Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Steel was fully decked out in his own uniform, my guess either coming home from work or about to go to work.
He looked a little disheveled, his hair askew a little more than his usual messy, and he had dark circles under his eyes.
“I was taking the trash out and saw Steel.” Conleigh grinned. “I asked him if he happened to know how to solve quadratic equations, and he said he did. Now, here we are. I almost have my homework done.”
I grinned, unable to help myself. “That’s great news!”
And it was. I was happy that she was able to get her homework done. I’d spent half my night of free time trying to reteach myself how to do some of the shit that used to come so easy to me just a few short years ago.
Conleigh shot me an excited look, then looked at the clock. “I have ten minutes until the bus comes, too!”
I started to laugh.
It was fifty-fifty if we made the bus or not. Today, hopefully, they’d make it.
“Donut?”
Conleigh snickered.
“What?”
She looked at Steel, who was eyeing the room around him with laughter.
“You just offered a cop a donut,” she answered.
My lips twitched. “Uhhh…I’ve got nothin’ to say to that.”
Steel stood up, setting Cody lightly on his feet.
“I’ll take one of those, but I have to go. I had a call come in about five minutes ago about a cop having to go home sick. I’m gonna cover the school zone for the next hour until it ends.” He looked at the kids. “I don’t mind giving them a ride.”
Cody whooped. “Yes!”
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have a booster seat for him.”
Steel stroked his beard, bringing my attention not only to it but also to his lips.
Then he leaned forward and grabbed the box of donuts from my hands, snatching himself a chocolate one before handing the box over to Conleigh. Once Conleigh chose what she wanted, Cody pulled out the blueberry cake one, took one bite, and then put it back.
“Heard those things are easy to move around…” Steel said pointedly.
I tightened my lips together, and then nodded. “They are that.”
“Then it’s settled.”
And then they were all loading up minutes later, but I stopped Steel before he could follow them out.
“You have crumbs,” I murmured, wiping my hand down his chest.
He wasn’t wearing a bullet proof vest, but his chest was hard still.
“You’re not wearing a vest,” I pointed out.
He winked. “I don’t normally do as much running around as the rest of my officers. We purchased everyone else a ballistic vest. Mine’ll be next.”
And then he was walking away, but I was left reeling.
He’d made sure his entire department was outfitted with a vest before he was.
Holy shit.
That was so sweet of him, yet completely and utterly stupid.
“You’re a liar from hell,” I muttered to him. “How the hell are you going to tell me that you don’t patrol or do anything as much as your other officers when you damn well know you’ve been working every single day this week.”
He shrugged. “I’m older and lived a longer life. How’s that?”
Terrible.
The thought of Steel dying was suddenly very unbearable for me.
“How much do these vests cost?”
I had like three hundred dollars in savings…
“Seven hundred,” he answered as he took a bite of his donut. “But there are still three others I want to outfit before me, so mine’ll be a while.”
“You can’t buy your own?” Conleigh asked.
He shrugged. “We could, but I have a mortgage payment to make, a truck payment. A grandkid, and other things I need to buy. Seven hundred dollars is better spent elsewhere.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that.
I didn’t agree.
His grandkid could go without a toy for a couple of months…hell, so could my kids.
He’d used his own money on my kids, too.
Now I felt utterly like shit.
He was using his own personal money on my family, and he could be spending it on himself. Buying himself a vest that could protect his life.
I felt bile make its way up my throat.
Chapter 7
It’s beginning to look a lot like fuck this.
-Coffee Cup
Winnie
I was walking, still without my cane, to my car where I was going to retrieve Cody’s spare booster from my trunk.
We were about halfway to the driveway when Steel’s words left his lips, nearly causing me to laugh.
“Why do you have a Hellcat?”
I looked at my car. My little act of rebellion. My Dodge Hellcat that Matt told me I didn’t need.
“I got it because I was pissed off,” I muttered, my eyes taking in the gleaming red paint, and the black racing stripe that ran down the length of it. “Two years ago, when they first came out, I told Matt how much I wanted one. He took one look at me, laughed, and then told me I couldn’t handle a car like this.”