discomfort became not so minor. “Meaning?”
Shaking her head, her ponytail swaying, Chantel twisted her mouth and said, “I don’t know, Sam. She’s a hard one to read.”
Not if you knew her well enough.
The thought came unbidden to his head. He held on to it.
“Anyway, I’ve got a thing with Colin tonight and I know you wanted to be with Bloom when Freelander’s officially released, so can you get her from work? Stay with her until I get there?”
He welcomed the chance. “Any idea how late you’re going to be?” he asked, because it seemed like an expected response.
“If that rich and powerful fiancé of mine had his way it would be all night. But I’ve already told him I’ll attend his fund-raiser with him as long as he has me back to my car by eleven.”
Which would put her at the house by eleven-fifteen. Give or take five.
“You going to show up in your finery?” He’d heard talk around the station of the astonishing change she could pull off in very few minutes, but he’d never seen it for himself. From what he’d heard, she’d never seen it either until she’d been forced, while working as an undercover dilettante, to buy some designer clothes and learn how to wear makeup.
“I’m stopping by my place to change,” she said, shrugging. And then grinned. “It drives Colin nuts, and it’s good to keep him on his toes,” she said. “Keeps him from taking me for granted.”
He harrumphed. Had no interest in being privy to any romantic entanglements between...anyone.
“I thought you were living with him.” He only thought about the arrangement because she’d been the talk of the station a few months before. A real Cinderella tale. And he’d had his doubts about how a beat cop tomboy would fit in with the highfalutin lawyer’s fanciness. Eating off fine china every day.
“Him and his sister, at the family estate,” she said. “But I kept my place, too. Colin’s actually started to like slumming with me a night or two a week. Gives us time alone. And gives Julie, his sister, a chance to entertain without us around.”
He’d heard about the girl only enough to know she’d been a victim of date rape. He nodded politely, ready to move on, and noticed his captain coming toward them.
The grim look on the black man’s face didn’t bode well. If it was a case that was going to take him out of commission he’d have to pull some kind of favor and get out of it.
“You’ll be getting the email shortly, but I wanted to tell you personally, you didn’t get the approval for extra coverage,” Captain Salyers said. He didn’t sound happy. “With the new regime, with everyone looking, we can’t pull favors. Most particularly not for the town’s elite.”
The words running through Sam’s mind weren’t for speaking.
Chantel’s booted feet landed on the floor. “How is it a favor to protect a woman whose ex has threatened her life and who’s getting out of jail on a technicality? How is that not a given?”
“That’s just it,” the captain said, looking between the two of them. “The threat against her life hasn’t been substantiated in any official way. And the reversal on the case wasn’t our mistake. The commissioner said to take it up with the prosecutor’s office. Get them to come up with the money for off-duty cops. If the prosecutor’s office does it, it’s fair pay for wrongdoing. If the commissioner allots funds, without wrongdoing on the part of the police department, it’ll look like he’s doing favors.”
And the new commissioner had some heavy footsteps to obliterate.
“Because we don’t have a crime here,” Sam said succinctly. Nodding. He understood. Cops weren’t officially in the business of prevention. Only cleanup. It was messed up.
But nothing he was going to change in time for his purposes.
Salyers made a couple of suggestions regarding requests made to the district attorney’s office, who to contact, what he might want to say. Sam could feel Chantel’s gaze on him as he listened to his superior. He nodded, took down a name and thanked him.
“You think the DA’s office will move on this today?” she asked as soon as Salyers was out of earshot.
“I’m not going to risk it,” he told her. He’d put in the request. Stupid not to. And if approval came at some point, great. But in the meantime, “I’m on to plan B,” he told her.
“You can’t afford to pay for round-the-clock protection on your own, Sam.”
“I made a promise to that woman. I promised that if she testified she’d be safe.”
“You promised her her ex would be in prison for the rest of his life.”
Chin jutted, he nodded slowly. “He will be. And I intend to keep her safe until that happens.”
“I’ll talk to Colin...”
Sam’s head shot up. “I did not ask you to help me with this to get money out of that rich fiancé of yours.”
“You didn’t ask, period, Larson. I’m on the High Risk Team, too, remember? I offered. And Colin donates money all over the state. He’s giving regularly to The Lemonade Stand now...”
A unique women’s shelter in town that was changing the world one life at a time. Sam had been there several times, interviewing victims. It was a good place. Necessary. Deserving of any monies it could get.
Bloom had spent time there after the trial...
“Colin’s sister was a victim of an unethical police commissioner,” Chantel reminded him. “He’ll gladly support someone who is now caught in the system due to the commissioner’s professional demise. And even if he wouldn’t, Julie would. She has half of the Fairbanks fortune.”
Sam wasn’t feeling charitable. Mostly because he couldn’t afford to be as charitable as Chantel’s intended. Or Bloom’s ex.
Or Bloom, either, for that matter.
All night he’d been aware of the fact that he’d taken the lovely princess out of her castle. Wondering how Bloom was acclimating.
She was “slumming it,” as Chantel had just said about Colin. And Sam’s home was the slum.
The dichotomy was not lost on him.
And shouldn’t matter. He was in her life to do a job. Period.
“I’ll make some calls,” he told Chantel. “Get a crew together. I’ll plan to pay them. If you come up with donations, they’ll be appreciated.”
He’d only been married once. Hadn’t made any more money than his wife had so he hadn’t had to pay alimony. He’d acquired the cottage at a steal. Lucy didn’t care about diamonds or furs; she ate out of a forty-pound bag. And he made a good salary and had enough put away to pay for protection. For a while, at least.
Plus, he had years ahead of him to rebuild his heirless
