Fireball (Cheap Thrills #1)(5)

For me, it was painful and snapped my head back on my shoulders. For her, it must have been even worse because she clapped her hands over the injured area, lay back down, and groaned, “Owey.”

Did it strike me as odd that the woman who’d just been screaming stranger danger was now lying on the floor again with the aforementioned stranger right next to her still? That would be a really dumb question because yes, yes it did.

Taking a deep breath in, I got a lungful of whatever perfume she was wearing. It wasn’t strong, it wasn’t harsh, it wasn’t bitter, it was light and fresh, but it clashed with the image her appearance would give a lot of people. That said, the whole thing was really working for me, so it was a shame she could potentially be a criminal.

“I’m David Bell,” I introduced. “The sheriff.”

Her eyelids snapped open again, and dark green eyes glared back at me.

“I gathered that after we collided and I saw your badge. What it doesn’t do is explain why you’re in this house.”

It had to be said, I was a man of simple means. The women I’d dated were usually ok women in that they behaved nice enough, were pleasant enough, and were put together nicely – and by that I mean they usually ended up being a pain in my ass, but they looked good. That wasn’t what I purposefully looked for, it’s just the kind of women I’d ended up with. It was also fair to say that I didn’t have a good track record with women because they all turned into boundary challenged rabid spider monkeys. I’d never met one who acted like this though, and I’ve got to say – I kind of liked it.

Her bright pink hair was unusual, and the tattoos up her arms were diverse and colorful drawing your eyes to them but they totally suited her. The denim shorts she was wearing looked frayed to within an inch of their lives and her tank top had small holes all over it, but up close I could see that it wasn’t because they were old, they were just made like that. As she pulled her legs up past me, I noticed she had hot pink toenails with black skulls on them that had sparkly diamonds stuck in their eyes. Staring at them a beat, the only way to describe them was as outrageously adorable. In fact, all of her was - she was her own person, and the attitude worked for her too.

That’s why it sucked so much that I was going to have to arrest her for trespassing.

“Ma’am, do you know that it’s illegal to break in and enter a house?”

Her eyebrows pinched together, and she stared back at me in pure confusion. “I didn’t break in and enter, I opened the door and entered. There're no breakages on any part of the property?”

Believe it or not, I’d actually heard this excuse before, but coming from her it was almost amusing.

“That may be, but this property belongs to a very nice elderly couple, and you can’t just enter into it and use it to catch up on your sleep,” I informed her, my eyes briefly skimming the rest of the room to see if she’d brought any of her stuff into it. There were only a couple of items like her purse, a phone, and a bottle of water that I could see. “You’ll have to collect your belongings and…”

“Listen, you asshole,” she hissed, then blushed like she’d realized what she’d just called a sheriff, amusing me and taking me by surprise at the same time. A criminal who has a shred of respect for police officers wasn’t a common thing. “This is my house now.”

Cutting her off when she went to continue, I sighed and stood up. “There are laws against that, ma’am. Like I said…” my phone ringing joined what I was laying out to her, momentarily distracting me and giving her enough time to get up and run for the door.

Ignoring my phone, I chased after her, catching her just as she got to the door leading out onto the back porch.

“Let me go, I’m just getting the proof…”

Throughout my career as a member of law enforcement I’d been the ultimate professional. I didn’t break or stretch the rules, I didn’t cause problems, I acted maturely and professionally the whole time – until now. Right now, I’ll admit to getting a lot of enjoyment out of the situation I was in with this fireball wriggling around and trying to get away from me.

Holding her down in a way that wouldn’t leave a bruise or hurt her wasn’t the easiest of things to do – she was very inventive with her vocabulary and struggled like a toddler at bath time – but I eventually got the cuffs on her, and situated her in the back of my vehicle, ignoring all the shit she was yelling at me.

My day had gone from bad to awesome all in one call. Maybe in future I’d take old man Beck’s calls if this was how they ended.





One hour later…

“You lucky, lucky, lucky bastard,” Raoul muttered for the eighth time as we stood looking at her through the privacy glass between our room and the one she was sitting in. “I answer one of old man Beck’s calls and I get cat shit, false limbs, and garbage. You go out and you get that,” he indicated at her with his head. “Tell you what, seeing as how you’ve had such a hard day and all, I’ll interview her and you can go get some lunch.”

Shaking my head, my lips twitched at how disappointed he looked. “No way. But feel free to take ten in the break room and get some coffee.”

Patting him on the shoulder as I walked past, I didn’t miss the insult muttered under his breath. Ignoring it, I opened the door to the interview room, and did my best not to laugh at how pissed she was.