Uncovering Officer Smith (The Discovering Trilogy #2) (21 page)

“Can I help you?” His eyes search mine, and his smile wanes the longer I stare at him.

“Uh, I was just looking for John.”

“John? There’s – oh – you mean Smith?… You must be Becca.”

I glance down, embarrassed. “Yes.”

“I’m his partner, Matt.”

“Um, nice to meet you,” I mumble.

“I’m glad you came in. We actually have some paperwork for you to go over and sign.”

“Oh. Okay.” Of course that would be why he knows my name. Notorious Officer Smith would never have been talking about me.

“Come with me.” He directs me down a few rows of desks. “Have a seat. This is Smith’s desk. I’ll go get him.”

“Thank you.” He doesn’t hear me as he disappears down a corridor. John appears almost immediately, followed by a running Matt. To see him running behind the seasoned Officer Smith only makes him look that much younger.

“What’s wrong?” His hands reach out for me, and his eyes are filled with concern. I feel the precinct around me quiet as eyes flock to us.

“Um,” I stutter, my cheeks reddening. “Nothing.”

Sensing my unease, he pulls me to the window and blocks the curious eyes with his broad back. “I thought I told you to meet me at the coffee house?”

“You did.” Definitely a mistake coming here. “I… You just left so mad. I wanted to see if you were okay.”

His eyes soften. His fingers graze through his hair. “I’m fine.”

We stand there for a moment, the sun warm on my back from the window. John is still toying with his hair. He finally glances up, holding my gaze.

“Well.” He sighs. “Since you’re here – do you want to meet my partner?”

“I think I already have.”

“Come.” He guides me back over to his desk. “Matt, you met Becca?”

“I did, briefly.”

“Well, Becca, this is my other half.”

“Other half, huh?” I smile.

“Hey, not in front of the girl,” Matt whispers.

John bounces his weight from foot to foot almost like he’s nervous. I interject, “Matt said there was some paperwork for me to sign?”

“Oh, um. Yeah, I guess we should take an official statement from you.”

“I’ll get the paperwork,” Matt calls over his shoulder, already heading across the precinct.

John leans on the edge of his desk, his eyes looking everywhere and anywhere but at me.

“You don’t like that I’m here, do you?”

Finally, I get his attention. “It’s not that. I just… I like to keep business and personal separate.”

“I think it’s a little late for that.” I mimic his soft voice.

The infamous smirk appears. “I guess it is.”

Matt returns with a packet of paper and the rest of my time at the precinct becomes a blur of questions and pictures. Recounting the blurred time while I was drugged was not what I had planned to do this afternoon, but it apparently had to be done. When it is all over with, John walks me out.

“You gave me extra paperwork today. Thanks for that.”

“Sorry.” I shrug.

“Do you still want to meet for coffee?” His fingers glide through that perfect hair of his.

“After that? I’m definitely going to need something caffeinated.”

“Okay, let me just finish things up here and change. Meet you there in an hour?”

“Sounds good.”

There’s a slight pause between us, almost like he doesn’t know how to say goodbye to me. Eventually, he just musses my hair and leaves me with, ‘See ya later, nerd.’

I go to the coffee house right from the precinct. I’m determined to get some class work done today. I hate not knowing what’s going on in class. I told myself I’d never let a guy get in between me and my schoolwork. I intend to stay true to that promise.

I’m on my second coffee and my third sheet of homework when John arrives. It’s not something I notice with my eyes. John Smith has a presence about him that can be felt. Even out of uniform, he is a force that demands attention. He stands in the doorway to the coffee shop. Dark wash jeans and a white collared shirt make his eyes light up like fireworks. His hair is slicked back. He scans the shop. When his gaze meets mine, he responds to my smile with that sexy smirk of his. My insides twist with anticipation.

Geez, Becca, hold it together.

I can’t seem to focus on anything but the curve of his back until he gets his coffee and wanders over to my table. When he sits across from me his whole demeanor has changed.

“Hey, you,” he whispers with his lips against the edge of the cup.

Ugh, what I would do to have those lips on me again.
Focus
. “Hey, yourself.”

“You have a lot of homework?” He nods toward the table full of open books and scattered loose-leaf pages.

“Not anymore,” I mutter, throwing a few books closed.

“I don’t want to distract you from your studies.” There’s that smirk again, the one that tells me that is exactly what he plans to do.

“It’s a little late for that.”

“Is it?”

“A smidge.” I throw him my own smirk.

Taking some attention away from me, he takes a sip of his coffee. It seems the stern cop I saw on campus is long gone. Was it all in my imagination?

“So,” I whisper, trying to distract myself from my own thoughts. I press my cold coffee cup to my lips.

His eyes glance out the window. “I have a question,” he announces. It takes him a few moments before he’ll meet my eye, and then he asks. “Last night, you asked me why I haven’t dated. But I never got a chance to ask, why haven’t you? And don’t give me that school nonsense.”

“It’s true. I focused on school. But that was only an excuse. It was easier.”

“Easier?”

“It was easier than rejection. Easier than the guessing game and the heartbreak.”

“Has your heart been broken before?” His blue eyes glimmer seemingly deeper now.

“No, it was the other way around. It was me that broke his heart.” It’s my turn to glance away and outside at the line of trees as I confess. “Truth is, I knew what I wanted out of life even back then. He didn’t fit into that. Plus, my mother liked him. That should have been my first clue.”

“I take it you’re not close to your mother?” He shoots me a knowing smile. Bedford must have told him something.

I sigh. “We just don’t see eye to eye anymore.”

“Why is that?”

“She doesn’t have any more aspiration for me than to be someone’s wife and adhere to what people think of me. I have other plans.”

“Ah, yes. Law school.”

“It’s not about law school. It’s about the accomplishment for me. I want to be more than just a pretty face. And I want to get there on my brains, not my body, or my parents money. I… I want to prove to myself that I’m good enough.”
Oh my God
. I gasp, covering my mouth.

“You don’t think you’re good enough?” he repeats.

“I’ve never said that out loud before.” I glance down at the fingertips I just pulled from my lips. “But I guess in a way it’s true.”

He reaches his hand for mine. “I think you're better than good.”

I blink and smile. ‘I know.” My fingers intertwine with John’s. “That’s why I like you.”

His smile falters slightly. “You know I’m not good for you.”

“You sound like my mother.”

“I’m serious, Becca. This can only end badly.”

“Says who?”

“Common sense, your brother, experience.”

“I’ve been told what to do, what fork to use, where to go, how to dress, and whom to befriend my entire life. That is over. That Becca isn’t me anymore.”

“And what does this
new
Becca want?” There’s that smirk again.

Is it my imagination or did he lean in slightly when he said that?
“I can think of a few things.” I meet him at the center of the table.

“Only a few,” he murmurs, centimeters from my lips.

“Oh, shut up.” I reach up, grabbing the collar of his shirt to pull his lips down on mine. It’s been too long since I’ve felt the touch of them against me. His hand gently meets the side of my face. He runs his fingertips down my jawline until I slam another book shut.

I pull away and begin stuffing my books back into my bag.

“What are you doing?” He sounds amused.

“We have to get out of here.”

He laughs. “Oh, really?” I pause, watching him steadily with a brow raised.

We are locked in an epic eye battle until he blinks. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

I don’t know how, but we make it to his apartment. We burst in, lip locked in an embrace, his strong arms wrapped around me. He lifts me up onto the edge of the kitchen counter.

His fingers trace their way up my jeans and with one quick motion, slips them down my legs. When those fingers return, they are wrapped around the lace of my panties. Only he doesn’t take them off right away.
God, what is he waiting for?
The anticipation is killing me, my legs beginning to shake.

I watch his lips trace a path up my thigh and squirm under his touch. When he stops, our eyes meet. A shiver runs down my spine. With one finger, he pulls my thong to the side and oh so gently puts his mouth on me. That’s about the time I lose control.

Wildly, I pull him up to my lips by a handful of hair. Clothes come flying off until he is finally inside of me. I’ve come to crave this feeling. I think about it all day in school, I wake up dreaming about it – oh God, what has John Smith done to me?

I finally collapse into the nape of his neck and it only takes him a few more seconds before he too falls apart inside me. We sit like that for a while; me still on the kitchen counter catching my breath nestled in John’s neck until he pulls away. As I watch him escape to the bedroom, I begin to rethink things. With my orgasm out of the way, I finally have some clarity. Is it just me that feels this connection? Can the infamous Officer Smith possibly feel the same?

The tiny little receipts rustle between my fingers. The interviews with the regulars and the bouncers turned up nothing but my blood pressure. Here Matt and I sit, going over countless crumpled receipts. They smell like pure vodka and some are so crumpled I can barely read what they say.

“Ouch.” Matt rips his finger away and sucks on it.

“Another paper cut?” It takes everything in me not to burst out laughing like I had the first few times this happened today. Matt doesn’t have the best dexterity.

“What the hell, man? There must be a thousand here. No wonder nobody saw anything.”

“Just a typical Saturday night at The Bar on The Ave.”

“Damn, maybe I shouldn’t go for that interview then.”

“What interview?” I drop my receipts to the pile on my desk.

Matt looks up with a proud smile. “Yeah, I asked Collins when we were there. He called me earlier today. He said to stop by tomorrow for an interview.”

“That’s awesome.”

“Yeah, but you make it sound like a zoo.”

“It is a zoo.” Animals everywhere, especially the ones that did this to Becca. I just wish I could put them in cages.

“I’m going to get another Band-Aid, and maybe some gloves.” Matt rises to his feet. I swear this kid is going to be the death of me. My old partner was lazy and too opinionated for me. But, Matt, he’s so young and lacks experience. He hasn’t seen anything during his short stint here in Angelica. I know he’ll get there someday. I just don’t know if I want to be the guinea pig that gets stuck with first dibs.

My attention returns to the receipts on my desk. My eyes focus on the letter B across the top of the receipt. It reads ‘The Bar.’ But the scene I’m seeing play out behind my eyelids is a different one.

Becca is in front of me. Eyes hazy. She can’t even focus on my face.

“Okay.” She mimics me.

“Brett, get her!”

Brett. Brett. Brett.

The guy with the blue eyes name is: Brett. Didn’t Rick say blue-eyes was the one that bought her the drink? Maybe we can…

“I got rubber gloves!” Matt announces, returning to his desk across from me.

“One of the guy’s names is Brett. If we just search all the receipts, most of them have a first initial in front of the last name on the credit card.”

“Dude, what did I miss?”

“I just remembered something.”

“And what do we do with a million receipts with the first initial B?”

“Look them up in a DMV search.”