Unauthorized Affair (Unauthorized #1)(24)

Chapter 12





Jen chewed her late dinner slowly, her mind puzzling over what had happened today when she’d been called over to the surveillance building where Sgt. Sadler and Sgt. Foley worked. Sgt. Foley had sat her down and explained that the Chief liked the idea of her dating Coleton Savoy. And then things had gotten strange. Sgt. Foley’s eyes had bored into her, and he’d gotten really close to her and his voice had dropped so low she could barely hear him. He’d explained how dangerous it was going to be, and that she didn’t have to do it if she didn’t want to.

But then Sgt. Sadler had come close and contradicted every word Sgt. Foley had said. He’d said she would be perfectly safe. They’d be right there with her all the time. They wouldn’t let her get in any dangerous situations. At one point, Jen had been afraid they were going to fight right there in front of her. What would she do? Call 911? Call Ryker? She’d looked around for their version of the bat phone but hadn’t seen it. Luckily they’d backed off of each other, although they never did cool down.

Sgt. Foley had told her she didn’t have to decide right then, but Sgt. Sadler had said the Chief was waiting for her decision. Jen hadn’t been 100% sure what she would do until the decision was right in front of her. And when it was, Sara’s face and her mother’s face had filled her mind. And just like that, Jen had said “I’ll do it.” What her mother had to do with anything, she didn’t know, except maybe if her mother knew, her mother would have tried to forbid her from doing it. And to Jen, that seemed like a good enough reason to do it.

Sgt. Foley’s face had dropped immediately, and to Jen he had never seemed to recover. They’d worked together for hours, outfitting her with her special purse with the secret gun pocket, the tiny gun, the panic button in a small ring on her finger, and the app and special cover and battery for her phone that would make it an open line and GPS, so if she left it on the table or slightly sticking out of her pocket they could hear and even see everything in its range. But Sgt. Foley had seemed so … sad? Apprehensive? Drowning in his own thoughts? So out of it that she’d wondered if he was sick.

And then she’d come home. Mentally, she was completely drained again. She scraped the rest of her food into the garbage and went to bed early. Jerry was pulling a 24 hour shift at one of the fire stations so he wasn’t home. She dropped into her bed like a stone and never heard the doorbell chime for fifteen minutes. Or her phone ring over and over again.



***



Hunter ran the razor over his chin and wondered if it was too early to call Jen. She must have already been sleeping when he went to her house last night, so she should be up. But he didn’t want to call her. He wanted to talk to her face to face. He had this fantasy that if he could get to her before she actually went out with the guy, she could call the whole thing off without too much damage to himself or to her. He rinsed his face and admitted to himself he probably wouldn’t come out of this unscathed if that happened, but he was OK with losing his job if that meant that she would be safe. And he knew her job was safe no matter what. Well, he hoped. That was the crappy thing about being a police officer. You were expected to put your life on the line. Most cops in urban areas did it every single day, every single shift.

Maybe he’d try to catch her after work tonight. He’d just have to make sure Sadler didn’t see them together. Just thinking of Sadler made his stomach turn sour. And after that debacle at the Chief’s office, he knew a request for a new partner wouldn’t go over well. Maybe after this assignment, he’d request a transfer. Something quiet like … Hunter tried to think of a quiet unit and couldn’t. Well, maybe he’d just go back to being a regular detective. He was good at it, and he could work alone if he wanted to.


A niggling thought wormed its way into his mind. Could his intense opposition to Jen pretending to date Savoy have anything to do with his own feelings for her? What feelings? he scoffed. She’s cute. And ambitious. And smart. But I’m not secretly in love with her or anything. His stomach flip-flopped at the word love, even though he was negating it, not affirming it.

He jumped into the shower and finished his morning routine, determined to get to work early. He wanted to check in on Ivy. After he and Sadler had finished with Jen last night, Ivy had called and said she had an idea. And it had been a good one. She said she’d go in early this morning and start to work on it. He couldn’t wait to see if it panned out or not.

After his short drive, Hunter walked in their surveillance room, glad that Sadler wasn’t there yet to fill the place with his own special brand of irritation. He flipped on all the lights and the cameras, a bit surprised to see Ivy already at the computer, and even more surprised to see Ryker sitting right behind her, watching over his shoulder. But why are you surprised about Ryker? he asked himself. He’s been following Ivy around like an overgrown puppy since the first day she came in wearing that sexy punk outfit. Hunter frowned. As long as it didn’t cause any problems in the unit, he didn’t care if Ryker and Ivy were boffing each other in the bathroom on break. Which he knew they weren’t. But it was only 6:30. Why were they both in so early? Maybe he slept over at her place last night. Hunter raised his eyebrows. Maybe. The situation would bear watching.

But for now, he just wanted the lowdown on Ivy’s computer program. He zoomed in on her screen, surprised to find she must have already finished writing the program she described, and now she was entering serial numbers and dates of sale. Idly he wondered why someone with Ivy’s skills wanted to be a cop. She could be pulling in a couple hundred grand a year with Microsoft or Amazon. And hadn’t Jen asked her that on their first day? There was a story there, Hunter knew. Someday he’d ask what it was. For now, he turned on his own computer that was connected to the network at the pawn shop and studied the figures Ivy’s program was spitting out. Interesting.