Waking Up Cuffed

by Melissa Stevens

  “Hayley, would you do me the honor of joining me for dinner?”

  “Dinner sounds good, what else do you have in mind?” At least over dinner at most restaurants they would be able to talk at a normal volume, it was still early here, and now the crowd was light and the music not so loud you had to shout over it, but it wouldn’t last long.

  “We could go for a walk, or find a movie if you’d like, though I’d rather just find some place quiet where we can talk and get to know each other.”

  She watched him a moment with narrowed eyes.

  “In public if you’d like. I’m not using get to know each other as a euphemism for getting you in bed.” He paused for a couple seconds. “Though I don’t want to rule it out, a one night stand, or even a meaningless fling with someone you work with is never a good idea.”

  That he was offering to take her somewhere public to talk made her actually consider the request. He was right that it was never a good idea to have a one night stand, or even a fling with someone you worked with. She took a deep breath and let it out in a rush.

  “All right. I’ll give you one shot. Impress me.”

  “When?”

  “I’m free most evenings. You’re the one with a new schedule and an open case that has you in the bar, working at—” she checked her watch, “eight-thirty on a Saturday night.”

  “Touché.” He nodded in her direction. “Would it be all right with you if we schedule for tomorrow night and if something comes up I can let you know?”

  “We can do that.”

  He pulled a card from his pocket and she wondered how he’d managed to get cards made so quickly until he also pulled a pen. He flipped the card over and quickly wrote a number on the back.

  “Here’s my number. Can I get yours?” He slid as second card across the table along with the pen. A quick glance told her it wasn’t his card, but rather his new partner’s. Detective Zeke Howard it said. Most detectives carried cards with at least the station number and their extension on them, sometimes a cell phone number, to give to witnesses when they spoke to them. It seemed Warren had picked up some of his partners to use for now. She flipped the card over and wrote her number on it before sliding it and the pen back across the table.

  “I expect to hear from you about where we’re going, or at least what I should wear by the time I get off shift tomorrow.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He took the card and pen and stuck them in his pocket, the pen going in his shirt and the card in the pocket of his jeans.

  “I’m here working and you’re flirting?” A new voice came from beside the table.

  Hayley looked up to find the man from the night before, the detective who hadn’t left Maggie’s side all night. Hathaway’s new partner. Zeke Howard according to the card she picked up from the table.

  “Not entirely,” Warren said. “I’ve been paying attention to the room, but I thought it would look less suspicious if I were with someone, not just a lone man searching the room.”

  “And this is?” Howard looked down at her with a slight frown creasing his brow.

  “Let me introduce you to Sergeant Hayley Moreno.”

  “Sergeant? You with BPD?” The cloudy look on his face lifted with surprise.

  “I am.” She held out one hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  He took her hand and shook it with a firm, but not crushing grip, then released it.

  “How have I never noticed you at the station?”

  She smiled. “It’s the hair. A lot of people don’t recognize me away from work because I keep it pulled back and no one realizes how much of it there is.”

  “I didn’t recognize her the first time I saw her away from work, not until after she was gone.” Warren shot her a smile and she wondered where he’d seen her that she hadn’t noticed him.

  “Hm…” Howard looked around the room again. “Well, it doesn’t look like he’s here tonight.”

  “Actually, it’s a little too early to tell, detective,” Hayley said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s early.” She glanced around. “This place doesn’t have half the people now it will in an hour or an hour and a half.”

  “You in here often?”

  “Often enough, my sister likes to dance, so we come in when she wants to cut loose.”

  “And what about you?”

  She gave a one shouldered shrug. “It’s all right once is a while, depending on your mood, but not really where I’d prefer to be. I come because she likes it and we end up laughing and poking fun at some of the real pieces of work who show up later.”

  “Hey, you started the party without me.”

  Warren turned to find the woman he’d seen with Hayley a few nights earlier. She resembled Hayley with similar features and the same clear green eyes.

  “It’s a good thing I didn’t bring the Manning boys with me.” The new comer smiled and looked him and Howard up and down. Warren turned to Hayley, not really sure what to say.

  “Denni, this is Detective Howard and Detective Hathaway,” she introduced them in turn. “Detectives, this is my sister Denni. Please excuse her, she usually has much better manners.”

  “I’ve encountered her in court.” Zeke looked down at the smaller woman with one lifted brow. “She’s usually very proper and respectful there.”

  Denni’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Zeke then at Warren. “I recognize him, now that I take a closer look, but this one. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered you before.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been to more than traffic court here. Are you with the county attorney’s office?” Unless she’d been in the defendant’s seat, which somehow he doubted, the options of why she’d been in court were limited.

  She smiled. “Not hardly.”

  “Ms. Moreno is a public defender,” Zeke said from beside him. “She works hard to get the scum we take off the streets let go.”

  “I work hard to make sure the right person is the one who goes to jail, not the innocent man who got caught up in an investigation gone wrong.” The smile seemed to freeze on her face.

  “Let’s not worry about what everyone does,” Hayley spoke up, trying to calm what Warren wasn’t quite sure was frazzled nerves, but trying to be soothing either way. “Why don’t you both sit down. We can visit a little, then maybe dance if we want.”

  Howard sent her a frown, but took the chair next to Warren. Denni shot her a look that asked if she’d lost her mind, but made her way around to sit next to her sister. Warren couldn’t help but think Hayley would hear an earful when there wasn’t a whole crowd around to overhear.

  Chapter 24

  It wasn’t the evening Hayley had planned, especially after Denni’d called and asked her to go out for a drink, but it ended up being a better night, not worse. She let herself in the front door of her house, locked the door behind her and hung her keys on the hooks as she shook her head in disbelief. She still couldn’t believe she’d accepted a date with Warren Hathaway.

  She was in the clear as far as department policy went, but she was almost certain it was a bad idea. Not that she didn’t think there would be chemistry between them, just the opposite. She would bet that sparks would fly between them, but what about when the rest of the department got wind of it. He would be the man who melted the ice queen.

  Not that anyone had ever dared call her that to her face, but she’d heard whispers. Whispers that always stopped the second she walked into a room.

  Hayley scrubbed one hand over her face as she made her way through her living room toward the bedroom. It was after midnight, and she still had to work in the morning. She should call Hathaway and cancel, but something stopped her. Maybe she should just ask that wherever they go not be in Blackjack? Could they keep this quiet for a bit, at least until they knew if it would last more than a few dates? Would her just asking insult him?

  She was too tired to worry about it anymore. She stripped out of her clothes and slid between the s
mooth sheets, enjoying the familiar comfort of her bed. Her last thought as she drifted off to sleep was wondering if he wore those beat up cowboy boots even off duty.

  Hayley hurried home after her shift. She needed to change. Mid-afternoon she’d received a text from Hathaway, Warren, she reminded herself, telling her to dress casual and comfortable. He’d added one request thought, and she’d smiled when she’d read it. He wanted her to wear her hair down. Actually, what he’d said was ‘and could you please wear that pretty hair down for me?’ She didn’t tell him that she normally wore it down, when she wasn’t at work that is. If she didn’t like it down, she would have cut it short long ago.

  As she navigated stoplights and drivers she’d rather not deal with, she thought about what was in her closet. Jeans was a given, but should she wear a dressy top? She had one that made the green in her eyes stand out, but it itched and drove her nuts. He’d said comfortable. She sighed as she pulled into her driveway.

  Once in the house, she went straight to her room and slid open the closet door. She pulled out her favorite pair of jeans and tossed them on the bed. They were worn soft and faded but still in good shape. Turning back to the closet she stared at what hung there as she stripped out of her uniform. She stood for a moment in her underwear in front of the open closet as she tried to settle on a top.

  Unable to decide, she turned away and pulled on her jeans, then pulled a cute pair of ankle boots with a short heel out and put them on. Finally, she settled on a summer weight, cotton sweater in a deep red that set off the auburn highlights in her hair, which she brushed until it hung in long, loose curls down her back. She was adding the finishing touches to her make-up when the doorbell rang.

  “Just a moment,” she called as she took one last swipe of mascara, grabbed her purse and jacket and headed for the door. “Right on time!” She opened the door only after having checked out the window beside it to make sure it was who she was expecting. “I appreciate punctuality.”

  “I’m glad.” Warren smiled. “I have a thing about being late. I don’t do it.” His gaze skimmed down her body then back up. “You look amazing by the way.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Are you ready?”

  “I am.” She couldn’t help a smile of her own this time. “I told you, I appreciate punctuality, it would be hypocritical if I were late, then, wouldn’t it?”

  His smile grew.

  “I guess it would.” He paused a second. “We should go. We have a drive before dinner.”

  “A drive?” She stepped out the door and turned to lock it.

  “Yep. I thought about it and decided we both have probably eaten at every place in town too many times, so I decided to take you out of town.”

  “Where?” She followed him to his pickup, a full size vehicle that looked a few years old. He unlocked it as they approached and opened the passenger’s door for her. “Thank you.”

  “How do you feel about surprises?”

  “As long as they’re not the kind that shoot at me, I guess I don’t mind them, why?” She climbed into the seat and settled in before buckling her seatbelt.

  “Cause I’m not telling you where we’re going. It can be a surprise.” He closed her door and went around to his, a satisfied grin on his lips. He climbed in beside her and shot her a glance as he buckled in, wondering how she would respond to his bombshell about not telling her where they were going.

  Hayley didn’t mind not knowing, she’d figure it out eventually. In the meantime, they have more time to get to know each other.

  “How are you liking being a detective?”

  “Honestly?”

  “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want the truth.”

  “I love it.” He started the truck and pulled them out on the road. “It’s engaging and challenging, but at the same time frustrating. I’d forgotten that sometimes you have to try to think like the suspect to figure out why they’re lying, or hedging the truth.”

  “Forgot? You were a detective before?”

  “No, I was with vice, but I didn’t work the streets, at least not often.”

  She remembered seeing vice in his file, but didn’t realize he hadn’t worked the beat picking up hookers and street walkers. “What did you do then?”

  “I was on a special team that specialized in child and slave trafficking.”

  Hayley blinked. She hadn’t been expecting that. Why on earth would he go from that back to patrol? She couldn’t keep herself from asking as much.

  “It was what I needed at the time. I was getting burnt out. Too much pain and horror, and I was needed in Blackjack.”

  She frowned. “We don’t have a sex crime problem.” At least she didn’t think they did and she would like to think she would know.

  “It wasn’t the department or the area that needed me here, it was my sister.”

  “I didn’t know you have a sister.” She turned to look at him.

  “I have two, and two brothers, but Nancy are the only ones in New Mexico.”

  “Why did she need you?”

  “You remember that unit from Ft. Watterson that was killed in action in Afghanistan a little over a year ago?”

  “Of course. That hit the community hard. It hurt bad.”

  “It did. Well, Nancy’s husband was one of those men. She was devastated, understandably, and she still had four children who needed her, needed someone there for them.”

  “So you left Albuquerque, moved down here and took an easier job so you could be there.” She took a deep breath. Not everyone would walk away from their job, their home, their friends to help someone else, not even family. “How is she now?”

  “A lot better. It’s been a rough year. She went through some counseling and she’s doing a lot better. Better enough that I don’t feel conflicted taking on more responsibility at work. The more erratic schedule would have been hard when I first got here, but Nancy’s doing okay. She’s got the kids in school or day care, and she’s got a job and she seems to be handling things well.” He glanced over at her before turning his attention back to the road. “I’m still over there a lot, though. I’ve grown more than a little fond of her curtain swingers. I’d miss them if I didn’t see them regularly.”

  “Curtain swingers? Does she have boys?”

  “Three of them. The only girl is Jasmine, the baby. She just turned two.” Warren shook his head and smiled. “She’s either gonna be extremely girly and rule all the boys, except when they’re protecting her, or she’s gonna do her damnedest to keep up and do everything the boys do. I’m not sure yet. The only thing that’s obvious is all three boys dote on her. She doesn’t have to talk because the boys get her whatever she might want before she has to ask.”

  Hayley laughed along with him. The raw emotion on his face as he talked about his niece and nephews touched her. She wished she had something more to add but she didn’t know much about kids. She’d never been around them much, especially since neither she nor Denni had any, and the older she got, the less sure she was they would.

  “What about you? Tell me about your family?” His words drew her out of her thoughts.

  “You’ve met it. Denni is the only family I have. Both our parents are gone.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I haven’t had to deal with losing a parent yet, both of mine are still alive and still together.” He shook his head.

  “Where are they?”

  “They’ve retired to Tucson.” He shook his head again. “I don’t care much for it, but they seem to love it there. The plus side is it’s not too far away and they come visit a couple times a year. Nancy and the kids love when they do.”

  “But Tucson’s not where you’re from? Where you grew up?”

  He gave his head a soft shake, and in that moment Hayley realized she wasn’t paying attention to where they were going, she didn’t care anymore. She was more interested in him and their conversation.

  “No, I grew up in Denver.”

  �
�Are the rest of your siblings still there?”

  He glanced over at her with a small smile then back at the road.

  “One brother and my other sister are still in Denver. My other brother is in Seattle.” He seemed to know what she was going to ask next. Though, she admitted to herself it was obvious where she’d been going. She wanted to know about his family, but not talk about hers, at least not about her parents. She’d talk about Denni if he wanted.

  “Why did you leave?”

  “Last one then I’m gonna ask you a couple, okay?” He glanced across at her again.

  “Okay. Why did you leave Denver?”

  “I don’t know really. I could probably have gotten into the academy there, but I wanted a change. I was tired of the cold and wanted to be somewhere warmer. I just wanted to be somewhere different.”

  “Was Nancy what brought you to New Mexico?”

  “I told you last one… but I’ll give you this one. No. Nancy got here after I did. She was already with Thomas when they transferred him to Ft. Watterson. Now, tell me where you grew up.”

  “Not much to tell. Denni and I grew up in Santinas. As soon as I was old enough I applied for the academy and got the hell out of there.”

  “But you came back, at least close enough that you’re in the police department less than half an hour away.” He frowned, but didn’t look at her. “Why? I mean if you were so desperate to get away?”

  “Denni. She was still in high school and I couldn’t leave her there alone. You know how it works. You have to have a position waiting for you to get into the academy. I’d managed to convince the chief of police then that I’d make a good officer. It took me months to convince him.” She felt the fond smile cross her face as she thought about the old friend of her father’s, well, he’d been his friend before her father had started drinking, then he’d become Hayley’s friend. Doing what he could to help them despite the situation he couldn’t manage to get her and her sister out of. “I got her through high school and into MNM, even then she was determined to go to law school. I did everything I could to help her and by the time she got finished with school, I’d made friends and decided I actually like it here.”