Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 67120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
I braced myself for catching him and the kid bellowed in frustration when he realized he wasn’t going to get anywhere.
“Fuck!” he cried out in anger.
That’s when I saw that he was going to try to go at me.
He hit me with the force of a battering ram.
I fell into the blow, curled my body, and landed with him underneath me and me straddling his hips.
I had him pinned to the ground and his hands behind his back in two seconds flat.
“You have the right to remain silent…” I said through gritted teeth as anger started to flow through me.
“I’m fourteen!” he cried out.
Fourteen or twenty, you act like an adult, you get to be an adult.
“Anything you say or do…”
“I’m going to have my father sue you!” he continued.
I continued reading him his Miranda rights. Only when I was done did I get off of the kid and start marching him back toward where my cruiser was.
“You need help?” Saint asked as he rounded the building and entered the alley that I was just about to exit.
He had his new police K-9, Smoke, on a leash and in front of him.
Smoke growled at the kid when he tried to kick him.
“If you wouldn’t mind putting him in your cruiser so I don’t have to frog march him all the way back to mine…” I tried to sound less angry than I felt, but it was hard.
The kid had really pissed me off.
Then again, it didn’t take much to really piss me off.
I was hanging on by a thread and needed the kid gone—the sooner the better.
“Sure thing.” Saint grinned. “He can sit next to Smoke in the back.”
I snickered because that sounded like the best idea ever.
• • •
The last thing I wanted to do was talk to my superior after the day I’d had.
But that was what I got to do when I started to head toward the back exit of the station.
“Gnocchi!”
My eye twitched at the harsh call of my name.
Son of a bitch.
“Yeah?” I called back, hands clenching into fists.
“My office.”
The twitch got worse.
I didn’t ignore him, though. Instead, I headed into the office despite getting several ‘uh-ohs’ or ‘someone’s in trouble’ from the men of the SWAT team behind me.
“Listen, Gnocchi,” the SWAT team leader, Bennett, said as I entered the office that he shared with Foster, our other team leader. “I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have done the same thing that you did today. But, as it is, this is the fourth such incident. If it happens again, I may not be able to protect you from the consequences.”
I frowned. “I did nothing.”
“We got a complaint that you roughed the kid up,” Bennett said, studying my face.
Okay, so maybe I’d roughed up a few individuals lately, but I hadn’t fucking touched that kid.
“I didn’t touch that kid,” I said stiffly.
“But you can see why the accusation stuck?” he asked. “You have roughed up others lately.”
I had.
But they’d deserved it.
Could I have handled things differently? Yes. But every single one of the assholes that I’d roughed up lately had deserved what they’d gotten and more.
“The Chief wants to see you in his office before you go.” Bennett sighed. “To talk about what happened today.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“The kid you arrested was the ex-mayor’s kid. He’s all butthurt because he lost. So he’s out for blood,” Bennett said. “Fuckin’ sucks, man. But Luke needs to talk to you and get the stories straight.”
Fast forward five minutes later, and I found myself in the chief of police’s office with the door shut.
“Last chance, kid,” Luke Roberts said, hard eyes on me. “I know that you’re pissed. I’m pissed, too. But there are other ways to handle your anger when dealing with a criminal. One day things are going to get out of hand and you’re not going to be able to stop it.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t fucking touch that kid. Not anything that any other man wouldn’t have done. I caught him, took him down to the ground, and cuffed him. All the while he resisted. I handled it just like any other cop on this force would do.”
“Even if that’s true,” Roberts said. “The ex-mayor has connections, and he knows that you’ve had a few complaints lodged against you lately from other people. This one isn’t going to be swept under the rug.”
And that just fucking pissed me off beyond belief.
Son of a bitch.
“Did y’all find the drugs that he tossed?” I questioned.
Luke nodded. “The kid claims that they weren’t his. That he found them and picked them up right before you started to ‘harass him for no reason.’”
I looked at Luke drolly. “Oh yeah?”
Luke’s lips twitched. “I have no love lost for Harrison George. He’s a piece of shit who thinks that his way is the best way when his way makes no fucking sense. But he’s a smart man besides his lack of knowledge when it comes to the government. He’s also got a lot of connections—which won him his place as mayor despite his ignorance. Unfortunately, this time, I’m not sure you’re going to win.”