Frisk Me(5)

Brinker took a sip of his coffee before dropping the bomb that confirmed Luc’s fears. “CBC wants to run a special on you.”

Luc didn’t even hesitate. “No.”

Ava’s eyebrows lifted. “It’ll get national coverage. You’ll go from being locally famous to being a household name across the country.”

Her tone implied that Luc should be doing cartwheels at this development. She had no idea just how wrong she was.

“Oh well, in that case!” Luc said, letting his voice go excited before dropping back down to a monotone. “No f*cking way.”

Ava Sims didn’t even flinch.

Captain Brinker broke in. “Listen, Moretti. You know that if it was up to me, you’d be doing the Bronx beat where maybe that pretty face of yours would see some action, not being paraded around like you’re the best thing since Batman. But this directive is above me. The order’s coming all the way from the top.”

Pissed, Luc shook his head. “This isn’t what the NYPD is about. We don’t grandstand.”

“You do when a cop with a Hollywood-heartthrob face can’t resist putting himself in front of a camera,” Ava said, checking out her manicure.

Luc resisted the urge to snap that he didn’t want those f*cking cameras capturing his every move. That if he could go back in time, some sort of dire accident would have happened to every one of those damned camera phones.

“We need the good publicity, Moretti.” Captain Brinker’s tone was serious now, and Luc knew why.

The NYPD wasn’t exactly in good standing with the people recently.

Three months ago, an officer in uniform had shot an unarmed homeless man. The officer had claimed self-defense and mistaken identity of a weapon, but it wasn’t enough to stave off the damage.

Trigger-happy cops made people nervous.

The officer had been suspended, and the NYPD had made promise after promise to implement additional training, but it hadn’t done much good. Cops were getting a lot more boos than accolades these days.

Apparently, the higher-ups had just found the ultimate form of damage control.

And Luc was the sacrificial lamb.

“Shit,” Luc muttered, realizing there was no way out of it.

Immediately on the heels of his irritation was just the slightest surge of fear.

Fear that Ava Sims would go digging back to November two years ago when Luc had learned, firsthand, the dark side of being a cop. A dark side where good officers died and little girls in pink dresses went missing.

Luc rubbed a hand over his face and forced the thought back where it belonged. Far, far away from the prying eyes of Ava Sims.

Letting a journalist get to him was one thing. He’d be damned before he’d let her get to Shayna Johnson.

Correction: to the memory of Shayna Johnson. And he wasn’t letting her get at Mike’s memory either. He didn’t know why he’d been spared the media attention when it had all gone down two years ago, but he was damned grateful. Luc wasn’t about to let the legacy of two good people be tarnished now.

Ava Sims reached out and gave his arm a smug little pat, either oblivious or indifferent to Luc’s inner turmoil.

“We start Monday. What time do you get to work?”

“Sorry?” he said.

“Your workday. When do you start?”

He shook his head. “Why does it matter? Don’t you just tell me what day and time to show up at your studio?”

She rolled her eyes. “We can’t just have three hours’ worth of face-to-face interviews in cushy chairs. This is an inside look at America’s Hero.”

“Hold on now,” Luc said, his irritation escalating to panic. “Three hours? And America’s what?”

“America’s Hero. It’ll be the name of the series.”

Oh sweet Jesus.

“Now hold the hell on,” he said. “There’s not going to be a series. Just ask me a few questions and be done with it.”

Her grin had gone beyond smug to full out gloating. “It’s already been approved. It’ll be a three-hour special, divided up over three nights. Pretty standard.”

“Standard, my ass,” Luc snapped. “How the hell are you going to stretch four minutes of amateur video into three hours?”

Ava gave an expectant look at the captain, who cleared his throat nervously before explaining. “Ms. Sims and her team will be shadowing you for a while, Moretti. A day in the life of a New York’s Finest, and all that.”

“Just think, two whole months together!” she said with a mockingly bright smile meant to annoy him. “Won’t that be fun? You can show me all the lives you’ve saved with those parking tickets.”

Luc was too busy grinding his teeth to reply. Ava dug something out of her purse, slapping it against his chest before sweeping toward the door in her sexy high heels.

“See you on Monday, Officer.”

Luc swallowed against the surge of panic. He couldn’t do this. He wouldn’t do this. It was one thing to be a local hero. Another thing entirely to become a “household name” as Ava had indicated. The last thing Luc needed was an even brighter spotlight on him, shining in places that should remain in the dark forever.

“I don’t like it either,” Brinker said gruffly, displaying a rare perceptiveness. “But I can tell you right now, there’s no point in fighting it. Your father’s replacement made it clear that this was an order. Not a request.”