14. Emma
Stryker is waiting for me outside the police department when I get there in the morning for my second week of work, with two cups of coffee in his hand.
“I’m sorry, Emma.” He starts speaking before I can walk by, completely ignoring him. “You know I don’t think you’re a badge bunny. I never did think anything bad about you. I just got thrown by seeing you with Dom, that’s all. I never expected to see you sleep with your training officer, and it threw me completely for a loop.”
“Please.” I groan, trying to fight off the migraine I can already feel forming at his words. “Just leave me alone. I don’t want to have to fight you about this, and it’s clear that we just aren’t going to get along. That’s fine.”
“This is for you.” He holds out the precious caffeine like that will buy him back into my good graces. “And again, I’m sorry.”
I’m not above a bribe, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be forgiving him anytime soon. Instead, I take the coffee and walk by. “Maybe one day, Eddie. But not today.”
He rushes to open the door for me. “Okay. You know I’ve never been good at thinking things through before I jump to conclusions. Or shoving my foot in my mouth.”
I don’t say another word to him as we walk into the bullpen. Mostly because I see Dom and Linc standing there watching the two of us with matching expressions of rage. When Dom’s eyes land on me, they soften minutely, and I swear I see him actively reliving the weekend we spent locked in his house. Yes, the entire weekend. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a room or surface that we didn’t have sex in or on.
But we agreed that at work, it has to be hands off.
He has to be hands off.
“What’s wrong?” I turn to Linc, who hasn’t taken the thunderous expression off his face.
“Hayes,” Chief Townsend barks from his office.
Both Linc and I turn around.
“The pretty one.”
Linc snorts and I glare him into submission.
“That’s you, Pretty Boy.”
“The girl Hayes,” Chief corrects.
“Sir,” I greet. “Do you need me now or can I change first?” I look down at the clothes I’ve worn into work, regretting choosing comfort over professionalism.
He eyes me up and down quickly and shakes his head. “Changing can wait. Come here for a minute.”
I walk into his office, making sure to take the coffee with me. If I have to face the firing squad, I’m going to do it with caffeine.
“Yes, sir.”
He shuts the door, which surprises me, because I didn’t expect him to wait for me before taking his usual seat behind his desk.
There is a single sheet of white paper sitting on it, and instinctively, I swallow.
Nothing good ever came from a single piece of paper sitting on a desk.
“Am I being fired?” Panic fills my veins, and the tremor in my hand is almost unmistakable with the coffee cup held tightly. “I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?” Even my voice is shaking. “I’m pretty sure I’ve followed everything in the FTO program, and there hasn’t been a complaint. Is this about the fainting? You can’t fire me because I fainted, can you?”
“What?” He stares at me, trying to figure out where I’ve gotten that impression, when he sees the piece of paper on his desk. “Oh. No. This isn’t to fire you. You’re required, by the city and the department, to report when you’re involved in a romantic relationship with another officer.”
My heart skitters to a halt in my chest.
Dom and I haven’t had that conversation. I don’t know what we are, or if we are anything.
“Sir.” I hesitate. “I’m not sure that form is something I actually need.”
Chief Townsend sighs, rubbing his forehead with his hand, resting at his temple. “Did you sleep with Dom?”
I cough. “Um. Is that your business?”
“Emma.” He taps the top of his desk with a pen, something he always does while he is trying to think or figure out what to do. “I don’t care who you do or where. But this form has to be filled out. Dom already signed his copy. I need it on record, so that the department isn’t liable for anything that comes from the two of you being together. You already can’t work together in a direct relationship, which makes it a good thing that you’re going to the academy next week. Just sign the paper.”
He slides it over the desk to me, holding out the pen he’d been tapping against the wooden top.
I do what he tells me and sign on the dotted line.
I mean, Dom already signed the form, so it shouldn’t be awkward, right?
“Good.” He takes the sheet and shoves it in a folder without looking at it. “Great. That’s out of the way. Now. You’re training at the range this week. Unfortunately, you’re sleeping with the best marksman in the department. So I don’t have a choice. Linc’s going to be the one who has to train you because there’s no one else more qualified.” He sighs. “Now get out of here before I regret the decision to hire you more than I already do.”
Taking that as the dismissal that it is, I walk out with my head held high and a cocky grin on my face.
“Hey, Linc.” I sit in his chair once I change into my uniform, since he is standing in the doorway to Dom’s office. “Are you ready for the range this week?”
He groans almost pathetically. “No. Please tell me it’s not me training you.”
“I can’t do it,” Dom says from inside his office. “They’ll suspect favoritism.”
“She’s my sister. Why wouldn’t they suspect it from me?” Linc leans back and slams his head into the wooden panel on the wall.
Remy walks into the bullpen with a somber expression and a cup of coffee in his hand. “Probably because we all know you’re going to make it ten times harder on her than it should be. Plus, you’re the next best marksman here. That’s what you get for wanting all that fancy training at the academy. Now me? No one expects me to train her.”
“You’re damn right.” Linc grins suddenly. “I can run you through the hardest paces and watch you crash and burn.” He uses his hands to make imaginary crashing movements. “Then you’ll have to admit that I’m the best.”
“Hey, Linc.” I lean forward in his chair and cross my ankles together, not even worried in the slightest. “Don’t you remember who’s the better shot?” Admittedly, I wouldn’t have been worried even if it was Dom who was training with me on the range.
“Hey, Emma,” he mocks me with a sneer. “Don’t you remember that I served in the Marine Corps and had to train regularly?”
What Linc doesn’t know is that I trained every week while he was gone, too. And unlike him, I got to go with our dad and got pointers from all the old-timers on the range whenever I needed.
“Okay,” I say instead of correcting him. “When are we gonna go?” Through it all, I’m still relaxed. Still smiling.
Linc pushes off the wall. “Right now. Might as well show you how much you still have to learn.”
Dom takes his spot, giving me a look that promises more of what we’d done all weekend. But he doesn’t say a word.
“I’ve got a hundred on Emma wiping the floor with him,” Remy announces loudly to the room as a whole. “Anyone want in on the action?”
I walk out to the sound of everyone betting on who will come out on top.
The only two I know for a fact that bet on me are Remy and Dom.
Smart men.
The range that Birch Police Department uses had been built on the grounds of the old elementary school on the opposite end of town. The massive compound is the same location that the fire department uses to train, too. In fact, it has become the proving ground for everyone involved in public safety and it’s the same place where my dad taught me how to shoot.
Linc runs through everything to do with a gun, like I’m a complete novice with a firearm, and I let him because it’s his job. Plus, it’s not like he actually asked me about my experience with a gun. He just assumed that he knew everything.
“Are you ready?” He finally steps back and hands me the handgun that I’ll be training with. A light and accurate Ruger. Perfect for a training weapon. “If you want to take time, it’s okay. I know you have experience with a hunting rifle, but the sights here are a lot different. And I might give you shit, but I do want you to succeed.”
I stare at my brother, trying to figure out where he is trying to set me up for failure, but I can’t see it. There’s no angle that he seems to be working. Nothing that he’s trying to do that doesn’t line up with actually training me.
“Hey, Linc.”
He eyes me suspiciously, like he’s trying to figure out where I’m gonna trap him.
“Thank you. But just so you know, I do know how to handle a handgun.”
“We’ll see.” He closes his eyes for a second and presses the red button on the device that takes back the targets. “You’ve got ten shots. Go when you’re ready.”
I set the gun on the counter in front of me, and I put my earplugs in.
When I take a deep breath, I pick up the weapon and go to work.
“Holy shit.”
Three hours later, I’ve already made enough points to qualify for handgun safety and use for the next two years, and we aren’t the only ones at the range anymore.
Even the chief is convinced to drive out because Linc wants to brag on my skill.
“Did you see her make every single one of the point shoots?” Remy and Dom are talking among themselves, and I overhear them going on about raking in the cash from all the officers who thought that Linc would kick my ass with a gun.
“I think she’s better than Dom.” That comes from Carter Malone, one of the night shift cops.
But Dom shakes his head. “That’s not possible.” He just shrugs when I stare at him in disbelief.
“What?” I ask him, one hand on my hip. “You don’t think I’m as good as you?”
“Bonita.” He pauses, obviously struggling to come up with what he can say to salvage the situation. Because this isn’t just a pissing match between men and women. We’ve somehow gone further than that. “No,” he finally says. “I don’t think you are. Your brother and Remy trained with their weapons, yes. But I slept with mine. Every single day, I trained with it and yes, it really did stay in bed with me when we were overseas. I know my gun better than I know my own body. There’s no chance in hell that you’re going to beat me.”
The challenge laid, I can’t walk away. After all, I grew up with two brothers who made it their job to make my life a living hell when we were younger. Then they made sure I’d be able to handle anything anyone throws at me. “Handgun or rifle?”
His shoulders slump, and his head drops forward for a moment, and then Dom steps up to face me. He lowers his voice. “I’m going to win, Emma. Don’t take offense and don’t let this get in the way of our date tonight.”
“Date tonight?” I cock my head to the side and stare at him like we hadn’t had an hour-long conversation that morning about what we will do for our first official date. “I didn’t know we had a date tonight.”
The growl in his throat is almost imperceptible.
“I’m going to make you eat those words, bonita.”
Louder, he clears his throat. “Rifle.”
A round of groans and muttered complaints comes from the men around us, and I turn to Linc. “Why are they groaning? What’s wrong?”
“Because it’s Dom with a rifle, little sister. You don’t stand a chance. He’s going to wipe the floor with you.” Linc pauses. “Do you want to use your rifle or mine?”
I smile. “You’ve got my gun case with you from Mom and Dad’s place, right?”
He nods.
“Then I want mine.”
Like the best brother in the world, Linc goes to get my gun case from his truck.
And I’m left standing there with a group of men who don’t know what to make of me. They’ve known me for years, some of them since we were kids. And the ones who didn’t know me before have come to know that I don’t mess around.
Dom, on the other hand, walks away and retrieves his own rifle.
“Hey, Emma, this doesn’t look like the gun case I got you for graduation.”
Linc hands me the bright-purple case that I got for myself after I got my new rifle. I carry it over to one of the two tables that the guys have set up for me and Dom.
“I know.” I smile brightly. “I got this one after I accidentally broke the other one.”
Accidentally, by shooting a hole through it when my father took me out to test the new rifle, but I’m not about to tell my brother that.
“Holy shit.” Linc breathes deeply as I snap open the case. “When did you get a Ruger Creedmoor?” He whistles. “Is that a Vortex Viper scope?”
I run a loving hand over my baby and bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing out loud. “It is. Dad got me the HT for Christmas, and I got the 6.5 Creedmoor when I competed in a target shoot last year. I needed something a little heavier than the hunting rifle I got in high school.”
“Emma,” Ian Keller says from the sidelines. “Do you want to get married?” Dom growls low in his throat from where he is putting together his tactical weapon. “I’m not even kidding. If you can handle that gun, I would get down on a knee right here and pop the question. Of course, my fiancée might have a problem with it. But I swear she’ll come around when she sees you shoot.”
“Don’t make me shoot you.” Linc shoves his friend in the arm. “And if I don’t kill you, we both know that Chloe will drive a nail through your stomach if you cross her.”
Once my baby is all put together and I’ve sighted her in, I wait for Dom to finish his adjustments.
Remy’s taken a step up to stand by the others, and he’s watching us with a strange expression on his face. “There’s no way she’s going to beat him.” He shakes his head. “I’ve seen Dom make almost impossible shots.”
“I’m not sure,” Linc mutters, questioning himself for the first time since this whole day started. “I don’t think you know what my dad did in the service. If he trained with her while we were gone, there’s no telling how good she is.” He leans over. “You’re hiding some pretty dark secrets, little sister. Is there anything else you want to tell me?”
“Nothing you should be surprised by,” I say. “I’ve never been the one to hide my superpowers. But you know I never back down from a challenge.”
With that, I leave my baby set up and lean over Dom’s table. “How many yards, do you think?”
He looks up at me with a strange expression on his face but doesn’t answer. Instead, he leans forward and presses his lips to my cheek softly. “You’re full of surprises, Emma Hayes. Enough to drive me absolutely crazy. But don’t think for a second that I’m going to take it easy on you.”
“Okay.” I smile at him. “Let’s call it two thousand yards?”
Some couples flirt like normal people, but I don’t think Dom and I are normal. And I like our version a whole lot more than I would if it were normal flirting.
“Dom?” I question. “You’re not afraid of shooting against me, are you?”
“No.” He grunts almost mutely. “I’m not afraid. But you can’t hold it against me when I win.” From the look on his face, he absolutely doesn’t believe that I can make a shot at two thousand yards.
I can, and I do.
He doesn’t stand a chance.