the driver, please request Emma.”

  Rena’s confusion immediately changes to understanding. “Oh, of course. I’ll see what I can do.”

  I nod and head back to my desk. “And when she gets here, can you ask her to come into my office?”

  Rena looks like she just won the lottery. “Of course, Hunter. It will probably be another half-hour though.”

  “Interrupt me if I’m on a call.”

  I scarf down half my sandwich and get on a conference call, but I keep checking my messages to see if Rena’s trying to get through.

  Twenty-five minutes later, Rena peeks her head into my office with a disappointed look on her face. “I’m sorry, Hunter. I just got an alert that Emma isn’t going to be making the delivery. And your new sandwich will be here in five minutes.”

  I blow out a breath but keep my eyes locked on my keyboard. “Order again. Whatever you want to take home. Place five orders from different restaurants if you need to. Just get her in here. I need to talk to her.”

  Rena doesn’t ask questions. She just nods at my crazy request. She has my personal credit card on file so it’s not like the department is paying for it. “Of course. I’ll let you know when she’s here.”

  I really hope Emma is working today. If not, Rena is gonna have a hell of a lot of food to take home tonight.

  * * *

  I’m just about to hang up on my call with Clark and his team when Rena pokes her head through my doorway and gives me a thumbs-up sign. That can only mean one thing. Emma must be on her way.

  I dig a tin of mints out of my desk and pop one into my mouth as I wait for her to arrive. It’s not that I expect anything to happen, but it doesn’t hurt to have fresh breath.

  The elevator opens and shuts several times before I hear Rena saying that I’d like the box delivered to my office. As lame as it sounds, I pick up a piece of paper and pretend to read it. I don’t want it to seem like I’ve been sitting around waiting for her to arrive, even though that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the past few hours.

  “Excuse me.” Emma’s cheeks are pink as she stands in my doorway. I hope it’s because she’s remembering our last encounter together.

  I put the paper down and look up at her, feigning surprise to see her standing in front of me. “Emma, hello. Please, come in.”

  “Sorry to interrupt, but your secretary said you wanted me to bring them in here.”

  I wave her in, so she’s forced to come all the way to my desk. It takes me a minute to realize the box she’s holding is full of cupcakes. I guess Rena had to get creative. That woman deserves a bonus. “Thank you. Have a seat.”

  “Oh, thanks, but I need to get going.” Emma glances at her phone anxiously. “I’ve got like fifteen more deliveries I need to make before I call it quits today.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “Fifteen? How many have you already done?”

  She smiles proudly and puffs up her chest a little bit. “You’re lucky number thirty-five. This is the first time I’m going to hit fifty in a while.”

  Damn. “That’s impressive. You must be exhausted.”

  She gives me a small smile as she starts to back away toward the door. “Yeah, well. It pays the bills. I’ll see you later.”

  She’s almost out the door before I circle around my desk and catch up with her. “Hey, I was wondering if you’d like to get dinner sometime.”

  Emma freezes in place, and she doesn’t look like she believes me.

  “What? Do you not eat?”

  “I eat.” She shakes her head and puts on an indignant front. “I just… Well, I didn’t think…”

  “You didn’t think what?” I take a step closer, forcing her to back up against my office wall. I should be worried about a harassment suit, but I’m not, and I can tell by the w
ay she’s breathing that she has no problem with my proximity either.

  “So, you want to go out on a date…with me?”

  “Is that a hard concept for you to grasp?” Honestly, it’s more than a little shocking to me too, but I can’t stop thinking about this woman. And if it takes dinner and one more night of fucking to get her out of my system, then so be it.

  She forces out a laugh. “Well, yeah. Kinda. I mean…”

  “Is that a yes?”

  Her eyes are big as she shakes her head. “No, actually. That’s probably not a good idea.”

  What? She can’t be serious. She’s actually refusing a dinner date with me? She talks and acts like she doesn’t know where her next meal is coming from. Why would she say no?

  Emma presses one hand to my chest and pushes gently so she can sneak out from underneath me. “I’m dealing with some shit right now that’s kind of got me distracted. But thanks for the offer.”

  She practically runs down the hallway to the elevator. If she was forced to stand there to wait for it, I might’ve chased after her. But of course, the doors open right as she arrives, and she steps inside, not even making eye contact with me as the doors close.

  Goddammit. I still don’t have her fucking phone number. “Rena, double that last tip.”

  That should piss her off. If she’s making fifty deliveries a day, it has to be because she needs the money. And giving her another big tip might be enough to get her to come back and yell at me for it. And when she does, I’ll be ready.

  But just in case, I pull out my phone and call my buddy Tim.

  He picks up on the second ring. “Hunter James. Where’s the body, and how deep do you want the hole?”

  I smile at the inside joke. Tim says I only call when I need a body hidden. But the reality is, I only call when I need a body found. In the past, I’ve asked him to run background checks on business associates or women sniffing around who seemed a little too interested in my wallet. But if I ever did need a body buried, Tim Harding would be there for me. No questions asked.

  But since this isn’t about a dead body, there will be questions. A shit-ton of them.

  “I need you to look into someone for me.”

  “Sexy or slimy?” He doesn’t miss a beat. And he’s known me since freshman year of high school, so he knows how my mind works.

  “Sexy. But elusive.” I flip a pen into the air and catch it as I stare across my office. “I can’t get a good read on her. She’s either married, playing hard to get, or totally not interested.”

  “Interesting.” Tim is breathing heavily, and I wonder what I’m interrupting. I should probably offer to call him back, but I don’t. If he wants to hang up, he can say so. Otherwise, it’s his own fault for answering the phone. “What do you know about her?”

  “Not much.” I give him the minimal information I have about Emma, including her address. Thank god she took me back to her place last week. That’s usually the first piece of information I have to ask Tim for.

  Tim is one of the smartest guys I know, and when I need anything done that would create too many questions if I did on my own, I trust him to be discreet and fast.

  Tim used to be an attorney. He followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the firm his father founded thirty years earlier. But after just a few years of defending scumbags and cheaters, he decided it wasn’t for him. He walked away from the firm that he was destined to partner at and opened a private security consulting firm. He focuses mostly on cybersecurity and keeping the bad guys out of the good guys’ networks.

  “You can’t do it yourself? Aren’t you paid by the city to investigate people?”

  I roll my eyes. “Yeah, criminals or suspects. I think they frown on stalking chicks from bars. Besides, I’m still new here. I don’t want to raise any red flags in my first month.”

  He laughed. “I’ll run a few basic checks and see if there are any cameras near her place I can tap into. You never know what you’ll learn about a person until you see videos of them coming and going from home when they think no one’s looking.”

  “Thanks, man. I’ll owe you a steak.”

  “You’ll owe me a whole fucking cow, but I’ll settle for a steak. I’ll call you later.”

  I hang up feeling slightly guilty for invading Emma’s privacy this way. But until I know what her game is, I won’t be able to rest. Is this just a hustle? Did her mom put her up to reeling me in to get a piece of my pie? Or does she not know a good thing when she sees one?

  Eleven

  Emma

  “100%!” I hold up the spelling test Ollie had stuck to the fridge with a magnet. “How did you possibly get 100% on a test with a hundred words?”

  Ollie just shrugs, playing coy. “I don’t know. I just remembered them all.”

  I shake my head in mock shock. “I can’t believe it. I thought grades like this were all myth. I never got more than ninety-five right on hundred-question tests.”

  His grin gets wider by the second. “I guess I’m good at spelling. I’m the only kid in my class who got every word right.”

  “This calls for a celebration, ya know.” I carefully affix the sheet of binder paper to the fridge again then turn to him. “Let’s go out for dinner. Anywhere you want.”

  “Anywhere?” He holds his hands in front of his chest like he’s praying. “Even McDonald’s?”

  Damn, this kid is a cheap date. “Yes, anywhere. But are you sure you want McDonald’s? We can go to Red Robin or Chili’s or Olive Garden. You’ll love those places.”

  He thinks about it for a minute as he slips on his shoes. “I like the fries at McDonald’s.”

  A boy after my own heart. “And they have yummy shakes too.”

  “I can get a shake?”

  I ruffle his silky blond hair with my hand. “You can get anything you want.”

  “Can we go now?”

  “You bet. We just need to stop by my apartment for my purse.” Even though I’m trying to save every penny I make to help Eli out of his situation, I also want to celebrate Ollie’s win. He works hard for his grades, and it’s important he gets rewarded now and then.

  I actually forget about my uninvited and unwelcome houseguest until I open the door and hear Eli singing along to some stupid commercial. Hoping he won’t notice us, I quietly sneak into the kitchen and grab my purse from the counter. I’m almost back out the door when Eli stands up and looks straight at me.

  “Oh, you’re home?” He scratches his belly through his t-shirt. “I didn’t even hear you.”

  “We’re not staying. I’ll be home late.”

  He walks to Ollie and holds out his hand. “You my sister’s new boyfriend? I know she likes them young, but this is a little weird.”

  Ollie laughs and makes a face. “No. She’s my nanny.”

  Nanny, huh? I don’t know how I feel about that word, but if Ollie likes it better than babysitter, I guess I can let it go. “You remember Ollie. He’s grown about a foot since you saw him last Christmas. Ollie, do you remember my brother, Eli?”

  Ollie nods but doesn’t say anything.

  Eli holds up his hand for a high five. “Nice to see you again, man.”

  Ollie holds up his hand in response, but he seems a little shy.

  “So where are you going that you’ll be out late?” Eli’s looking at me with puppy dog eyes. Damn him. He has the same blue eyes I’ve seen in the mirror my whole life.

  “We’re just gonna grab something to eat, and then I’ll stay with him at Jenna’s. She’s usually not home until after midnight, so leave a light on or else I’ll probably wake you up.”

  Now Eli is the one with a concerned look on his face. “After midnight? Where the hell does she go?”

  I give him is a firm glare and an arch of my eyebrow toward Ollie. “Language, please. And she’s doing a few night shifts at Abbott’s. I’ll get you caught up later. Right now, Ollie and I are gonna grab dinner.”

  “Dinner? I’m starving
. Where’re you going?” He looks down at Ollie. “Do you like ribs, kid?”

  “McDonald’s.”

  Eli’s excitement fades as he turns to me. “Really? You’re feeding him shit food when you babysit? What kinda nanny are you?”

  “The kind who let him pick anywhere he wanted to go, and that’s what he chose.” I shrug, a little bummed myself. “I was pushing for Chili’s, but the boy has made up his mind.”

  Eli turns back to Ollie and places a hand on his shoulder. “You sure you want McDonald’s? She said you can pick anywhere.”

  Ollie’s whole body stiffens underneath Eli’s touch for a moment before he shrugs. “Yeah, I like McDonald’s.”

  “All right. McDonald’s, it is.” Eli backs away and reaches for his coat that’s hanging over the back of a chair. “Let’s go.”

  What the hell just happened? He did not just invite himself to dinner with us, right? Except, he totally did. Dammit.

  * * *

  It’s not until we’re walking back with milk shakes in our hands that Ollie fully relaxes around Eli. And that’s about the same time Eli starts to get weird. Well, weirder than usual.

  “Do you feel like we’re being watched?” He keeps checking over his shoulder like he’s expecting someone to jump out at us.

  “No.” I roll my eyes and tug Ollie closer to my side. “You’re just paranoid.”

  Eli heaves out a low breath and shoves both his hands into his pockets. “Yeah, I guess.”

  I don’t know if it’s his paranoia rubbing off on me or what, but I kinda feel it too. Not enough to make me nervous for our safety but just a strange vibe like someone is paying more attention to us than normal. “This is why you shouldn’t piss off bad people, E. You can’t ever relax because you’re constantly waiting for something to happen.”

  He nods and looks around us again. “Yeah, I’m starting to think coming up with money isn’t the answer.”