Chapter 10
Officer Kara Jeyne Miller closed the door to her patrol car and looked at the officer who had been assigned as her temporary road partner while her main partner was out on medical leave. She’d been stuck with him for over a week now, and it wasn’t getting any easier.
“We usually vary up our routine, so that we are visible, but not predictable.” She was in charge now.
She and Brett, her partner, her best friend, they had worked well together.
They were partners, they did this together.
What had happened to him still hurt, on the deepest level.
And while his prognosis was better today than it was yesterday, no one knew when he’d wake.
Or what would happen next. “At lunch, I’m stopping by County Gen. Checking on my partner.”
Her real partner, that was. This guy…no.
The man just looked at her. He was good at that. Looking and judging.
K.J. didn’t trust him one bit. Not to mention the asshole had flat-out asked her if she was sleeping with Brett. Because, apparently, that was what the rumors said.
She almost snarled.
She hated rumors. Period. And there were a lot of things being said about people she liked and respected right now. Part of her wondered if this guy knew anything about that, too? Since he seemed to know everything that was going around lately.
This guy had been assigned by the Wichita Falls post. He’d been sent there to spy. She was sure of it.
To find out what K.J. knew.
There were a lot of people from Wichita Falls invading Finley Creek now. Poking into things they shouldn’t be. Everyone was on edge, no one trusted anyone else, and she felt like she had to constantly watch over her shoulder.
Brett had called her that night, before he’d taken a bullet to the back.
He’d told her he had found something he wanted her to look at—he’d wanted her opinion on something before he went to the chief.
They were patrol officers with the TSP, she’d been working toward her detective shield.
Brett already had his, but they’d needed a supervisor for her unit.
Brett had stayed, to help where he could.
It had almost gotten him killed.
He’d been on scene. She’d been off that night. She’d had a date. Her partner had almost died. Because men they should have been able to trust at their back had been monsters.
Brett had never gotten a chance to show her what he had found. She didn’t have a clue what it was, and he was in and out of consciousness from pain meds right now. He was going to live, but it had been far too close.
The TSP was still piecing together why it had happened in the first place.
Trace was still looking at her. Something about him set her on edge. There was just something about his eyes. They were beautiful eyes—the purest blue she had ever seen—but…it was like they could see into someone’s soul.
He freaked her out. That’s what it was. The man was just too intense. Too oddly purposeful whenever he looked around, when he asked questions. He was looking for something specific—K.J. wasn’t going to be fooled. He had been sent there for a reason.
When they were called back to the precinct an hour later, she was relieved.
He definitely wasn’t Brett.
K.J. headed inside.
The chief wanted to see her, specifically.
His assistant, Officer Magda Journey, waited in her office. She guarded Chief Marshall like a rabid wolf sometimes.
“Hey, K.J.,” Magda said. “How are you today? I stopped by County on my way in.”
“I’m going to swing by on lunch. Just need to shake the new guy.” K.J. rolled her eyes and shrugged. Magda knew about her particular issues with this new guy. And her friend agreed.
Something just felt off about him.
And they all knew he had been sent there to spy. Or for some other nefarious purpose they just couldn’t figure out. They had been expecting something out of Wichita Falls. Magda had even mentioned it. And told her to watch herself out there. There were coyotes in their house right now.
But Trace claimed to have come from Austin.
And the door was wide open for more.
Just why did it have to be K.J. that had gotten stuck with him?
“Elliot is waiting for you now. Go on in. Then…meet up at Mamaw’s Place after work? Grab Ashlie and Lila? I really need a break from here tonight.” There was a look in her friend’s light brown eyes that had K.J. looking at her more closely.
Her friend was hurting.
“You good?” Sometimes Magda saw things as Chief Marshall’s assistant that could give someone nightmares. K.J. had listened to her friend vent countless times—but there was so much Magda couldn’t talk about, too.
They had been in the academy together.
They had been friends from that first week.
Lila and Ashlie had joined their little band of woman warriors later. They were all transplants to Finley Creek. They stuck together. And had become each others’ family. Lila had only been a part of their group for about a year, but they all just fit.
K.J. didn’t like it when something was wrong with the people she cared about. Not one bit. “What’s going on?”
“Just…sometimes…the nightmares become too much.” Magda stood, and opened the chief’s door herself. “Go on in. I’ll bring some drinks in, in a moment. I have a call to make first.”
“Thanks, Mags. I’m going to go see Brett in a bit. Then…finish my shift. We’ll do Mamaw’s tonight, then we can head back to my place. We’ll hang out. Talk.” Try to forget the nightmares.
See if life got a little better somehow.
An hour later, she still didn’t know what to think. What to say.
She’d said yes to the chief, of course. It wasn’t going to be a temporary position either.
And…she’d finally get her detective’s shield. She’d been approved months ago, it just hadn’t happened yet.
Something K.J. had been working toward for a long time.
Detective K.J. Miller, Major Crimes: Homicide Division.
She liked the sound of that. And she liked the head of the division, too. He was a fair boss and worked hard. It was definitely a step up for her now.
Every bit of excitement and pride drained out of her when the alarm sounded. When she learned—Heather Coleson and a woman named Powell Barratt had been abducted. In Hughes Heights. And a bodyguard had been shot.
He wasn’t expected to recover.
Trial by fire. All of Major Crimes had been called in.
It was time to go.